Kaden just stood still and waited, while the gruff instructor stood with crossed arms, looking him up and down without saying a thing. He still wasn’t sure whether he had been called over to be reprimanded, or for something else.

“How long have you been training?” Instructor Wynter finally asked him.

“Since I was four, sir,” Kaden replied.

“Mhm, that makes sense, you’re quite advanced. Still, I can’t have you running around banging up all the other students.”

Kaden just nodded and waited to see where the instructor was going with it.

Seeing he wasn’t going to say anything, the instructor continued, “You’re far from the first advanced student we’ve had here though, so we have a system in place for situations like this. It requires some preparation though, meaning I’m going to need you to sit out for the rest of the lesson.”

“Okay, I understand,” Kaden said.

He didn’t mind having to sit out. After all, he wasn’t really missing out on anything. It would be interesting to see what the instructor was planning, though.

“Good, you can observe the other students for now then.” The instructor said, uncrossing his arms as he returned to watching the students.

And Kaden did just the same, scanning the crowd until he found Ewan, who was currently talking to Derrik, probably already suggesting a friendly duel.

From the looks of their faces and body language, everything turned out just as Kaden had expected. Even from this distance, Kaden could see that Derrik’s face had lit up with excitement.

Kaden almost rubbed his hands in anticipation, eager to see who was going to come out on top.

From what he had seen so far, Derrik was definitely the more skilled one of the two, but that wasn’t always what mattered the most. If Derrik was anything like Kaden, then he had probably never practiced against someone with a ranged weapon before. That also meant he wouldn’t be prepared at all for the new trick up Ewan’s sleeve.

“Anything catch your eye?” Instructor Wynter asked from beside him.

“Not yet. But I think that something interesting is going to happen with Derrik and Ewan soon.”

“It’s definitely an interesting matchup.” The instructor agreed, also observing the two boys now.

Kaden watched with rapt attention as Derrik and Ewan set into their starting positions.

The instant they began, Derrik set off, charging towards Ewan to take him down. It was a fearsome image, as Derrik bouldered forth with his stocky build and a large war hammer. Even if it was just a training one, it wouldn’t be enjoyable to be struck by it.

In terms of fighting style, Kaden couldn’t help but notice that Derrik was a stark contrast to himself. Whereas Kaden had let Ewan take the initiative so that he could capitalize on the boy’s mistakes, Derrik was aggressive right out of the gate.

Whether that would be a mistake was too soon to tell. But it would certainly catch Ewan off guard, after he had spent the whole lesson practicing with Kaden.

However, the change in strategy didn’t seem to faze Ewan at all, and the boy just waited calmly until Derrik got a bit closer. And when he finally entered that perfect range, Ewan flung his first chakram, aiming it right towards the face like he had done against Kaden.

And then… Instead of sprinting towards Derrik, Ewan took just two steps to the side, and watched the disc as it sailed through the air.

He stood like this for a single breath, just waiting. When the chakram was finally moments away from striking, Ewan threw the other one and started sprinting to the opposite side, carefully watching the angle of Derrik’s weapon.

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Naturally the first chakram didn’t strike Derrik, who had already gotten ready to deflect it. And the moment he did, Kaden felt a rush as he realized what Ewan was intending to do.

Like it was masterfully calculated, Ewan now stood very close to where the deflected chakram was now laying on the ground. Bending to pick it up, he paused as it became clear that he needn’t have bothered.

With his vision free, Derrik’s head had turned to follow Ewan, which meant that he had missed something else.

Kaden winced as Derrik finally noticed something out of the corner of his eye and turned his face just in time.

The chakram was right before the boy’s eyes, and a moment later, it struck him right in the middle of his face.

“Ouch…” Kaden said, watching as Derrik’s head was thrown back from the force.

Beside him, even the instructor had flinched when witnessing the impact.

Thankfully, Derrik seemed to be alright and was even smiling.

Seeing that his student was alright, the instructor eyed Kaden. “Did you put Ewan up to this?”

