Hand-to-Hand Combat?

Alex, Marissa, and Ren all talked and joked for a very good amount of time. It was the first time in a while that Ren had enjoyed company with friends. Ms. Croft watched impatiently as she waited for Ren. When Ren finally got up and said his farewell to his new friends, and then informed Ms. Croft that he was going to go for a run, she almost lost it, but managed to control herself.

Ren first stopped at one of the training rooms to grab some weights and a chain. He looped the chain around his waist and some weights, then took off barrelling down the path. Ms. Croft decided to just wait at the start of the path.

Ren made it a mission to not waste time. Any chance he got, outside of training with Mr. Sandler, he would run, lift weights, or punch punching bags. Every now and then, he would run into Alex or Marissa and would stop to catch up.

Mr. Sandler would have Ren doing insane things, such as trying to punch through steal or dashing a certain distance within a certain amount of time or he would recieve a whip to the back. Ren's body slowly hardened with every cut, scratch, bruise or broken bone. Ren would always push through the pain. Now matter how tired, or how much it hurt, he always stood back up for the next rep, or the next punishment. Ren was absolutely determined to escape with his new friends and repay those who killed his parents. This went on for about two months.

"Today soldier, it is time to teach you some hand-to-hand combat, although, I won't be teaching you anything. You will learn from your instincts and adapt to different situations because being able to adapt makes you the most dangerous soldier on the battlefield, " Mr. Sandler informed Ren. Mr. Sandler was standing with three other people, two men and one women. "I have three people with me today as you can see. These three in particular are ranked in the top 200 out of around 7,000 in this facility."

They were standing within the East building in one of the training rooms. This one in particular had weapons hung up all over the walls such as swords, daggers, sheilds, guns, and spears.

"Sorry, I have to reword what I said earlier. You will be using hand combat. However, these three are allowed to use weapons and have orders to kill you," taunted Mr. Sandler. "Good luck."

Mr. Sandler knew that he probably would be just fine.

Ren studied his three opponents. "The shorter man is pretty strong. However, the other two were a few leagues behind him." Since Ren's sense's have improved so much, he as been able to sense the amount of energy that resides within people, whether it be a core's energy or the magic energy of an ability user. Ren knew it also worked on ability users because he could feel the immense power that resinated from Ms. Croft.

"Start!"

The three of them all rushed towards Ren at once. He ducked to dodge a sweeping kick from the woman, then spun around and grabbed the arm of the taller man he sensed behind him and pulled it, launching him onto the short man. He then shot himself at the woman, but she managed to dodge Ren.

SLAM!

Ren's face felt an immense amount of pain as the short man managed to land a solid punch to his face, knocking Ren back, and breaking his nose. Then Ren tilted his body left as he sensed something come hurdling towards him from behind. Ren watched in slow motion as a spear flew past his neck and penitrated into the wall.

Ren jumped, dodging a low kick from the short man and spun mid air.

CRACK!

Ren managed to connect his heel to the back of the short man's head forcing him down onto the floor.

THUD!

Before Ren could react the woman had sunk her fist into Ren's stomach.

CRACK!

The taller man followed up right behind the woman and whipped his fist, landing a blow to Ren's face, causing Ren to slide back a couple feet.

Ren spit out blood onto the ground, blood still running out of his nose. "Good, now I'm all warmed up." Ren grinned as his eyes fired green, inviting his foes to come at him.

The shorter man armed himself with a dagger, the taller a sword, and the woman, a staff. The woman dashed in first and swung the staff. Ren dodged to the right and as the woman spun around to swing the staff again, Ren grabbed it and then came down on it with his elbow, splitting the staff in half. The woman then backed off and allowed the two men to rush in.

The taller man reached Ren first and swung his sword, but Ren dodged left. The taller stepped behind and swung again while the shorter thrust his dagger towards Ren's left side. Ren grabbed the sword and moved to the right in order to dodge the dagger, then thrust his foot into the short man's face, knocking him back.

The taller man pulled back his sword, slicing Ren's hand open, causing Ren to tense in pain.

ZUNK!

The shorter threw his dagger and it sunk into Ren's right chest. Ren gritted his teeth in pain. The other man swung again, this time Ren slunk down and sweeped the taller man's feet out from under him.

SLAM!

Ren drove his fist into the taller man's face just as his body was about to hit the ground.

The woman, this time armed with a dagger, shot by, slicing Ren's left side and the shorter man quickly followed up with his dagger, but Ren saw him coming and grabbed his wrist, then slammed his hand into the man's elbow.

CRACK!

The man's elbow was now bent the wrong way and the short man let out a scream of agony.

Ren then glanced over at the woman, who looked ready to pounce at any given moment.

Ren pulled out the dagger from his chest and tossed it on the ground.

"What is this feeling?", wondered the woman as she stared at Ren. "I feel out matched in every way possible, but I can't back down!"

She lept, but Ren was already above her.

"When did he..."

BOOM!

Ren pushed her face into the floor, cracking it.

Ren slowly stood back up, his eyes burning green, his torso bloodied, and blood dripping from his nose and hand.

The shorter man was still writhing on the floor in pain, grasping his arm.

"Well done," congradulated Mr. Sandler.