The two boys standing next to Gary came forward. Gary held out his hand to stop them.

"I can take him out on my own" Gary said.

Gary unstrapped his sword that was attached to his waist and threw it down on the floor.

"No weapons," Gary said.

"Fine" I replied.

I unstrapped my sword and threw it down to the floor as well. I was happy that Garry had suggested no weapons to be honest. Even when I was a dragon I made it my policy to not kill children. Children are very innocent. It was the a.d.u.l.ts that made children go down the wrong path.

"I can do this," I thought to myself, I hadn't won against my father but this was the first time I was fighting someone my age. it was a chance to test myself.

I decided to attack first. I threw my fist towards his face, Gary lent back and avoided the punch. He then grabbed my hand and pulled my body towards him. Which allowed him to knee me in the face. My head flung back and my nose was bleeding.

The two boys behind Gary started to laugh. I looked towards Amy and could see she had a sad look on her face. She was blaming herself for what was happening, but she was wrong. It wasn't her fault it was just human nature that people are like this.

Gary was waiting for me to make another move, he reminded me of that damn training doll. I went with a faint punch. As Gary moved to avoid the punch I used the momentum to spin my body and perform an axe kick. Gary had blocked the kick with both of his forearms just in time. Then Gary had disappeared from my view. He was below me and swept my legs. I fell to the floor as he kicked me in the stomach. The fight was over I had lost. The air had been kicked out of my stomach and I could no longer stand.

Gary went to pick up his belongings and began to walk off with his sister and friends. He turned around to say his last words.

"You have your father training and your still this useless, you should stick to doing something you're good at."

I stayed there lying on the floor, the pain had gone away but I couldn't help think about his words. Something had clicked in my head I needed to try it out straight away.

*****

Gary and Amy had safely arrived home, his sister started to complain. Explaining that Ray had done nothing wrong, how she was the one who approached him.

"I was just looking out for you amy, nothing has ever come good from someone who has the red curse," Gary explained.

"I hate you" Amy shouted.

Amy cried and went to her room. Gary was inside his room and started to take off his clothes. He was wearing a light set of leather armour. He noticed that something was strange around his forearms. He took out the pads that were inside the set of armour. The Pads contained a light metal material that was able to withstand sword attacks.

The pads themselves had been completely ruined. The metal had two huge dents in them the size of a baseball.

"It must have happened from that axe kick. that fight was closer then I thought."

Gary was correct in his thought. If he wasn't wearing the pads the kick would have broken his arms. Ray would have won that fight. What Ray also wasn't aware if was that Ray had actually thought very well in the fight. If he had thought anyone else his age in the village apart from Gary he would have won quite easily.

Gary had been training to become a knight since he was born. He practised every day just like Ray had been doing. He had a dream to one day get him and his family out of the poor situation they were in.

*****

I decided to head back home after the fight with Gary. I had completely lost to someone who was the same age as me. I needed to change something. I couldn't just carry on doing the same thing over and over. When Gary had said those last few words to me it had given me an idea. He said "to do something I'm good at," I thought long and hard after the fight what I could do that I was good at. It finally came to me.

A couple of weeks had passed since the fight with Gary. I had been going back to the top of the hill a lot to practice my new idea. Every time I went I would see Amy sitting there by the tree. We spoke a lot together and decided to ignore what had happened to me and her brother. She said she had some words with her brother when she got back and wouldn't bother us anymore. I didn't know if she was telling the truth or not as she would often go check to see if anyone was watching or coming towards us.

I was back at the barn and ready to face the doll again. Weeks of work had been going into my new idea and I needed to see if all that hard work had finally paid off. I went up to the wooden doll and said "Level 1". The purple light surrounded the wooden doll and it was the start of our battle.

A few seconds later the Purple light surrounded the doll again and said

"Level 1 Passed"

I was sweating, not from the physical stress but the mental stress. If this new fighting style didn't work I didn't know what I would have done. I went to the back of the doll again and put my hand on it.

"Level 2" I was ready, to see how far I could push myself.