Chapter 11

Hit me

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, Energy Magic and my Ideas

.:+:.

Chase rubbed the back of his neck and blinked the sleep from his eyes. Frea had woken him up early the next morning, which he had to admit he was getting quite used to. Now, Frea was watching him calmly as she waited for him to fully wake up, and when she felt he was ready, she smiled.

"Alright kid, today we're doing some hand-to-hand combat training." She told him and Chase blinked in surprise, the slight annoyance he had felt for being called a 'kid' yet again, forgotten. He had been expecting running, or some more climbing. Frea smiled a little wider at the young man's surprised look, and gestured her hand at him. "Have at it." She invited and Chase paused.

Was she serious? Frea was looking at him calmly with a small smile on her face, as she stood completely relaxed, waiting for him to make a move. He let out a silent sigh and shifted into a defensive position. He swung out at her with a clenched fist, and Frea easily caught his hand in her own.

"Come on, put more effort into it than that." She smiled and he narrowed his eyes. Chase swung out again with his other fist and Frea simply ducked. He kept going out at her, sending kicks and punches every which way, but none of them hit her.

He swung out harder and before he knew it, Frea was behind him and had his arm pinned behind his back. "Have you ever fought before?" She asked and he narrowed his eyes.

"No, but I'm sure I could handle myself if I needed to." He replied and Frea smiled.

"Depends." She told him as she let go of his hand. She walked a little to stand in front of him.

"Who taught you to fight?" He asked and Frea smiled.

"Partly Chaitanya." She replied and tapped her Guild Mark. "Partly the Guild. I learned a lot when I was fighting with people like Natsu and Gray, even Erza sometimes." Frea replied.

Chase nodded slightly, he could understand that. According to the guys back at the Guild, Frea often brawled with members and more than often, she was the winner. Frea crossed her arms behind her back and simply looked at him.

"Come on, try to land a hit on me." She told him and he took a deep breath. He had to plan out what he was going to do, striking out randomly hadn't done him any good so far.

He swung out with his left fist, but brought up his right. Frea saw through the plan and simply wove out of his way. He kept trying for the next twenty minutes, and still he was unable to land a hit on her. He was becoming more and more frustrated as the minutes rolled by, he hadn't expected it would be this hard to get her. It made him a bit more irritated when he noticed she looked as if she was hardly trying, why had it been so much easier to hit Natsu and Gajeel? Well... they were bickering with each other.

Frea smiled and stepped around him, and hooked and arm around his neck from behind. "Try using your skills to your advantage." She suggested and he blinked. Skills? What the hell was she talking about...? Chase nodded a little and Frea let him go.

This is how the next two weeks passed, and everyday he was getting closer and closer to landing a hit on his mentor. Her words echoed in her head, he couldn't stop thinking about what she said, 'use your skills to your advantage.'. He wasn't sure what she had meant, but even though he couldn't figure it out, he had started using the surrounding terrain to help him out. He had tried pinning Frea up against a wall when they had been practicing near the waterfall, and at the times they were near the lake, he managed to find different ways of getting closer and closer to her.

Though at one point near the cliff-face, he had swung out toward the Energy Dragon, who only dodged away easily and he had ended up punching the hard stone of the cliff. At first he had growled in pain, but looking back on it now, he was surprised to find he had made a small crater in the stone where cracks stretched out around from the force of his hit....

.:+:.

Today was the first day of their second month since the start of the training.

Chase grumbled to himself as he stared at his teacher, who only smiled a stared right back. Since the start of the day, which had started at 5am, he had been trying to land a hit on her,

Damn it... Why is hitting her once so damn hard?!

Frea was clearly finding his annoyance funny, because she chuckled a little at his frustrated look. "Come on, you still cant figure it out?" She asked and he glared. FIGURE WHAT OUT?!

He wanted to yell the words at her, but stopped himself from doing it, he was very aware that she might just punch him if he yelled. Chase took a deep breath, alright... what did I miss? What's this thing I'm supposed to figure out..?

Frea narrowed her eyes as Chase suddenly stilled and the deep blue eyes narrowed in thought. He needed to figure out his own strengths and his own weaknesses, and learn how to use his skills to his advantage. If he didn't, he had no hope of landing a hit on her.

Frea let out a silent sigh as Chase swung again and she simply stepped to the side to avoid the hit, her eyes widened in surprise when his other fist shot out in the direction she had stepped and she managed to avoid it, barely. She hadn't expected his hit to come at her so fast and she jumped backward to get away from him. Chase was grinning at her,

"Finally figured it out." He smirked and Frea blinked, before giving him her own smirk.

"Oh really?" She teased and Chase ran at her, sending concentrated hits at her, that she managed to dodge in time, but she started to back away to avoid them. He was fast...really fast, and she had noticed that on the first day he showed up at Fairy Tail. Frea jumped back a bit more and his swing missed by a few mere inches. She cast a glance over her shoulder to see the cliff-face behind her, and looking back at Chase he looked like he thought he had her trapped. Frea jumped high, and pushed her legs against the stone behind her, flipping over Chase's head to avoid his next swing. She landed neatly, preparing to take a step forward, but froze.

Chase's fist connected with her shoulder and she stepped to the side a little to catch herself from the force of the hit, he was stronger than she thought. For a minute, she was surprised, before she smiled and turned toward him. His deep blue eyes were alight with triumph as he smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Nice job," She told him.

"Admit it Teach, you thought I was trying to pin you up against the cliff, didn't you?" Chase chuckled and Frea sighed.

"I'll admit it." She replied and he looked a little surprised she hadn't argued. She took a step back and lifted a fist, smirking at him. "But now you better get ready for a real fight." She told him and he sweatdropped a little. Frea smiled wider, she wanted to see how Chase would do in a fight where she was fighting back. He immediately went on the defense as she took a step toward him and swung her fist out, hitting the young man in the chest and sending him stumbling backward.

Frea purposely decided not to add her Magic to her hits this time, he probably wouldn't be able to take to much of it if she did, even if he had toughened up in the month they had been out here. Chase straightened up and swung out toward, using his exceptional speed to his advantage as he came toward her, though Frea did manage to dodge his next couple of hits.

She hit him again in the right shoulder, and she hit him so hard, he winced. But he managed to stay on his feet and give her a determined look as he came toward her again. Frea smiled at the pure determination in his gaze, as their fight continued on.

.:+:.

Frea sat up and stretched as she let out a long yawn and glanced over at Chase who was still fast asleep. She smiled a little, she could see the bruises he had around his body. She looked away and sweatdropped, maybe she shouldn't have hit him so hard yesterday...

He had done surprisingly well in their match, and the young man had managed to land a few more hits on her too. He learned quickly, and even in the one match he had become so much better at fighting then she thought he could have. She got to her feet quietly and cast one more look at Chase, he would probably be to sore to move, not to mention he probably wouldn't wake up for a long time.

I'll let him sleep today, he earned it.

Frea silently walked away from the stone shelter and walked down to the edge of the lake. It had felt good to be back here, everything was so familiar, all the scents and all the sights...

She sighed, they had to get around to learning Energy Magic sooner or later, there wasn't a lot more she could do about his strength training, only time and constant work would do any more. But the learning Magic bit would prove to be a bit more difficult than she would like. She didn't know where to start, but she had to come up with something.

But hell if I know where to start...