Chapter Nine - Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting

Alessandra and Gamma were still busy in the bathroom, so we put a note on the counter before going down the stairs into the basement.

The door was unmarked and locked, looking just like any of the others down here. Livia unlocked it with her house key, then pushed open the door and flicked the light switch. The first thing I saw was a big pink dollhouse sitting in a sea of girly toys in the middle of the room. A Barbie doll in what looked like a handmade chainmail bikini with a witch’s staff taped to her hand sat on its roof, facing a dragon.

“I gather nobody has been down here in the last, say 5 years?” I asked teasingly.

“More like ten or eleven. I stopped playing with dolls when I got my first period. Wanted to be all grown-up then,” Livia admitted.

The room was fairly large, maybe eight by eight metres. The back wall was lined with basic training machines, a leg trainer, a weightlifting machine, a pre-historic bicycle, and a rack of weights. The floor in the front half was lined with simple fall mats, a bit too simple for my taste, but then we were more sturdy than normal humans. A wooden door on the right wall was flanked by a couple of lockers. The sauna and shower room, I guessed.

“Passable. The machines are simple but will do. But the dollhouse has to go.”

“Agreed. It has outlived its usefulness. I can pack it up; there should be some moving boxes in our cellar room.”

“You do that, I’ll mop the place up. It is a bit dusty.”

“Check the wetroom; I think I remember there being cleaning supplies.”

We went to work, and within half an hour, we had the place in a state where it was usable.

🙚⚜🙘

“First lesson is falling,” I said. “Or rather, hitting the ground in a way that doesn’t incapacitate you. Being sturdy is one thing, but that only goes so far. Let’s start with a couple of simple throws, just to get us rolling.”

“Sure,” Livia replied with uncertainty in her voice, eying the bare concrete. I had moved the old mats into a corner when I discovered that the rubberised surface wanted to dissolve into dust.

“This one is about as basic as it gets,” I said and shoved her with one hand against each shoulder. Not having expected it, she fell over backwards and landed flat on her ass. “It’s called ‘shove’, and it can be effective against unexpecting enemies and those that have no idea about fighting. It also can be useful against enemies standing in front of a step, low wall or drop. While it can easily be avoided when you have space to move and leaves the attacker open to a counter, it is one of the strongest pushing moves as you can put your whole body mass and momentum into it,” I lectured, remembering Chester doing virtually the same to me. He had been hard on me that first lesson, leaving me covered in more bruises than I could count. I think I impressed him when I came back the next day, so sore I walked like an old lady.

Livia wasn’t quite as meek as I had been. She stood back up, glowering at me and then shoved me hard. I let her. The lesson was about falling, not bragging. Her shove was so hard it lifted me off my feet a good four inches before I came back down. I twisted the moment my heels touched the ground, giving me some leverage and rolled to the side, standing back up in one fluid movement that, honestly, surprised me. I may have managed that six years ago, at the height of my training, but I hadn’t expected to pull this off textbook-perfect now. I should be really out of shape.

“Ok, that was impressive,” Livia said. “Can you show me that a couple of times? It was a bit quick?”

Oh my, I had gotten her the perfect opportunity to shove me around…

🙚⚜🙘

We trained rolling for a good two hours, not tiring at all. It was weird; we should have been drenched in sweat and unable to stand straight right now, as hard as we were going, but it seemed our new races gave us a significant boost to our stamina. I honestly was getting somewhat tired of it mentally, so I decided to spice it up a bit. The next time Livia rolled within my reach, I grabbed her arm, yanked it up and dropped onto her back. The movement came to me automatically, as if I had done it thousands of times. Not just that, most of it felt like I was on auto-pilot, my will guiding a well-oiled machine that knew what to do on its own.

Willing my skill notifications to show up for a moment explained that—I had just gained 1 XP in “pain hold”. And judging by Livia’s whimpering, it really hurt. So I started talking, “This is a hold. Obviously. Holds are the one thing you do not want to get into in a fight. They severely limit your ability to act and open you up to enemy action. Right now, both your hands are tied up, one by my left one, the other under your body, pinned down by our combined body weights, while I have my strong hand free to hit you. A well-aimed hit, for example, here,” I tapped the back of her neck with two fingers, “could incapacitate or even kill you. If I had a weapon at my disposal, this would even be trivial to do.” I put a fingertip on the back of her neck and said, “Bang.”

