Chapter 17:

Cierra and Will stood about ten feet apart, both visibly excited, and Will could feel a nervous tension rapidly building. Cierra decided to start things off by explaining a couple of truths.

“The first step to learning to fight is to get your ass kicked. You need to experience the pain, and learn to fight through it. Without that, no amount of technique will prepare you for a real fight. After you learn that lesson, you can start learning actual skills, so consider today all step one.”

“Yeah, I was guessing that would be the case. Well, let’s do…”

Will had been forced to trail off, as Cierra put on a burst of speed and connected with a solid punch to the side of Will’s jaw

“Lesson one, people can cover distance a lot faster than you might think. For us, that goes triple.”

Will moved his jaw side to side as he got back to his feet, but this time he wasn’t going to speak. He suddenly felt alive in a way he couldn’t describe, and he could feel the energy surging in his system.

Cierra had worried he would be mad after the punch, but if anything, he looked absolutely thrilled. She could sense the energy surge in him, and she was surprised by the strength of it. She could tell this wouldn’t be as easy as she’d thought, and a feral grin took over her own expression.

Then she rushed.

Will could tell he wouldn’t match her speed, but he got an arm up in time to block most of the impact from the identical punch she threw. He was shocked at the strength behind it, and between that and her speed, he knew he was going to lose this fight. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do his best to leave an impression.

As her arm retracted from the blocked punch, he countered with a solid punch from his right arm, aiming for her jaw, but she ducked under the blow and lunged forward to plant an elbow in his gut.

He doubled over from the blow, but managed to keep his focus enough to awkwardly jump back to try and make room.

That had been a mistake, as she immediately went to capitalize with another strike to the jaw, sending him slightly sideways. His jaw aching, and feeling dazed, Will did his best to break contact through the brain fog.

Focusing back on her after his spin, he realized she probably could’ve made his day worse while he didn’t have eyes on her, but she had chosen to take her time. Apparently, she wasn't ONLY pounding him into the ground. He was supposed to learn something from this experience.

Realizing he wanted to try and put her off balance, he charged this time. He was hoping to get a grip on her while taking her off her feet, but it was not to be.

Seeing the charge coming, Cierra waited for him to get close and reach for her. Before he could get a grip, she threw her arms up, deflecting his grab up, and in the same movement dropped low to trip his balance up and send him rolling over her.

Will noted the impact with the ground hurt significantly less that he would've expected while getting back to his feet. He knew a charge was useless now, so he opted to take a more measured approach.

His experience meant he knew just enough to set his balance well, and get his hands in place to hopefully block in coming punches. Doing just that, he waited for her to come to him.

Cierra noted his more patient approach this time, and nodded to herself before also taking measured steps forward. She knew he had a reach advantage on her, so just before coming into his range she feinted a rush to his right.

He reacted without thought, shifting his balance to try and block whatever she threw. He realized he messed up when she planted her left foot and redirected her forward momentum at his now open side.

Wildly attempting to intercept her new approach left Will off balance, and Cierra capitalized. She ducked under the swat from his arm, and launched an uppercut into the bottom of his jaw, sending him reeling.

As he stumbled back, she rushed forward and caught up with him, before spinning into a leg sweep to send him sprawling again. This time she followed up with a solid kick to his ribcage, before jumping back to give him room to recover.

Will was dazed and in a lot of pain. Groaning caused a spike of pain through his jaw, so he reached up to check it. He didn't think it was broken, but when he pushed on it there was a a popping sound and sudden spike of pain, followed by a rush of relief.

Groaning again, with less pain from his face, he then checked his ribs as best he was able. They didn't feel broken, as far as his limited knowledge could tell, but they definitely didn't feel good.

"Damn, that sucked, but I can practically feel myself healing."

"Yeah, you'll heal pretty damn fast. That's one thing about fighting other people like us. We can take a lot of punishment, and bounce back a lot more quickly than normal people."

"Noted. So, is that all for today, teach?"

"Oh no, you're not done yet. Better get up, before I decide you're stalling, too."