“Kind of, Ewan made some changes to the plan though,” Kaden said, feeling quite impressed that it had worked so spectacularly.

It was a plan that was both smart and dumb at the same time. Naturally nobody would be expecting someone to throw away both of their weapons, so it had a high probability of working out. Though if it didn’t work out, you were kind of screwed.

Ewan seemed to have considered that and tried to mitigate the problem by positioning himself to pick up one of the chakrams if it became necessary.

“It was a smart move. Entirely too risky though.” The instructor frowned.

“Isn’t that what training is about, though? My father always said that I should try out everything I thought of when we were training, so that I would be prepared and not have to risk it in a real battle. After all, the stakes during practice are quite low. Better here than in a dungeon.”

The instructor watched him for a moment, considerings his words. In the end, his face softened, and he smiled warmly.

“Indeed. He is a smart man, your father.”

Something about the look on his face gave Kaden the distinct impression that the man knew his father.

***

At lunch, there was still a big red imprint of a disc lingering on Derrik’s face. On the way to the cafeteria, several older students had already poked fun at him, but he seemed to take it well.

“You’re an idiot…” Finlay muttered after he had been told the story.

“How was I supposed to know?” Derrik shrugged, his mouth full of food, and looking ridiculous with the giant red mark on his face.

“Well, let me see…” Finlay drummed his fingers on the table, pretending to think. “Oh yeah. How about one glaringly obvious thing that comes to mind, the fact that he was unarmed!”

“That did confuse me at the time, but it was already too late by the time I realized. It doesn’t matter though, it definitely won’t work on me again.”

“I doubt that,” Finlay muttered, shaking his head.

“What you say?” Derrik scowled.

“Nothing.” To everyone at the table’s surprise, Finlay just sighed and held his hands up in mock surrender.

Admittedly Kaden had only known him for two days, but he had already gotten the impression that it was near impossible for that guy to hold back his snarky comments.

“Good.” Derrik nodded and then turned towards Ewan. “And you better start preparing Ewan, we're settling this right after our last lesson. My loss is only temporary, I will have my revenge for this thing you cursed me with,” He declared, gesturing to his face and making it clear that he had no intention of letting it go.

“Oh no, what did you get yourself into, Ewan?” Kaden chuckled, enjoying the opportunity to gloat at someone else’s misfortune. He wondered if Derrik had the intention of branding Ewan with a similar red mark.

“Shut up,” Ewan muttered, not looking too keen on spending his afternoon fighting or the possibility having his good-looking face tarnished. “Hey Derrik, it was Kaden’s idea, he was the one who told me to challenge you. Take your revenge on him instead.”

“Is this true?” Derrik’s battle thirsty eyes turned to Kaden.

Kaden just laughed and nodded, finding the fact that Ewan had sold him out immensely entertaining.

“That’s it, then!” Derrik stood up from his chair and pointed his fork at him. “After I’m done with Ewan, I’m coming straight for you.”

“Sure, once you’ve defeated Ewan, I’ll gladly accept your challenge.”

“Good.” Derrik sat down, satisfied.

“Hey! What do you mean when he’s defeated me? You think I’m going to lose?” Ewan asked him, looking a little betrayed.

“Who knows?” Kaden shrugged. “Probably. I don’t think you can trick him again.”

From his perspective, when it came to who was the more skilled and experienced of the two, Derrik was the easy pick.

Just the way they handled their weapons was different, and Kaden could tell that Derrik had begun practicing years ago, just like himself.

As for Ewan, well, he had already admitted that he hadn’t been using the chakrams for very long. And it didn’t look like he was very capable of using them in melee fights at all, so his only advantage was the ranged aspect which Derrik would definitely be on guard for.

“That’s right!” Derrik clenched his fist. “This time I’ll be ready for all of your dirty tricks.”

Ewan just gulped, and Kaden thought the boy was already starting to give up, resigning to his fate.

Even if he won, Kaden was sure that Derrik was just going to keep trying over and over until he succeeded. It was probably best for him just to get it over with.