-Blake-
I was knocked out of my thoughts by a punch to the gut which had me bend forward and groan out in pain.
"You don't have the pleasure of zoning out Blake. I shouldn't even be able to get all the way to your gut that easily! Focus!"
I was currently training with Xavier while Dominic was at another branch of the bar somewhere in New York City. The training session was unexpected. I randomly got a call at 7 pm telling me to get to the bar and while I got ready, all I could think about was how the hell Xavier got my number.
When I got to the bar a fight was going on. It was King and some other unfortunate guy that I didn't recognise. More so, I wouldn't be able to recognise. His face was bloodied up to the point where none of his features could be pointed out. His arms and stomach in a similar position. How could someone even get like that through just hand to hand combat?
'He cheats,' Xavier had told me when I asked him about it. He then went onto explain that a lot of fighters would say that he has some kind of blade on him which he uses to gain the advantage but no one had been able to prove it which is why he's still fighting.
Regardless, Xavier then said that he was going to train me and that's what got me to where I was now, holding my stomach which pulsed with pain as I tried catching my breath and spitting out the blood that accumulated in my mouth.
"You have to continuously watch all the limbs of your opponent, see where their hold is open, see where they're the most defensive. You have to be able to predict where they're going to strike from their posture alone." He instructed, bouncing on the spot, his adrenaline seemed to be running at high speeds now.
"How does Dominic think about all this at the same time?" I mumbled but he seemed to hear it anyway.
He stopped jumping around and stood up tall which made me relax a bit too. "Demon is another situation. When she fights, she doesn't think at all." He grinned up at the ceiling in pride. Doesn't think? "Her mind goes completely blank when she fights. She doesn't strategize and lets her muscle memory and instinct take control." He then blinked and looked at me with a serious look, "Something you cannot do."
He then quickly bent down low and swung again, hitting my jaw. "Fuck," I cursed and stumbled back whilst holding a weak stance.
"Still not focused," he then walked away and threw me water from the minifridge, "Here," I caught it and the cold felt nice against my skin. "I know you're fond of your gun so I won't ask you to quit it, but I am going to make you stronger. You can't be a man if you don't know how to use your fists when you need to."
"I'm pretty sure I was capable enough before..." I started but then sighed, "Fine, but only because I want to protect Dominic too."
"That's all I need." He said before letting a devilish smirk take place on his face.
---
We had gone at it for around 2 hours. From ab training, weights, sparing, he had been testing as much as he could in this short period of time and I couldn't help but feel like this was only the trial. It reminded me of the one day we had gone to Dominic's gym class except my body convinced me that that was still rougher than this. Xavier at least was fair with how much he'd push me, would give regular breaks, he was a better instructor than I had first thought. Not that I doubted him, he was the one who taught Dominic everything she knew after all.
Suddenly, there was banging on the door. "Ignore it," Xavier ordered so I didn't get up but the banging continued.
"CHAMP! I'M BORED AS FUCK! COME OUT HERE AND GIVE ME A GOOD FIGHT! THESE GUYS ARE ALL PUSSIES!"
It was 'King'. Just his voice alone pissed me off but I kept my cool. "Does he do this often?" I asked Xavier and he scoffed,
"More times than I'd like to admit."
"CHAMP!"
We both sighed at the same time and Xavier knew he had no choice but to open the door. "What the fuck do you want?" Xavier's tone had completely changed. It was extremely low and sounded like he wanted to kill the guy.
"I said-!" King started but then he glanced my way and his eyes darkened. "You're the guy from before." He stated and looked back at Xavier with betrayal, "You're training this weak fucker? Why give him the time of day? Fight me!"
"This weak fucker deserves the title 'King' a fuck ton more than you do mate," Xavier responded which caught both King and me off guard. What did he mean by-?
"What the fuck do you mean?!"
Xavier stepped forward and towered him completely. "That guy is M. D's -the Queen's- boyfriend. By default, that makes him King." There was humour when he said that.
King looked back at me with disgust but I kept my composed stance. He didn't scare me. He saw this and scoffed.
"If he can't beat me then he's nothing."
Before Xavier could reply I walked forward to the both of them. I couldn't have people defend me all the time and I definitely wasn't going to let myself be insulted by him. "It isn't the situation of 'if', I know I can beat scum like you. But I'll let my Queen have that pleasure instead."
After that, it was obvious that his anger flared. He was about to come forward and start a fight, it was weird to me but I was able to tell that he was going to swing with his left arm towards my face if he had the opportunity. That was something I probably wouldn't have been able to notice before.
However, I wasn't the only one who noticed. Xavier was faster than me and so he grabbed King's arm and gave him -as he did to me- a punch in the gut but unlike mine, you could tell that this one was much harder and he dug it in as far as humanly possibly. The impact was loud and King's yell in pain was louder. So much so that everyone in the basement turned to look in our direction. Granted there wasn't many but all eyes were turned nonetheless.
I felt that although Xavier was protecting me, there was more to what he did. It was an example. He wanted me to see that this is how it should be done and more so, this is what he could have done to me if he so wished.
"Now..." he said with a lower tone again but the same couldn't be said by what he continued with, "FUCK OFF!"
His voice boomed and made the walls shake a little. I don't think I had ever seen him that angry before.
King seemed to get the message this time, he grunted in annoyance and turned away, still holding and flinching at his stomach which I know will pain him for days after this one.
Xavier closed the door calmly after that and turned to look at me. He still looked angry so I kept my guard up but his expression suddenly changed. He switched and grinning down at me.
"Well done Blake, you grew the balls to threaten the strongest fighter in the world -at the moment." He put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly before announcing,
"Step one is complete."