Serena smirked. That was his only take away from that sentence. Some things never changed. Sam was always himself, deep down, even if the upper layers were caked in self loathing. The blonde pulled her hair back and tied it into a neat ponytail, she'd seen people at Aikido trying to train without tying hair back before, that was always amusing in how it worked out.

Serena spread her legs out into a position that gave her good balance, rocked back and forth slightly to make sure she was on her toes ready to move, and took up a fighting position. She still couldn't hope to swing a punch with anywhere near the strength of CS, but she could still give somebody a good beating if needed, and her style was more about controlled movement anyway, not blind swings.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "And if this was anywhere even remotely near a normal person's definition of early, I'd be sympathetic. Our first ever session was at 6 in the morning, suck it up tough guy." She smirked and concentrated, she took a step to the side and towards him, not making any aggressive moves yet, just getting in closer. He had more reach than her, she was used to this though.

"I guess it's a good chance to see if you're still functioning properly with everything going on." She moved one arm forwards with a quick jab as a feint, then used the momentum to swing one of her legs at his less guarded side.

”You know I’m touched you remember our first lesson. Been thinking a lot about it huh?” Sam said his sixth sense reading her body movements. Sam saw the punch and started to guide it out of the way until he realized it was a faint he smirked slightly and brought his foot forward turning his body into a pivot he redirected Serena’s kick away from him then he stepped forward following her body his hand open and coming in with a palm strike to he shoulder. It wasn’t a good target in regards to lasting damage but she’d feel the strike and it would cause her some trouble if it connected.

”I told you before I think, I could be piss drunk and still manage to win a fight. I don’t lose when it comes to hand-to-hand. Been doing this all my life!” he threw another punch this time it was directed at her stomach, it was meant to knock the wind out of her his other hand was up in a guard as he dropped down to hit her. ”One thing I can do right!”

Serena's responses throughout the fight would come out much more staggered than Sam's, although she was usually excellent at multi-tasking when it came to fighting someone much more experienced she needed all of her focus on his body language and less on his voice. If she could have, she would have shrugged. She couldn't help dwelling on the past recently for some reason.

She was surpised at how he responded at first, before some of his style from their sessions started to come back to her. She'd kind of developed her own thing over time, from a habit of practicing two different styles, and with her power. Before she moved out, she may have simply taken the blow to her shoulder and responded with the other arm. Instead she let the redirection of her leg carry through and leaned her whole body forwards to put space between the two of them.

She turned her head and saw the arm coming towards her gut. She didn't try to block it directly or to fully get out of the way of it, she moved the back of her palm along his fist and stepped to the right simultaneously. It took a visible grunt of effort and sent some shock from the force of the blow up her arm, but it avoided the winding. Instead of going for his upper body she carried her other leg through the full movement and swung for his heel before quickly taking a few back steps.

She may not have been particularly powerful, but she was nimble. That was what had been drilled into her over time, and she'd always had a slightly above average reaction time, her body was now better able to keep up with it. She let out a deep breath before responding. "You're still one of the best teachers I've seen in my life, and I've been through a hell of a lot of education." She smirked and paced around him lightly. "And if you ever tell anyone I said those exact words, I'll deny." she teased.

”Deny all you want Serena, I heard the words and know it. You don’t get good without practice. My entire life I have been doing this. Our line of work you don’t live long unless you are decent at it or you’re a fast learner.” Sam adjusted his leg a leaned into her kick causing her to hit his calf instead of his heel. It hurt but he’d be alright a little localized ice and some possible healing might do him some good.

”Faster than I remembered.” Sam said rushing towards her going on the offensive. A palm strike to the chest, a uppercut to the chin followed by a few more strikes. ”Gotta stay light on your feet right?” Sam asked as he willed some ice to form behind her in combination with the fog it would have been hard to see and unless she knew how to be on the ice she would have a difficult time with it.

Sure it wasn’t exactly fair but when it came to training he played dirty on occasion so those who were learning from him could expect the worse. Sam finished his combo with an attempt of a leg sweep. While using his sweep to direct a jet of cool blue ice outwards.

