Chapter 37:

'Ding Dong!', the bell sounded out, and one of the maids went to open. To Ace's surprise, he saw a calm Samantha, standing with a small box in her hands, "Happy Birthday."

"Awww F*ck"

Ace reacted fast and smiled, greeting his grandmother and inviting her in, while one of the maids rushed to the kitchen in order to begin preparing Samantha's favourite tea. "So, what is it that made you come today?", Ace asked, curious as to why she had come. To be fair, it made sense that Ace had forgotten it was his Birthday, usually, there was not much difference from one day to another, they were pretty much all just a haze of pain and a mist of suffering.

"Well, since this was your first birthday while being cured of your condition, I thought that you could maybe benefit from some company and well, since it is tradition… I bought a present."

Ace frowned at this, there was not much that he did not have, since everything costs money, and of that, he had all he would ever need or want. However, he also knew that his grandmother would not give him something meaningless, if she had invested time in coming here to felicitate him for his birthday and even brought a present, it would most definitely be something of irreplaceable value. For all his enhanced brain, Ace was not able to even guess what his grandmother could have bought him.

He opened the box, steeling himself for what may appear, however as he opened the box, all he saw was a folded card, made of expensive, thick, grainy paper, and as he opened it, he widened his eyes. In his grandmother's lush handwriting, the word 'Advice' was written, and for the second time today, Ace said: "Aww F*ck."

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After getting over his shock, Ace attempted to gain an explanation from his grandmother, and to his surprise, she was willing to give clarification. She would answer any of his questions, or give him the most meaningful advice she could think of, something that coming from Her, would most certainly be extremely valuable. However, Ace was not stupid, he knew that there was most certainly a play behind this, one where she would most probably give him some vague advice that would make him dig himself deeper into a hole she had already prepared. Regardless of his suspicions, Ace asked for the advice, and was not surprised: "All is not what it seems".

Ace did not deign this with a response, he just smirked and closed his eyes, his brain working at turbo speed in order to attempt to work out what it could mean. He knew that the only way he would get more out of his grandmother was to prove he understood - at least on the surface, the advice she was giving him. After a few seconds of thinking, where his brain had worked through a myriad of possibilities, only two things could potentially make sense: one of them was his quick growth in popularity, he knew that it was ridiculous, of course, people blew up in those ways all the time, but after some time, it would die down quickly, with him, he had been streaming for more than a few weeks, and yet, the explosive growth seemed to have no stop. He was not stupid, he knew that his grandmother was most likely putting him all over the appropriate media sites, which was part of why he was still growing at such speed.

There was then the other possibility, the school rankings. There was most certainly something fishy about them, it made no sense as to why people like Zach, people that were criminal masterminds, would bother to show in school, where they could interact with the sons and daughters of important military personnel, or even the descendants of prominent figures in the country's Law and Order departments. There was most certainly something that was not right, what was it about the rankings that made getting a good one so appetizing?

With this, Ace reasoned that he could say either and get more info, but since his ass could be on the line, he asked his most pressing concern: "School Rankings"

His grandmother smiled, and Ace was shocked, not just shocked, but astonished to the core, his grandmother had never smiled - at least in his presence, not a true smile anyways, a smile that reached her eyes and made her almost non-existent crow's feet prominent. "Well done, as expected of my heir, you were spot on, for that, I will give you some more advice: aim to be number 1, I know that the ease of routine would make you want to slack, but truly try your best, the rewards are more than you could ever imagine."

With that, she excused herself, and left their home.

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"So, how come you are here again, I mean, it is the second day in a row!", Ace winced at this, he had not come to the gym a lot recently, and both Tessa and Terry were making it hard on him, even if in different ways: Tessa was bugging him, and Terry was not stopping her.

