Anonymous Guest- I'm glad you enjoy this book- I never intended it to be at a slow pace, I anticipated physical being finished by at least chapter 20, but it turned out like this! Anyway thanks so much for reviewing!

Lycan Lover441 I'm so glad you love it! I understand it's pretty long so takes some time to read- I can totally relate there are some seriously long fics on fanfic! I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations!

Dear Charlotte,

Once again, I am so grateful to know the last chapter was good to read (and yeah that was some steamy training!) Don't worry about writing your long reviews; it must be so time consuming, I'm just glad you still enjoy this!

Thanks as always

TheCloakedShadow

The next morning I wake up in the dorms, and don't bother showering as I go on my morning run. I'm careful to stay away from Eric's side of the compound, using it as an excuse to ensure I know every path and crevice of the other side. Then it's breakfast,
then training with combat drills, and then in the afternoon… sniping.

Sure enough, the rest of the transfers get given instructions by Four, and then Lily and I are moved to the very top of the compound as we were before, and taken to the ledge, where Eric is waiting.

"Right, Avery, with Eric." Four motions to me, and Eric does nothing but nudge his head to where a sniping gun lies, and suddenly my heart is beating faster, remembering the sniping training he gave me last night.

"Down, lie flat." Eric orders and I do as he says, before taking the gun and moving the exact positions he told me to hold, remembering his hands holding me in place yesterday and imitating them using my core strength.

"Straight ahead, transmission tower, up by 12 degrees." Eric doesn't hesitate to give me the angle, and I look up. I've never had to hit something at such a large angle of elevation, and I can't reach it with the gun resting on the ledge. I'll have to
compensate the control over the barrel my moving my supporting hand closer to me, so the gun rests at a higher level. But that just means I'll have to be extremely still.

"The wind is non-existent." Eric says, and a slight nod of my head shows my acknowledgment. And with a breath out, I shoot.

There's a large monitor in between my station and Lily's that buzzes and the image of the target comes up. Electronic imaging in this gun range it seems.

And my shot is right in the centre.

A second passes and I hear Lily's gunshot, but the monitor doesn't beep, and the image doesn't change. She missed.

I glance up at Eric who's smirking, at a guess at Four, before he crouches beside me.

"2 degree angle, same direction, the beer bottle on the advertisement banner." He instructs me, and as I Iook through the scope I realise the ad is behind the transmission tower, and I'll have to shoot in between the gaps of the red and white crossbeams.
The slightest touch against one would destroy the shot, and unfortunately, there's a beam that covers half of the bullseye.

As I don't want any chance of hitting that beam, I'll aim slightly off the bullseye, as close to the edge as I dare. Hang on… Eric said the wind was non-existent, but I can feel my right side is slightly colder than my left, the only indicator of the
direction I have.

Since the exposed area of the bullseye is to the right, I can exaggerate the line ever so slightly, to ensure the shot doesn't hit the beam.

As I do, the monitor beeps, and sure enough I hit the outer boundary of the bullseye. The monitor beeps again straight afterwards and Lily's shot comes up, barely grazing the target.

"Standing position, same two targets." I groan slightly, having learnt from yesterday that standing was my weakest position, not having the stability of my legs or the floor to rest my arms or the gun on. I obey, and hit both targets, though the first
was just on the line of the bullseye, and the second, I aimed for the space least likely to hit any beams, and as a result hit the second inner ring, but I deemed it better than hitting the beams and not getting a shot at all.

"That was pathetic. You ran away from bullseye, what were you thinking?" Eric growls at me from behind, and I can feel Four's glances on my back.

"I know I'm less stable standing, sir, as it's my first time in this position, so deemed it an appropriate decision. I apologise for my misconception." I answer obediently, bowing my head slightly.

"Your shoulder's were too hunched and your stance was too narrow, it was shit." He continues, so I nod, keeping my eyes past him rather than at him.

"Same shot."

I square my shoulders more to prevent any sort of hunching, and widen my stance, lowering my body more. He's right, I do feel much more stable, I need to learn how extreme to go with the low stance and the shoulders, otherwise I'll go too far though.