It felt pretty good to connect. She was by no means an expert, but she could clearly hold her own in a fight now, and this was without her mutation. She backed off a little bit and flashed a smile at him. "Even better if you're a mixture of the two." She responded flatly as she focused on his body language.

She cracked another smile at his comment about her speed. She tried not to let it go to her head and concentrated on his leg movements as he came towards her. One of the bigger tips she'd taken to heart over time was that you could tell a lot about an attack before it came if you could tell where it was coming from or how it was going to be delivered, the trouble is Sam knew this too, and he was much better at reading her movements than he was at hers.

She tried to pivot around some of his blows but quickly found it harder to read him, she didn't realise until afterwards that it was the gradual lowering of visibility, she was focusing on avoiding his punches too hard. She caught the occasional blow on the edges of her body, managing to move just enough to not actually be knocked flat by them. They still hurt.

She backed up quickly trying to gain space and work out a new way to come at him, skidding a little bit on the ice, she fell quickly with a grunt as his leg came under hers, she tried to jump it but just ended up flooring herself on the ice and tanking the rest of the ice to the body, she slid across the ground a little, scraping her arm enough to draw a little blood and cause some very minor, but persistent bleeding.

She panted for a moment on the ground, accepting that she lost round one. The blonde quickly gathered herself to her feet, didn't complain about the mutation being used and went back at it. "Keep an eye on the environment more, noted." She moved around the ice and came at him, feeling a little sore.

Sam took a step back and waved his hand in a grand gesture over exaggerating his mutation sending an arc of ice spikes towards her they moved fast at first but moved slower the closer they got to her. Sam took a step backwards then slipped on his own ice causing his body to lean back. He leaned forward then back again. It was still a fighting style he could use but It was far less predictable the more he moved about.

”You know what I can do, you should have predicted it at some point. The fact that you haven’t used your own ability is surprising.” Sam said noticing the blood. The mist on the ground started to rise up the longer the clock counted down. ”I’ve been using my mutation since I got in here. Sure it’s supposed to be practice but you woke me up because I’d push you to your limits right?” Sam said spotting his flask and slowly moving in that direction. If she wasn’t going to take it seriously then neither was he.

”I’m gonna start drinking if you don’t try to hit me.” Sam said preemptively leaning backwards.

Serena gritted her teeth and went into focus. She quickly stepped to the right and around the ice, taking a dash towards Sam, she flicked out her arm, sending droplets of blood around the place, she moved towards him with a surprising level of grace. When she was actually concentrating she was actually pretty impressive, there was very little in the way of wasted energy in her movements.

The blonde's brow furrowed in anger as he moved towards the alcohol. She activated her power and drew more blood from the surface of her wound, until she had a small orb in her palm. She tossed it in the direction of the of the flask, moving it further away from Sam before flicking the orb at him at a high velocity. Serena put enough telekinetic force behind it that it was at about the pace of a fast tennis serve, however she left it's solidity relatively loose so it would explode on impact, like a paintball.

The blonde carried on approaching him at the same time, as the blood moved towards his lower torso she activated some of the drops on the ground near his now current position and flicked them at his back, hardening them as she did so.

Simultaneously she threw a kick at one of his legs, sweeping to either force him to move out the way or intercept, either way he was cornered. She may not have been able to swing as hard as him, or predict his movement but she could still use her mutation in tandem with her body. If he thought her level of control wasn't that much improved, he was in for a shock.

The flask moved further form him as he felt a ball fly from that direction towards his. It had to be blood because the longer he could feel it the less visible it was on his sixth sense meaning she was using her mutation again. The ball came towards him and Sam raised his arm up and threw a layer of ice on his forearm to block the attack it splattered about him and he was covered in blood. Serena’s blood. ”Gross.” Sam said loudly as he froze the liquid and shook it off like it was a bunch of bugs.

Ice started to coat his lower torso and started to creep up his back, just in time too while he was dancing to get the blood off Serena made her move and cut the distance between them into nothing. Her leg connected with his leg and he leaned forward as the sweep started to pull him. Sam adjusted his foot and went with it but was distracted as something hard hit his back in several places.

