The Ace

"And the Two-Time does it again! Let"s go boys! Beat that!"

He played some ranked Rainbow once he finished, it was quite entertaining, he tried different tactics, and for a lack of a better word: trolled.

Ash rushes, Montagne and Blitz abuses, and many other more unsavoury tactics were used and abused. They won him games, and entertained his viewers, but he did come across more than a few ragers, that were not totally happy with his way of playing - not that he cared.

Once he logged off for the day after having played the last song, he was wondering what he should even do. He could of course work on his languages, but he still had three more weeks until the Knowledge Tournament, and he had spent pretty much every second of this past week studying Korean, which meant that he was pretty much done with it, and would begin to focus on j.a.panese next.

The question was, could he do it in three weeks? He was confident he could.

Newly reinvigorated, and with some extra motivation, he gave it his all on finishing up on his Korean, and after a 6-hour marathon, he could say he was done. 2 down, 1 to go.

*********************

"Ace, there"s a get together going on, today? Wanna come? There should be fewer people today, which will probably mean that we try new things and you might even get to fight more, if that is what you wanted."

Allison"s call came at 8 in the morning, Ace was resting, having had his breakfast after his routine and shower.

"Sure, I"ll come. Time and Place?"

"Just be ready at 9:30, I will have a car pick you up."

"Cool", he was about to hang up, when she added:

"Also, you have to wear black running shoes, and a black workout outfit."

"Okay…"

"Everyone is going uniformed, you will understand why when you realise what we are doing today."

"Ah, I get it, well, see you in a few hours.��

"Yep."

***********************

The car took him to a forest, they crossed a few trees, driving along a dirt path, when they arrived at a compound. However, it was an open compound this time, and Ace saw a training area, along with what looked like a large Coliseum-like structure, it was more dome-like however, and the top made of gla.s.s. It was large, extremely so, and as the driver indicated for Ace to get off, he could appreciate the sheer scale of the building. The driver led him around the compound, where he saw men and women in uniform, usually training in various forms of unarmed combat, but also heard the sounds of gunshots, they were muzzled, but once they went past what Ace a.s.sumed was the shooting area, Ace could hear them with his enhanced ears.

They entered the dome, and Ace spotted Allison and Amy, along with another 9 people. These, however, were younger, and seemed to be only slightly older than Allison, about a year or so. They were standing calmly, some talking, but they all turned to look at him once they saw him.

Ace noticed the stares but ignored them, and went right to Allison.

"Damm, cool place, this where you train them?"

"Yep.", she nodded, looking extremely proud, and Ace smiled

She then motioned for him to join the others, and clapped her hands, beginning her explanation, "Ok, you are all here because you are prospects for the family, well, most of you are, you all know Amy, and this is Ace.", she motioned at him, and he nodded, "I want to see what you can do, we will begin with a simple session of sparring, you can challenge whoever you wish, but if you challenge and you lose, you are out. Also, you cannot challenge twice in a row. The rules are the following, no groin shots, no gouging and no biting. If you don"t want your hair to be pulled: cut it."

They sat down in a large circle, and the first one went, a small boy, with a devilish grin, he stared at Ace, and smiled even wider, "Disgusting, and stupid as well. Time to put him in his place."

He pointed at Ace, as was expected, and he stood up, "Easy win for me, I am sorry everyone."

Allison, before they could begin, said: "Don"t hurt him too much."

The boy smiled even wider, and said, "Don"t worry, I"ll return him in one piece."

"Oh, you stupid boy. a.s.suming that warning is for you." Ace thought, shaking his head in amus.e.m.e.nt.

He stood in front of his opponent and bowed in respect, something his opponent did not care to reciprocate, which made a few of the other people sat there frown in disgust.

Then, Ace went into a calm position, not even raising his hands to guard himself, his opponent went into a lunging stance, legs flexed, and his arms out, Ace spotted however that he had his fingers out straight, almost as if he was going to gouge him. One hand had its fingers in a knife-hand, the other was in a "C" shape, as if he was going to grab his neck with it.

