No Talent, And Ten Hits.

Steven sighed. The current situation completely changed how he viewed Alex. An entire day had passed since they had started working on his skills, where Alex had gone to high school, attended his lectures, and taken notes on everything that was taught. He came home confident, because yesterday, he wasn't able to understand a single thing that Steven was trying to teach him, but today, he was confident that he would be able to understand at least a few basics. He still didn't understand anything that the course teachers taught him, but he was confident that Steven would be able to do it. He refused to believe that he was bad, and attributed his failure to the teachers being too advanced for him. According to him, only Steven could make him understand.

Learning commands was easy. He had learned how to type, so it was only a matter of memorizing every command. The hard part was applying them together. When he was asked to make a hello world command prompt, he directly questioned its need to Steven. He was a problem student, and could not be taught with orthodox methods.

Frustrated, Steven tried to make a chart to make him understand how they were going to study. After that, Alex started to listen to him with more obedience, but there was no improvement. His instincts were good when it came to fighting, but his creativity was heavily lacking when it came to computers. There was no way he was getting his hold on even one language if this was how he went about in his business.

Frustrated, Steven decided to give Alex a break. It was time for his training with Lucius, so he decided to let him go for today. It was time to get serious, and he had to devise a better method to make him learn all of this, seeing that he had no talent in this field.

Alex was back to the familiar training ground, where Lucius was waiting for him. he knew about the problem that he was facing, and was glad that he had a weakness. This made him more human, according to him.

"Today, we are going to practice something extremely simple. As much as I would like to see you get beaten, I still need you to remain alive for you to be useful."

Alex didn't respond. He was still trying to connect the dots between all the commands that he had memorized associated with Java. He needed to find some sort of connection between all of them so that he could change his situation.

"Today's exercise is simple, one on one combat. If you get hit more than 10 times, you lose. Got it?"

Lucius had an underlying feeling that Alex could perform better defensively if he was allowed to fight someone one on one. He had already demonstrated that against Jane, but he still wanted to gauge his ability himself. Plus, it would be nice to actually spar with him, to get a better understanding of his strong points.

Alex snapped out of his trance. He looked at Lucius, who cracked his neck towards the left side. Lucius was a middle-aged man, but his body was built like a tank. His height was a decent 6'3, and his muscles were well defined. No hit Alex could dish out could hurt him, so it was better if he was the one taking charge. Despite his size, he was pretty nimble, and he was good at holding back when required. His build was abnormal for an assassin, but he made up for his stature with his speed. He was pretty nimble, is muscle control had already reached its peak at his age, which allowed him to be

Alex stood in front of him, formless. He was ready for the first move, for which he decided to maintain his position. Attacking first would be futile, seeing that hitting won't get him anything in this exercise.

Lucius bent down and contracted all of his thigh and calf muscles. He was going for speed rather than strength, and this was his way of warning Alex about what was about to come. He had taken up the runner's pose, which made Alex frown.

"3...2...1...Start!"

Lucius disappeared from his position. He was currently in front of Alex, with his fingers aiming for his eyes. Alex stood there, unable to do much. He tried to move his head away, but the fingers just followed him. Just as they were about to hit his eyes, Alex used his own arms to block, but that was a mistake. Lucius, who had been aiming for this from the start, used his other hand to punch him in his stomach. The punch didn't contain any power, as it just touched Alex and retreated, but Alex started to sweat. he could have easily been incapacitated, had Lucius aimed to do so.

"One hit. You have nice reflexes, and you can block pretty well, but you defend according to priority. If the move is strong enough, you give up on defending other parts of the body, which leaves you wide open."

Lucius went back to his position. He did what he did previously, and got ready.

"Let's make this a bit interesting. I am going to trip you this time. If you don't fall, you get to punch me, without any resistance, one time."

Alex changed his stance. He had his arms raised with his palms open, while his legs were bent, planting him firmly on the ground.

Lucius again sprung up into action, this time a bit slower than before. Alex recognized this as his weakness and tried to capitalize on it. He stood firm on the ground, ready to defend against him. Observing even minute changes in his form, Alex saw that there was no danger. His arm was aimed towards his legs, and he used his arms to block his punch.

All of a sudden, Lucius stopped his attack, making Alex a bit confused. He hesitated to block his attack, now that he had stopped, and Lucius used this chance to attack with his left leg, towards his face. Alex defended himself on time, but he had to relax his body a little. His feet were relaxed, and as the attack was strong enough to make him take a step back, Lucius used his other leg to sweep Alex of the ground, making him fall in the process.

"Two hits. Provocation ignited your spirit to not give up, but it blinded you against a simple set of attacks. You could have stayed relaxed and dodged the attack, but you decided to go against me head-on, making a mistake that could have cost you your life in a real fight."

Alex was on the ground, panting. The Head of the Family was really strong. He wondered why no one was training under him, seeing as his children were so weak.

He got up, getting ready for the next move. He noticed that ever since he had gotten hyena's heart, he had been more aggressive than before. Even though the system had told him that there were no side effects, but was that really the case?

"At least your nature isn't too bad. A person who is ready to learn is always a boon for any instructor."

Lucius took his position again. Alex was way better than his kids, so he was enjoying his company.