Opening his eyes, all Daniel saw was the roof of the main hall. Next to him was Amelia, holding a cold and wet cloth over his forehead.
“What happened?” He asked.
“You overextended yourself silly…”
“I barely remember the end of the fight, all I recall was that I was going for an intense sequence of moves, and then I’m here… Can you tell me what happened?”
“Well, You were going for many strikes yes, but what we realized after the fact was that the connections you were getting were not good at all. Jonas deflected most of the power behind your attacks… He then knocked you out cold with two precise punches to the head…”
Daniel mustered all the focus he could to try and remember the fight and just like Amelia said, he was able to remember the last exchange, his attacks, that weird punch going backward, and the blur that came soon after in the direction of his head.
Sitting on the bed and holding Amelia’s hand, Daniel said “I don’t think I ever lost in such stupendous display. They are really strong Amelia…”
“We know, we were there… Now that you are awake, I’ll call for Kwame. Just wait here and rest.” she said, pulling her hand from his embrace and heading to the outside.
He allowed his body to fall back into bed, replaying the fight over and over again.
He held the cold cloth up while with one hand concluding.
That was no fight, it should be called an execution… I don’t think I was able to make him show even a fraction of his real power. I was able to see openings in his attacks, but there was simply no way to capitalize on them. The heavens really are high…
Letting the cloth loose to his face.
Kwame was worried about his friend. Despite Gabriel and Jonas guaranteeing that he was fine, the man was panting and walking in circles outside the main hall ever since the end of the fight.
When Amelia came out and told everyone that he was awake, Kwame became an afterimage created by the speed he dashed to the inside.
“Daniel, are you ok?” He exclaimed.
Looking at the incoming dark-skinned man, rushing in his direction at full speed, Daniel answered, “Please I already have too many injuries… Spare me!”
The worry in Kwame’s face melted into a smile as he hugged his dear companion.
“You scared us… What were you thinking about when you challenged people who hold items that inhibit status appraisal? You know as much as I do that those are rare and expensive… They also have four of such items here in this random village!!” Said the man now sitting next to the bed.
“Well, there is only one way to be sure about their strength when they are hiding it right?” Asked Daniel in a sarcastic tone.
“They treated all your injuries, but there is no fix for the one in your head my friend. Hahaha”
Daniel remained silent thinking about Kwame’s mockery.
“Since you are fine, we are going to try and keep the deal alive. Can you imagine being trained by them?” said Kwame.
“Do what you must… I’ll rest for a while.” Said Daniel turning sideways.
Considering the beating he got, there should have been bruises, pain, and dizziness at least, but he felt nothing at all. That made the taste of defeat even more bitter. How could he have lost so spectacularly and have zero wounds? He stayed there, pondering over the fight as Kwame went outside with the rest.
As the door opened to the outside, Kwame passed through after lowering his head.
“Isn’t he fine?” Asked Jonas looking at the man coming from the hall.
“He is, there is no damage to him at all.” Said Kwame looking at all party members.
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“What did I say? I told you there was no trouble. We have real healers here at Yurei, no need for you to worry about such small things…” Complemented Jonas tilting his head a little and pushing both hands outward.
“Kwame, I’m sorry if Jonas here worried you during the fight. I guarantee you that neither I nor him shall ever harm your party as we promised on the first time we spoke. Also, what Jonas said is correct, we have amazing healers here…”
Kwame was in a sequence of unfathomed events. First, they found a village he had no idea existed in the part of the mountains. Second, four exclusive items were being worn by the leader, his aid, and his family. Third, the son of the leader had amazing magic capabilities. Fourth, somehow a party member got in a fight with one of them and was destroyed without any margin for doubt. Last but not least, the villagers had healers. Healing magic existed yes, but it was a discipline that could earn you lots of money in any kingdom or continent… What were healers doing in a faraway place such as this?
I don’t think Daniel was the only one to lose in a contest with them… They outclass us in every way imaginable. Thought Kwame, realizing that the most benefit they could get would be to stay here training with the two men in front of him.
Looking at them, Kwame said, “Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Jonas, thank you for your kindness.”
As he thanked both of them, he kneeled in front of them before continuing.
“I know that my friend's actions may have caused you to reconsider the proposal, but it would be an honor for us to stay here during winter and train under your guidance.”
His face almost kissing the ground made Gabriel feel bad for the man.
“There is no need for such formalities, Kwame, please get up. If I recall the duel’s terms were only regarding Daniel’s participating in any training session for a month… Jonas never said anything about the rest of your party. Besides, I enjoyed my time training with the young faun you have with you. I believe we can help each other.” Said Gabriel as he pulled the man up by the arm.
Getting up, Kwame was almost hysterical after what Gabriel said.
“Thank you, Mr. Gabriel, we’ll be amazing guests to you and the village! I have to let everyone know, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Now could you share with me where is Bryn?”
