Training in the Dark

Alex was leaning againest a tree with his arms across his chest. His gaze traveled around, absorbing ever detail around him. He had told Paisley vaguely that he was gonna hang up with some friends, which earned him an expected roll of the eyes and a few comments about how 'they grow up so fast'. Alex would never admit it, but he felt surprisingly at home in this dark and sinister forest. Of course, welcoming or not, he stayed prim and battle ready. Looking around one last time, he grabbed his phone which wonderously had service, and sent Nina a short text: "At Vampire Woods. Coming?" He slipped his phone into his pocket once more, not expecting a response.

Ooc: the majical phone makes a reappearance!! :'D

Nina walked up out of the darkness with a small brick of a phone illuminating her face. When she finally got Alex in her sights, she closed her phone and put it in her pocket. "Of course I am going to come. Why wouldn't I?"

Alex shrugged. "I didn't doubt you would show, believe me." He smiled softly for a second, but then it disappeared and he was all business once more. He clapped his hands together, as if to summon the beginning of training. "What's today's lesson, coach? Sleep deprivation?" He paused. "And please don't take any ideas from me." He grinned again. Okay, so maybe not all business.

She shook her head. "No need for that. We don't sleep much anyway." She grinned back. "You will learn to fight tonight."

OOC: Ohyeah... THE MAGICAL PHONE :DDD

IC: Alex grin grew in size at the news. "Wonderful!" He knew that he was going to get easily beat up by his aunt, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit of excitement.

"Yes it is. Now show me what you got," she said as she looked down at her nails. "In other words, come at me."

Alex frowned, looking for a good way to attack. He figured she would be faster, stronger and wiser in battle than him, so he needed to do something to surprise her. He looked around, his mind spinning. Finally, he ran towards her, then jump towards a nearby tree, hoping to like propel off of it or something like that.

As soon as Alex left the ground, Nina looked up at him then jumped to intersept him which she then grabbed onto his leg and yanked Him back down to the ground. "Good try."

Alex landed on the ground with a huff as the wind was knocked out of him. He coughed, then jumped back up again, any humor from before replaced by determination. "What'd I do wrong?" He asked, eyes narrowed in focus as he replayed the moment back again.

She brushed her fingers through the bangs of her hair as if she never moved. "You moved too slow and made it too obvious. If you're going to fight a vampire your only advantage is to be faster."

"But I-" He started to protest, then bit his lip. "You have more experience, though." He mumbled arguementatively, but he back away to his starting point again without another word. He frowned in thought. If I go straight, she'll expect it. But that's the fastest route to her. And the easiest one for Nina to defend. He reminded himself. Whatever. He almost shrugged. Then Alex suddenly darted towards her, eyes searching for her move.

Nina by now was staring straight at Alex as he dashed towards her. Instead of moving out of the was, she just stood there and wait for him to try to complete his move.

Well, unfortunately, he hadn't expected Nina not to immediately defend herself so he hadn't thought that far in advance. Thinking fast, he kicked her, hopefully in the knee, and then jumped back, trying to dodge an expected attack, finally he moved forward again, this time trying to bring his fist across her face.

His kick not arrow to her knee barely scraped her pants for she took a step back to avoid it. Almost immediately she looked up to see his fist flying towards her face. With a smirk, she grabbed onto his fist and used his momentum against him by moving out of the way and using his fist to pull him to the ground faster. As soon as he hit the dirt, she pushed her hand down on him to keep him from get up. "That was better."

"Thank's." He tried not to get the dirt in his mouth. "Nina." He snapped in a muffled voice, patience growing thin. "Can you get off of me?" He growled in annoyance as dirt rubbed on his face.

Nina let go of him with a heavy sigh before standing up once more. "You need to learn agility. The quicker you can move the better. Evasion always helps. Other than that you need to work on your body language. It screams what you are going to do next. The more subtle the body language, the harder you are to read."

Alex jumped up and wiped his mouth with his jacket sleeve. "Agility. Evasion. Body language. Got it." He nodded, still determined. Adrenaline pulsed through his veins and he felt like he could fight for hours.

"Okay now I want you to focus on those things this time and those things only. Now try it," She told him as she prepared herself for his next attack.

Alex nodded, and walked back. He narrowed his eyes at her in deep thought. Agility. Evasion. Body language. He focused on keeping his face clear of any emotion. Once he was satisfied, he looked around again. Next step: Agility. He ran towards her, repeating his earlier direct path, this time swifter and faster. He had it better planned out than before, too. Since he knew a foot to the knee wasn't going to get him anywhere, he tried a blow to the throat, which he hoped would cause some damage. He quickly threw in a jab to the face again, then he jumped to the side. His eyes stayed on Nina's throughout all of this, waiting for her move.

Nina had stayed in the same position as Alex got ready then darted for her. Studying him the entire time, she seemed a little surprised when he actually improved so quickly. It was already more difficult for her to understand his moves. Thankfully she was just barely able to avoid the hit to the throat but the fist to the face threw her off her feet. She recovered quickly, though, and rebounded off of her hands. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she used the momentum from landing to retaliate back towards Alex with her fist ready and aimed at his stomach.

Step three: Evasion.

Alex smiled quickly when Nina actually fell over, but he refocused in a split second, taking it as no victory. He was right, he realized whenever her fist came towards his stomach. He spun out of the way of her fist, just dodging the full blow (though it did hit his side, but the adrenaline allowed him to ignore that for now), and did what he so often saw-and felt- her do to him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled it forward with a slight curve down, speeding up her movement and leading her to the ground.

Feeling that horrible feeling of falling towards what always seems like your death, Nina braced herself for the impact but finally remembered what to do not even a second later. As she went face-first towards the dirt, she stuck her hand out so that she landed on that instead of her head. In an instant, she felt in control once more and used the added speed he had given her to pull him back towards her as she did a front-hand-spring to get back to her feet. The speed of it pulled him up over her but she made sure he landed on his feet as well as he came around.

Alex gasped when he was pulled forward, but with vampire like reflexes, he landed on his feet, stumbling a little. 10, 10, 9 1/2! He managed to joke inwardly. He looked at Nina, cautiously eyeing her, but a smile played at his lips. "Good?" He asked, hoping the battle was over.

"Definitely. You learn very quick, Alex which is very good. You will do well as we get further into our training. Now let's rest for a bit. We don't want all of our energy drained just yet," She responded with a small toothy grin.

Alex returned her grin, but it quickly vanished as he dropped to the ground in exhaustion. He put his arms under his neck and stretched out. Alex closed his eyes and a peaceful look appeared on his face. "Alright. Mind if I rest a minute, aunty?" He asked, even though he was already there.