I aim at the same tricky shot, but this time go for the same line I had when I was lying down. The angle has lessened so it's almost straight ahead, and even though I hear a shot from Lily as I inhale, I shoot concisely on my exhale, unaffected by the
distraction.

The monitor beeps twice, Lily's image of a shot to the far left coming up before swiftly changing to mine: the bullseye. It's not as good as my one lying down, the hole is actually half in the bullseye half out, but it counts.

"Good."

We repeat in the crouching position, where I receive similar results to lying down, though slightly less central as would be expected.

Then he gives me an overall critique with which I respond to as usual, straight, polite responses with no sense of humour or mock, and definitely no questions which is what usually comes from my mouth when we train.

And a he sends me to get more ammo, I overhear them.

"I can't do this!" Lily says.

"I don't care what you think, just shoot the goddamned target." Four says in a clipped tone as I keep my eyes firmly off them. I know I'm in Four's peripherals, but Lily is facing away from me.

"But just look at the difference! And we've been on the same target in the same position which is much easier than what she's doing, she's shooting through obstruction. Give me a harder shot."

My lips form a scowl easily, and my eyes darken. Maybe I was wrong. She seems to have just gotten herself in a stupid bid to do things she can't.

"Why should I, when you still haven't perfected this shot in the easier position." Four remarks harshly, and I can tell his eyes are darkening with impatience.

"Are you sure it's easier? Why is what I'm doing failing?" Lily continues.

"Don't assume you know anything. And don't think on anything I haven't told you. You know nothing about this." Four retorts, the authority in his voice loudening and I can tell by the silence after them Lily's holding her tongue. "You're not bad, Amity,
you're average. On average the initiates we select stay in this position for around a week and stay on the simple targets. You're not bad, she's just brilliant."

I know his eyes have moved to me and I look up, meeting his eyes with a shared understanding of Lily's mindset. She's getting over her head, and it's easy to see.

Sure enough Lily follows his gaze to meet my eyes with momentary anxiety before it turns into angered embarrassment. My gaze is hard as I sweep over her look, before turning and walking straight back to Eric.

"Moving on." Eric announces loudly, and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from chuckling at his obvious sarcasm. She won't be moving on for a while.

After recovering from his joke, my gaze on him turns wary, as Four gives the rest of the transfers new instructions and they start on the much more rapid-fire handguns, which causes much more noise, enough for Eric and I to discuss lowered words without
worrying for Four.

"Your not hurt?" Eric's voice is barely a whisper as he motions for me on the floor, before crouching down next to me. We keep extremely still, speaking low.

"I'm fine."

"I know." He found the note.

"I've decided to try a new training technique, the dauntless-born showed me the rock face on the other side of the compound." I say, even though I found it this morning. "Climbing seems like a fun evening activity for me."

"I myself have found myself invested in a new project taking up all my spare time as well." Eric replies and we share a look, before I pull the trigger on the gun for a simple target and the monitor beeps. I'll have to keep shooting to avoid suspicion,
Eric doesn't have long talks.

"I've had to change my passcode recently to an eight digit code, something about upped security."

"Makes sense, I think I'll have to buy myself a lock box for my permanent residence in the dorms."

He came to the same conclusion then, that's good. I don't want to think of how I would've tried to convince him not to drag me out of the dorms himself.

I take another shot, and as I move to ready the next bullet beside me, Eric's hand lowers on mine, both cold from the air.

I upturn my hand to curl my fingers between his, and desperately fight the overwhelming sense to touch him, finding comfort in his hold. I never thought I'd be one for that, but just being held in his arms, touching his skin even just at one point, will
be what I miss most. Six weeks now.

"Finish up, you're off early." Eric says suddenly, standing and taking the gun from my hands to put it away. I let out a held breath and gather up the remaining ammo to put back, wrapping my jacket closer to my body in the cold.

I don't even look for him in my peripherals as I go down the stairs.

12321

The next few days go fast, the routinely basis going easy. I wasn't lying, I start trying to climb the rock faces with Mark, Leon, Kray, Raven and DT, which I was quick to adapt to, the sport being more for the skill of different handholds and daring
leaps rather than muscle building.

