Chapter 9

One week later

Zane wondered whether he was always this much of a battle maniac, after all as a soldier if your enemy got close enough for you to throw a punch you were probably doing something wrongly.

But training with Mia was like a breath of fresh air, and he could slowly feel the rigidity that she talked about which was progress since you needed to be first aware of a problem before you fixed it. Which was what he aimed to do, fix it and create his own battle style but that was more of a long term goal.

Zane deflected a couple of her punches and danced through her kicks, oddly enough he was getting to know the type of person she was just by fighting her.

She was strong-headed, determined and very flexible in her approach. If she saw something wasn't working she simply changed it to something else and if that didn't work she would find something else that did and so…

Bam

He always found himself on the floor at the end, but he was also slowly learning.

She ran at him before vanishing, he quickly dived to the side and threw a punch behind him.

Behind were he was a shadow was waiting for him and out of it came Mia, she retailiated with her own strike but didn't commit allowing herself to use the momentum to create distance with her shadow following her swiftly before she fell into it again vanishing.

Shadow travel.

Another aspect of Shadow hunters, making 3 he knew, Divine blood, runes, shadow control.

He himself was slowly starting to feel his shadow, she had told him it will take time but soon it will be like second nature for his shadow to exist as a different entity. It was quite unsettling watching her walk without a shadow though but he got used to it quickly.

Shadow hunters could make their shadows become armor, weapons or even use them to spy and then the last and arguably the most useful, to move.

In this state they entered their shadow and could move as fast as light for a brief moment before being forced to come out.

The more shadow essence one had the longer they could stay in this mode, Zane felt that was the most epic thing he had ever seen.

But it was tricky when used in a fight.

Like in this spot it was dark and so it was easy to notice a stray shadow but imagine if it was a shadowy or dark place?

He shuddered at the thought.

She tried again, this time coming out from his left, her shadow quickly trailed around her body before forming a sharp dagger, he jumped to the side but still cut cut though it was shallow.

Restore.

His rune activated and the damage was gone, he didn't allow her to slip into her shadow again as he went for a reckless tackle, she was so surprised he would do something that foolish that it ironically worked and slammed her on the floor.

But she didn't stop moving and he was very wary of her hands and so he pinned them down, bringing them into another compromising position were their lips were so close her could feel her breath.

For a moment he indulged the thought of what it would be like tasting those cherry lips.

Until the damn bitch smashed her forehead into his sending him sprawling back pathetically.

His vision got blurry but he instinctually rolled to the side, thankfully he did as Mia appeared there a moment later sinking her dagger were his heart was supposed to be.

"Are you crazy, that could have killed me" He yelled as he quickly got out of striking distance.

She laughed turning the blade into a sword "Yes, if I got lucky that is"

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Funny enough he started to think this was just her messed up way of flirting with him, after all he could sense that the sexual tension was there.

Was she making him work for it?

He decided that he was going to take the next opportunity to test out his theory.

 And so he ran at her and with a devious smile and her face she threw her sword at him.

He knew she would never make such a basic mistake without a reason and so he prepared to dodge and soon enough his theory was proven correct, the black sword suddenly turned into a thick chain but he was already prepared and slid on his knees underneath the chain.

She wasn't staying still all this while though as he came face to face with the bottom of her shoes.

He forced his body to dodged the attack and with a quick maneuver her pulled her back to the ground slamming her back to the cold hard floor.

Any other person and he would have been worried their situation but not for Mia, giving this girl anything but your best was insulting to her.

And so he got on top of her and got her into a cross collar choke.

"You ready to tap out yet Princess?"

She struggled but she didn't manage to get out of it, he knew she could use her runes but that would mean he had won this round and he had already called her the 'nickname', she hated that word so much even though it suited her.

The first time he had used it, she had knocked him out, now each chance he got to tease her he definitely used it.

"Come on now say the magic words.."he continued with an infuriating grin on his face he knew she would want to smack so much.

He brought his face closer, her eyes widening as if realizing what he wanted to do but she couldn't talk, this hold was very effective in that regards

"Or should I make you?"

She glared at him but he could see the challenge in her eyes, she really didn't think he would do it.

Unfortunately for her, he had been working up the courage all day and so he didn't hesitate this time.

Her lips was soft, they tasted a bit like sugar, a little too good. He was very sure he was getting addicted to it, to her.

Her lips started out stiff but then soon enough a different battle began as they promptly switched to tongue, he couldn't believe he was making out with Mia, the hunter Prodigy of L.A base.

He had heard things about her, seen how other shadow hunters reacted to her, like someone they saw as impossible to reach, she was faster, stronger, more runed than all of them.

Leo was the only one who could see her shadow when it came to talent but she had rejected his request to be shadow partners firmly and now he had a chance.

Just when it was getting hot, she suddenly vanished and he slammed his head on the floor.

He groaned as he heard her laughter from the other side of the room.

Damn shadow control

He really needed to learn how to do that, he looked at his own normal shadow, suddenly his shadow seemed much more annoying in his eyes