“There are,” I continued, “ways to get out of any hold. However, many of them need you to be way stronger than your opponent. For this one, you need to lift your body up from the ground and then drop down. While my body falls with yours, you can push yourself forward, loosening the pressure on your left arm, thus allowing you to rotate. Failing that, you can force a rotation that will very painfully dislocate your left shoulder but give you the opportunity to counterattack with your right. It is a bit of a desperate move, but if it works, you get a single hit at an advantage, as you are within reach of several vital spots on your opponent. When facing a man, grabbing his ballsack would be the safest one.”

Feeling how her wiggles were unsuccessful, she couldn’t push me up with how I had my feet lodged under her thighs—cheating for what I had just explained—I let her go and stood up. Livia rolled over, her left arm limp, spitting out blood. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, that hurt…”

“Level four skill…” I said. Had I overdone it? Chester always explained escapes while holding, but I think he had a way softer grip. “You ok?”

“No. Yeah. Give me a moment. Fuuuck. How do you keep going while fighting that pain?”

“By wanting to survive. That’s a great motivator.” I feinted a hard kick into her face, and she rolled away without hesitation. “See? It works.”

She grumbled something I didn’t understand, and I decided to cut her some slack. I plopped down into a rest position where I was. “Take your time. I put you under about as much pain as possible without causing damage.” I could have added a second source of pain, but that stuff doesn’t really add up much.

“How much can it hurt with damage?” she asked between laboured breaths.

“Maybe twice or thrice. Any more, and you’d pass out. You can take more as the adrenaline builds up over time. It acts as a natural pain killer. That’s why you don’t apply pain holds to a wounded enemy. They won’t really feel it. At least not strong enough for the hold to be effective.”

“The dislocating thing?”

“Yes. Dislocating your shoulder is trivial once the pain doesn’t stop you anymore.”

“I think we need a healer.”

“Nah, the pain will fade, I didn’t—“

“Not for this. To train effectively. You’ve been handling me with velvet gloves so far so as to not cause any damage. That’s not good in the long term.”

“Mmmh.”

“We should ask Lessie if she can heal.”

“You have her pegged as some priestess type, too?”

“Yeah. That or battle mage, but I can’t see her in that role.”

“Speaking of roles. I know I’m mostly a brawler with some magic, but how do you see yourself? Melee or ranged?”

She was silent for a moment. “Definitely not a tank. DPS, half and half? I have some attack spells from my class, but also plenty of physicals from my race. However, my support spells are mostly out-of-combat.”

That tracked with my assessment. “I’d say you’re more ranged in your human form. When transformed, I see plenty of damage from those claws and a good mobility with the wings.”

“Right. Wings.” She massaged her shoulder. “Do you think I made a mistake? Witch doesn’t have good synergies with succubus, does it?”

“It’s not ideal, but I think it can work.” I had no idea if it could work. “It’s better than a class with good synergies, though. Succubus feels like a stealth class to me, attacking helpless victims, not a combat one.”

“Ready for the next round?”

“I’ve been ready all the time; it’s you—“ I said when a spell to my face kicked me against the far wall. Now that hurt. So it was target practice now? I jumped up, ducking low, ready to dodge further attacks. Yet nothing came.

Livia just knelt there open-mouthed, looking behind me. After a moment’s hesitation, I glanced at what she was looking at. It took me several seconds to comprehend it, but then I recognised the smashed remains of the weightlifting machine. Steel bars, made to hold up 400 pounds of weight safely above a person, were bent like pretzels. One rod had been driven deep into the concrete wall.

So much destruction, yet my back felt like I hadn’t gotten much more than a few bruises. Furthermore, looking at that made me realise I had been pushed back a good 5 metres…by a single hit to the face. Sure, my nose was bleeding, but that hit should have ripped my head clean off. “Shiiit… You are a ranged DPS.”

“And thank god, or whoever, you are a tank.” Livia’s voice was shaking. “I could have killed you.”

“Now we know how sturdy I am. Good.” I tried to sound cheery, even though I felt the same kind of horror she expressed. “But new rule: Let’s not test new spells on each other unless we have seen what they can do. Ok?”

“Can…” Livia’s voice broke. She swallowed and tried again. “Can we go back to pain holds?”

