"So Dezmond this is one my associates I was telling you about. You said you needed help training in close quarter and hand to hand combat, and there is no one else I would rather recommend than Neo. Hell after what you told me with your battle with Red any kind of training should help. Neapolitan here is on a whole other level when it comes to close quarter fighting, not to mention her semblance is extremely useful in evasion. She'd put Red to shame."

I look over to Neo who simply nods and blinks her eyes in agreement. 'Wait did her eyes switch colors?' I thought to myself as they changed between brown and pink.

"Now then since I am going to have my hands full for the next couple of weeks stringing together some robberies I'll leave you two to work something out as far as a training schedule goes. Neo is be contacting you later in regard to a mission I have for you. She simply turned towards and gave him a nod. 'So she's the quiet type eh? Doesn't really matter I could sure use her help if what Roman says is accurate. As Roman leaves the room Neo turns and faces me with a small smirk on her face.

"So you work with Roman? How come I've never seen you around here before."

"..." 'Okay that's weird so she doesn't like to talk at all.' I'm thinking as Neo pulls out her scroll and begins to type into it. After a couple of seconds she shoves it into my face.

- It's easier to talk through the scroll, and I have been here on more than one occasion, I just like to stay in the shadows. -

"I don't mean to pry but did something happen to you that you can't talk?"

- Everyone makes mistakes, this is just one that happened to be a more permanent mistake. -

"Got it, so I know Roman's probably already let you know but I'm Dezmond Slate, I used to be a huntsman at Atlas' Hunter Academy but now I'm working with him using the cover of a White Fang Lieutenant." I say to Neo trying to make small talk so I can learn a little bit about her before I'm literally throwing punches at her.

- Neapolitan, I prefer Neo though. I've been fighting for a long time now. I've worked with numerous associates but Roman is one I've taken a liking too so I've been working with him the longest. Plus I basically get to freelance unless a job is needed taken care of. So former hunter huh? You're kind of young. - She types out.

I give a sigh and look down as soon as see her question. "Yeah, I guess you can say I also made a mistake that is permanent. I'm just glad Roman took me under his wing, I have no idea where I'd be right now without him."

Neo crosses her arms and gives a small frown and begins typing again. - Need to talk about it? -

"Maybe some other time." I say shaking my head. " Anyways Roman says your quite the expert in close combat. Where do you think would be a good place to start Neo?"

- Well that all depends on your fighting style, I'd say we start with hand-to-hand combat and work our way up from there. We'll have a skirmish and I'll access your style and make adjustments. -

"Sounds good to me, the Fang members have a room they use for training here we can use. Follow me I can show you." I say motioning her to follow as I open the door. She nods and gets in step with me staying close as we make our way to the training room. We reach the room and I hold open the door for her to go in first, she sends a small smile to me as she enters.

- Okay let's do this - She types to me as she throws her umbrella to the side of the room and walks into the center of the room and onto a mat used for sparring. I draw Ripper from my holster and place it along side her umbrella. She then takes a crouching stance with one arm to her side and the other in front of her. I follow suit by taking a loose boxing stance both of my hands in front of me and I start alternating bounces of my feet. She then sends a nod my way and begins to run towards me. I'm expecting for her to throw the first punch but I'm caught completely off guard when instead she just front-flips over me throwing kick towards the back of my head. I turn and throw my arms up to meet her kick and I barely just block her in time. 'I can't let her keep the offensive as my hand-to-hand defensive is sub-par.' I think as I throw a right straight at her. She dips below it and I send a left jab to follow up. She shifts right and grabs me by the left elbow and throws me forward using my momentum against me. I stumble forward not expecting her to use a grapple move, she then sends a kick to my back as I am stumbling sending me face-first into the ground.

'Okay she is an expert.' I think to myself as I got a taste of the sparring mat. As I am pushing myself up I can hear a flurry of small footsteps coming behind me. I jump and roll out of the way in the nick of time as she sends an axe kick to where my head just was a split second ago. Out of my roll I take my stance one again and start to slowing make my way to her. 'I gotta try to take things slow as she is just countering and using my attacks work against me, I just need to find a weakness. Maybe I can overpower her, she is really small.' I think as she is standing in the same spot of the mat with a hand on her waist. As I reach her I send a straight kick with my left leg which she easily side steps. I then try to work a small combo on her, I send a left straight, follow by two quick right jabs, a left and right hook, finishing with a spinning left leg roundhouse. Neo in response dodges left, blocks my jabs, dips backwards to avoid both of my hooks and grabs my left leg and throws me across the room into the lightly padded wall of the room. 'How did she do that? I didn't even come close to touching her, is she even using her semblance? I can't imagine fighting her with it.' I'm thinking to myself as I detach myself from mat. As I look up the last thing I see is a knee connecting with my stomach knocking the wind out of me, as I am hunched over from the blow she grabs me by the belt and lifts me over herself and launches me to the ground. As I'm laying in the ground, the edges of my vision still blurry from the blow I see Neo walk up to me and plant one of her boots into my chest.

