Experience

"Achara you, idiot. Why'd you kick me while I was on the phone?!" yelled Xavier after ending the call with Zack and waiting for him to send him their location.

She scratched her head, "Sorry..."

"That's not good enough."

Feinting the same side-kick that she had landed on him, Xavier tricked her into a high guard, then used a low kick to sweep both her legs.

Falling to the ground, Achara was immediately pounced on by Xavier who held her down for a few seconds before letting her go.

"Hahaha. I'm still just too good for you," teased Xavier, but she couldn't deny that and she had completely fallen for his feint.

"Lift your head up, I'm just joking," he said to her as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"But you're right, I can't beat you..."

She was clearly saddened that she had lost to him and he barely had any openings and was always one step ahead, but he didn't want her to feel that way.

"You want to know why I can beat you, even though your skill and technique are greater than my own. It's experience. I have been in much more fights than you..."

"But what about my sparring?"

"That isn't enough. You can only truly improve through tough battles and by surviving such battles that you may even have to risk your life in, you will improve by leaps and bounds."

"But now that you're in my gang, you will be getting into a lot of fights. Especially since we have just made enemies with the Wolf Gang."

"The Wolf Gang?!" she yelled.

"Yes, the Wolf Gang."

"The same gang that controls Brooklyn's criminal underworld?"

"Mmhmm."

"Since when?"

"Since the giant and the nerd got into a fight with one of their small subsidiary gangs."

Achara shook her head and clearly was intimidated, which Xavier saw and caused him to laugh.

"Isn't this what you wanted? Now opponents will come and find us and all we need to do is beat them up, grow quickly and stay one step ahead. And it's not like they'll take a newly formed gang with 4 members seriously," he asked as he laughed.

"You really are insane."

Shaking his head, he corrected, "I am brave. But I assure you, none of us will be dying anytime soon."

She had mixed feelings about everything, but it was hard not to feel slightly excited about what was to come and admire the new young boss of hers that she knew barely anything about.

-

Finally managing to send his location to Xavier with his hands that were shaking, since his new boss no longer had a smartphone, Zack had to manually message it to him.

Receiving the location, Xavier put on his shoes and locked the dojo with Achara, before rushing over, and they both knew that by the time they got there, it would most likely already be over.

However, Xavier believed in Connor and knew that he had a fire within him that would help him overcome almost anything, and seeing that he was calm, Achara also didn't worry.

The same couldn't be said for Zack, who watched as Connor continued backing away and didn't even attempt to attack them once.

"You big fucker! Where'd all your confidence go? Are those muscles of yours just for show?" they taunted, but Connor wasn't provoked by their words and remained calm as he continued backing away from them.

He seemed to be trying to get them to attack first, and knowing that he wasn't as skilled, quick, and explosive as Xavier and Achara were, he didn't want to be hasty.

By attacking first, he would leave a lot of openings, especially against a group that was huddled up together and seemed to be pretty experienced at fighting together.

All Connor could do was wait for them to start to lose patience and start picking them off, since he didn't know how much he was capable of himself.

He was surprising himself and everyone else by how calm he was remaining, and unlike what one would expect, Connor was fighting with his head more than his strength.

That's not to say he couldn't become wild when he needed to.

-

It wasn't long before one of the youths, who was wielding a baseball bat, couldn't wait any longer, and charged toward Connor, just like he wanted, as he smiled despite the bat being swung towards his head.

Playing American Football for a large chunk of his life, Connor had honed his reflexes to an unbelievable level, and compared to the rapid balls he was used to catching, the baseball bat felt easy.

Also, thanks to the adrenaline rush, everything felt as though it moved slightly more slowly, as he grabbed the youth's shirt with his other hand.

"You are all gonna pay and the Outlaw Gang doesn't tolerate abuse of power in our territory," he bellowed as he flung him as if he was nothing.

To be able to throw a fully grown man into the air with one arm and not even bat an eyelid, how could Connor even be considered human?

And the wooden baseball bat in his other hand had been crushed by his incredible grip strength as he threw that over to them as well, not wanting to have to use a weapon against a bunch of kids.

Never bothering to fight back, Connor was scared about the trouble he could get into and how that might affect his sisters, but now that he joined Xavier, he felt free.

Despite it being his first fight, he felt as though he could take on the entire world and it truly was a thrilling experience, as he rushed over to the group of delinquents.

They were all dazed and frightened for their lives after watching how easily the beast had taken down one of their members, but they also couldn't bear to run away, which left them as open targets for Connor.