Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Alright, I did hold back a tiny~ bit since we were just sparring and going all out would just yield a lot of injuries—but the way I held back was right as the other end of my staff was about to connect with Kaley’s shoulder, I let go from my end and made it "bounce" haphazardly.

It moved in a way as if you let go of it and fell to the ground—but I easily caught the same end of it again, and this time, I was holding it with my fingertips.

At that point, Kaley was still enduring the pain and trying her best not to fall on her knees but I had already wound up and twisted my arm to send a different "drilling" thrust toward the same shoulder.

And before anyone said anything, I hit it in a place in between her shoulder and her chest so she would feel the hit instead of getting knocked down—and not only was it evident through her facial expression but also from the way her clothes twisted and followed the direction I drilled my arm counter-clockwise.

"Ghk—"

Kaley could only grimace and bear through it with sheer fucking grit—because this was one of the few times I didn’t end the match with one blow, so as to not hurt her that much—but yeah, I needed to show her the difference between her and Aoi, not to put her down, but so that she’d have a frame of reference to her current goal.

While it was true that she already made me her goal, it was unrealistic in a sense—and it’d be more in line if she followed or used the steps of someone with almost the same body type as hers instead of mine.

She could probably match me in shooting skill but it would really be a different story if we compare our physical abilities.

And not to be political but science-based, there was just a difference between our bodies which couldn’t be bridged unless they were really physically gifted and had been training all their life. And despite those two things, men and women had different strengths and weaknesses—but men had a distinct advantage when it comes to physicality.

With that said, as we go back to our current programming—Kaley managed to grab hold of my staff with much effort, but the look on her face when I closed the distance, as I let my hand slide all the way to the other end—close to hers—was fucking priceless.

"Wha—"

"Let go."

"N-No!"

"Alright."

"What are you— HcgjK!!!"

All of a sudden, I kick-pushed Kaley’s right foot so her stance would wobble—and as she shifted to maintain her stability, I had already slid behind her and grabbed her wrist which was holding onto my staff and had wrapped it around the opposite side of her neck, essentially using her own arm to choke her from behind.

And right after that, I used my other foot to kick-pull her other foot opposite her right so she’d lose more footing while going deeper in my lock at the same time.

Of course, Kaley still tried to struggle but it only took a few seconds before she passed out.

Tatiana commented, "Well, that was different."

"Haven’t seen that before, huh?"

"So, that’s how she moves?"

"She’s more… elegant… but bold. I can only copy so much but—"

"Have you shown everything you can copy though?"

I chuckled, "Wanna try—"

At that point, Kaley woke up and her body tensed up again, but she soon realized that she lost and wasn’t able to do anything. It definitely put a damper on her mood but the moment she discovered that Tatiana wanted to dip her toes in the Aoi pool, she actually pulled out her phone and started recording. Ṟα₦Ọ𐌱Ęȿ

I turned to her while Tatiana was already revving her engines, "You good?"

"Oh, shut up! Just do your thing— I mean, her thing!"

"Okay—"

All of a sudden, I saw Kaley’s gaze shift a few millimeters away from me—and as my skin prickled from the oncoming blow from the Gluttonous Amazon, not the pleasurable kind—instead of dodging, I swung my staff in a wide arc again and let go of it in the same manner I attacked Kaley earlier.

This time, it was to give me some time to give myself space but Tatiana met it with her own weapon to interrupt its spin before free-falling the same way.

A smirk definitely formed in her face the moment Tatiana essentially disarmed me—but I literally turned her smile upside down when she swung at me with both arms while wearing a maniacal smile.

She actually aimed for my left shoulder—and I could feel the wind pressure from her swing—but the next thing she knew, I was already on top of her with my left hand holding down her wrist and my right gripping part of her clothes and using it to choke her.

And of course, Tatiana tried to struggle more than Kaley did but the more she thrashed around to get away from my hold and my weight pinning her down, the more air she lost—hence the faster she lost consciousness.

At that point, everyone was just at a loss because never did they knew that Kaley would last longer than Tatiana did but if Tatiana wanted to sneak an attack on me, I’ll deny her to see some of my older sister’s moveset. While it was true she gleaned on one of them, she should’ve just started regularly and prodded more for the round I allowed for us.

Cynthia commented from the back, "No way she’s that good…"

Cindy rolled her eyes, "He has more muscles— It’s not a fair fight from the get-go—"

Quinn disagreed, "Eh. Fair or not the only time she— I mean he used ’being a guy’ was with Kaley and when he used his weight to keep Tatiana from moving. Everything else is technique. Even that throw or whatever that’s called— I thought you don’t do throws?"

I smiled, "I don’t ’prefer’ using throws. Remember the time Sebastian tried to suplex me?"

"Ah, right…"

"Gahk—" Tatiana gasped as she woke up.

At that point, I slowly let her realize the situation and obviously, she had more questions than answers and Kaley was a little miffed that she only added one move from her recording. So yeah, I offered one more time for everyone else to square up with me—or my older sister’s movesets—and they promptly declined.

Sure, Kaley wanted to do one more round but she was on the verge of overtraining and she was already enduring a few solid hits that came from yours truly.

So yeah, I just pulled out a marker and used the gym mirrors to explain a bit of what happened between my exchange with Tatiana:

"Essentially, I followed her sword path and threw her."

"..."

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"..."

"..."

"T-That’s it?"

"Care to elaborate?"

"I mean… I grabbed on her wrist and on her clothes before throwing her—and after that I got on top of her and started to choke her."

Kaley was shaking her head, "Didn’t you… y-you know, go on spiels like maybe a few paragraphs worth of explanation?"

"Eh. It’s literally what happened—but yeah, what’s the key point for this move to succeed?"

Tatiana quickly answered, "I know."

"Then shoot."

"Matching my sword path—"

"Technically wrong since you can’t match someone else’s sword path because your opponent’s body is in the way. However, the right term is following one’s sword path AND THEN matching it at the critical point. I did say ’follow’ earlier, right? It’s a different setup compared to landing a counter or dodging an attack."

"Semantics."

"Heh, but that’s the hard part. You gotta see it and react to it by following, matching, and then doing your own thing to finish it. Take note, it all should happen in a second or in a fraction of it."

"So… Just get inhumanly faster is your solution?"

I shook my head, "Not exactly. That move only succeeded since we’ve sparred a whole lot. I know how you move but she doesn’t. And in time, she’ll know your moves too so the boring answer to that is more variety and yeah, getting faster either by working hard on it more and more or making her slower either by accumulated damage or with a brilliant setup.

I really shouldn’t explain how a fight works, right?"

"If anything, I still feel like fighting you, not your older sister."

"Hah? Of course, you’re still fighting me— duh!"

"You—"

"But yeah, don’t just focus on Aoi-san—though she’s one of the greats. We still have Arashi-san, Mashiro-san, and a few others to worry about but at the same time, we really shouldn’t worry about it since we’re all friends."

"I still want to have a chance to beat her though…" Kaley trailed.

"I dunno what to say but trust the process. You’ll lose nine times out of ten—I’m being generous here—but even though anything can happen in a fight, the more experienced and skilled one tends to come out on top. You’ll never really know until you come to blows with her."

At that point, not only did Kaley shower while in a sullen mood but even the ones who didn’t spar with me had already put Aoi-san on a pedestal after that display.

But yeah, as hard as it may be to hear, I’d rather not get their hopes up by lying to them and telling them they have a high chance of winning against her but instead, it would be better to tell them that there’s a small chance but the path to it was fucking perilous.

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