"Also, you can use it to keep your distance while, and keep your enemy from getting too close!" Mina piped in helpfully from the side."
"Yes, that too. But here is the big question, Izuku. How do you get past that defence to land a blow of your own?"
...
For a few moments afterwards they just stood there, as Izuku wrapped his brain around the question.
Black Cat obviously expected an answer, he saw that in her eyes. But what answer was she expecting?
Then he noticed that behind her, there were plenty of things he could web, and then sharply pull towards himself, hitting her in the back.
He quickly moved, trying to web an old fridge door and-Black Cat's hand shot out and closed around the web line that had just sipped straight past her, then she sharply pulled, obviously trying to wrench Izuku off his feet and into the air.
It was what Mei had done. This time, however, Venom was clearly expecting it, and just removed the part connecting it to Izuku's arm.
Problem solved.
At least until the web line still attached to Black Cat's hand suddenly snapped like a whip, hitting him straight across the chest.
It didn't do much damage but it did hit him with enough force to cleave through the suit made of the exact same stuff as the web line, and man did it STING!
He winched from the pain, then the black suit reknit itself again over it, as the line black cat was holding dissolved into the void.
"Wrong answer, by the way, Izuku. The actual one is more… of a higher caliber."
"A… Bigger webline?"
"No, I'm talking about your balls Izuku, your cannonballs. The ones that completely destroyed Uraraka in your match. Why aren't you using those in your regular fighting style?"
"Oh, well… I haven't really managed to reach a point where I can throw those by instinct, much less aim and-" "I see. Well in that case… Your only option is to try and get past my punches physically."
She grinned in a manner that could have looked really intimidating, but Izuku couldn't help noticing that it looked just like Mina did when she was moving in for the kill at the arcade.
"Good luck with that."
She then took the offensive.
Izuku jumped back as he barely avoided being punched in the face again, as Black cat closed the distance in an eyeblink.
He landed on top of an old car, and immediately looked around for some high ground. The closest thing was the bus, and he almost jumped towards it, only to instead have to awkwardly jump backwards, and to the ground again to avoid being hit in the face.
"No walls and no buildings here Izuku. This is not your kind of environment. So, what do you do in this kinda situation?"
Izuku, still weary and on guard, stepped on something. He hastily glanced down. It was a motorcycle.
"Yes, throwing that at me is an option. It's not going to work, but you're thinking in the right direction. Think Izuku. You're stronger than me, by a WIDE margin. How do you use that to your advantage? How do you use that to overcome my speed?"
He thought. He wrecked his brain around it, and desperately tried to think of a way.
The first thing that came to mind was grappling her. Izuku was not trained in wrestling, but he understood that if he could manage to pin her in a grip, his enormous strength would win out.
The problem was that to do that, he would need to get through those punches.
Venom thought along similar lines.
-You need to get her in a grip Izuku, get your arms around her, and force her to the ground.-
That was the most obvious way forward, but something, instincts maybe, told him that wasn't what Black Cat was talking about, as she just stood there, waiting just outside either's direct range and waited for his answer, moving in that boxing bobbing motion all the while.
She… Had said he was on the right track with the lifting, hadn't she? So what did she mean? How could he use his superior strength in that way?
He realized the answer, as he looked to the side, where an old, busted-up car was resting.
"You're… Not saying that I should try and bash you over the head with one of the cars, are you? In a sparring match?"
"That would be it. Not that you'd ever hit me, but you're thinking along the right lines. If this was a real battle, that would be an option. An option many other heroes would never use… And might very well die because of not being willing to use it."
She moved forward again, like a bolt of lightning.
This time, Izuku made the decision to grit his teeth, and weather her punches in order to get her in a bear hug.
It might have worked too, if not for Black cat immediately dropping her punches and instead within the blink of an eye switching to a leg sweep and knocking his legs down from under him.
As he lay on the ground, Black Cat raised her leg high and SLAMMED it down right by his head. Izuku felt the power of the blow passing just by his skull.
As he turned his head and looked, he saw to his shock that the asphalt had gone all the way up to just below her knee, so strong had the blow been.
That… was more than enough to have crushed his skull like a Grape.
"Take this as my first real lesson to you Izuku. Strength, power, speed… They are all relative. Someone much weaker than you can kill you just as easily as someone much, much stronger than you. The weaker can dominate the strong through skill, speed, and experience. Like I did just now."
She jerked her foot out of the ground, then gave him a hand, and pulled him to his feet with no difficulty.
"Tell me Izuku… Not counting the tournament, how many real fights have you been in your life?"
Izuku blinked, then thought back in his life.
Well, there had been the forest, and during the invasion, there had been the gunmen, and his and Mina's fight with Rhino and Shocker, and… That was it.
"3."
"3 fights. Yes, that's about what I thought." She motioned for him to follow as she began walking back to where Mina was sitting, the pink girl getting up at their approach.
"Three battles are better than 0, but it does not make you an experienced veteran. I saw it in the tournament. Everything wrong with the way you fight is all due to one thing. Inexperience. You're a self-taught fighter, and like all self-taught fighters, you have a bunch of problems. Your stance is off, the way you punch leaves you wide open for anyone with experience with any kind of martial art to counter you, I managed to use a basic tactic of only using punches to make you so focused on my hands to make you forgot I could kick you instead, and when you soar… Well, I once was like that too. The high you get when you soar… It's wonderful, but also extremely dangerous because it's so easy to think of yourself as completely out of danger when you soar."
It… Wasn't like Izuku wasn't aware he had a bunch of flaws in how he fought, but to have someone with real experience lay it all out like that was… something else.
"Your work with the web lines are pretty good though, I'll give you that, but we will have to work on everything else. Also, figuring out what kind of style would best suit you with your strength and limitations."
As Mina walked up to them, Black Cat continued.
"The best kind of fighting style that would suit you, would be a mix between boxing and kickboxing. You're really damn agile and monstrously strong, but you're not nearly as fast as the fastest fighters in the world. And from what Mina has told me, you can't get any stronger either, so We'll have to work with what you got. Which is fine. You don't really need more strength or speed. You just need how to make full use of what you have."
He nodded.
"Which is why I'm gonna have to make your training a long-term project. Cause one single week is not enough time to make a decent boxer out of you, much less a kickboxer."
"Wait, does that mean you'll take me on as an intern later too?"
Black cat looked him up and down, then at Mina.
"That will depend largely on how you and Mina interact from now on I think. In any case that is for another day. In the now… I have a pretty good idea of what we'll be training on."
She pointed at the bus.
"I want you to hit that with a cannonball."
Izuku nodded, then said "Venom can you-" -Yeah, I heard her.-
Izuku felt the black on his hand become something more, readying itself for what was about to happen.
He punched. Not nearly as hard as he could have, but It hit the car with enough force to make the whole thing shake as he left a massive dent in the metal.
"Good. Now do it again, without Venom helping you out."
Izuku swallowed.
He knew what was about to come next.
...
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