Chapter 77: Her Version of "Easy"

"Oh, and before you ask, you’re ising Death Control only," Ava said when Ethan finally agreed to the spar.

"No toy box, meaning you can’t use any of the corpses."

Ethan nodded once. "I get that. If I lean on the corpses every time I face a problem, I’ll be eliminated by the end of the first match."

"Glad to see you using your head." Lightning buzzed on her hands "alright, rules: I’ll stop before I deal any permanent damage, and you tap out if your brain starts writing a will."

"Ready."

Ethan took a stance. He was about to get an educational beating...

"Read—"

Before he could say anything, Ava was already moving...

She blitzed forward leaving a trail of lightning behind her, and came in with a palm strike aimed at his chest.

Ethan activated Death Control on reflex, and blocked but the force was so strong, it pushed him back several steps...

Her second hand moved, and it caught him in the shoulder just as he brought his hand to intercept...

**BIFF**

"You lagged. You’re going to get zapped again."

She did not give him room to reset.

Ethan tried to make space the way he had against the Cyclops, he used angles, frantic dodging, and tried looking for weak points. But he soon discovered that a third-year SS ranked hunter who was ’playing’ still had complete control over the field.

She made him move and twist till his feet grew numb, she made him force death energy through under constant interruption, and hit him whenever he was finally able to achieve a full activation.

"You think the monster is going to let you finish activating the skill?" She kicked him backwards. "You’ll under constant pressure to open it and keep it open. Don’t always expect someone or something to buy you time."

When he was finally able to get his hands up for a counterattack, she dashed to side and struck him in the ribs with enough power to force air out of him.

He staggered, and activated the skill again as he brought his hands up to block.

She hit him anyway...

"You’re treating it like it’s some kind of armor" Ava said, dashing behind him. "It’s something that takes effect when you’re able to land a successful hit. Keep that in mind."

**BIFF**

"Argh!"

She hit him in the jaw with a punch that sent him spinning in circles.

Ethan forced himself to steady and moved.

breathed through the rib sting and moved anyway.

Green lightning crackled on his fists as he drove a punch at her. But she ducked, planted her hands into the ground and gave a leg sweep that took his legs out from under him. He fell, rolled, came up and was finally able to clash with her.

Her fist connected with his forearm with a force that rattled his arm, but he was finally able to deflect..

Ava nooded. "Better, but still soft."

And so came the beatdown...

She forced his guard open multiple times, and far enough to created several openings and attacked all of them at once.

She forced him to strike while retreating, while turning, while trying to catch his breath and most of those strikes bought him nothing but another demonstration of how wide the gap was between Rank C potential and SS-rank experience was.

Ethan’s pool began to drain rapidly as he was slowly being backed into a corner...

Be began cataloguing the patterns.

Move, advance when she gave ground, not after it, retreat after a successful parry. At a point it genuinely looked like it was working as he could now start to see some sort of pattern. Ava came in high, and he ducked under a crackling arc of lightning, catching something that smelt like storm rolling in.

When she noticed, she smirked and adapted. This time when she sensed Ethan going for an opening, she would immediately pivot and strike him instead.

He tried to move away from a punch that came flying towards him but she stomped on his foot, rooting him in place and hit him once on his shoulder, chest and stomach...

From there all she did was adapt to any approach Ethan made. If he decided to follow her when she gave room, she would just refuse to give any room again until she hit him with five different combos that left him stunned and staggering.

If he tried to cut the contact after every successful parry, she would just use the second hand to hold him in place and deliver another five piece combo.

If he decided to charge in blindly, she would just tip him off balance, and of course, deliver another five piece combo.

Ethan found it annoying, but unbeknownst to him, it was something genuinely terrifying...

Growing up, Ava Drew had a knack for getting into fights in middle school. Sometimes, for the fun of it, other times because she was bored. She wasn’t a bully. She was just the type of person to bring unwanted attention to herself. By the time she entered highschool, she was involved in a large-scale beatdown of some seniors who picked on her because she began rivaling them in most of their physical activities.

Now, what did all those fights have in common?

They never succeeded in hitting her more than once...

Everytime one of them had a clean hit in, the tables would completely flip. She would instantly read the attack, calculate the pattern, and adapt accordingly...

So unless you are able to hit fast enough, think of a counter immediately she adapter, or see the future, you weren’t going to do much against her.

When she awakened, she became a different type of monster...

Every dungeon clearance she was a part of ran within a space of one hour where she was responsible for more than sixty percent of the clears.

The only battle she had ever lost was among a Monarch class monster who only let her free because it wanted to come back for her when she was stronger.

However, that wasn’t a complete loss as she was the only student who was able to injure a Monarch in the history of the entire school...

She tried a spinning kick while he was off balance and he let himself fall, pivoted from the ground and was finally able to score a hit in her side.

For a moment, there was silent. Ava just stood there staring at the hands that finally managed to land a hit.

They disengaged to the opposite sides of the grounds and Ava placed a hand on the place that was hit.

A grin spread across her face...

**BZZT**

She shot forward and kiick Ethan twice at a speed he couldn’t track sending him skidding across the dirt.

She circled him and started laughing... "That’s it." she cackled. "You actually landed a hit..."

Ethan tried to reset but every moment made his lungs burn. This was probably his most expensive skill as he could literally feel his Death Energy draining through the churning of his stomach.

The next exchange was faster as she pressed him hard enough that for a moment, he was actually tempted to call the cyclops out. He coated, blocked, missed a shot, paid for it, coated again, forced another one mid fsll, and almost found a second opening before her palm struck him in his face and into the ground as his energy leaked and the shock tore through him.

Ethan hit the ground hard, green and yellow energy crackling in the dust clouds that formed...

The sky was going orange above him, several images blurring in and out of focus, and Ava’s silhouette moving close to him. She bent forward, her blond hair falling past one shoulder and a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Lightning danced around her eyes as she leaned in. "So?"

Ethan struggled to catch his breath. "I...I surrender..."

"I win," she said happily.

He stared at her, his chest heaving, and his hands still tingling from the earlier shock. "You’re happy."

"I’m very happy." She offered a hand but the grin stayed on her face. "You got beaten. So that means I win."

Ethan gave her a flat look. "You’re excited over a win you scored over a weak junior. Shouldn’t you be ashamed?"

She winked. "A win’s a win"

Ethan dusted himself and Ava brought a hand to her sides as she hissed. "Damn. You really got me there huh."

He shrugged. "I was just lucky."

"Very lucky actually. Can’t believe you saw that as an opening though. Your back must have hurt having to bend that far."

Ethan scoffed. There was no way he was going to take a beating and still be unable to land a hit worth mentioning.

Even if it was just one, a hit was a hit...

He rolled his shoulders, and felt the pop. By the time he turned, Ava was already leaving. "I had fun today. See you in the next session, Shaw..."

When she left, Ethan watched her disappear into the corner of the main buildings. He sighed, then imagined what would have happened if he was a dungeon beast and they just.... Happened to meet.

"She would have definitely killed me..."