"I'll beat you this time!" I yelled at my brother.
All the kids in our village surrounded us and were watching us closely. In the background I could hear some of them say how this will end as it always does, my brother wins and I end up on the ground.
Both my brother and I were equipped with wooden training swords for reasons I don't really need to explain.
"How many wins am I at again? Fifty, right?" He asked.
"So what? I'll make it fifty wins and one loss soon enough, Akira." I said, tightening my grip on my weapon.
I charged head first at Akira and swung my weapon. Almost effortlessly, Akira dodged my attack and attempted to hit me from behind. I just narrowly turned myself around in time to block his attack. As usual, I saw that he was still only using one hand to hold onto his weapon.
"You always lead off with charging head first at me. Your form is also sloppy." Akira commented.
This time Akira was the one to throw out an attack first. He swung his bamboo sword at me which nearly knocked me over. Before I could fully recover he swung it again, this time knocking my weapon out of my hands and making me fall to the ground.
"Dammit, I really thought I could win this time." I said, with a disappointed look on my face.
Akira offered his hand to me which I took and helped me get up. He put both bamboo swords away in their sheathes before attaching them to his waist.
"You'll get stronger the more you train, John. Though I'm sure I don't need to tell you this." Akira said, walking back to our house.
Two of my childhood friends ran up to me and patted me on the back. The first one was Megumi who lived just across the street from me while the other was Katsu who lived lived in the house next to mine.
"Look on the bright side, at least you blocked one of his attacks. That's better than what you did last time." Megumi said, trying to comfort me.
"That's what happens when you face someone who's as strong as the commander of the Royal Guard." Katsu said.
By now the crowd watching my fight had completely dispersed leaving only me, Megumi, and Katsu.
"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Megumi. I think I'm gonna train in the forest for a bit." I said, walking away from them.