Chapter 24 - Unity(Part 4)

"Hey, you made it. Ready to get started?" Xandra greeted me with a smile.

"Wait, you're the one training me?" I responded, as I entered the room.

"Mhm, that's right. I'll warn you, I'm tougher than I look. I'll whip you into shape," She grinned as she flexed both arms.

"Uh, right, I'll take your word for it," I replied, trying not to stare too much.

She was wearing a red tank top with black stripes on the sides that exposed her cleavage and midriff, and tight black shorts. She had sweat ands around her wrists, and was wearing red shoes. She looks really hot...in contract, I had on faded, baggy black track pants with white stripes at the sides and a loose fitting dark green t-shirt.

A couple of days have passed since I came here, it's the 23rd of September now, 2016, and I'm all rested and good to go now. And today, I start my training to master my powers.

"Ready to get started?" She asked me.

"Wait, you haven't even told me what we're gonna be doing. What kind of training is this going to be?" I inquired in response.

"Huh? Oh, just some sparring, nothing complicated to start out with. We want to see what level you're at when it comes to combat...you were trained by those researchers, right?" She replied, as she began stretching.

"Yeah, I guess, if you can even call that training. Okay, then, I'm ready when you are," I remarked, stepping forward.

"You should warm up first, you might pull something otherwise," She advised me.

"Nah, that's alright, I'll heal right even if I do," I replied with a wry smile.

"If you say so. Oh, by the way, you know how we have codenames, right? Do you know what mine is?" She smirked, as she laced her fingers together and stretched her hands out.

"No, I don't think so."

"Then allow me to enlighten you. I go by Fiery Monkey," She grinned in response.

"That's an, uh...interesting name," I muttered in bemusement.

"It's because of my powers. I have two...the first is Pyrokinesis, I can create and manipulate flames. And the second one is an Anima type power, do you know what that means?" She asked me.

"Yeah, it means you have the power of an animal, right? Like, someone with a, say, Cheetah Anima could have highly agile legs or something, right? Then, do you have a Monkey Anima?" I inquired curiously.

"Yup, that's right! Normally, I'd keep my powers a secret and let you figure it out as we fight, but since I already know what you can do, and it's your first time training with us, I'm giving you a handicap. I've got some serious, and literal, firepower at my disposal...and I also have the agility and athleticism of a monkey," She remarked, as she kicked off her shoes, revealing her feet.

Huh, they look like hands. This training room has a bunch of pillars, poles, bars hanging from the ceiling, stuff like that...she's probably gonna be jumping around all over the place.

"Good to know, I'll keep that in mind," I replied with a wry smile.

"You'd better. Alright, we've waited long enough...ready or not, here I come!" She exclaimed as she suddenly raced towards me, forming fireballs with both hands.

If I can touch her directly, I'll block her from using her powers. At least, the flames will be nullified...not sure what'll happen with her Anima, but I doubt my nullification will change her physically.

As she flung one of the fireballs at me, I swiftly shot forward, raising my arm and letting the fireball hit it, making sure to cover my face...I faced robots equipped with flamethrowers while in that lab, so I'm used to being burned.

Her eyes widened in alarm as I ran through the flames and closed in on her, dissipating the fireball in her other hand as she began to halt.

Uh, wait, what do I do now? I don't have a weapon, I'm bare handed here...sure, I fought bare handed plenty of times against some of the trainers in the lab, but whenever I got this far, I usually go in for the kill.

Biting or breaking their necks, jamming my fingers into their eyes, splitting their jaws open and tearing their heads apart...can't do that here. Guess I'll just try punching, then...as I drove my fist towards her chest, she quickly sprang off to her right...before my fist brushed against one of her boobs.

W-woah, that was soft...it was little more than a graze, but the sensation is already burned into my head. That's the closest I've ever come to a boob...okay, there was the breastfeeding when I was a baby in this world, but I try not to think about that.

It's...way too traumatizing.

Anyway, since my fist technically touched her clothes and not her skin, the nullification didn't activate...she then sprang up, flipping her body across and grabbing onto a ring hanging by a chain from the ceiling with one of her feet.

"Quick timeout for a sec...why didn't you dodge the fireball? I didn't think you'd take it head on like that!" She called down at me with a bewildered look on her face.

"Huh? Why not? It's already healed, and if I take it head on, I don't have to slow down," I pointed out with a shrug.

The only damage done is a few burns to my clothes.

"I mean, I guess that's true, but...didn't it hurt?" She responded incredulously.

"Sure, but it faded pretty quickly."

"That's-...okay, from now on, if you can dodge an attack, dodge it! There's no sense in taking damage that you can avoid!" She instructed me.

"Alright, fine. Let's keep going then," I replied with a nod.

"Mhm, timeout over. Time for me to get serious," She declared with a smirk.

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