It hurt but it didn’t feel like a knife or a bullet so he kept moving. ”Whoooo, someone got better!” Sam said as he started to laugh. He pushed the girl away from him and jumped back sending an arc of blue in her direction snow and ice was being flung at her as his body coated up further keeping only his head bare of ice.

Sam took a step back and grabbed the flask he was now next to and picked it up. ”Getting me thirsty.” Sam taunted.

Serena smirked at the comment as the blood connected with his armour and he shook it off onto the ground. That worked perfectly for her as well, as long as it was surrounding him in some manor or another she could get him with it. "If you're going to be a wuss about a little blood, don't make me bleed then." She teased before being pushed away from him, she spread her legs out and quickly stepped to the side a few time to keep her balance up, before going back at him.

Serena's lips crooked into another smile as he noted she'd gotten better. "You've not seen anything yet." She drew some more blood off of her arm and flung a small lance through the air towards his flask, clearly and directly, he was either going to lose his alcohol, or suffer a light stab wound.

She released the grip on it once she'd flung it and then activated the flecks of blood on the ground near him, binding it together into a small chain and directing it to wrap around his legs and tighten. While she did this she approached him again from an angle and tried to strike with her palm. The idea was that if she put him under enough pressure, he might slip.

Serena knew she wasn't going to win a straight up fight with Sam, but this was more about exercise and practice than anything else .

”You know.” Sam said as he prepared for the lance of blood that he was expecting at least in some form or shape this time a lance instead of a harpoon or spear, whatever she got him with last time that was the first and last time he’d be taken by surprise with. Sam shifted his weight and then fell to his knee. The ice on his forearm forming a large circular shield.

Feeling the weight of the lance Sam leaned into the attack and grunted, ”Everyone who says I haven’t seen nothing expects me to be surprised when I spar with them.” Sam said feeling the bllod wrap around his foot. His ice under the chain expanded outwards slightly and he slipped his foot out from the hold. The ice retained its shape as his foot. Soon there were two Sam’s one bare and the other made of ice. ”Keep in mind our mutations aren’t so different!”

The palm strike was redirected when Sam turned and he brought his other hand around into a roundhouse hammer fist directed at her ribs. ”The flask has sentimental value.” lied Sam as the ice clone broke free from the blood chain.

Even when he was a slightly alcoholic wreck, Sam still managed to stay a step ahead of her, it was so draining keeping up with him and just reminded Serena how much she needed to stay on top of her fitness. Most of hers was for self defense though, and somebody of Sam's caliber wasn't exactly going to just come out of the blue and attack her. But still.

Serena and Sam's mutation were both so versatile that this ended up largely being a battle of creativity, however the problem was that Serena couldn't get any more resource to fight him with without handicapping herself with blood loss.

She gritted her teeth as he responded, trying to weave her body out of the way but still taking a solid blow to the ribcage, she slid back on her feet slightly and grunted, coughing a little as she had the wind knocked out of her slightly. Her eyes flashed at him as she got her wind back. "It's not the container I have a problem with." She spat.

This wasn't going to work, she couldn't hold back and still get through to him. She had to actually risk doing some damage, and she hated it. If there was one thing she wouldn't do, it would be to transform. She'd have more raw power to work with, but she might actually do some damage she didn't want to do, he was an idiot, not a murderer.

She took a breath out and glared at him, she threw her palm out, and quickly pulled it back in, the blood that was now behind him formed into a thin, sharp curved blade. She yanked the blood scythe quickly past his leg, aiming to maim him a little in response. If anything it would slow him down a little, at the very least it would give her more ammo to work with, she doubted he could dodge something from behind that came that fast.

Stepping back not sure what to expect with the palm strike he looked around but was too late to notice the blade that was now sticking out of his side. The ice mutant winced and touched the blade with his hand causing it to freeze. He shifted and tore the blade out of his side and looked at the blood it started to draw. Sam winced and touched his side causing the blood leaking out of his side to freeze and clot.

Moving back a little Sam frowned. ”Got more control.” Sam smirked and waved his ice clone forward. ”So did I.” even with the cut on his side Sam managed to charge Serena full tilt while his ice clone charged her from the side. Sure he was injured but the ice and adrenaline distracted him from the pain.