I eat with them too, only conversing with Jay and maybe Ben in normal training and occasionally in the dorms, keeping to myself mostly. Sniping training continues, but it's strictly professional, not even a glance in each other's direction when not necessary,
only orders and admissions spoken, only work made.

And then the next fights come up.

I've had all my fights counted, and I've fought everyone except for my friends and Mickey, who still has his broken arm. I'll have to face one of them.

I don't want it to be Lily, I need her to wallow in her own idiocy for at least another week, though actually not too long either otherwise there'll be no coming back. The other three are fair game really, it doesn't bother me which one, though Beth has
been giving me odd looks still, if it's about Ben then honestly it's far too petty, she should just take it up with him but I'm too lazy to bother with a fight with her.

So when I walk in, my name at the top, crossed with our first-ranked, my eyes focus.

And when they all walk in, taking in the names on the board, we lock eyes.

This was going to be fun.

"Jay, Avery, in the ring!"

"It's finally happening, eh?" Jay remarks as we walk up, and he rolls his shoulders as we step onto the mat.

"It seems so." I reply, and we both smile at each other from opposite sides. I chuckle at myself before smirking: "Don't you dare hold back."

He grins, before rushing straight in.

I start with my usual technique, dodging and ducking out of the way, using my superior agility to get him 1) slightly worn out, and 2) gauge all his moves. Not that I really need to with Jay I've already seen most of them, though I wander whether he's
been holding any from sight, just like the many I have up my sleeve.

But unfortunately for me, it doesn't take long before he catches up to my dodges with time-changing attacks. He changes his rhythm, so when I expect a punch it comes later, slowing down until he smacks back with a sneaky uppercut.

With no time to bring a leg up I block with my forearm until my head is out the way, but he doesn't give me a second to repent.

Jay's strong, he's built up muscle alike Eric, but he doesn't have the speedy limbs Eric has on par, instead uses simple changes of speed to change the rhythm.

Unluckily for him, his "fast" is my "slow.

I dodge his next time change with ease, landing a quick elbow into his torso and snagging his ankle with my foot so he stumbles back, so I have some room to play with. As he comes in again, I let many of his hits graze me tauntingly, yet also luring him
into a false sense of security that he's catching up.

And then all of a sudden, I pull his own trick, after slowing my pace, I pull out an unreasonably fast duck and stick my foot out harshly, straight into ankle, forcing him to lunge past me. It's easy for me to add an elbow into his back, forcing him to
the ground.

But it's fast play.

He stands, quicker than I'd have thought, and moves swiftly across the mat, engaging in the time-play fists once more.

I dance easily now, since he's realised he was nowhere near my speed of play, but I can see the fire in his eyes as time passes.

He slows one punch down, exceedingly slow, and I'm careful to watch for what I expect to be a following quick attack, but as my eyes observe, as if in slow motion, I realise to late.

It isn't his other fist moving towards me, not even a surprise kick. It's his whole body.

He grabs me his hands grabbing both of mine and holding them together in front of me, before he lets gravity aid him and body slams me straight down into the floor. His weight is hefty and I groan at the pain across my body, reminding of all my training
with Axel where he constantly pounded into me, unlike these fights in recent months.

And then he pins me. He moves his body further up to keep his knees on my arms, holding my shoulder down with one arm as he pulls back his other. He seems to go for the blow to the temple rather than suffocation as I do to finish fights, and even though
this pin completely immobilises my arms from fighting back, he's overlooked one thing Eric never forgot after our first training encounter.

To pin my legs.

As his centre of gravity moves forward to punch me in the face, I plant a strong foot down on the floor and shift my body round, as if his weight on me was the centre of the windmill. And I only need the slight angle difference to bend my leg with my
extreme flexibility and kick into his back, sending him sprawling forward, off of my body enough for me to swing around to a stand, taking a few steps back to breath. That was an ingenious surprise attack from him, he's definitely kept that hidden.
Pity it didn't work really.

He stands, and looks at me with fiery eyes as we both acknowledge each other.

"I thought you said no holding back?"

I owe it to him. Who am I kidding of course I owe it to him, he's good enough, he can handle it, I've managed to go all out on Eric all this time. Why not?

