28. May vs Grant

"No, it's fine I am not sure you will follow our bet after I beat you too much. You will have an excuse of the injury from our spar to get away from it" Grant said

*Bamn* Came the sound making Trip and Grant turned their head and look in the direction from where the sound was coming only to see Skye laying on the ground with May standing right beside her.

"Don't tailor your attacks it becomes easy to counter once someone gets used to it" May said while looking towards Skye

"Then I will have to take down Hydra Agents before they get used to it," Skye said only to shut up after getting a hard stare from May.

"OK, I think Skye needs to learn while watching. Maybe a spar between Ward and you can help her more" Trip said

"Yes, that's a great idea. It's always hard to find out who will win amongst you until the last second" Skye said with a smile. Since one is her former mentor and the other is a current mentor she is proud that both are the strongest agents in hand to hand in the Playground. Though Ward hasn't sparred against any other agents except herself, May, and Trip. All there of them have sparred against other agents and May haven't lost to any of them and hasn't even given that much of a hard time. It shows how Ward will stand against them.

May and Ward we're already standing on the mat in their positions ready to start their fight.

May reacted first as quickly took three steps forward coming right in front of Ward punching towards him in a one-two combo. Ward ducked under the first punch and stepped back to dodge the other one.

May followed by a knee only to be blocked by Ward's hand who pushed it down but still didn't launched his own attack. May didn't know what he was thinking but continued with her attack as she brought his left leg to kick on his ribs, Ward brought his hand to block the kick but May changed the direction in the mid-air as it moved towards his head with more speed. Grant already knew about the attack and tilted backward as May's kick passed right in front of his nose.

Just like this, every attack that May tried was either blocked or dodged by Grant with only an inch of a gap between himself and May.

"Shit!" cursed Trip

"What! What happened?" asked Skye while still starting at the exchange between Grant and May.

"Looks like I am going to lose the bet" Trip said as he watched Ward push, Melinda, back without even actually hitting her.

"Bet! What bet?" asked Skye

"Before coming here, Ward was playing poker with Fitz and we started talking about his winning streak in poker. The subject of our spars was brought out and Fitz said that May wasn't going all out against Ward as if she did he would have many broken bones at the very least to which Ward said that he wasn't going all out as well and was controlling his strength to not shut down May completely. So I made a bet with him that he can't completely shut down May." Trip explained

"Oh! So what did you guys bet?" asked Skye

"The loser of the bet will hijack Lola" Trip replied

"Lola! Director Coulson's Lola! Are you guys nuts!" exclaimed Skye in surprise and for the first time took her eyes away from the fight to look towards Trip in shock.

"Hey! I didn't think that I would lose and it was Ward who proposed the bet, not me. But now that I am seeing them spar it looks like I will be the one who is going to lose and will have to hijack Lola" said Trip

"Huh! Isn't Ward the one who has been unable to do anything but dodge and block May, he is the one who is backing so why do you think that you will lose?" asked Skye as she saw Ward taking a step back and duck to get away from another punch followed by a kick towards his head.

"You have learned a lot in this short time with SHIELD but you aren't good enough to see that Ward is intentionally only blocking and doing May's attack and isn't countering even if the chance appears in front of him" Trip explained

"What do you mean?" asked Skye

"Well though Ward and May have taught you but something that can't be taught is the presence of mind, how an agent handles the situation that is unfavorable to him or her and find if the situation is favorable for them. Currently, it looks like Ward is in unfavorable in the situation but May knows the moment Ward starts to attack the situation will turn that's why she has been attacking at such a fast pace" explained Trip.

"So Ward is intentionally bot and attacking May to show you and her that he can completely shut her down, " Skye said

"Yes," Trip said, "But whether his attacks land or not will decide the match"

Just as Trip said those words, Grant attack for the first time. He released a straight punch towards May who blocked it but was pushed back by the force behind it. Grant followed by a kick towards her midsection and as May raised her guard to block it, he changed the direction in mid-air going straight for his head.

Not having enough time to raise the guard to block the kick, May took a page from Grant's book and tilted backward to dodge the kick but Grant already knew that would happen and used his stretching ability to increase the range of his kick as it landed straight a May's temple.

The kick was strong enough to make her lose her balance as she started to stumble and couldn't control her body. Grant followed his kick by another kick straight towards her stomach throwing her backward on the ground.

*Cough cough* May started to cough as she tried to stand up as the kick to her temple still hasn't lost it's effect.

"Damn I lost"