章 15: Sparring and Sandalwood
(Elijah's POV)
As we heard police sirens approaching, Spider-woman webbed Doc Ock to the ground "just in case".
We took off away from the scene before the cops could get there, using our webs to swing away, but there was a clear difference visible. I swung with confidence, but I was still an amateur. Spider-woman, on the other hand, was clearly a pro.
She glided through the air with the grace of a trained dancer, each movement calculated and agile. She would drop low to the street before sending out a web and swinging upwards at the perfect moment. Once she reached the apex of her swing, she would let go of the line and flip through the air with elegance, perfectly positioning herself for her next dive. It was a sight to behold. She wasted no movements, each swing and dive perfectly calculated to maintain speed and control.
I would never have realized how skillfully she swings if I hadn't been swinging myself. It's like sports fans insisting they could've done better than the athletes on their TV. Only when you try yourself do you realize just how skilled they are.
We swung for another 5 minutes, before she suddenly dipped and stuck to a light-pole. I followed her and stuck to another one close by.
I looked towards her and saw her looking at a warehouse across the street.
"What, is that your secret base or something?" I asked, chuckling.
"No, that's where I'm going to be beating your ass for the foreseeable future" She replied, turning to me with malice in her voice.
"Wait, what?" I said, my voice squeaking.
"C'mon, lets begin your training" She said, leaping off the pole and swinging towards the abandoned warehouse.
"No, seriously, what was that?!" I shouted after her, but followed her anyway.
(30 minutes later)
I lay on the ground with a bruised chest.
"Do you not know how to hold back?" I said, groaning in pain.
"After that flashbang? No, I do not." She replied, with amusement clear in her voice.
"Fair enough" I said, slowly getting up off the ground.
This whole thing was weird. Every time I tried to hit her, she dodged it like she knew exactly where to go. And every time she threw a punch at me, I got this weird tingle in the back of my head, and trying to figure it out made me distracted enough to take a hard blow to the chest.
"How are you dodging everything I throw at you?" I asked, exasperated.
"You haven't figured it out yet?" She replied, seemingly surprised.
"Not at all. Am I missing something here?"
"Yeah, a pretty big something. Here put this on" She said, throwing me a blindfold.
I grabbed it out of the air and looked at her with a deadpan expression.
"Do I look stupid to you?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. Just put it on already"
I sighed and did as she said. I couldn't see anything, but I could tell she was about to kick my ass six ways from Sunday.
I heard her leap off the ground, but couldn't tell what she was about to do. That's when I felt it.
{Get down!}
I instinctually ducked and felt her fly overhead in what I assume was a flying kick.
"That's new"
"So you finally felt it, huh?" She said as she landed on the ground behind me.
"Yeah. What was that?"
"That, my armor-clad friend, is your spidey-sense"
"Spidey-sense?"
"Yeah. Well, that's what I call it. I'm willing to let you borrow the name though. But keep in mind, I have copyright" She joked.
"Appreciate your generosity"
"No problem. Now, get ready" She said, as her footsteps quickened towards me.
{Left!}
{Right!}
{Above!}
I relied on my sense and dodged every attack with ease. Relying on this could be addicting, but I know better. One of the things that was beaten into me in my previous life as an assassin was to never rely purely on your instincts. Analyze your opponent's fighting style and use martial arts to dodge. Training comes first, instincts second.
Because of this, when my sense warned me of an attack, I didn't just move randomly away from it. I used training from every martial art I learned to execute the perfect dodge. I had learned many, after all. Kickboxing, jiujitsu, tae-kwon-do. Even some more obscure ones, like Krav Maga, Systema and Teukgong Moosool.
After dodging her attacks, I felt my sense urge me to do a particular action that I honestly didn't think of my self. I jumped backwards towards the center of the room to make some space. I then jumped in the air and sent webs to every corner of the room, creating a giant spider web with me at the center.
I relaxed my body and sat at the center of the web. I searched for any signals, any sign. And I found one. Spider-woman touched one of my webs for a second, and I locked onto her. I launched myself towards her and primed my fist for a punch. I felt her leap backwards to avoid it, only to get stopped by my web. According to Dr. Banner, this was the hunting style of Darwin's bark spider, and boy, was it useful.
Once she realized she was trapped with the web behind her and me closing in from the front, Spider-woman admitted defeat.
"Stop! You win!"
I shot a web behind me to cancel out my momentum, but it was too late. I landed on her and the web caught us both. Once I recovered, I realized I was on top of her, our bodies laid against each other. I immediately jumped up off of her.
"Ahem, sorry about that"
"...don't worry about it" She replied, also getting up.
She then tossed something at me, that I caught with the help of my sense. I took the blindfold off to see a burner phone in my hands.
"I'll contact you for our next training session. See ya around, Huntsman" She said, before swinging up and out of the warehouse through an open window.
"Well, that was something"
(Spider-woman's POV)
I swung away from the warehouse and landed on the roof of a nearby building. I sat with my back to the ledge overlooking the street and pulled off my mask. I put my hand over my chest and felt my heart hammering against my ribs.
'Holy shit. What the hell was that'
When he slammed into me, we landed on the web, with him on top of me. There was no doubt about it. He smelled exactly like Elijah. The bite enhanced my sense of smell, so I could tell beyond a shadow of a doubt. When I hugged Elijah in my apartment after he woke up, he smelled exactly the same as the Huntsman. Like a mix of leather and sandalwood.
I felt my face flush with heat as I recalled the feeling of his body in that hug. At the time, I didn't think much about it because I was worried about him, but looking back at it, that was pretty daring.
"Stop it, Gwen. Focus. You've basically confirmed Elijah is the Huntsman, what are you gonna do now?"
I couldn't ask him about it directly, it would reveal my identity, too. I wasn't ready for that, not yet. For now, I'll just have to train him so he doesn't get hurt. I can figure out what to do about the whole identity thing afterwards.
End of Chapter 15~
Hey there! Hope you guys liked the chapter. Any of you have any requests on what you'd like to see/ suggestions on what I could do better? Please do tell me, I read every comment! I appreciate all the love you guys have been showing the book, it motivates me to write more. And I promise I do take your suggestions to heart, just ask the dude who recommended having Miles and Peter bitten too (Shoutout to him). Also can someone please do me a solid and review the book, it's kind of sad I'm the only one that's reviewed it. Twice. 5 stars both times... Am I a narcissist?
Anyway, hope you enjoyed, see ya next time!
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