Specialised Training: Through

***

Ana stood while facing the green eyed lady before her. She watched as the lady finished loading her glocks with a new magazine while she glanced at her own two pistols which had also had their ammunition replaced.

"Are you sure this is okay? Sure, they are rubber bullets but..." Ana asked nervously.

"Don't sweat it," said Sandra with a reassuring smile. "It's all good. At most it'll hurt like hell. That's the point anyways. You need to recognise when you've been shot."

When Sandra was done, she held her guns firmly and smiled at Ana who was rather nervous.

"The essence of Multi-range Gun fighting Iies in three aspects. We call it the DDD. Disruption, Disorientation and Damage," she explained.

"Disruption lies in making sure that an opponent's attack is interrupted before they use it. Disorientation is making sure the target can't respond to your attacks. Damage is simple dealing damage to your opponent at their weak points.

This isn't purely blunt style hand to hand combat. This is the use of martial arts for mobility and evasion while the gun does the damage. Damage can also be applied with the martial arts aspect though."

The light in Sandra's eyes suddenly changed as she looked at Ana. The grip on her guns showed that she was ready to attack at any moment, but Ana couldn't tell how.

She readied her AMT hardballers as she sharpened her senses.

"I'll demonstrate the basics. Do your best to attack and defend so that I know more about your preferred style and where to correct," Sandra said.

Ana saw Sandra launch herself forward, covering the six meter distance that had been between them.

She readied her right hand to fire with the hard baller, but with a quick black flash from Sandra's hand that she could barely see, a small hard object smashed into her shoulder with immense speed!

Ana groaned and flinched, lowering her arm from the instinctive reaction of the pain that assaulted her shoulder.

Before she could try to attack with her left hand, she felt three other jolts of pain from her chest, thigh and other shoulder which made her body stumble back then fourth, ultimately kneeling down.

The hot sensation of something circular touching her forehead made her sigh and raise her hands in surrender.

Sandra was smiling while holding the gun to Ana's forehead.

"That first bullet was an example of disruption. I made sure you didn't get to raise your hand and take your shot. The next three shots were an example of disorientation.

The shot to your chest made you lean back while the one to your thigh made you almost stumble forward. You couldn't react to me rushing towards you," she explained as she removed the gun from Ana's head.

Ana shook her head and massaged her sore spots.

"How the heck are you so fast?" she asked.

Sandra chuckled.

"In all honesty I'm not that fast. Its just that repeating an action with a specific part of your body makes you look more dexterous than you actually are. It'll do the same for you. You just need more practise. Let's go again," she said as she backed away.

"Try not to focus on your gun. Focus on me. The gun is already in your hand. Anticipate my movements."

Ana prepared herself. It was true. She really had been diverting her focus to her gun. It was more of a nervous habit as she thought she might screw up with the grip or something.

This time she didn't wait for Sandra to attack, she took the initiative to run forward and quickly raise her hand before firing at Sandra.

As the bullet left the gun with the sound of a bang, Sandra flashed out of the way with her entire body!

The bullet hit air.

Ana didn't relent, though. She continued to fire at the speeding Sandra who suddenly shifted her direction from right to left, which momentarily caught Ana off guard.

And that was enough.

Sandra got down low, and fired a bullet at Ana's side, then at her hand.

Ana winced and dropped the gun from her hand reflexively from the pain. She gritted her teeth and firmly gripped the other one to make sure she didn't make the same mistake.

Sandra bolted forward, but Ana jumped backwards, increasing the distance between them only for it to be reduced by Sandra's approach each time.

She raised her gun and fired one shot towards Sandra's head!

She then fired another one immediately after which went low and suddenly shot upwards when it almost kicked the ground!

Sandra was a little surprised.

She appreciated that Ana was taking the initiative to attack and using her innate ability in a great way to catch her off guard.

Now she was beginning to see her flaws and biases.

They limited her potential.

She dodged the bullet aiming towards her head by simply moving her head to the side as her hair rustled with the quick motion that was done in a swift and elegant way.

She simultaneously.... knocked away the other bullet with her gun!

Ana was dumbfounded. Invigorated could dodge bullets because of their enhanced physical capabilities, but catching or simply knocking them away was a different thing altogether.

The ease with which Sandra did it was the most amazing part.

Sandra flashed before her and launched a kick to her knee, which made Ana stumble forward!

Ana wouldn't give up so easily. She pushed her remaining gun forward and tried to lodge it under Sandra's chin as she stumbled.

However, before she could, two guns were already stuck to her side and neck.

"You did better this time. I'm convinced that this is the style for you, Ana. I think I also know how to help you," said Sandra at Ana who wore a frown. Tasting defeat so easily was just an unpleasant experience even if you knew you were battling someone more experienced.

She stood straight and listened to Sandra.

"For some odd reason, you seem to be biased towards using your innate ability to direct objects in a confusing for your enemy," she said. "Why is that?"

Ana thought about it. She remembered when she had the tank's shell curve around to the tree straggler's assault in order to reach it.

"Isn't it better that way? I mean my enemy would be caught off guard," she replied.

"That's true. Its even necessary in some cases. It'll help to avoid obstacles and directly hit a target. How about when you're fighting in close quarters? How will you curve your bullet and hit a highly sensitive target that's two meters in front of you?"

"Well... I could still curve the bullet in a large arc and hit then from behind."

"Not before they rip your head off. Such an action requires very high focus doesn't it? You seem to staking your life on that one thing."

Ana pondered as she scratched her head. She really couldn't see how else she could do this. She could guarantee that her aim was impeccable without any mistakes. But she really couldn't guarantee that her target would be hit, especially when they could do what Sandra could.

Stragglers came in intelligent bunches after all.

"The answer is simple, Ana," said Sandra as she giggled. "Rather than go around, why not go through?"

"Through?" asked Ana in confusion.

"Through," said Sandra with a smile, waiting for realisation to dawn on Ana.

"Wait..that's right! Through!" said Ana as her eyes widened.

Why didn't she think of this before?

"You're able to use your innate ability for perfect aim. But you've been failing to use it to grant extra strength and speed. Your ability is called Guidance. It can not only guide targets around but through right? Amplify their piercing power. Make sure they go too fast for the target to react. Through," emphasised Sandra.

'That's right!' thought Ana as she bit her lip. 'Why didn't I see this before? Is Nicholas rubbing off on me?'

Then the answer dawned on her.

It was probably, her past life.

Guiding Your Smile, her own therapy business was meant to help people get past their childhood trauma especially with family. Parents. Siblings.

However, in the business, she discovered that it was harder than she thought. You can't erase history. Sometimes it's the block that stands before people making them unable to see the future ahead.

When she saw that it was a lot more difficult to help people simply accept the past and embrace their future. She began to help them go around it.

It wasn't a bad thing.

It did help people go around their fears instead of through but it didn't give the full closure they needed with memories of the past and the people that wronged them.

Is that why?

Or maybe was it the innate ability itself which was born from this that influenced her to have this bias? Was this the key to unlocking her Extension abilities?

Ana had a new light in her eyes as she considered this.

"You have no idea how much this means to me, Sandra. Thank you. I still need to work on it but I've got a path forward now," she said as she smiled.

This was new path for her innate ability and for the future of all those that she wished to help. She already had a few candidates that she wanted to help. One of them was someone close. In their circle of four.

"Great. Let's get to work then," said Sandra.