Chapter 583 - Spar For The Course...

Afton gives Karl a basic overview on how he should be using his new weapon, and after teaching some easy movements, he faces Karl with a Saturnite knife in his hand. "Alright old man, come at me whenever you want."

"Heh, you asked for it!" he says as he charges, left arm ready to strike while keeping his right close to his chest. He swings the blade straight at Afton's neck, not holding anything back as he knew it had a snowball's chance in hell of hitting.​​

*Clank!*

Karl's eyes widen in surprise as the world spins around him... He'd been expecting to get parried, but getting flung into the air? Definitely not!

*Thud!*

"Oof!" Karl huffs as he lands on his back, looking up at the ceiling and contemplating his life choices...

Afton comes into view and stands over him with a cocky grin, "Yo, it's not nap time yet Karl, we aren't finished yet." he says while holding his hand out.

Karl accepts it and slowly gets up, stretching his back out and getting ready for another round.

They continue like this for a couple more hours, Afton beating martial discipline into Karl until he is 'relatively' competent with his new weapon. The Former-ranger was already a trained soldier, so it didn't take long to pick up the basics... Still, he'd need some practical experience to properly master his new weapon. Plus, he'd also need to start his Power armour training if he wanted to work on the field anytime soon.

Things were heating up, and Afton wasn't willing to risk Karl's life in the increasingly volatile battles they'd most likely find themselves in.

"Alright, I think we're done... If you wanna get some more practise another day just let me know, I'll be happy to kick your ass again." Afton shrugs as he sheathes the knife and tosses it back into storage.

"You want me to ask for that? You've got another thing comin' kid... I need a drink." he mutters while wiping his face with a towel.

*Bzztch!*

The sound of the intercom system activating draws both of their attention, Afton looks up and spots Tamia, Christine, Veronica, Melissa, and Miles watching from the observation window. "Huh, looks like we had an audience... All we need to do now is record it and ship it off to movie theatres... We'll call it... 'Young handsome guy assaults pensioner'." Afton remarks and has to dodge the lazy backhand Karl sends at him.

"You can talk to 'em if you want, I'm headed to the bar." he says before walking off, walking past the group which had just entered the room.

"Something up with him?" Josie asks after not getting a response from Karl.

Afton shrugs, "Probably just tired. I doubt he gets much exercise like this nowadays, specially since he only recently regained his limbs... You guys need something?"

Josie shakes her head and Veronica steps forward, "You got enough in your for a couple more rounds?"

He glances at his Pipboy and notices that it's only around 5pm, "Yeah, I guess."

The group begins sparring with one another, Miles and Melissa getting some guidance from Christine as they were nowhere near as proficient as her at melee combat. Josie herself attempted to spar with Tamia, but found herself completely and utterly outmatched.

The fight looked more like a young child getting attacked by a bear, that's how far their skill levels and physical abilities were.

As for Afton's fight against Veronica? It was 'even', though, this was only the case because Afton went very easy. After all, it wouldn't be fair to use his full strength against her. It wouldn't even be fair if she was wearing Power armour, as had been shown when he'd fought against Hardin.

Regardless, people swapped around partners and continued sparring with one another... Eventually pitting Afton against Josie... Which, as it turns out, was incredibly awkward.

Afton knew something was up the moment Josie asked to practise 'grappling', once the match started she immediately went in for some sort of 'take down', which quickly devolved into her smashing her breasts against his chest while trying to not be thrown to the floor.

"Are you not wearing a bra?" Afton incredulously asks, wondering what was going on... Josie's breasts weren't small, so it was VERY obvious to him that she was lacking any sort of bra.

Josie blushes slightly but manages to hide it by keeping her face buried into his chest, "It's hot alright? Now shut up and fight me!"

Afton shakes his head and decides not to retort, pulling her off balance and quickly drops onto his back, pulling her onto his leg and he kicks her a good distance away. Josie has no idea what'd just happened and gives a squeak as she lands in a heap a couple meters away.

"If you're not going to take this seriously then we should swap partners..." Afton mutters as he walks up to her prone body.

"I was trying! Then you just flip me over like 'boom!', what am I supposed to do against that!?" she exclaims, obviously unfamiliar with any sort of martial art... He'd have thought the NCR would've taught her some but... Then again, she was literally just an engineer.

"Maybe you should have mentioned you have no training in grappling beforehand? I expected you to at least know how to keep your balance, yet you flailed around like a newborn calf." he states.

...

Josie purses her lips and clicks her tongue, she was hoping to get a bigger reaction out of him before they started fighting... What man doesn't like boobs!? She glances over towards Tamia who'd just kicked the air from Miles' lungs, the two women's eyes lock momentarily, and Tamia smirks with a knowing look, only encouraging Josie to try harder.

"Alright, so grappling's a bust... How about some wrestling? I know how to do that at least." she says, lying on her back in a defences position but making sure to emphasize her ass and breasts further.