The Dojo only had a few people in it today, with the csses being more and more varied, aspirants were starting to prioritize different csses. Alex himself had goo the rescue field just the previous day. It was harrowing but rewarding in its own way. It was too bad they couldn’t have live subjects to rescue but he uood the logic. Those creepy fe-tech dummy mannequin-things still gave a good response based ouation. He’d done alright, not great, but it was a good enough score that he didn’t get chewed out like a few who had mao break one of them during their return trip through the ‘disaster zone’.

  Fior trol was his weakness and he was very much aware of it. His body was ridiculously flexible and strong, but that came with its own problems. Precision was hard and that was why he was here. With Miss ovna gone for the week, Bck Lotus had shifted from ditioning drills to hand-to-hand bat while the guy from Fe, Axel, hahe drills in her pbsp;

  Alex sat on the ground and looked up at the pair that was currently dueling in the ter of the room, John had never missed a hand-to-hand lesson. He was obsessed with getting ‘as good or better’ than Miss ovna when it came to knife fighting. Alex had never seen the guy that motivated in all the years he’d known him. He didn’t notice himself zo a little as he thought back about his grim-faced friend going through the motions every day but an elbow to the side brought him back.

  He go the right and Lillian raised her eyebrows at him, “You good?” She asked.

  “Me? Yeah, why?” He asked only for her to give an urgent gowards the ter of the room.

  He slowly turned his head and saw Bck Lotus staring right at him. “Are you going to join me, Mister Ellis?”

  Ah crap, zoned out, he reached up and scratched his head, hopping to his feet and brushing himself off before walking past a returning John, “Good work out there.”

  “Not enough,” John muttered but nodded gratefully anyway.

  “Crazy guy,” Alex chuckled and came to a stop in front of Bck Lotus who stared at him hard.

  “I uand you want to work on fior trol with your ability active,” She asked, brandishiraining on to her side as if ready to deliver a killing blow. “I’ll give you a moment to prepare.”

  Alex cleared his throat a little, there was still that level of awkwardhat came from pulling his ability out in front of people. It wasn’t pretty like Snow’s, it wasn’t ‘cool’ like Greg’s, it was thankfully not as bad as Val’s but still, it was rough to look at in his opinion. Then again, his first day of awakening hadn’t been fabulous and the huhat came with it wasn’t something he roud of. Yet, thanks to a few words from Miss ovna it had all ged for him, perspective wise. They’d been almost silly, but it had hit him deeply.

  “Heroes make sacrifices, Mister Ellis, and if all you’ve gotta do is have an ag belly and some itchy scales, then what’s that over saving lives?”

  He tensed and ched his fists. It's just hunger, not a big deal. He thought as his fangs began to grow in his jaw, his teeth ging shape in his head as the itch of the scales f on his skin spread across his arms and along his ned chest, c vital spots and limbs. He felt his eyes grow denser and his field of view increase as his pupils turo slits. He let out a slow, trolled breath and braced himself. Then the hunger hit, an ache that spread through his guts, a o e, a o devour, a o-

  It’s just hunger, an achy belly, no big deal. He reminded himself and exhaled again, flexing his fingers before looking up at Bck Lotus and nodding. “Alright,” He said with a shaky voice. It was the first time he’d dohis in front of so many people. Only the Nashville crew knew about his real look.

  “I’ve never seen him ge before, that’s badass,” One voice said behind him.

  “Are those scales? How hard are they?” Another chimed in.

  “Peak Epic, damn,” A third added and he felt the nerves about his appearance evaporate. He’d fotten that he was around other hero aspirants now, not civilians scared of their own goddamn shadow. Not around cssmates who screamed and ran away. Not around that disgusted cop that thought he was a monster on that first day. He took another breath and exhaled, raising his fists in a boxing posture as he fixed Bck Lotus with a stare. “Ready.”

  She looked at him for several moments before her lip twitched upward with a small smile and she nodded with approval, “Yes, you are.”

  She whipped her training sword up at him in a sharp angle and he darted forward and to the right, the blow g off the scales of his shoulder. His feet hit the ground and the weight caused the flexible floor to bend dowh him but he kept moving, darting low to try to snap out with quick viper-like puhat Bck Lotus blocked with a shift of her arm. He visualized a sriking at just the right moment, coiled, prepared, and fast. His skin tingled beh his scales awisted his body, his malleable bones moving with him as arike came within inches of his throat.

  He whipped back like a rubber band, snapping forward as soon as she fihe strike. She hadn’t even taken so much as a step sihe beginning of the fight, not eveering a battle posture. He snapped his arm out again as her bde fis arc, his arm extending to strike her in the shoulder. She narrowed her eyes and took a siep back, the blow going past her. She whipped her on up to strike him in the arm but the training bde just bounced off scales. He felt the impact, but it spread across the scales like a buffer. He gri her and snapped his arm back, trying to catch the edge on a scale. She pulled her on away aered a proper stance.

  “You’re improving,” She said.

  He grinned, “I’m just getting started!” He barked and dove in, fists up. He whipped out a kid it exteowards her. She brought her on up to deflect the kily for his leg to start to bend the wrong way arouorso. She raised an eyebrow and dropped low, sliding out of his attempt to coil her. He clicked his tongue and pulled his leg back, he wasn’t going to waste energy letting the attack finish if it wasn’t going to succeed. He brought it back up and raised his kanding on one foot and watched her as she shifted to the right.

  “Patient, like a serpent,” Bck Lotus ented.

  “Miss ovna says to embrace what your power means, vibe with it, if I’m gonna be a snake, might as well act like one while I’m fighting,” He said with a grin.

  Bck Lotus’ eyebrows rose as her lip twitched, “She’s w on that with you already,” She said thoughtfully, “Only a month in. I suppose I should take this more seriously, then.” And drew her on up to the side of her head, her eyes fixed on him. “Don’t blink, aspirant.”

  She moved so freaking fast, he barely mao get out of the way when she was suddenly behind him. He turned and raised his arms again, blog a far more forceful blow that fortunately didn’t get through his scales. He dropped low and swept his leg out, stretg it to deal with her footing. She just hopped over it and snapped out a kick towards his head. He growled and threw his head forward, scales up, and took the kick. He reached up and tried to grab at her ankle only for her to spin and unch off of him like a springboard.

  She nded and darted faitacks ing in faster, blow after blow rained down on him as he pivoted and blocked as fast as he could. In the end, though, he found himself on his ass with the point of a sword at his nose.

  “Excellent start, Mister Ellis,” She said and reached out to help him up. He grabbed her hand and she tugged him up without any effort.

  Shit she’s strong. I weigh almost five hundred pounds like this. He thought, dazed, a out a breath as he settled on his feet. The scales began to retrad the muscle on his arms shrank. He exhaled pletely and the huhat he’d barely noticed during the fight grumbled at him. He was going to eat his weight in grub whe back to the on area. He looked up at her and grinned, “So what’s ?”

  She him and smiled, “Let’s talk.”