"Sorry." I say sincerely, before taking quick steps, faking a punch to his torso as I lower my body, square my hips, and my foot comes flying with force up to his shoulder.

He barely manages to move a haphazard arm in the way to block, but he doesn't get a correct angle and I can tell it hurts. As I hadn't yetlifted a leg on him, I'm sure this wasa nice surprise.

I raise my legs rapidly, seamlessly changing foot, moving onto my hands to spin round him. After figuring out his whole 'I stand in one place and just punch hard' thing was a pretence for underestimation just as I had done, I move all over the place,
and he struggles, but manages to keep up.

I said I wouldn't hold back, so here goes.

I do a false kick, where I bring my leg up and just as he moves to block, I twist my knee, and the kick swings in an arc to hit someplace completely different, this time hooking his side. Gripping my other foot on the floor I try to further the momentum,
but by instinct he grabs hold of my foot on his side and draws me closer.

And everything after that, my body moves on its own, no conscience needed.

I drop my hands onto the floor then effectively do a forward roll, yanking Jay by my foot to slam into the floor, releasing my leg. Then my legs start swirling as I land multiple kicks whilst still on my hands. I spring up to take stance and he manages
to get to his feet in time for me to dig underneath his ribs once, twice and thrice with my knee before he rushes to grab my leg.

But I'm too fast. My leg extends up, past his grab up to his shoulder as I drop onto my hands and loop my legs round his neck. My grip tightens and the air gets blocked off to his lungs. Just a little shift and-

Wait.

Stop.

No.

Jay.

I gain control over my body, and relax all my muscles, my legs unwind themselves and I drop into a roll to my feet, putting as much space between Jay and I as I hear his body drop to the ground.

My eyes are glued firmly to the floor as I watch only in my peripherals as Jay coughs harshly, before standing, moving his arms into the usual defensive stance. He must be so mad at me, he must be terrified-

I glance up for a second, and all I see is a smile, though the crease of concern in his eyes is evident.

I don't think I can watch him suffocate to unconsciousness. No, I need this to be over, now.

I take easy strides towards him and he goes straight for a tackle, extending his arms- and I bend backwards. I see it in the back of my eyes, the first time I fought Eric, the move that started this all.

My left foot sneaks past his feet, hooking firmly behind his ankle, as I place a hand on the floor and my right foot shoots upwards with unfathomable speed, right into his jaw, just as I pull my left foot towards me, pulling his feet out from under him.

I'm in control this time, not instinct as it was with Eric, and the blow to Jay's jaw is short and light, to put him in a state between unconsciousness and just being a little dazed.

He lands on the mat and I quickly step away, my arms coming up in defence as my eyes confirm the result of the fight, my breathing deep from the all at once attack.

"Avery wins. Beth, Lily into the ring." Having not given any care to Lily's opponent this round, I quickly put my arms under Jay's shoulders, in attempt to haul him off the mat despite his weight, but can't find the energy within me, especially as I glance
up and see Lily's penetrating gaze.

I can feel myself about to stop and just drop to the floor, but suddenly there's a pale hand atop of mine.

"Pathetic." Eric mutters loudly for everyone to hear, as he takes Jay's body for me, dragging it off whilst keeping a firm hold on my hand to take me with him. He keeps a firm gaze on me, and as I meet it I see the question, the worry, the concern. His
hand is tight yet gentle on mine, and as he leans Jay against the side, I manage to squeeze his hand, looking him with confident assurance.

False confident assurance.

So, after last chapter this was obviously a lot less sexual, and a lot more action packed! As I said I wanted time to go faster than day by day, so skipped a few, and with this fight… I know it was a long one, and I'm not sure how much you enjoy the fights, but I really enjoyed it and I've been planning to show this element of control with Avery for a while- you know the whole she's fucking awesome and so strong, but she doesn't want to kill everyone kind of thing. Anyway next chapter is gonna be big Avery and Jay bonding time! And maybe also some other stuff with the friendship group, I haven't figured out when the whole (I know it's horrible I'm so sorryyyyyy TT) Ben and Beth thing will be sorted, so maybe that will be next chapter? Who knows?! Anyway, read and review as always, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!