Sparring Partner

Johan and Gracie walked out of the storage room to see a Mexican man dancing around the boxing ring throwing a series of punches into the air while bobbing and weaving. It looked as if he was fighting an invisible opponent.

"Your opponent is Pedro from Mexico," said Gracie, "He was removed from Earth for causing anomalies in the machine around 30 years ago. Prior to this, he was an up and coming boxer there. Here, he has done quite well for himself in boxing competitions. Give it your all, you have 22 days until your fight with Kimura's student. Learn as much as you can from him."

"Yo man," said Pedro looking down from the ring at Johan, "I've seen you doing good work around here, I'm gonna help you beat Kimura's student's ass. They call you the ghost around here, cause you do your work, then disappear. You don't talk any."

Johan smiled and said, "Ready to get your butt kicked?"

Pedro laughed and said, "The kid speaks! Go easy on me, bud."

Johan got into the ring. Him and Pedro put on mouth guards and boxing gloves at their respective ring corners.

Gracie then said, "The spar starts when the buzzer goes off. Get ready!"

"BUZZZZ!"

Johan jumped towards Pedro eager to test himself and learn.

-- Ø --

The spar finished and Johan and Pedro were lying in the middle of the ring exhausted, covered in sweat, and gasping for air. The gym was unnaturally silent considering how full it was of boxers. Most were staring at the ring, with expressions of disbelief.

Gracie was the first to break the silence. He said, "That was not the type of spar I expected from someone with no experience. That was high level stuff, ese ... you went 14 rounds at a high pace on your first spar ... AND you held your own against Pedro ... incredible."

The spar had started off with Pedro testing Johan ability, but, Johan had a revelation and learn't how to use his perception and his eyes at the same time. This increased his ability exponentially for detecting attacks that his eyes missed. To take things further, the more they sparred, the more related memories from his future self organised and revealed themselves. Memories of countless boxing spars. With that experience aiding Johan, he able to hold his own against Pedro.

"Wow," said Pedro, "you weren't kidding when you asked me if I was ready to have my butt kicked. You probably lost to Beiber because you were rusty. Ready to call it a day?"

"Ese, el hombre isn't done yet," said Gracie, "he still has to spar two more people. I want to see how he does against different boxing fighter styles."

"Now?," gasped Pedro surprised, "after that?"

"Si," said Gracie, "as I watched your fight, I saw him learning and improving consistently and quickly. He is a thinker. I want him to learn as much as he can, because we don't know who Kimura will chooses to fight him."

Johan got off the mat and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his boxing glove, and said, "I'm ready."

Gracie smiled, and said, "ese, if you keep this up, a win is pretty much guaranteed."

-- Ø --

The sparring session ended with Johan bruised and exhausted. He'd managed not to get knocked out, but he still didn't feel like he'd won any of the spars. Gracie gave him a pat on the back and gave him the next day off.

Johan ate his meals and like clockwork went off to train at the LGK MMA gym. He had started to mix in only one cube of Labyrinth food with his meals, because he found just a bit was just as effective as eating half a box. Plus, he needed to ration it, since he had a limited supply left.

After his classes finished at LKG MMA, Johan walked home exhausted. Today's training had been more taxing on him than usual, he'd kept a high pace and peak mental focus throughout all three spars. Sleeping with his muscles screaming in pain had become the norm for him, but today, he'd gone beyond that. The only thing keeping him standing was his goal to win the fight at the end of the month, and now that he'd done well during the spar, he wasn't sure if Kimura would give him the same person to fight as he had fought in an alternate future time line.

As Johan walked through the alleyway, he felt eyes on him. Glancing around, he saw no one, but when he spread his perception, he realised that he was being followed by a group of people. He recalled how Guang Hoi had told him that this area was dangerous when he'd first been brought here. With his current level of fatigue he wasn't sure how much of a fight he'd be able to put up if he was jumped. Johan knew he had to do something when he sensed that this group of people had guns and knives on them.

Johan turned a corner into an alley while making sure he wasn't in their line of sight, then used the parallel walls of the buildings to quickly ascend up onto a window ledge, using the same skills he'd used to climb the pit. Looking down he saw a group of skin heads peak around the corner. To their dismay Johan was nowhere to be seen.

