Chapter 18 - Hand To Hand Combat 2

Annie rushed towards Asriel with a swift foot-work and threw a punch at his face. Asriel easily dodged the fist and punched towards her stomach. Annie dropped down and used her leg to swipe across his legs. Asriel jumped back to create some distance between them. When his feet touched down, Annie has also recovered and was back in her stance. He rushed at her and did a roundhouse kick towards her head. It was so fast that Annie couldn't dodge it and just used her elbow to counter it. As the kick was going to connect, Asriel changed the direction of his kick swiftly to a frontal kick. Annie was kicked with such a force that she slid back a few meters, creating two lines on the ground. She winced a bit while holding her stomach but got back into her stance and dashed towards Asriel. She didn't go for a direct assault but zipped around Asriel, trying to find a weak spot. Asriel stood there with his hands in an IP Man pose waiting for her to strike. Annie was an agility type but he could easily see where she is so he waited. When she thought that he had put down his guards, she quickly jumped forward and kicked towards the back of his head. Asriel easily spun around and redirected her kick to the side while holding onto it pulling her towards him. Annie lost her balance and was dragged towards him. When she was closer, he used his other hand to punch her in the face. Annie seeing the punch coming towards her spun her body mid-air and kicked his head with her other leg. Asriel redirected his punch to grab onto the incoming leg and slammed her to the ground.

*Boom*

Disoriented, Annie tried to get up but was held down with a knee on her stomach by Asriel. Annie tried to kick him in the back of the head but was dodged by him by slightly tilting his head to the side. He then punched towards her face with enough force that the air rippled when his fist went through. Seeing this, Annie with no other choice, crossed her hands in front of her face, closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. She thought about using titan powers but decided not to.

*Woosh*

His fist came to a stop in front of her hands, the air making her hair flutter. He flicked her forehead through the gaps and got off of her with a smile. Annie opened her eyes and saw Asriel with a smile and hand outstretched towards her, she wanted to refuse at first but she grabbed onto his hand anyway. Asriel pulled her up and said " Not bad, it was a good spar.".

" You held back a lot didn't you?" (Annie)

" Aren't you the same" smirked Asriel and answered in a knowing way but went unnoticed by Annie.

" No, I was using my full strength." said Annie while shaking her head.

" Well, anyway, can we spar again in the future? I feel like I improved a lot sparing with either you or Mikasa. Since Mikasa is busy sometimes, I'll have to rely on you during those times." replied Asriel with a smile.

" ...sure...I feel like I improved as well." replied Annie after thinking a bit. She was quite curious about him since that day in the dining hall and now he easily bested her in close combat, which she was proud of, so she wanted to know more about him. What makes him so, mysterious.

" That's good, I'll see you around then." said Asriel with another smile and went towards Mikasa, Eren, Armin, and the others from the future top 10, though the ranking would change because of him in the future. When he reached there, they congratulated him and praised him.

Mikasa was quite happy when she saw Asriel beat up Annie, but was a bit gloomy as she saw her beloved Eru speaking and smiling with Annie, since that girl was someone she had quite a dislike. She felt that Annie was full of herself and view others with disdain as if she was above them all. She didn't know what they were saying but she felt like wanting to interrupt them and the feeling was growing since she felt uncomfortable in her chest seeing them. The feelings were about to overwhelm her when she saw her Eru walking away from that girl and towards her. She saw him smiling warmly at her and the feelings from before vanished as if they never existed, but still, she was afraid. That uncomfortable feeling, she didn't want to feel it again so she sneakily grabbed onto his sleeves when he came close to her. She was quite proud that her Eru was being praised by others and felt happy about it.

Asriel felt his sleeves grabbed by something so when he looked at it and saw that it was Mikasa holding onto him, he looked up and saw that she was smiling at him sweetly. He felt it odd that she was acting a bit intimate in public and not being shy since she would always get shy and embarrassed whenever he flirted with her in public, not like she wouldn't be even when they are alone.

" Hey Mikasa, is something wrong?" asked Asriel worriedly.

" *shakes head* No....I'm fine thanks for worrying about me." replied Mikasa, looking at him with love in her eyes, though she didn't realize it.

" Che.....I hope you two go explode somewhere! Stop flirting in front of us! " (Horse...I mean....Jean)

" Fufufu perhaps are you jealous Jean~?" (Sasha)

" S...sh..shut up! Jeez!" replied Jean as he walked away.

" Huh? What are you guys talking about?" (Connie)

" See~ we should be flirting like them as well~" (Ymir)

" Mou~ Ymir, stop teasing me." replied Christa while she looked at Mikasa with some jealousy.

" Eren, let's go." (Armin)

" Huh!? Why?? I want to talk with Asriel a bit more. I want him to teach me those techniques he used before!!" replied Eren with determination.

" Eeeerrreennn, I....I got something to show you! It's really really really important!" said Armin while pushing Eren from the back, he looked back and smiled at Asriel. Asriel gave him a thumbs up and smiled back.

" Eren I'll teach you those techniques later don't worry. For now, follow Armin, it seems it's really important." (Asriel) [Gosh, luckily Armin was here, if not for him I don't know how long Eren's gonna bug me. I need to make up to Armin. I guess playing chess with him sometimes would be good as he loves the game.] thought Asriel. The last time he stopped Armin for taking Eren away cause he felt sorry for Eren, he was bugged by him all day, asking questions and whatnot, even Mikasa was annoyed. Asriel didn't blame Eren or treated him differently because he was just trying to learn more. Knowledge, given or received, is never a bad thing, in fact, he admired Eren for being very hardworking, so since then he patiently answered his questions or helped him out with his practices if he needed one but he would be lying if he wasn't a tad bit annoyed.

" Mikasa...do you have something on your mind?" asked Asriel still worried about her.

"........*nod*........" after thinking a long time she finally answered with a nod, still holding on to his sleeves.

" I thought so.....come on let's go somewhere today. We get free time till dinner and it's still noon. Meet me at the training grounds after you've freshened up." (Asriel)