Chapter 174:

Ace took a shower and changed into some fresh sports clothes. He had already gone through his morning workout, but had agreed to meet the others along with Igor's sister in one of the many training rooms. Supposedly, Fayina had decided that she wanted to train today, and so had invited them all to join her, she was apparently curious with how good they were.

She had seen videos of them online - or so Igor said, but she told him she wanted to inspect them in person. This led to them now joining her for the day, she would supposedly 'train' them, which was something Ace was certainly looking forward to. She was a tried and tested warrior, a survivor, who had lived in the harshest conditions one could offer. Ace hoped she would be able to teach him some new tricks.

Not that Ace had not done this before, in fact, throughout the last year, he had been in three intensives, for a week, there was only training, in the middle of nowhere, no distractions, little nourishment, and even less rest. Ace loved them.

They helped him push over his limits over and over, and while they were extremely challenging, the friends and companions he had made along the way, along with the personal advancement they provoked, were certainly worth it. He had met soldiers and mercenaries from all over the world, people who came for a true challenge, and they got one. At first, they laughed, by the end, he was like their little brother.

These 'lntensives', were as hard as they got. They were so hard that it was not even a requirement in most private forces, due to the low amount of people that could complete them. Of course, there were freaks, who like Ace, had done them multiple times.

***

"Please follow me sir, the miss informed me to lead you to the forest.", Ace nodded, appeasing the worried glance the staff member shot him. 'So I guess we are going to the forest then. Makes sense.'

When Ace got there, they were all already there, he had come early, but it seemed that they had been even earlier, probably out of fright. Ace waved and smiled at all of them, even at Fayina, who just stared at him in all seriousness.

"Good, you are here, let's go.", then, she began to run. It was not a full-out sprint, at least for Ace's standards, but it certainly was not a relaxing jog. Furthermore, they had to evade the natural obstacles that seemed to place themselves in the most annoying places possible.

They were all struggling, except for Fayina and Ace, she, for all her burliness, was barely making a sound, hopping lightly over or around any obstacles, barely slowing down. However, if she was quiet, Ace was dead silent.

He appeared to glide, due to his perception, he spotted obstacles easily, and so simply altered his trajectory lightly. He made no sound, and simply 'floated' along, at a speed that met Fayina's.

The rest were much worse, Igor was good, he had certainly done this already, but at the end of the day, his cumbersome body, and lack of experience and training in such an environment, made it so that he was making more noise than Fayina and Ace. Amy and Sophie, were like elephants, making just as much noise. At the start, they even tripped a few times, but soon began to get the hang of it, even if their run had nothing in comparison to the other three's.

They stopped after about half an hour, Ace and Fayina were fine, but while Sophie and Amy were panting, Igor was breathing hard, and had sweat cascading out of his body. His stamina was clearly not as good, which was completely understandable, considering his weight.

Fayina looked at each of them, observing their states. "You have clearly done this before."< Ace nodded, and she nodded back, "Good, I will need to you show me something after.", she said, it was not a request.

Then, she went to Igor, "You brother. You have improved, congratulations, but still, you must increase your stamina some more, I know this is not what you train for, but you never know.", Igor nodded.

Then, finally, she stared at the two girls, who were anticipating her feedback, "As for you two, that is unacceptable.", the stared wide-eyed at her, while Igor sighed, knowing it was coming, "You are the lightest of all of us, and so should be the ones light on your feet, and making the least noise, and of course, let's not mention your stamina…", she stared at them on the eyes, "Ok, I will help you improve, do not worry, you are young, hope is not lost."

She stepped backwards lightly, "Now, I want to see you fight, group up, and go.", they paired up, Igor and Ace, and Sophie and Amy.

"No.", Fayina shook her head, "You will not be able to challenge him.", she said to Igor. She looked at Amy and Sophie, "You will spar with them, every minute, you will swap, one comes in, another one out, it has to be high intensity, you have to go for the kill. If you repeat the same moves you have repeated against each other for hundreds of times, it is useless, innovate, and overcome. Survive."

Then, she finally looked at Ace, "You and me."

They went to a separate part of the clearing. "No rules, no holds barred, we fight until I stop the fight, I assure you, I will not surrender, so I hope you will not.", she said, and Ace nodded, breathing deeply and getting prepared for the fight.

'Ok, she uses Systema, so nothing I have not seen, I have even spared with students of the guy that trained her, so it should be a-ok. For now though, let's just play safe, and analyse.', Ace made his game plan, and bowed, she bowed back.

As soon as her waist faced straight at him again, she leapt into action. A quick combination of strikes, that had one or two kicks sprinkled into them. It was clearly a test, but she was certainly not messing around. Her punches and kicks did not connect, but Ace felt the power they had from the whooshes of wind they carried, especially the mid-torso roundhouse kick she threw.

As soon as her foot came down from the side-kick, and she was about to throw a straight, Ace dashed to one side, and went for a knife-hand strike to the neck, she moved her shoulder upwards, and checked it with it. Then, Ace went for a kick to the knee she stepped back from, and finished with a simple jab, a fast one though, that nearly connected with the bridge of her nose. At the end though, a split second before it hit, she reacted, and grabbed his wrist and elbow, pinning it tightly, and bringing him close to her, empowering him, before making a try to use his momentum against him and flip him.

'Got her.', Ace thought, and flipped over the motion, before launching a series of strikes she adeptly defended from, it was the last one, a punch to the abdominals, where she tanked it, by tensing her stomach, and then went for an uppercut of her own. Ace took it on the chin, and it sent him reeling, she saw the weakness, and went for it, a jump kick as her first attack, and as she landed, she went for a grapple and a throw.

The move was executed perfectly, in one smooth motion, and it would have gotten anyone, honestly, well, anyone but Ace. As he was brought to one side to be flipped, he swivelled his head quickly, and went for a headbutt, one that would land on the bridge on the nouse, and end the fact.

And yet, she blocked it. Well, blocking it would be putting it nicely, through sheer instinct, she tucked her chin slightly, making it so that his cranium, now connected with her forehead. She was dizzied, but now, so was Ace. That simple move - or better put, reflex, had saved her the match.

Ace recovered quickly, but so did Fayina, and when he was about to go again, she said, "Stop."

Ace did so immediately, and went to see if she was alright. "Yeah, yeah, all it is is that I have seen enough.", she looked at him, her eyes still slightly watery from the impact, "I must say, you have the best perception and reflexes I have ever seen.", she said, and Ace smiled, "Thank you for the compliment, I must say, I did not expect you to block that. Although...You were not aware right?"

She looked at him, and smiled, beaming, "Yes, you are correct, that was instinctive, my subconscious knew I was in danger, and so it reacted on its own. It was because of it that I did not lose to you."

Ace nodded, signalling he understood, and she continued, "You are quite good, in fact, your moves are pristine, everything seems as if it has been practised and polished for centuries. However, that same perfection is also your main problem."

"I know", Ace said, and she seemed surprised, "Oh? You do?", she asked, "Yes. Because of the time invested into practising those moves, the amount of moves I can carry out at an acceptable standard is limited, however, I am working on it."

She nodded, "Do not worry about it though, honestly, many moves are not needed. From my understanding, you are not planning on becoming a fighter, which obviously means that if you ever have to get physical, it will be a last resort, in those situations, a perfected deadly move, if much better than a loosely trained flashy move and the opponent will catch on to soon. I commemorate you for knowing what was more important."

"Thank you,", Ace said, "That does mean a lot, coming from someone such as you.", she grinned a bloody smile, her gums bleeding from one hit or another.