Sweat dripped down the face of the knight, Felgrand. Beneath him, hooves beating on the ground faster than before, Sterius, his trusted steed, panted as he was pushed to the limit. The air was far hotter than usual, due to the large fire breathing dragon they had been fighting for hours before them.

The dragon had retreated to the top of a mountain, but was closely pursued but the duo. A cone of fire rained down upon the two, but the pure white shield on Felgrand's left arm shot forward, projecting a clear barrier around them. The shield would break soon, but Felgrand had the dragon right where he wanted. He lifted his pure white sword and it glowed with an impressive power, before slashing the air, seemingly tearing the air itself, as a blast of force cut through the air and collided with the dragon’s left wing. The wing was split in two, with a smile, Felgrand kicked off Sterius as he went in to finish the job.

Now falling towards the dragon, preparing to finish the job, the dragon lifted its head and unleashed a wave of fire more powerful than the last. Felgrand's shield lit up once more, but the barrier could not hold on, as the barrier and the shield shattered. Gritting his teeth, Felgrand pierced through the fire with just his armor, blisters appearing and hair searing off, but he did not faulter. He continued through the flames, his will shining out of him as a pure white glow. With a yell, Felgrand raised his sword, and swung down -- a kickball slammed Zane in the side of the head, knocking the book out of his hand.

"Damn it" he thought, "Lost my damn page." Zane picked up the kickball that had hit him, and looked up to see who had misplaced his head for the ball rack.

Zane sighed as he saw the sneering face of Keith approaching him, just about the most stereotypical bully that appeared in any exaggerated bullying scene in those old school movies. Zane had honestly thought that people grew out of bullying years ago, and definitely to this degree, especially for a high school senior. On another note, Zane had no clue up till last year that high schools still had recess, but for such an athletics based school, I guess the higher ups couldn't even thing about these kids sitting for too long.

Keith had been the bane of Zane since he showed up to Creekbend High last year, he was convinced these kids had a sixth sense to detect people that wouldn't fight back. Zane hadn't made it easy for him, but he assumed Keith liked the change of pace.

"I think you have something that belongs to us!" Keith smirked, not even trying to hide that he hit Zane on purpose.

Behind Keith were his two goons, guys who followed him at the heel for any of his table scraps, Mike and Evan.

"Here" Keith sneered, picking up Zane's fallen book, "How about a trade?"

Zane just looked up at Keith, "Trying to pick up a book, Keith?" Zane smiled, "I didn't know you could read."

Keith frowned, and just tisked, "So that's how its gonna be?" he said, opening the book and ripping out some of the pages.

"HEY!" Zane shouted, eyes darting around, until he saw the ball in his hands.

Zane took a pen out of his pocket, and slammed it down into the red rubber, causing it to bend, before it popped in a loud BOOM. The limp rubber all remaining in his hand, as he tossed it at Keith's chest,

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"There" he said, "Now it's a fair trade," grabbing the book out of Keith's hands, who just stood there, dumbstruck.

His shock soon turned to rage, as he grabbed Zane by the shoulder and threw him to the ground.

"You two!" Keith shouted at his cronies, "Take him around the other side of the school." Zane tried to resist, but his vantage was not one of power, as Mike and Evan dragged him by his legs across the grass at the back of the school lot, taking him to the other side of the school, where no one would see what was about to be done to him.

Zane was not a stranger to fighting, at least he was before he moved to Creekbend High, but Keith graciously gave him that experience. Although, what happened to Zane in these circumstances he wouldn't exactly call a fight, but rather a beatdown. Mike and Evan threw Zane to the ground, followed up by a strong kick to the stomach from Keith.

"Just stay down, why fight back?" Keith asked, truly confused, kicking again, "just let it happen and it'll be over, I just can't let you speak to me like that, I have a reputation I would like to maintain."

Keith backed off, and Zane lay on the ground, struggling for breath. Zane mumbled something under his breath, loud enough for Keith to hear he spoke, but not what he said.

"What was that?" Keith asked, leaning down to the crumpled form of Zane. When he got close enough down, Zane looked up, grinning "You can't keep me down," as he stood up quickly, slamming his head right into Keith's nose, feeling a sickening crunch.

Keith stumbled back, eyes wide, touching his broken nose which was now spewing blood. His eyes filled with rage as he and his goons rushed Zane, who managed a good right hook on Mike before he was knocked to the ground, where the aforementioned beatdown took place.

Zane had no idea how he still had all of his teeth, as Keith never exactly pulled his punches, but his best guess was a lost tooth would be physical proof that Zane could take to the police to place blame on him. Since they were both 18, Keith could get charged with assault, but this being a small town and him being the team captain for the lacrosse team, the team Creekbend High was famous for, the law just bent around him. As Zane walked back to the school after his beating, planning on stopping by Nurse Ryan, when he spotted the main reason why Keith never got in trouble, his mother. Apparently, when your mom is the principal and you're the star of the team, you can basically do anything with no repercussions, which is why Zane's beaten and bruised body only got a scoff from Ms. Richards.

"You know, you should really be more careful when playing around during recess time, anything can happen if you're not careful," she said, condescendingly.

She obviously knew what just went down. Her eyes never left her precious baby, unless of course he was out of sight, then she could just say she didn't see anything if something came up. At that moment, her eyes glanced behind Zane, and her eyes widened, as she saw the bloody face of Keith, holding up a now stained red towel to his nose.

She rushed over to Keith, "What happened?!" she said, pulling the towel away from his face, revealing the broken nose beneath a layer of blood. "Did Zane hit you?" she said, turning back glaring at Zane, Keith just nodded as he was taken to the athletic center's on site medical practitioner by a recess monitor.

Zane held out his hand, "Just give me the slip," as Ms. Richards walked over. A pink slip with just the word "Fighting" on the reason box for his after school detention.

Zane grinned up at Ms. Richards, knowing she wouldn't dare suspend Zane for fighting, because a suspension could lead to a more formal investigation, which could involve law enforcement. Although she could likely sweep an issue like this under the rug, it wasn't worth the risk.

Ms. Richards leaned forward and glared at Zane, "You would do well to never lay a finger on my boy ever again, now get out of my sight," she said, staring daggers at Zane. "And go see nurse Ryan, you look horrible." Zane just grinned and said "I would say you should see the other guy, but you already have," as he walked away, not even bothering to see her response.