Regardless, Ace stayed calm, as soon as Allison signalled for them to begin, the boy lounged, hands out. He was fast - extremely so, but Ace was faster, he launched a front kick to the knee. It collided perfectly, the momenta colliding. A resounding crack rang out, followed by a squeal of pain.

"You are lucky, he could have broken your leg, but he chose not too, don"t be so foolish next time.", Allison warned as Ace walked back to his spot, the p.r.o.ne figure of the boy behind him, crying and shouting in pain. Medics came quickly, and put him in a stretcher, he was unable to fight now.

"Well, Snyder is out, next match."

"Ah, Snyder, funny name.", Ace thought

Next match was a large boy challenging another boy, who was leaner.

It was a drawn-out match, but it finally ended when the larger man managed to grab onto the boy, and put him in a chokehold.

The key thing about this session was that you could give up a match, there was no need for someone who had been challenged to fight at all, since he would have to either win his own challenge or be disqualified. However, all these people had prides, and those prides did not allow them to give their all. This meant that the boy that lost was now pretty much unable to fight. On the flip side, the larger boy was injured too, as well as tired, but he would have some matches to recover, while the boy that lost was the one that had to challenge next. This way, he became unable to fight and was disqualified.

"Good way to do it, since if you trounce your opponent hard enough, they will not be able to fight again. He might not be all brawn."

Like this, matches continued until it was Ace"s turn to challenge, he had not been challenged again, and was wondering who he would challenge. He looked at the larger boy, "Are you fully rested?", the larger boy nodded, and so did Ace, they both stood up, and bowed, before commencing.

This fight was interesting, the larger boy, who he had found was called t.i.tus, tried to go for grapples and holds.

Unluckily for him, Ace had fought much better fighters that used those same tactics in the gym, namely, the Trouble Couple. Therefore, he just applied that experience.

Every time he tried to go for a grab, Ace punished him with a well-delivered strike, this went on for a while, until t.i.tus attempted a full-on lunge. Unluckily for him, Ace had seen it coming, and sidestepped, kicking him to the floor, then, once t.i.tus was on the floor, Ace went for a devastating axe-kick on his neck, but stopped when there was only the barest of distances remaining. t.i.tus noticed this, and said: "I surrender."

Ace helped him get up, and they bowed to each other, "Thank you", t.i.tus said, and Ace just smiled.

What Ace had done was quite meaningful. This was most likely a big opportunity for them, so if he put him out of commission, he would not be able to partic.i.p.ate. This way, he would take part, and could still have a chance to redeem himself later.

Next match, it was Amy"s time to challenge, she had not fought yet either, and Ace was surprised when she asked him if he was ok to fight.

Allison winced as Ace said yes and smiled, while Amy looked predatory, already trying to find weaknesses in him.

They bowed, and began. Amy used a combination of kicking and blitzing. Fast chained attacks, before backing away. It was quite a tiring way of fighting, but effective if you could capitalize on your opponent"s weakness, since you could attack it over and over.

For this match, Ace just waited for her to attack, he had something he wanted to try, as Amy came at him, he deflected or dodged most of her blows, and waited for her to back off. Once she did, he tried to stick his foot out behind her to trip her up, she noticed, however, and jumped. Ace was about to lunge for her, but a kick from her, while she was still mid-air, stopped him.

He smiled, he managed what he wanted, if he cut up and interrupted her rhythm, it would kill her stamina. Therefore, all he had to do was wait.

She attacked again, throwing a combination of punches and elbow strikes. She then acted as if she was going to back away, but it was all a farce, she threw a kick at him. Unluckily for her, he had expected it, he grabbed her ankle, and spun, carrying her along, then, once she was off-balance, he kicked at her remaining leg, and once she was on the floor, twisted the leg he was holding into a hold. He held the leg there until she gave up, and then helped her stand up, she would be out of the compet.i.tion, but that was fine, her leg would be hurting for a while after this.