Bam! Bam! Bam!
Lesley moved fast, his feet quick and dodging every attack with nimble precision, and only leaving dents in the ground and walls from his opponent.
Mel gritted his teeth and moved forward, aiming another punch. Lesley didn't relent, his body quickly moved out of the way, and getting behind Mel.
"You have to do better." Lesley said as he shoved Mel forward, using the forward momentum from Mel's punch to make the zombie trip and nearly fall.
"You just punch and punch, which is good for zombie fighting but not against people. You're too predictable." Lesley said with a sigh.
"I am sorry, can we try again?" Mel asked as he looked at his fists thoughtfully.
"Sure, we have the whole night and whole day tomorrow to do this." Lesley stretched his arms with a soft grunt. "And then we'll only have until the day after tomorrow to make you a prime fighter."
"Is this...the sarcasm?" Mel asked and Lesley rolled his eyes.
"Sarcasm, and facts." Lesley got into a fighting stance," Now come on, again. This time, I'll strike back. Don't expect me to be gentle, you're a walking dead body."
"Ok." Mel raised his fists two and charged forward, his right fist aiming towards Lesley's face.
Lesley stayed still, his eyes narrowed and his mind focused. He stepped to the side, dodging the punch and landed an elbow strike on Mel's neck before the zombie could even turn. Lesley didn't relent, he moved forward and jumped, landing his feet on Mel's back, making the zombie trip and fall flat to the ground.
"That was so cool!" Veranda clapped her hands from the stairway in the corner. She wore a pink t-shirt and brown skirt, her hands on the railing and watched with curious eyes.
They were in one of the warehouse backrooms, filled with dust, some planks of wood for winter, a stairway that led to an emergency exit to the roof. They had been coming there for there days, after Lesley's victory against Veranda.
Mama V had to let them train there, since Lesley and Mel were going to finally do one of the agreements they had with her.
Mel was going to fight in matches.
More specifically, matches against the two other strong groups of survivors in Old Greenhit.
Besides Mama V's group, with her territory, minions and people, there were two other people who also controlled a large collective group of survivors in the city.
They were Matteo and Ruby.
Ruthless, vicious, merciless cutthroats, who used survivors like slaves, thugs and cheap labour to fulfill their every beck and call.
At least that was what Mama V told Lesley three days ago. Nothing else.
No physical description, no background story and no explanation on the type of fights that Mel would be having.
Lesley could have argued for more details but the Jacuzzi incident made him feel like he owed her a moment of blind faith.
Not complete obedience but, for the time being, Lesley would not ask questions. He would just train Mel to fight to the best of his capabilities and hope that the zombie's strength covers for his lack of talent and skill.
He'd also hope the people Mel fights are epileptic, limbless bags of meat.
It was the only way Lesley saw Mel winning any fight.
Lesley couldn't believe how badly the zombie fought. The fight they had was barely two minutes, and that has been the pattern for most of them. Mel charged, Lesley waited, struck once or twice and the zombie was down. Like right now, on the the floor , with Lesley standing on him with one foot like a conqueror.
It was getting redundant.
"No, it was not cool. Or anything like that. Veranda, don't you have somewhere else to be?" Lesley said to the teenage girl.
"No, I can't play by myself and the guards are too boring. I would rather be here watching you fight. Mel is so strong, he broke the floor." Veranda spoke excitedly and Lesley frowned as he finally looked at the floor around them.
Throughout their fights, Mel had often overreached and landed strikes to the ground, cracking it or smashing up holes. The same was true for two of the walls, Lesley noted with a frown.
Wait a minute, Lesley looked around and thought about their fights, his face scowling severely.
"Zombie...have you been striking the floor and missing on purpose?" Lesley asked and Mel nodded his head.
"Yes, I didn't want to-" Mel didn't get to finish before Lesley struck him.
Lesley jumped up, stomping on Mel's back, aiming for the spine, snapping it in half. Lesley grabbed Mel's head and bashed it hard onto the ground, then he repeated the process thrice, before getting off and waiting.
Mel slowly got back up, his face slightly bloody but with no evident injury, as if healed by itself.
"Stop going easy on me. I don't care if you think I'm weak or something, or that your are physically stronger than me. I am not training you, wasting my time on you, just for you to hit air instead of my face." Lesley spoke with a angry frown.
"But...I don't want to hurt you. Not... again." Mel said looking down, he still remembered going berserk and feasting on Lesley's blood, ready to eat him back at apartment. He would never hurt Lesley again.
"Ugh! You should have said this sooner. Shit, I should also have noticed it sooner. Now, I have to think about how to train you to fight in a different way...wait. I've got it!" Lesley smiled as he looked at Mel, " I can't believe I didn't think of it. You need to fight something you will hit. We're going to fight zombies as practice- but...they won't attack you since you're one of them."
"I can help, Lesley. I know what to do " Veranda said skipping over to them.
"How?" Lesley asked.
"Well, if you want him to be tasty to other zombies, he needs to smell tasty." Veranda sniffed Mel," He smells like dirt and like the really old dead rat I found under my bed last week. Zombies won't eat him."
"If he had a pulse, human blood and was alive, I'm sure they would eat him." Lesley said softly," But that's impossible."
"I've got the solution. We got this place in the shelters that people use...for things and it's tasty smelling for zombies. I've seen the guards use it to lure zombies away from here. We could rub Mel in it and then zombies would try to eat him."
"Shelters? You mean where the survivors stay? Didn't your mom say we can't interact with people?" Lesley said pointing at himself and Mel, Mama V had said that two days ago when Lesley asked.
"Please, I'm the daughter of the Queen. I'm a princess. They'll definitely not mind, besides Mom isn't here." Veranda said with a confident smile.
"Well...I guess so. I just hope you're right." Lesley agreed.
"Trust me, it will be fun" Veranda gave a small hop.