I nodded and held out my hand to lift her up. She grabbed it, then hugged me tightly. So low that I nearly thought I imagined it, she whispered into my ear, “Punish me!”

No way. My Livia was not submissive. She was headstrong when she wanted something, indifferent otherwise. She revelled in controlling people, sending me on more dares than I could remember. Or did I miss something?

She didn’t give me time to ponder the question, applying one of the throws we had practised earlier instead. I countered it, taking her down and pinning her between my legs, her knee and right elbow rotated to their limit. As I slowly applied more of my body weight, that rotation got painful and would result in broken bones and snapped tendons if I wasn’t careful.

Livia cried out from pain, as expected, but the words in between the unarticulated noises of pain were “yes” and “more” instead of “no” and stop”. I held the position for another two seconds, then let go. As much as she seemingly enjoyed it, I couldn’t stomach it. Unlike the shoulder hold I had used earlier, which caused a continuous pain sensation, this would feel like being ripped apart afresh with each slight vibration.

Then, when Livia looked up at me, smiling and telling me, “Again!” in a sultry voice, I ran into the wetroom and dry-heaved into the sink. Uh? Nothing left of that breakfast?

🙚⚜🙘

It took me ten minutes, during which I also had to handle Livia’s concerns she might have given me internal injuries, to get my stomach back in line. Or to seal up my empathy for Livia? No, who was I kidding? To ban the thought about what she was feeling from my mind. That was all I could do, but it also was all that was needed to calm my body.

“I think I have enough for today,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

“I think so, too. You’re sweating like a pig. Did you check the shower? Do we have clean water?”

“Yes. Got some rust at first, but then it ran clean and hot. Want to take a shower together down here?”

“Why not? We can barely squeeze into the shower cabin upstairs together. This one’s fit for a football team.”

“If they’re very good friends,” I remarked after estimating its size. “Some of them may not get wet…”

🙚⚜🙘

“I might suggest using this shower more often,” I joked as we slowly made our way back up the stairs an hour later. “Having enough space to see more than your eyes is really nice.”

“We will. I intend for us to train daily.”

I stumbled as the event of our session came back to me. Yet, I couldn’t fault her. “Makes sense,” I said noncommittally. “I’d also like to pick up muscle training again. I might have a strength boost, but I bet increasing muscle mass and density has a great effect anyway.”

“You’d need that machine I trashed, don’t you?”

“Would be better, but I can start with dumbbells…”

“Nonsense. Get on the computer while I’m making supper and find something good to be delivered. Don’t forget our extra strength; go all out on the weight ratings. And don’t be stingy; we need quality and can afford it.”

“Might make sense to get a couple other things, too. Steel plates for your target practice, for example. I don’t think the concrete walls would hold up for more than a couple of shots.”

“Make it so, number 1.”

“Aye, aye, captain!”

I opened the door carefully, fully expecting two lovestruck females “exercising” on the couch, but the living room was empty. “We’re back,” I called into the flat. There was no response.

“They’re out,” Livia told me, waving a note she had found in the kitchen, presumably where we left ours. “Early dinner, then Lessie has a shift at the apartment. Gamma should be back by six thirty, she wrote.”

My stomach took that as an invitation to state that it was completely empty, and not just from not having eaten since breakfast. Livia smiled, “Me, too…” and waved me towards the computer.

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🙚⚜🙘

When Livia came to fetch me to eat, I was staring at a number of pages I had opened side by side.

“Found something?” she asked.

“Yeah, something,” I said, then decided to let her decide. “I’m just not sure which one to get. There’s the big Rhino, about 4k with express and delivery, or the triple station multi for 6k. Both are great and versatile machines, albeit a bit limited in their max weight as they are both fixed-weight cable machines. Could get a Smith for 3k, but that’s more or less a handlebar on rails. Good because you can put on your own discs, but I don’t really see the 3k worth over using a simple bar. Still, even with the big Rhino, it doesn’t cover everything. A proper leg press would be around 3k, too. And that’s just the press; there are six of those for different muscle groups…”

“How’s the overlap between the triple and that elephant?”

“Some, but not as much as you’d think. The Rhino’s a handlebar frame; the Multi has three different bench stations. Biggest overlap is on two-handed pulldown. That they do both.”

“Good. Then get that rhino, the triple, and a basic leg press for now. Are we fine with the discs and dumbbells we have?”

