Kenny was nervous, he took his stance and prepared himself. Across from him was William who was calm and collected. William held his wooden sword with both hands and raised it in front of him. Kenny took the initiative, charging towards William unleashing a barrage of consecutive strikes. William blocked slash after blow. Kenny retreated back trying to think of a solution to win his unwinable battle.
'Shit, if I continue like this I'll surely loose. Think Kenny! Think!"
While Kenny was in thought, William was suddenly in front of Kenny. Kenny with a surprised look on his face, dodged the downward swing aimed at his head by a literal hair. Kenny had no time to think so with all his strength, he retaliated with an upwards swing. William dodged the strike and attacked with an upwards swing of his own hitting Kenny square in the chest, sending him flying a multiple feet.
Kenny got back up and continuously coughed. He looked up at the unfazed William.
'Dammit, bastard isn't even struggling.'
Kenny resumed his stance, keeping his eyes on William. Suddenly, there he was, in front of his face yet again. Kenny was astonished as to how he even got there. He had clearly seen him several meters away from him but he was now in front of him. Kenny could only come up with one conclusion. His gift.
While barely dodging and blocking all of Williams strikes, kenny began to think. Williams gift is either an extreme burst of speed, or teleportion. Although one might think that it's a burst of speed due to his straight forward attacks, Kenny was leaning more towards the second possibility.
'There's a limitation on every gift, the thing is, I need to know how much time and distance.'
Kenny was on the pure defensive only trying to find out more about Williams gift. He attempted the same back heel kick he knocked out his previous opponent with, but as expected William had blocked it. Kenny used this as a chance to create distance. He used the wooden sword as a stepping stool and propelled himself backwards. He quickly got back up, and as he expected he was in front of him again. Kenny began to count as he created distance yet again.
'1, 2, 3, 4, -7, 8, 9, 10'
Then, William disappeared and the appeared again. But this time not quite as close.
'So about a couple of meters of distance too.'
William began to perform consecutive slash's giving Kenny a hard time. But in Kenny's mind, he was counting waiting for the right moment to strike.
'8, 9… 10!'
Then as kenny had predicted, William had vanished. The moment William vanished kenny instantly ducked and kicked behind himself, striking William straight on the ribs with all of the strength he had, sending William flying.
At that moment Kenny felt proud of what he accomplished. But again, not all things go as planned. Kenny thought that the strike would incapacitate William, but he was wrong. While grabbing his his side, William got back up and looked at Kenny. Kenny saw a face of astonishment.
Never in the 6 years of obtaining his gift had someone close to his own age predicted his Gift: [blink].
Kenny was waiting in anticipation as William composed himself.
William took his battle stance and used his gift.
[Blink].
This time he was not in front of Kenny, but beside him. This surprised Kenny as he tried to avoid the attack, but it was too late the wooden sword had already struck him. The blow was powerful, knocking Kenny far.
Kenny quickly got back up and dashed towards William.
William blocked Kenny's swing as he himself swung back. Kenny dodged backwards.
Then suddenly, William disappeared. Kenny ducked again and hit William yet again.
William first that that it might be a fluke, but now he was sure that Kenny knew the conditions of his gift.
Another ten second passed, but William had yet to use his gift. Now, all Kenny could do is guess when William would use his gift.
Kenny prepared himself, he dashed towards William, which was a mistake. William used [Blink] and appeared beside Kenny. William swung his wooden sword with all his strength, knocking the air out of Kenny as he was sent flying onto the floor.
The winner of this battle, was William.
As the same time, a tall and big figure could be seen sitting on a chair conveniently place atop a building, next to the battles which were taking place. The figure smiled in amusement, and said:
"Finally, it's been too long. A good one."
***
Kenny opened his eyes, in front of him was Claire, resting her head on his lap as she slept. On Kenny's face could be seen a faint smile as he looked at Claire. He turned his gaze to look out at the window beside him. A sudden pain struck his chest as his smile faded and was replaced with saddened eyes.
'Is this the end of my little fantasy?'
Then the door to the room opened and a somewhat buff old man with grey hair and white military uniform walked through, many badges decorating his chest. Kenny was confused, not knowing who this person is. The old man grabbed a chair and proceeded to walk over to Kenny's bed. He placed down the chair and sat down.
Kenny still looking confused asked: "who are you?"
"My name is Alexander Yemel and I wish to speak with you about your future." The old man said.
"My futu—, WAIT, your saying your THE Alexander Yemel, the General of the Vanquisher Corps?!" Kenny yelled in astonishment.
Claire jumped, scared by Kenny's sudden outburst of shock. She looked over at Kenny.
"Ken your awake."
"Huh, Oh ya I am."
She looked over next to her, then back at Kenny, then back to General Yemel. Her eyes shot out of her eye sockets as soon as she realized who she was sitting next to. She immediately stood up to salute him.
"G-General Yemel what are you doing here."
"I'm just here to talk to this boy. Could you give us some space?" The old man said.
"Of course sir!"
Clare walked out of the room while giving Kenny a suspicious look, leaving General Yemel and Kenny alone. As he turned his gaze back to Kenny, General Yemel began to speak with Kenny.
"Your name is Kenny correct?"
"Yes sir." Kenny replied.
"Seeming as you don't have a last name your a commoner, is that also correct?"
Kenny gave the General a glare, seeming to know where he was heading with the conversation but somewhat restrained himself.
"Is that a problem."Kenny said with a relaxed tone.
General Yemel slightly smiled.
"Not at all, as a matter of fact I thought you were a noble or something."
Kenny not expecting that, gave the General a puzzled look.
"Why is that?"
"Because, your strong for your age and status. Honestly I was surprised when you countered Williams Gift, and on top of that feat you have a gift that does nothing in battle. Can you blame me when my son who was trained with many tutors the moment he received his gift gets struck multiple times by a commoner who has a useless gift?"
"I guess.. not."
Now that kenny was told by another person what he had accomplished he felt proud of himself again. But didn't let it show and remained composed.
"Does this relate to what you said earlier about talking about my future?"
The General looked at Kenny with a straight face and said something that shocked Kenny.
"Yeah. I want to invest in you Kenny."
Kenny looked staggered by what the old man in front of him had said. The General of the Vanquisher Corps wanting to invest in him?
"Invest in me?"kenny questioned.
"That's right."