Training Hall Three

The Academy

Sharon’s first punch sent her opponent tumbling back into the force field at the edge of the ring. She bounded forward with three mini leaps and drove a stoney elbow into the male's back just above his kidneys, causing him to grunt painfully. As he rose to a kneeling position she turned on her foot and drove her knee into his jaw. Blood flew as his teeth clacked together.

Her sparring partner, a young man of medium height and build named Guillaume Cote, pushed himself to his feet aided by the upward force of Sharon’s knee. Sharon took a step forward and drove the palms of her hands into his ribcage, sending him back into the boundary field again.

Guillaume bounced off the energy barrier back at Sharon, swinging a right cross at her. She raised her forearm to deflect the blow and staggered back, the punch was more substantial than she expected. Earlier during the strength testing the young man from Quebec had maxed out at three hundred kilograms, while she had been able to deadlift five tons.

As Guillaume stepped forward for a second punch Sharon shot a quick punch, this one landing on his cheek and splitting it deeply. Sharon let her fist travel just past his head before clamping a tight hold on the back of his neck. She pulled him forward and began punching him in the jaw with her left first, then locked both hands on the back of his neck.

At this point, Sharon noticed that the black t-shirt the boy wore was stretched to the breaking point along his shoulders, upper arms, and chest. She pulled his head down and began ramming her knee into his chest and stomach. With each thunderous blow, he was lifted and breath forced out of his lungs. He pulled his arms in before him to protect himself.

How the hell was he still up?

El spun on his hind legs and lunged at Phyllis as she leaped over him. She landed and rolled away from the larger and stronger grizzly bear. She was incredibly agile, darting in to snap kicks or punches and darting out just before his paws could reach her.

The bejewelled rings on her fingers had gone from merely glowing to leaving sparkling trails in the air as they moved. She leaped in, spinning in the air to deliver a sharp kick to his snout.

“Come on big boy, you gotta be more impressive than this. All show and no go from a big bad bear?” The grin on her face was beyond aggravating, it was simply infuriating when coupled with a kick to the nose.

His heartbeat pounded in his skull, his blood boiling as the instincts of the bear screamed. Bear was tranquil, and peaceful, but capable of incredible violence when provoked; which is one reason El had been reluctant to assume this form.

Phyllis backed away from El, literally prancing on the balls of her feet like a prize fighter. El shook his large head, hair rippling with the motion, and unleashed a roar of primal rage and anger before he shot forward. His massive muscles bunched and released as he ran at Phyllis, accelerating unbelievably quickly.

Guillaume lifted Sharon and smashed her into the ground. His shirt had been unable to contain the continued growth of his muscles before it tore and fell to the ground. She rolled to a kneeling position and smashed one of her wings into him, giving her enough time to stand.

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He was not a healer, as the mass of bruises along his torso and arms in addition to the cuts on his face showed. He stepped forward and kicked at her legs. Sharon raised her own leg, checking the kick against her shin. Small chips of stone fell away from her with the impact and a thin line of blood ran down his leg.

They had been battering each other for several minutes. Would he continue to get stronger the more they fought?

She spun on the ball of her foot, delivering a backhand blow to his jaw that caused him to stumble to the side. A follow-up kick to the groin lifted him off his feet and crash into the ground. Sharon again pressed the attack on her now prone opponent. Standing over him she rained down punches at his head. Most of her blows were deflected by his arms, but several still impacted his face; pounding his head into the concrete. Dust rose from the ground and large cracks appeared in the reinforced concrete.

A kick to her buttocks sent Sharon over Guillaume’s head, stumbling she turned to face him to see he was again rising to stand. His nose has smashed flat, one eye was swelling closed, and blood ran down onto his now massively muscled chest.

As Sharon watched him advance towards her again she remembered something she had read once,” If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again.”

Phyllis braced against the onrushing bear that was Elvis. With a thought she pulled more magical energy from the enchanted rings she wore. She crouched and jumped as he ran at her. Who would have thought a bear could run so damn fast? As she tumbled through the air over his head anticipating her next moves she was brutally impacted.

Elvis had lunged upwards at her, propelled by the inertia of his run and powerful legs. The breath was knocked out of her as his massive head crashed into her ribcage. If she had been able to she would have screamed as three ribs snapped. The two of them slammed into the ground, the bear flattening out to cover her under his five-hundred-pound bulk.

Her head clearing, but still swimming, Phyllis struggled to breathe in. A blast of hot, damp air shocked her back to full awareness. As a line of wet drool slowly dribbled onto his cheek she realized that her face was inside the mouth of a grizzly bear. Her breath was ragged and strained as she finally spoke.

“Give...I give.”

Elvis lifted his impressive jaws away, and rose onto all fours.

Ok, never poke the bear.

Sharon stepped to the outside as Guillaume again punched at her, using his momentum to carry him just further than he wanted to go. She snaked her right arm underneath his jaw, before grabbing her left forearm as she placed her left hand on the back of his head. As he struggled, hitting her with powerful elbows to the side of her chest Sharon lifted both her legs and locked them around his waist.

Guillaume continued to smash elbows into Sharon, she could feel more gouges and even cracks forming in her stone gargoyle body. She squeezed with her arms, cutting off Guillaume’s airway and pressing his carotid artery. Within thirty seconds the force of his blows was gone.

The two opponents fell to the ground, Sharon using her wings to roll them herself onto her back as she still held the weakly struggling boy in front of her. Several seconds later she felt him go limp as he lost consciousness. She released her hold and let the unconscious boy roll off her.

Laura sat on the ground toward the side of the ring. Her clothing was a smoking ruin from repeated blasts from Samir’s energy blasts. He had been able to keep her at bay with the force of his blasts. She glanced up to see her opponent bent over, sucking in great gulps of air as streams of sweat ran off his head creating puddles under him.

For an hour they had battled. All the other matches were over and the students, those already healed, clustered around the outside of their ring.

Samir’s legs shook and he fell to his knees in exhaustion. Now was her time to strike, if only Samir’s last blast had not ripped her left leg off at the knee. Her healing powers had dulled the pain to a serious ache, fortunately, but the leg would take hours to regrown.

Laura spent a moment taking stock of her current condition. Massive amounts of tissue had been regenerated in this battle, no scars as always. Dammit, all the new skin healed back nice and pink. So much for the tan I worked all summer on.

“Hey Samir, buddy. How about we call this one a draw?”

Across the ring, Samir fell onto his back, then held out a thumbs up in answer.