“I don’t trust the bar we have. It has some rust, and we’re missing the heaviest discs. Otherwise, it looks good.”

“Ok, then add a new bar and the missing discs.”

“That’s, um, 12k or so. Depends on how they add up the express charges.”

“Have them split the bill. 2k to me to replace the smashed machine, the rest to ‘Hameswood Building Management Ltd.’, same address. Dad will have to sign off on the gym upgrade, but when I tell him it’s for you, there’s no chance in hell he’ll deny that.”

“I knew it!” I shouted out without thinking.

“That he likes you? Everyone and their dog knows that by now…”

“No. I mean, I knew that, too. I meant about your family owning the whole freaking building.”

“Wrong, darling. We don’t own the building. We own the whole block.”

I looked at her with wide eyes, trying to come up with an order of magnitude of what that could be worth. “Why are you selling your body, when…”

“When the company statute states any profit payout is limited to half of what we made by other means that year? And I’m not eligible for anything until I turn 30, anyway. Great granddad Scrooge was a self-made man and expected nothing less from us.” She didn’t sound sour, even though her words were biting.

“Yeah. Can you imagine surviving having unlimited money for drugs?” Ouch, my quick mouth got away from me again. That was uncalled for.

“Nope. We would never have met in that case. I’d gotten the big bottle of vodka when I was nine and not that pocket-sized mini, but downed it all the same.”

“Nine?”

“Yup. My life was so good back then I felt something was missing. Got me sick for days, swearing I’d never even look at that stuff again.”

“Didn’t stop you in the end.”

“But kept me sober for two whole years.”

I held my tongue. Eleven was a great age to start many things, but not a drug habit.

🙚⚜🙘

Gamma got home right on time bearing gifts, such as a huge takeout carton of doughnuts. It was nearly big enough to hide her love-struck grin.

“Need some separation to not expire from overuse of your pussy?” I joked.

“I could do it all day, but Lessie has a shift tonight,” Gamma answered without hesitation. Could I think of any curve ball she wouldn’t just take? “You’re messing with her memory to make her love you, aren’t you?”

That got her. She stared at me with an open mouth for several seconds before finding the words to reply. “Even if I could in this form, that doesn’t really work. People may remember being in love with someone, but when they’re not feeling it, they won’t act on more than habit. Also, she doesn’t love me. She’s just horny.”

Judging from Gamma’s face, at least from the few times I had seen it, that was a one-sided feeling at best. “Good. I don’t want you to hurt when she finally drops you.”

“I can take that. I’m an AI, not a mushy-brained human,” she said and waltzed into her room.

“Livia snuck up on me and put her head on my shoulder from behind. “Don’t worry,” she said in a low tone and held her phone up for me to see a text from Alessandra. It was a random salad of letters and pictures, but most of the latter were distinctly heart-shaped. But what really caught my eye was the next one, where she asked about my number and said she had scheduled me for the noon to 6 pm shift tomorrow.

“Seems I got the job,” I said, unsure how to feel about it. Happy? Afraid?

“It’s a pretty dead time; you may not even get a customer. A trial shift, I’d say.”

“Shit, I got nothing to wear!” I realised, then chuckled as I remembered the “dress code”.

“I’ll lend you something of mine,” Livia said while putting her hands around my bust as if to take a cup-size measurement.

“Last time we tried that, we needed your dad’s help to get me back out of those jeans I got stuck halfway in…”

“Underwear is more flexible in size. And smaller is better for the job anyway.”

“Okay, but don’t expect me to eat light to fit. I’m starving. What’s for dinner?”

“Big salad bowl?”

“…”

“I need to check what’s in the freezer. I didn’t plan on us being at home much on the weekend, to be honest.”

“Yeah, something really messed up our plans, didn’t it?”

Dinner became a buffet of all the leftovers that had amassed in the freezer from food being packaged in sizes that were inconvenient for a single person. It was a bit eclectic, but it gave us a nice opportunity to simply chat. Gamma had a surprising amount of opinions on human life for an AI that had freshly been introduced to it.

After that, Gamma sat on the couch to watch a movie while we retreated to our bedroom. We hadn’t felt it while training, but it had been exhausting, and we were both tired. Livia insisted on me faking an orgasm while she lay beside me, doing nothing but giving me pointers a couple of times, but nothing else happened, and we soon fell asleep.