Throwing a hook punch followed by a roundhouse kick Sam willed his ice clone to do something similar to cause some damage. A palm kick followed with a knife hand to the shoulder and then the ice clone ran at her for a tackle.

Oops, Serena hadn't meant to cause quite that much bleeding, she winced when she saw the blood coming out momentarily distracted as Sam came at her, she had instinctively started to apologise before quickly snapping back to reality and having a few microseconds to plan out her next move. She'd never faced Sam and an ice clone at the same time, she was basically now fighting two of him. Great.

She quickly took a step back, moving into a slight crouch, just lowering her body under the hook. She followed with quick retaliation jab at Sam's (the real one's) ribs, before trying to move out of the way of the roundhouse kick and not being able to force her body to respond quick enough, catching the brunt of it with a grunt and a flash of pain. She didn't have time to think yet though, he was still coming at her and fast.

Serena panted with some serious effort as she managed to just about move leg and arm close together to block the second roundhouse, staggering back a foot or two from the weight of the clones kick. She took a deep breath and managed to twist her body out of the way of the palm kick with some grace before squeaking in surpise at the knife jab at her shoulder, trying to deflect some of the blow a bit unsuccessfully, she staggered back with another grunt.

She had to think quickly. She activated her power and got a hold on all of the blood in the room. She put some effort into shifting the slightly frozen blood on Sam to a liquid again now that he wasn't maintaining a conscious effort to freeze it and drew from that too, probably causing the bleeding to flair up again.

She didn't have much time to react to the clone as she drew more blood and formed it together, including from the wound on her arm. She landed to the ground with a grunt but managed to raise a shield behind the clone using all of the blood she'd gathered so far to block off Sam, she landed on the ground with a thud, having the wind knocked out of her again. She clumsily drew some spears of blood at the clone, hard enough to pierce it and possibly shatter it depending on it's solidity.

Unfortunately, the clumsy attempt had cut her 3 more times. Most of them weren't deep enough to hinder her too much, but her mind was distracted by pain and mild blood loss now.

Sam’s side hurt more and he could feel the warmth return. He was bleeding again. It didn’t take much to figure out the cause, he lost focus for a second on his wound and it was all Serena needed to open it up again, not only did she open it up but she was pulling all the blood in the area towards her. Sam took a step backwards and refroze his wound this time he was focusing more on it. She might be able to control blood but it was a liquid and all liquids froze and that was when he knew he’d have more control.

Sam looked up to see the clone speared and shattered. Sam smirked then waved a hand. From the bits of the shattered clone another reformed one with more of a body type similar to Sam instead of just a blank frame. ”Got to be more createive than that if you want to win out against a clone. I control it right?” Sam asked as he shot a beam of ice towards Serena and her blood. The clone used this to it’s advantage and tried to run around the spears of blood to it’s source where it was ready to throw a few punches.

”Come one where is the fire?” Sam asked as he too ran towards her.

The extra blood gave Serena the literal breathing room that she'd needed to catch her breath and gather her mental faculties before Sam launched another attack. She didn't know how much longer this practice could go on with using her power, but she was also well aware that when fighting time seemed to stretch out much longer than it actually was, a few seconds could involve a lot of action.

She took a breath, and with it drew the shield she'd made back into herself as Sam spoke. Creative she could most definitely be. She made a mental note to give him a copy of her book at some point, not for any kind of approval but more because he clearly needed a lot of distractions. Time froze (No pun intended) for her when he launched his next assault, as she'd brought the shield in close. It flowed around her body like some kind of gruesome scarf. This was a position she found easy to shield or attack from.

She had two things to deal with, a blast attack and a clone coming to beat the crap out of her. Luckily, the cold had made the floor even more slippery so she had a plan. Serena intentionally slid under Sam's attack, falling to the ground and flung out some of the blood with some serious force behind it, more than she'd ever willingly use on the real Sam or another person to hit the clone.

It was like a speeding care focused behind the point of a sledgehammer, it wasn't something that was easy to control, but she didn't need to aim for a precise part of the clones body, she just needed to connect, and it had been running at her. She had the advantage here. Of course this left her slightly open to more attack from Sam while she was on the ground, but one thing at a time.