Still feeling weak from Michael’s strike, Evelyn started to regulate her breathing. Fortunately for her, Evelyn’s divine gift provided her with impenetrable defenses. In addition, Michael knew how to control his strength.

Holy shit… that was so strong…

“Michael… you could have warned m-”

Michael quickly raises his right leg and delivers a powerful round kick toward Evelyn’s face. His feet connected and Evelyn was sent to the side. She rolls and uses her momentum to stand up.

Her head was ringing but she knew Michael wasn’t going to listen.

Standing up, Evelyn opened her eyes but Michael was already closing the gap between them.

She takes a stance but she feels a powerful force strike her face as Michael delivers a blindingly fast quick jab.

Evelyn blocks her face but Michael lightly steps back and then spins around to strike her stomach with a sidekick. Evelyn feels the air get pushed out of her chest and she loses her footing. Struck by Michael’s powerful attack, Evelyn falls to the ground again.

“Michael! Sto-”

Evelyn sees Michael jump up. He angles himself to strike her while she’s down. Evelyn immediately rolls away and sees Michael strike the ground where she was.

To her surprise, Michael doesn’t immediately follow up. She gets a few seconds of reprieve which she uses to stand up and back away.

“Michael… you’re an asshole.”

Michael signs.

+You’re tough. Very tough.+

Then he moves again.

Gritting her teeth, Evelyn reluctantly enters a combat stance.

Closing the gap, Michael throws a forward straight.

Evelyn ducks, just barely dodging Michael’s restrained strength. She counters by delivering her own punch toward Michael’s face.

Instead of dodging, Michael immediately headbutts Evelyn’s fist before it could build any momentum. Evelyn hisses in pain as she feels Michael’s tough skull deliver an excessive amount of force through her arm. She reflexively backs away which Michael takes advantage of. He sweeps her leg and she starts to fall, only for Michael to grab her neck and slam her to the ground.

Evelyn groans in pain but she immediately shuts herself down and forces herself to move. Trying to imitate a combat move she’s seen before, she starts to grapple Michael’s arm with her legs. Using her strength and weight, Evelyn tries to pin Michael down.

But she wasn’t strong enough.

Instead of bending according to Evelyn’s strength, Michael was simply unmoveable. Evelyn could feel Michael’s muscles flex with an unbelievable amount of strength. As a show of force, Michael stands up with Evelyn still attached to his arm.

Realizing that she’s at his mercy, Evelyn stutters.

“So… he-hey! We can probably sto-stop now, ri-right?”

Michael smiles at her then he slams her on the ground. The force momentarily knocks Evelyn out and her grip on Michael’s arm loosens.

Evelyn was dizzy and would most likely be dead if not for her gift. She tries to cover her face to at least defend herself but Michael doesn't attack her again.

Looking up, Evelyn sees Michael staring at her.

“A-are we done?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Michael shakes his head.

+I’m giving you a breather.+

Evelyn thankfully nods.

“Yeah… whatever… Give me a sec.”

Michael nods and looks around for a place to sit.

Evelyn rests for a few seconds then she sits up.

“Was there any reason to suddenly attack me? We could properly train like normal people.”

Michael shrugs.

+It wouldn’t have been the same.+

Evelyn rolls her eyes, annoyed.

“What do you mean?”

+Other than your physical ability, I also wanted to see how fast you assess danger.+

“And what’s my score teach?”

Michael smirks.

+Well, it’s not satisfactory.+

“Yeah… I reacted way too slowly.”

+Yes.+

Without any indication, Evelyn throws a rock toward Michael.

Take this you prick!

Evelyn’s muscles flexed as she threw the rock, turning the regular everyday rock into a lethal projectile. It flew towards Michael’s body but the superhuman easily caught it with one hand.

Drats!

Holding the stone in one hand and signing with the other, Michael taunted Evelyn.

+I guess you’re ready for round 2.+

“Wa-wait!”

Michael throws the rock toward Evelyn.

Despite her protests, Evelyn was prepared. She dodges by rolling away but before she could stand, Michael strikes her stomach with a kick, lifting her up into the air.

She groans and gasps for air. For a moment, Evelyn was in the air, confused by what was happening. She couldn’t believe that Michael could exert enough force to lift her off the ground. But here she was, floating midair.