"You know how you could make me happy? Let's spar!", Ace winced again - it was truly becoming a repetitive day, and considered his options, regardless of who she was fighting, Tessa would not go easy, she would just go from hardcore to extreme, believing that people thrived under pressure. This meant that Ace was going to go through the grinder if he ever fought her. The other option was to say no, but this could potentially be even worse, she would never let him live it down, and would use that first denial to strongarm him into fights whenever she wanted. He reasoned there was only one option, and he agreed to the fight.

Ace breathed, considering his options for attack, him winning was impossible, but he could at least make her suffer, he would mostly have to use kicks, if he got close and she grabbed him, it was over.

As the bell ringed, Ace immediately sidestepped, ready for her eventual lunge, and she did not disappoint. As she lunged, Ace kicked with his front foot, a quick kick to the thigh that would truly initiate the match. It landed, and Ace saw her scrunch her face in pain, but she let out no sound. Even then, Ace knew it had hit properly, the sword of his foot connecting with her mid-thigh, it would leave a nice bruise, and hopefully, buy him her forgiveness.

Nevertheless, the fight was not over, and Tessa's straight jab proved it, Ace moved his head to the side, dodging it while also letting out with a kick of his own to the same right thigh he had kicked before. It landed accurately again, true to her nature, Tessa took the hit while attempting to dole out one of her one, a hook that luckily only clipped Ace's ear as he dodged, but still rocked his world.

The powerful hit split his ear, and Ace could feel his warm blood dripping out of the small gash. If that hit landed, it would have ended the match. However, it had not, which meant that it would continue. Ace switched between kicks, but mostly targeted the right leg, he would not win, but would put her through a lot of pain. He kept dodging, only blocking when absolutely necessary, he attempted to redirect her blows, while also giving some of his own.

Nevertheless, the time for his demise came, Tessa lunged, but this time, she lunged to the side, Ace was surprised, as it would put all of her weight on her weakened thigh, but before he could do anything, he was quickly put in a tight hold. Ace attempted to scurry away from it, but Tessa was not having it. The repeated lunges and quick movements had put a lot of stress on her injured leg, and now that he was in her hold, she would not allow him to escape. He was ultimately put into a simple armbar that made use of Tessa's impressive arm strength to hold his arm in place.

Ace did not relent until he felt his arm was about to tear off, at which point he tapped out and Tessa quickly let go. They groaned in tandem, Ace's head was pounding from the hit to the ear and his arm was squealing mercy. Tessa due to the pain in her right leg, it was not broken, but all the pressure she put on it combined with Ace's kicks would give her a mighty bruise tomorrow.

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"Extremely good fight, you are improving at an astounding pace", Terry's baritone voice made it clear who it was and Ace smiled weakly, he was happy, but his head was hurting him badly. He had taken a few pills already and was just waiting for them to kick in. He just wanted to go home and sleep, but he forced himself to wait for Tessa to come out of the infirmary. She did, but with a crutch, and Ace admonished himself at his lack of control.

Tessa saw his face and felt bad: "Don't worry Ace, it's fine, I just need to rest it for a few days, you know, you really did a number on it, I think a few people are already thinking I am getting weak.", she said this with a grin, excited at the many fights to come, she was like that, even after being told not to use her leg for a few days, she was already looking forward to the fights that would come after that.

"But I wanted to ask you, what the hell was that, your kicks are seriously packing heat now, I did not feel it at the start, but by the end, I was truly shattered, that clinch was my last attack. You know, I don't think many people apart from that big oaf over there are going to be able to take your kicks if you keep them condensed over a specific spot, I think you just found another weapon.", Tessa said this while grinning madly and pointing at Terry who just grunted and said: "To be fair, I think that you are already one of the strongest here now, you need to start working on your floor fighting, however.", Ace knew this and nodded, his main weakness was that once on the floor, he was lost, so he would remedy that.

He would begin watching some videos and read some technical books on it to get him started, and would then come to the gym to practise some more. All in all, however, it had been a good birthday - the best one in a long time, even if Samantha's 'advice' was still going around his head.