"Right," Will said, and got to his feet as quickly as he could.

At this point, Will had accepted he'd be getting his ass kicked. He had thought that was a done deal, but if he was honest with himself he'd still had a grain of thought he might pull an upset.

Acceptance was freedom, in this case. Knowing pain was in his future, he opted to try to do something she wouldn't predict, and began walking towards her trying to prepare for her reaction.

This time, Cierra waited till he was very close, watching for grabs. When he got within a few feet without making a move, she dove into a forward roll and came to her feet just behind him.

Launching a side kick into the back of his knee forced Will to take a knee, and rather than trying to escape he spun to face her just in time to take another kick to the ribs.

This time, however, he managed to trap her leg under one arm and tried to leverage her off her feet. He did not expect her to jump into a spin kick that planted her other heel in the side of his face.

Dazed from the impact, he fought through to try and keep his grip, but the spin of her heel pulled her leg free. Realizing he had no clue what to do next, he gave in to instinct and tried to lunge forward and grapple her.

Cierra was not idle, and with her leg free she threw another kick to his side, just as Will had begun to move toward her.

Instead of getting a grip, Will landed on the ground next to her. He was struggling to get his breath back, but managed to roll away from yet another kick to his ribs, and get his feet back under him.

He didn't pause to recover, instead immediately charging towards her, he pulled up just shy of a shoulder rush.

She had been expecting the charge, so she wasn’t ready for the arm that shot out and grabbed her by the wrist.

Will yanked on that wrist with every bit of the strength surging through his body as he was able to in his foggy state.

The force pulled her towards him rapidly, and she used the momentum to bring an elbow to bear on course to ring his bell in a big way.

Just before he committed to trying for a headlock, he saw the blow coming. Instead, he grabbed the incoming arm as firmly as possible, and shifted his weight to bodily throw her at one of the boulders he’d placed nearby.

Now it was her turn to be shocked by his strength. He wasn’t as advanced in the Operator rank as she was, but she could already tell that he would be stronger than she was when he caught up with her.

Underestimating him would be an easy way to ruin her day, which became extremely clear when she impacted sideways against the nearby boulder.

The force of his throw had caught Will off guard, as well. He knew he couldn’t lose momentum, though, so he immediately rushed after her.

Cierra was aware, peripherally, that she had a rib that was at least bruised, which was surprising on its own, but when she saw him coming back at her, she knew she couldn’t waste time thinking about it. Instead, she dropped to the ground, spun, and shot a leg out to once again take his legs out from under him.

He didn’t see the leg coming in time to jump or brace, and went sprawling, hard, impacting against the same boulder he had thrown Cierra into with his head, back, and side.

Stunned and dizzy, he had no chance of reacting when Cierra launched to his side to grip one of his arms and use it to secure a hold with her thighs around his neck, locked at the ankles.

Now Will was mentally shocked, and suddenly couldn’t breathe.

Finally getting some focus back, he figured out what was happening and tried to pull his arm free to yank her legs from around his neck, but couldn’t break her hold.

Not willing to underestimate his strength, she didn’t just let him continue to try and break free. When he lifted her slightly off the ground trying to pull free, she suddenly jerked her whole body to the side, sending his head back into the boulder.

Stunned again, the exertion took its toll on Will, and his world went dark.

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Breathing heavily, Cierra released Will and rolled clear to lay panting on her back. She was somewhat surprised at the fight he’d put up. Clearly, he could handle pain. She suspected it wouldn’t be long before he was able to fight off a lot of the disorienting effects of getting hit.

He was easily one of the stronger people of his level she’d fought, and she expected he would become extremely capable as time and practice added up.

She was also very glad, now, to have received this gig. Training with him would be the perfect way to reinvigorate her own training regimen, which had kind of lagged lately.

She was so lost in thought, she hadn't noticed that while his energy draw had stopped surging, it was only down to the active pull he had been using to infuse himself the whole time they'd been speaking. Her last thought before Will rejoined the land of the conscious, was that she was definitely going to have to keep this one around for a while.

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