"He's waiting for you inside." A boy led Kenny to the second floor, where the standout students trained outside the parameters set by the Senseis who taught the others.
Pum!
"Ya!"
Pum! Pum!
"Ya!"
Pum! Pum! Pum!
"Aren't you guys coming in?" Kenny turned his gaze back to the boys at the door, asking if they weren't following him.
"We can't enter that place; good luck, kid."
After completing their task, the boys returned to the first floor to continue their training, leaving Kenny at the entrance where Dash was.
Kenny was very nervous; he wanted to go back, but now that he was in this place, there was no way he could leave without learning to throw a good punch. "Alright, here we go."
Crack! "Ahhhhh!"
When Kenny entered, he saw a boy flying off the mat and falling painfully to the ground, but none of those around the mat reacted to that brutal blow.
"Improve your posture, Antoni. You hit too hard, so do fifty push-ups."
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Haha, that fool, he told him to learn to control his strength." Liam mocked Antoni because they were very close friends, but this was unforgivable during the training.
Dash, who noticed that, said, "Thanks to Liam, everyone will do fifty push-ups. Start!"
"Yes, Sensei!"
In this room, there were only boys, so they all gave Liam a cold look. They all knew that he would later pay for laughing at the distracted one.
But now that they had to fulfill Dash's demands, they folded on the floor and began to do push-ups to continue with their training.
When Dash turned his head, he saw Kenny at the door and signaled him to come closer. "Now that you're here, tell me the truth. How fit are you?"
"What do you mean?" Kenny asked with a friendly smile.
But Dash wasn't laughing and replied, "Physical condition. Do you play any sports? I need to know to understand exactly how to start your training."
"I do some sports, well, just at school, so..." Kenny began to understand a little about Dash's behavior in this place, so he kept a more serious expression. He also understood that Dash wasn't a friend just because they exchanged a few words.
When Dash knew more or less about Kenny's condition, he taught him the correct way to punch. "This isn't common, but because it's an emergency, you'll learn the right way to throw a punch."
"Yes!"
"In an unavoidable fight, you must always go for the biggest; no matter what the result is, make sure to hit the biggest one and bring him down before the others come at you," Dash said, showing him the right way to punch.
"Punch!" Dash moved his arm and punched the dummy straight in the stomach.
Kenny was confused and asked, "Didn't you tell me to punch him in the nose?"
"Blood can be a factor against this attack, so if you don't want to break the nose of a big guy, hit him in the center of the stomach. But this only works with thin people; someone robust might not lose their breath with a single punch."
Nervously, Kenny swallowed when he saw the seriousness in Dash's words. He looked again at the dummy and gently punched it in the same way Dash had done.
Pum! "What the hell was that?" Dash looked at Kenny and asked about his punch.
"I just punched the same way you did," Kenny said, a little confused.
"How do you compare your punch to mine? Look at my hands; can you see all those calluses? Those are my knuckles, reinforced by the thousands of punches I've thrown. Now look at yours; do you see anything there? The answer is no. So, you need to punch harder," Dash said, being more serious with Kenny than he commonly was with others.
To prevent this kid from being intimidated, he had to be more serious. He must understand that life treats people badly if they see someone happy, so he shouldn't be strong enough to endure all those comments or be intimidating enough to avoid them.
"Punch once more!"
"Yes!"
Pum!
In the first punch, Kenny felt his knuckles burning, but his gaze didn't change, and he firmly kept his fist in the position Dash had taught him.
"Punch one more time!"
"Yes!"
Pum!
"Faster, stronger, and also move!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing to see the new guy who seemed to have a supernatural talent as they watched him hit the dummy, and they nodded as they saw those punches becoming more perfect.
By the time Kenny finished punching, he looked at his reddened knuckles, but Dash, who was next to him, gave him a pat on the shoulder and said, "Now you know how to punch; we'll focus on training your body for now."
"Yes, Sensei!" Kenny responded, following the example of the others.
Dash nodded slightly and returned to the group training, where Kenny also lined up.