Evelyn’s vision refocuses and she sees Michael jump up to grab her. Pissed off, Evelyn feels Michael’s hand grab his ankle. Gaining something to use as leverage, Evelyn bends her body to punch downward.

Michael sees the incoming fist and tries to catch it but it was a feint. Evelyn immediately retracts her fist and uses her other leg to deliver a bone-crushing kick toward Michael.

Caught off guard, Michael raises his arm to block the kick. He feels an immense amount of almost-superhuman force strike his forearm and he lets go of Evelyn. He backs away but immediately regains his momentum.

Evelyn gracefully lands on the ground. She immediately takes a combat stance.

I’m ready for you Michael.

Surprisingly, Michael doesn’t move. Evelyn frowned but she kept her stance.

Michael refused to move which annoyed Evelyn.

This standstill continued for a few more seconds. The tension was rising and Evelyn was the one who broke first.

“AHHH!”

Screaming, she charges forward but the moment she raises her foot to move, Michael reacts.

Michael was a split second faster and when Evelyn moved her leg upward, Michael exploded forward with his tensed muscles. He immediately closes the gap and grabs her body by hugging her entire torso. She tries to react but Michael’s sudden momentum takes her off of her feet.

Once she’s out of balance, Evelyn feels the hard ground strike her back as Michael slams her down to the floor. Then she feels Michael strike her face. Her vision blurs and for a moment she thought she was going to pass out.

Then she activates her gift. Her body suddenly becomes tougher and her skin becomes rough to the touch. When Michael strikes her face a second time, he frowns in pain when he realizes that he’s striking something harder than steel.

He tries to back away but Evelyn immediately hugs his lower body.

“My turn, asshole!”

Evelyn’s first course of action was to headbutt Michael’s groin.

Sensing imminent danger, Michael grabs Evelyn’s head, preventing her from moving forward. She tries to break free but Michael, fearing for his life, holds her in place.

While unable to take any real damage from Michael, Evelyn was still physically weaker. She couldn’t budge from Michael’s iron grasp. She angrily growls while Michael holds her in place. She started gnashing her teeth in hopes of biting Michael’s fingers. Michael avoided that too.

Evelyn wanted to take revenge but she couldn’t move. If she let goes of Michael, he would just move away but Evelyn really wanted to hit him at least once.

I have to risk it!

Evelyn suddenly lets go of Michael’s lower body. Michael immediately backs away.

Before Michael could move away, Evelyn grabs his ankles. Using his own momentum against him, Evelyn trips Michael, who then falls to the ground. He quickly catches himself but it’s too late. Evelyn was already on top of him.

“MY TURN!”

Evelyn was about to strike Michael but he immediately pulled her down so that she couldn’t gain the right momentum. Evelyn’s strikes connected but they were too weak to hurt Michael.

“Goddessdamnit! At least, let me hit you, Michael! You’re so unfair!”

Despite Evelyn’s protest, Michael doesn’t let her go.

“GRRRR”

Evelyn tries her best to resist but despite her toughness, Michael was unbelievably strong. He held on and eventually, Evelyn’s body started to lose its extreme toughness. Her activated gift was slowly losing its power.

When her activated gift fully loses its effect, Evelyn feels her entire body go slack.

“Wa-wait… I haven’t… punched you prop-”

Evelyn then slumps on Michael’s body, unconscious from the strain of activating her gift.

Michael still held onto Evelyn, just in case she was pretending. He listened to her slowing heartbeat and let her go.

----------------------------------------

“Huh?”

Evelyn opens her eyes. The first thing she notices is the sky looking down on her. She sits up and finds Michael by the side communicating with Bob.

“Michael.”

She stands up but before she could say anything, Michael immediately signs.

+Your gift is strong.+

“Oh… uh… thanks.”

+But.+

“But?”

+You burn out quickly.+

“Yeah, I noticed.”

+We need to work on that.+

“I know.”

Frowning, Evelyn approaches Michael.

“Are we done for today?”

+Are we?+

Michael smirks. He then stands up and cracks his knuckles.

“Shit.”

Evelyn prepares herself.

Michael nods approvingly then he moves forward to continue training with Evelyn.