Johan quietly crouched on the ledge and glared down at them.

The skin heads looked around confused, then they walked away in search of another vulnerable victim. Today, Johan was safe, but it was a reminder to him that he had to get stronger faster.

That night Johan slept well. He dreamt of the many hand to hand battles and fights his previous self had endured in order to get stronger.

There seemed to be no end to them ...

-- Ø --

The next day Johan awoke early feeling refreshed. He was infinitely glad for the food he'd obtained from the Labrynth. He was certain that it was accelerating his training a hundredfold.

To Johan's surprise, Pedro was standing at the door.

"Yo man," said Pedro. "Good spar yesterday. Based on what I hear, you got a big match in 21 days. I got a fight coming up with an opponent too. I figured since your new, I can teach you a few things, and you can help me by sparring some."

Johan smiled and said, "sure, just let me get changed."

Pedro nodded and went out.

A little while later, Johan was out of the room. Pedro was in the boxing ring. Once again it seemed like he was fighting an invisible enemy.

Seeing Johan come out, Pedro stopped and said, "You see what I was doing just now?"

"Yeah," said Johan, "fighting air, and it looked like you were loosing."

Pedro laughed, and said, "Funny wise guy, but wrong. It is called shadow boxing."

Johan raised his eyebrow inquisitively.

"Sounds cooler than it looked," said Johan.

Pedro smiled, "It is very effective, basically, you imagine your opponent in front of you. Imagine the attacks they can pull on you. You dodge, slip, block, counter attack and attack. Doing this consistently will help you improve when faced with the real thing."

Johan got into the ring, and tried to imagine an opponent in front of him attacking him. Slowly, he saw the outline of Pedro, throwing punches at him, but the image wasn't clear, and Johan goofily swung and dodged and slipped.

"Good start," said Pedro, "but as you fight your shadow opponent, pay particular attention to your form. If the image is hazy, know this, the more you do it, the better you'll get at imagining it."

Johan nodded as he continued to spar using his imagination.

"Hey Pedro," grunted a deep voice.

Johan's focus on the shadow spar was broken as he turned to see who was calling out Pedro.

Johan froze seeing him. The man was a blonde hulk with at least 100 kg of pure muscle. It was the man Kimura had made Johan fight in his alternative future timeline. He was a ruthless and aggressive fighter.

"Hey Tommy," said Pedro.

Tom smiled at Johan, and said, "Heard you gave Pedro a run for his money yesterday during your first spar. You are the talk of the gym."

"It was a learning experience," said Johan, "Pedro taught me a lot."

"I hear you bet my coach," said Tommy, "Kimura was shitting balls when he heard you were actually any good. Him and Gracie got a feud going on."

"What is that about?," said Johan.

"You don't know?," said Pedro, "and yet your a pawn of their battle against each other."

"Kimura believes in fighting ruthlessly," said Tommy, "win at any cost. Something I believe. Gracie believes in fighting honorably, not bending the rules. In the past, during my masters and Gracie's last feud, Gracie's student was beaten to death after Master's student ignored the bell. Ever since, Gracie has been trying to get Kimura fired by undermining his training ability."

"But in reality," said Pedro, "Kimura and Gracie are both great coaches with different outlooks. The streets are unforgiving to the honorable, strength rules here and in the Universe."

"I see," said Johan.

"It is survival of the fittest," said Tommy. "We are all competing to get noticed by a strong sect. There are many kingdoms where strength is status, and we are bottom feeders, weakest of the weak. If you prove yourself without having access to a sects mana cultivation techniques, they'll see you have potential and groom you. You'll live a comfortable life, have access to many more resources, more opportunities and get much stronger."

Johan nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll tell you what," said Tommy, "After your done training today with Gracie, get Pedro to bring you to me. I'll show you a thing or two. Although you got beef with Kimura, we are fine. I like strong people. We strong guys gotta stick together."

Johan nodded happily at the offer for addition training help. But then a revelation hit him,

"a friend today, could be an enemy tomorrow."

Tommy, the man that had crippled him in an alternate timeline was offering to help him get stronger ...