Chapter 73 - 73. Garnet Bones

Garnet moved forward causing Asher to retreat. This proved to be his first mistake since he left his balance stance as he stepped out of rhythm. Garnet made a large step forward and sent a jab testing him. Asher was able to barely lower his level to dodge but had the blow grazed his shoulder. "That soft jab looks like it was able to get you off balance." She was pretty happy to see he had managed to dodge the hit, however, this was not the only one coming.

Garnet had already sent a combo next, she jabbed with her left hand and had a slow right hook on the way. Asher was unable to keep up with the increased speed and the jab hit him in the chest. Luckily it made him stumble out of the way of the right hook. 'Dang, she hits hard. How can a jab feel like a brick?'

Asher was trying to get his food work rhythm back but Garnet was not going to allow him to have the chance. She was an expert n martial arts and did not wish to let an opponent breathe. "Come on get a grip!" She started to get a little more serious and threw a triple combo of jabs at Asher. He was even farther from her speed this time and took all three jabs head on.

Having felt the weight of her jab already Asher was ready and had brought his arm up in a traditional boxer stance to block them. "Not bad kid, now take this on for size," Garnet yelled out and lowered her stance in to a crouch. She burst forward much like Jane would when she wanted to surprise an opponent.

Since Asher had seen a move similar to this he was leaning on his muscle memory to defend it. The look of surprise on Garnet's face was showing her thoughts much too clearly as Asher lowered his level and allowed Garnet to step directly over him. "My friend does that all the time. You're faster but I have already learned that one." Unfortunately for Asher, his bragging did nothing to help him.

The vicious smile that overtook Garnet's face made Asher start to hake, the energy coming off of her spoke of a battle hardened fiend. She rushed at him throwing out her first kick, even though Asher had his arms up the kick was much too strong for him to take. He felt the kick land and in a blink of an eye, he had flown five feet away and rolled on the ground.

"So you still need to learn what to block and what to dodge." Garnet walked over and held a hand out to the now bruising and dazed Asher. "I can teach you more about prediction when it comes to body language and intent. You have a very good base for your age." She sounded impressed, all the viciousness was gone from her face.

After asher had caught his breath he finally replied, "I know you held back, but how did you hit so hard?"

"Did you not catch on to my family's nicknames when I gave the tour? You don't think my name is really Garnet do you?" She started to laugh at the three student's faces, she had hit the nail on the head. "We have those nicknames based on the powers we have. I have the super power called garnet bones. My bone structure is the same toughness and weight of garnet."

"Wait really? That's super cool. You have a physical enhancement then by technicality." Jackson found this to be very exciting since that meant that Garnet's whole entire family had similar super powers.

"Yes, technically it is a mutation but at the end of the day, it acts as a body enhancement. My sister Diamond has skin as hard as a diamond. The doctors hate giving her shots because it is a permanent mutation and not one that can be turned on and off." Hearing this Asher fully grasped the difference between super powers that created mutations and ones that gave enhancements.

"So that could be a double edged sword. It's like my power. If your sister gets an internal injury it is very hard to treat. But if she is defending from an external attack it might not damage her much at all." Laura had somehow managed to find yet another snack while they were all talking. She had a fresh looking eclair in her hand.

"Where do you even get food like that in the middle of the forest?" Jackson was finally at wit's end with her strange knack for getting different snacks every few minutes.

"A girl has her secrets you know." Laura stuck her tongue out then finished her snack while waiting for Garnet to speak again.

"Yes exactly. There are a lot of drawbacks to mutation based super powers. My family has had to find unique ways to train the rest of our bodies to keep up with our powers. You will find that our camp gets many campers with unique mutation based powers that come here to be in a safe environment to learn and adapt to them. I believe we have an electricity based mutation coming this time, it is a very rare mutation we saw about ten years ago."

Asher knew exactly who it was with the electricity based power. "That is Louis, he has a lightning body. He literally can fry any technology around if he isn't careful. He said he could zap people around him by accident but I haven't seen it happen." Asher just shrugged as he said this.

"Well if you know his power and the dangers then you know that there are special measures he will need to train. We have reopened a special cabin with rubber lined floors and walls for him to properly use his mutation. He will need someone to check up on him. Since you are his friend I will assign you the task for one point a day." Garnet looked happy pawning off the chore to Asher without his consent.