"Okay, okay you win." I wheeze out.

She gives me a large grin and pulls out her scroll typing again. - You have a lot to learn but I'm glad to see you switched up your style mid-fight. Some people are so stubborn in their fighting styles that they'll just keep trying to same moves over and over like it's going to make a difference, nope it just makes it easier for me to find a pattern and take advantage of. You tried to overwhelm and overpower me towards the end but unfortunately I was hoping you'd try that. People see my stature and think they can just walk all over me.- Neo then sends a swift kick into my ribs. 'Owww-' I grab the rib she kicked and begin rubbing it as she starts typing into her scroll again.

- Lesson 1: Never underestimate your opponent. Just because you think you may have an advantage in a certain area doesn't mean you do. They could be working you into a trap as they already know their own strengths and weaknesses. Let your opponent make the first mistake and capitalize off that, you don't need to beat them on the first blow but by slowing and methodically countering your enemy you can not only take advantage physically but you can get inside of their head frustrating them and coaxes them into making more mistakes as they begin to question themselves, or even better just pissing them off. -

'Damn I didn't know she was so skilled as a fighter, I would never think to beat an opponent mentally during a fist fight.

She then presses the heel of her boot a little deeper into my chest. - Which brings me to lesson number 2: Confidence. You should never launch an attack if you don't have 100 percent confidence that it will land. Even if it doesn't land you can use it to set up another strike or a feint that can catch your opponent off guard. If you start questioning your own strikes then you've already lost the fight mentally, and when you lose mentally you will inevitably lose physically. - After she shows me her message she releases the pressure of her boot and lends a hand towards me to help me up. I grab her hand accepting her help, as she pulls up she jerks and pushes me in the back sending me forward. I throw my self into a rolling somersault and turn around to face her. She's sporting a rather large smile on her face as she types into her scroll once more.

She walks over to me showing me her message. - and most importantly lesson number 3: Always be on guard. Always expect the unexpected, if you always have your head on a swivel you'll always be prepared for when something out of the blue happens. If you have good situational awareness you can catch small dents and dings in your opponents fighting style not to mention if the environment your fighting in can help or hinder you. Okay now let's go again. -

My eyes widen at her last sentence as she pulls her scroll away and send a wide arcing kick toward my face. 'Here we go again.'


Several minutes and one ass-kicking compliments of Neo later I begin to push myself off the mat. I begin brushing myself off as Neo walks up to me her scroll in hand. "So how did I do?" I ask her.

- You improved a lot after the first fight, you clearly good at adapting to how your opponent fights but you still have a lot of work to do. First of all your fighting way to aggressive, you normally fight with weapons so I want you to fight defensively if you are ever in hand to hand combat. In a normal fight you'd have your blade on you so if your caught without it you need to be on the defense, I want you to work with your evading and blocking more. Once you learn how to evade and properly block strikes I can show you how to counter and knock your opponent off balance. My fighting style is all about countering and using your momentum against you. If you learn how to fight this way it will help you not only in your hand-to-hand fighting but also with your weapon. - She explained to me through her phone. 'She's right if I'm caught without either of my weapons the last thing I want to do is be on the offense, at that point evasion would be my top priority.'

"That sounds good to me, I'm a Sniper and when it comes to close quarter combat my best option would be to fight defensively." I tell her. She responds with grin and types into her scroll.

- Good, well I'd love to stay here and beat you into the ground but Roman needs be to run an 'op.' I'm free on most nights so just message if you want to spar. I have nothing better to do and helping you could end helping me in the long run. -

"Sounds like a plan to me, until next time Neapolitan." I say sending my hand. She takes it we exchange in a quick handshake before she types into her scroll.

- Oh please. Just call me Neo. - She walks over to her umbrella and shoots me a quick smile before she bows and flips her umbrella backwards and flashes out of existence.

"Well that was a thing." I say under my breathe, I slowly rotate my shoulders working the hurt of them as I walk towards my room in the warehouse. I un-holster Ripper and press the magazine release on it. I place the magazine on a desk near my bunk and I pull the slide on it to eject the round in the chamber placing the round next to the magazine. I quickly dress down as I am exhausted after the day that unfolded. 'Damn what a day, which reminds me I'm going to have to talk to Ruby when I get the chance. I'm just happy she didn't recognize me, thank Oum I didn't have Snapshot on me at the time. That could of blown everything, just gotta make sure whenever I'm around her to keep Ripper holstered as she only saw it in it's falchion form.' My thoughts slowly begin to fade as I find sweet unconsciousness.


Hey everyone sorry for the long break but I didn't expect work to keep me so busy as it really hindered my time I had to write. I probably have another chapter up this weekend as I've already started on that one. Thanks for the follow and favs! WOO 1,000 views! Until next time -MidKnight209