Standing inside a dojo located somewhere within the city of Los Angeles, was a man named Dante and his Son, Ethan.
Ethan is a lean young man with a well-developed physique, standing at a height of 175 cm with short unkempt jet-black hair and a pair of sky blue eyes. His father on the other hand, was a tall man around his late 30s, standing at 6"3" ft with a well built frame. Like his son, he also had dark hair and blue eyes. He had a handsome face any man could dream of and it's one of the traits that Nathan inherited as well.
Dante was dressed in an all black attire which was specially designed for training there were doing in this dogo. He was resting his wooden sword on his right shoulder while looking at Nathan, who was wincing in pain on the ground.
"Now Up!!" Hearing his father's command, Ethan swiftly stood up and picked up his wooden sword before backing away.
Ethan wore a black combat attire like his dad and now the two individuals just stared at each other in silence. Ethan on one hand, was indecisive of what his next course of action should be. Although his dad was standing there nonchalantly, he saw no openings in his defense so he couldn't offend to attack carelessly but standing and doing nothing won't do him any good either. Therefore,
""Ooooooooooooooooooo!!"
Along with a fired up yell, Ethan dashed and swung his wooden sword towards the person in his line of sight.
Dante casually brushed away Ethan's sword. However, his first attack being dispelled, was within Nathan's expectations.
"Haaaaaahhhhh!"
He then linked together countless number of slashes with a single breath, trying to use his speed to break through Dante's defense.
"Hey hey, I know you're excited and all, but won't you at least think about the situation first?"
Dante forcefully swept his sword to push aside Ethan's wooden sword and broke his linked attack – when Ethan realized it, it was too late.
His posture was broken!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Dante planted his right foot into Ethan's chest.
Guaaahhh!?"
With the impact from the heavy blow, Ethan was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
"Ga…..u, aa…!"
The impact from the crash slammed the air from his lungs before he fell on the ground. He used his remaining strength to force himself up despite the pain he was feeling. His chest region hurt the most due to him receiving the kick there.
"Why are you fighting head on against someone with superior strength. Is something wrong with you?" Dante said while lightly tapping the wooden sword on his shoulder.
"When facing one with superior strength than you, It goes without saying that you must be creative with your attacks, but if you can't exceed your opponent's expectations or imagination—"
Before he could finish explaining, Ethan already started his his attacks again. He accelerated suddenly, and at the same time performed an vertical sweep.
"Making such a big swing right after I said that – Ooh!?" Dante raised his mock sword while saying that, but Ethan cancelled his attack. He dug his left foot into the ground, utilizing the forces on his body due to the sudden change in motion to perform a horizontal slash. However,
Ethan's attack was made useless. The movements of his right arm was stopped. As if saying he wouldn't fall for it, the floor of Dante's right foot had intercepted it.
"Not a bad try but just like how it's easy for the opponent to make a move when you're this close, the opponent can also easily defend or counterattack. If you really want to use something like this, remember to always break the pacing of the opponent when misleading them, if not… it'll be bad if the attack is blocked!" Dante explained
Before Ethan could react, he suddenly saw the world upside down before landing on his back on the ground.
"Gaa… uh… gu—!?"
He immediately sucked back the air that was knocked form his lungs. The wooden sword in Logan's hand, is now pointed at his throat.
"And then this happens." Dante said with a smile and pulled his training sword away.
"Well, I think that's enough for today." Dante said before turning around to leave.
"W...Wait, I can still fight." Ethan said as he got up and started straightening his training attire. This is not the first time that he has been knocked down during their training section. It has been happening since he was four when his dad allowed him inside the dojo and started teaching him Swordsmanship. Even now that he is sixteen, nothing had changed.
"As much as I want to continue our little spar, you have school today so don't push yourself." Dante said before exiting the dojo.
"Damn, I got my butt served again. No matter how much I train, I can never beat that man." Ethan muttered and sighed. It wasn't like he was bad, rather one could say that Ethan is close to being a master swordsman. He was confident that he could beat anyone that is not his dad in swordsmanship.
"What a pain." Ethan grumbled and finally left the dojo.
***
Faith Academy
The radar of a boy named Miguel, a recent addition to the ranks of high school students, began spinning around.
A brand new school, a new classroom, and new bitches.
His eyes scanned the atmosphere of the place remained harsh, predatory while he sat at the back of the class. With one glance, he quickly judged who was beneath him, and who was qualified to be his friend.
The laws of the jungle reigned supreme in this world called the classroom.
Even back in middle school, Miguel ruled the roost with his fists. To his eyes, the majority of his classmates looked like a bunch of easy prey. Almost without exception, those that met his glare all quickly averted their gazes.
"How lame."
However, there was a dude with brown hair styled in an undercut fashion that walked closer to him with a grin on his face, instead.
"Oh, that's luke."
Luke was one of those 'friends' who did his thing in the neighbouring district. Also, they ran into each other every now and then while sharing casual booze with his other friends, too.
"You were here as well?."
"Yeah."
They greeted each other and shared news on their particular circle of acquaintances while measuring each other up, but that only lasted for a short while.
Luke had heard the infamy of Miguel plenty of time before so he lowered his head first and got under the latter's wings.
"Take care of me from now on, alright?"
Miguel smirked deeply and grasped Luke's extended hand. And so, as he was about halfway done with establishing the hierarchical relationship with the rest of the class, there was this one guy who kept getting on Miguel's nerves for some reason.
It was a strange kid who sat in the middle and didn't even bother to avert his gaze away when their gazes met each other.
There would always be one like this guy in every class – a punk who didn't know his place and needed a good beating to know who was on top and who was at the bottom.
That punk was looking at him, before sighing out, as if he found this whole thing ridiculous, and reverted his gaze back to his front. Obviously, Miguel couldn't take that lying down anymore and stood up from his seat.
This punk was naturally Ethan, who was just minding his business.
The sound of his chair dragging against the ground attracted the attention of the other students whose gazes focused on Miguel.
He obviously enjoyed all the attention and, while feeling pretty good about himself, strode right over to the punk who didn't know his place.
Just as Miguel was about to grab the punk's shoulder, a tackle came in from a rather unexpected quarter.
"Wait!"
After confirming that it was Luke who grabbed his wrist, Miguel opened his mouth.
"What?" Miguel questioned.
There was obviously signs of displeasure in his voice and that caused luke to nervously swallow his saliva.
"If you can help it, you shouldn't bother him."
"Huh? Why is he trying to protect his punk?" Miguel thought. He could only think of two potential reasons for that.
One, that couldn't be brought up but still forbade anyone from touching this punk.
Two, they were looking down on him.
Miguel's expression hardened instantly and he began lightly kicking the chair of the 'punk' who didn't even bother to turn around.
"Hey, hey? Who the hell are you? Why don't you say something? Don't you have a mouth?" Miguel yelled.
Luke's face paled really quickly and tried to stop Miguel once again. Miguel's patience had finally ran thin and he slapped the latter's hand away while shooting a fierce glare.
"Come with me."
As Miguel left the classroom, two of his underlings followed after him. He stopped right at the doorway and looked back. His eyes caught Luke sweating buckets, while the 'punk' didn't seem to care.
"Tsk."
A chilling murderous aura filled up Miguel's eyes