After six hours, Joshua was finally freed from the hellish training. His body was sore and covered with bruises. He had a hard time leaving the training room.
"Kyle," Ninia called out.
"Yeah?"
"Let's spar," she said, and Kyle turned to face her after a brief moment of thought.
"Why?"
"I'm not going to improve by fighting him," Ninia replied monotonously, her eyes filled with a clear disappointment. Kyle could only give her a dry chuckle. After all, she had been slapping Joshua around for six hours and had met with little resistance. It was almost as though she was bullying someone.
"You know that I'm not as strong as you," Kyle explained as he tried to flee.
"Yes, but you still provide me with a challenge. Besides, you are aware that I am capable of using ki."
"Ugh, alright, but don't do it too much! We'll be training with the class tomorrow!"
"Yes," Ninia replied while putting up a stance. Kyle removed his sport jacket and took a stance as well.
"Barehanded?" Ninia was perplexed since he wasn't using knives like he used to.
"Yep, I'm going to try a different style. Don't worry, I'm good enough to fight barehanded."
"Is that so?" Ninia made a move. Unlike when she fought Joshua, this time, she used her ki. Seeing her moving, Kyle knew what she was going to do. Ninia started her attacks with a punch most of the time. It was a straightforward attack, and easy to block or dodge, but most people weren't prepared for the enormous power behind it.
And she did send a punch. Kyle dodged it and launched a punch to the left side of her abdomen, but she pushed it away with her other hand. Unfortunately for Ninia, Kyle launched an uppercut at close range, but less luckily for Kyle, Ninia pulled her head away, along with her right hand, and threw a punch at his face.
Kyle intercepted her attempt with his left hand and pushed it away. He punched her in the face with his right hand, but Ninia slapped it away. Kyle, on the other hand, threw another strike with his left fist.
Both kept trading punches, but neither scored a point. However, they were not fighting with all they had. Ninia had not yet used her ki to inflict any damage, even if her punch didn't touch the target and Kyle had not used his strings. They were fighting primarily with techniques.
While fighting close to each other, Kyle noticed that Ninia had passion burning in her eyes. He realized she was yearning for an intense fight that could keep her at her peak. Unfortunately, she had to suppress herself, knowing that they had class training the next day, and Kyle was unable to defend well against her ki.
{'Still ... this sure brings back memories,'} Kyle thought as his mind wandered to the past. But an incoming punch brought him back to reality.
"You are distracted!" Ninia commented while sending a kick at him. He grabbed her leg and went for a punch, but she kicked the ground, then did another kick. Kyle had to stop his attack to block her attack.
Their fight became varied; it wasn't just punches but kicks, elbows, knees, and other parts of the body that were also being used.
Gradually, Kyle was losing, with him slowly accumulating hits, but he still persisted until he was knocked down.
.
"Are you alright?" Ninia asked while standing above Kyle.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Kyle answered as he smiled with a face full of bruises. "You did well."
Ninia smiled softly. It was his first time seeing her smile. "Thanks to you, while you are not up to much yet. You still did manage to make it interesting."
"Ah, but I can't make you unleash your full potential." Kyle slowly got up and stretched out his aching body.
"Perhaps not now, but in the future," she mumbled while looking away with a smile.
{'Huh ... does she think that highly of me? Hmm, what should I do? Can I live my life leisurely by giving her what she wants?'} Kyle thought. To be honest, his days at Costina were not quite leisurely yet. He did spend his free time leisurely, but most of the time he felt that he was really busy with his class.
Kyle wanted to live leisurely as a normal person. But he had begun to doubt that his goal would work because with the many talented people there were in his year, he felt that something was coming, and it wouldn't be either easy or good.
{'I should have changed my father's mind about sending me to Costina if I had known how things would turn out,'} Kyle murmured gently.
"Is there a problem?" Ninia asked curiously upon hearing his sigh.
"Nothing ... It's just .... Don't expect too much from me, alright? I'm not as talented as you are," Kyle replied with a wry smile.
"Don't sell yourself short," Ninia replied while walking to her bag. "If that's how you view yourself, you won't improve," she said before leaving the room.
Kyle stood there for a while before sighing. "Right, I got lectured," he mumbled and then walked to his bag as well.
-----------------------
Author: Aida Hanabi
Proofreader: Teppo & Lola
-----------------------
Join my discord server
https://discord.gg/haPjuxc8XS
.
Support me on ko-fi
https://ko-fi.com/aida_hanabi