Nodding his read, Kwame answered honestly, “Knowing that kid, he is most certainly training something. You might find him in his tent near the stables or where everyone was training this morning.”.
“Thank you, Kwame, I’ll take my leave now. Take care of Daniel and remind him of the deal…” Gabriel said holding his laughter and walking towards the stables.
With his laugh, Kwame remembered the second part of the deal. Part of him was laughing as well, that is until he started to think about how to tell Daniel about it.
Arriving at Bryn’s tent, Gabriel realized Kwame was right. The kid was not here and everything was organized to the milimiter. Should Gabriel know about OCD he would be sure to diagnose Bryn.
Walking to the training area, he saw the young faun performing a few fighting movements. They were similar to the training in the morning, but he felt more relaxed even though the movements were more complex.
He approached Bryn slowly and said nothing so as not to interrupt his session. It didn’t take long for Bryn to see him while performing one of his spinning kicks.
“Mr. Gabriel, what are you doing here?” Bryn asked, almost spinning out of control as he saw the blond man watching him.
“I wanted to see how you were. After the fight you didn’t say much and had to rush everyone to the main hall so they felt a little more at ease with Daniel’s condition…”
“Thank you, but you do not have to worry about me.”
Changing the subject, Gabriel asked him something that was bothering him, “Bryn, what exactly are you trying to do with these movements?”.
“I thought told you before, I’m trying to wake up fighting skills…” Looking up at the sky-blue eyes of the golden-haired man in front of him, he answered.
Confused by his answer, Gabriel rebutted “You realize that what you just said makes no sense at all right?”
“Why would that make no sense? I use a similar method to create the Parkour skill…” Bryn said looking at Gabriel as if he was a child without any knowledge.
Gabriel had no idea he was talking to an adult reborn in a new world so he took Bryn’s arrogance as the lack of experience and youth of an 8-year-old.
“That is exactly why you are doing it wrong if you plan to unlock a fighting skill…” Gabriel said.
“How is that?” Bryn was getting annoyed by the lack of explanations provided by the veteran.
“Let me put it another way… For the mobility skills you created, what did you have to do to awaken them?” He asked the faun.
“I had to train the movements,” Bryn answered, rolling his eyes up bugged to point out the obvious.
“From what you and Kwame told me, you also learned One-Handed Sword Mastery. Tell me, how did that fighting skill get unlocked?” Gabriel continued by moving his hands up and down trying to calm Bryn’s angry expression.
“I had to kill a rabbit…” At that moment, Bryn’s mind almost felt different cogs connecting as they started to rethink his strategy to wake up the desired skill.
Before he could finish, Gabriel continued. “There is no way to wake up fighting skills without a fight…”
Gabriel’s words were the last piece of the puzzle for Bryn’s mind to rethink what he was missing.
He was trying to wake up a new skill related to fighting, but a skill that probably didn’t exist in this new world, so he would have to construct the pillars related to this new skill. Taekwondo had two main pillars with one extension, they were: Forms and Fighting. To train Forms, you had to practice each individual movement and the Form for each belt. Fighting could also be separated into two categories, sparring and actual taekwondo-style fights.
He had sparred with Amelia a couple of times, but unfortunately, he had never considered completing the last missing piece!
Despite taking too long to describe, Bryn took less than a second to think all of it and asked Gabriel looking enthusiastic.
“Mr. Gabriel, would you indulge my curiosity?”
“I like the look in your eyes… How can I help?” the man returned.
“I’ll explain a weird set of rules to you, then could you have a match against me?”
“If it is a fighting contest I must tell you that you can't beat me… But why not… What are the rules?”
Bryn then used a stick to draw a small ring on the floor and he proceeded to explain the championship rules of a Taekwondo fight.
Gabriel was able to understand the rules, even though he thought that they were not very logical. One can’t punch certain places, the use of certain body parts is off-limits, and different hits give different points.
As they positioned themselves at the poorly drawn arena, Bryn said a few words that Gabriel was not able to understand. As the faun bowed in his direction and assumed a fighting stance, Gabriel understood that it had started.
Allowing Bryn to perform a few moves, Gabriel used the opportunity to measure Bryn’s fighting sense. His distance control, range perception, faints, and many other elements. Bryn went in the attack directly, not giving Gabriel time to think. That would be true should their statuses be closer to one another. In the man’s eyes, the faun was walking so slowly towards him that it was difficult to control his reaction to match with Bryn’s speed.
Both exchanged a few blows and while they fought, Gabriel pointed out to Bryn key improvements he should absorb. The fight went on until the faun was exhausted. At the very end, Gabriel softly hits different places in Bryn’s body to achieve the necessary points for a perfect victory. As the fight was over, Bryn once more bowed toward Gabriel, and familiar sounds rang in his mind.