Novis's plans changed from what he had originally intended to do today. He didn't go to his grandfather's dojo. He didn't go and play VSW, he was currently just lying in his room thinking about his match with Mac.

Novis was wondering what he would do if he was to face a different type of opponent. Mac was an easy win for him due to the slow Warrior he chose. It was hard for Novis to tell if he was actually strong.

This led Novis thinking about a fight between him and Lucas. Lucas was someone who the same ages as Novis but Lucas wanted to become a pro. If Novis could beat someone like him, then he could truly say that he was strong.

Novis thought back to the fight between Arthur and Lucas. When Arthur won the fight back then, Arthur didn't even display much skill. Lucas was frozen and Arthur eventually defeated him with a single strike.

There was only one person who had a good grasp on both of them and that was Arthur.

"Do you think I did well today?" Novis asked.

"Of course you did, you won the fight without getting a scratch on you," Arthur replied

Then Novis paused for a while before asking his next question.

"Then, out of me and Lucas who do you think would win?"

"Lucas" Arthur answered straight away.

Novis didn't know why but the fact that Arthur had answered straight away like that hurt him a bit. Novis had been training non-stop to get stronger. Of course, he hadn't been playing as long as Lucas had but he couldn't imagine anyone else his age putting in as much effort as he had done.

"Why do you say that?"

"You still have a long way to go Novis, your strength is still weak, your decision making is poor and you still don't have the fighting experience. Although you have trained with me for a long time now and I guarantee it would be enough to defeat most people out there, Lucas is a different animal like a dragon."

Hearing Arthur praise Lucas like that really did sting Novis. He too wished that Arthur would say these words about him.

Although Arthur didn't say this to Novis, Arthur had a different thought about the two. If he were to compare the two of them today to animals and beasts, while Lucas was a headstrong fierce dragon, he would say Novis was a bird.

But in the future that bird would grow up to be a fierce phoenix. Each time Arthur trained with Novis he felt like Novis was an entirely different person. His improvement was monstrous. It would only be a matter of time before Novis evolved from that little bird, into a fiery raging phoenix.

Arthur decided that Novis deserved a good rest tonight and would not bother him inside his dreams. Arthur was really proud of Novis. Novis now wanted to get stronger on his own and had a goal. Arthur felt like if he said anything, then perhaps Novis would be satisfied with how far he had come.

*****

It was currently five in the morning the next day, the sky was a murky grey with hints of blue as Dan waited for the sun to rise. Dan was a student at Montem middle school and also the leader of the track team. He was known as a pretty boy by most of the girls and even had his own dedicated fan club.

But Dan didn't care about any of that. Dan had a pure passion for running. He was the best long-distance runner that Montem middle school had ever seen. He had beaten all the students with ease once he had joined the school club, but dan whished for more. He was saddened by the lack of competition and was hoping there would be a rival out there that could beat him.

One day when Dan was out running, he spotted a small boy with a similar frame to himself running outside in the same neighbourhood as his. It was rare for Dan to see someone close to him in age running at this time of day. Dan wasn't sure if this was a one-time event so he decided to run in the same spot the next day.

Again, Dan saw the same boy out for a run. Dan thought that this boy must have the same amount of passion for running as he did. For every day this week, he had seen the boy go out for a run. Today was the day that Dan would approach the boy and get himself a true rival.

Novis was currently getting ready for his routine 5k run that he did every morning, Novis struggled with it at first but after running every morning for the last three months it became part of his daily routine and he couldn't go a day without doing it.

Today Novis wanted to try something different though, Novis wanted to get stronger and that meant he needed to train harder. Novis set the running app on his phone and he was going to try set a personal best today.

Novis set off running at a faster pace as usual. As he reached the corner of the street Dan could see Novis running towards him. Dan went out to step out to introduce himself but Novis was too focused and kept running at a face-paced speed completely ignoring Dan.

"Okay, you want to play it like that then huh?"

Dan had made up his own impression of Novis and thought Novis wouldn't speak to anyone he didn't consider a rival. Him running at this pace was a challenge. Dan set off following Novis closely behind.

Dan was impressed at the pace Novis was running at but thought there was no way he would be able to keep it up. Then the 1k mark came up, then the 2K and the 3k. Novis didn't drop the pace not even a little. Dan heart started to beat louder but not from the running, it was from excitement. For the first time in his life, he was running his hardest with Novis.

When both of them finally had reached the 5k mark they came to a stop. Novis and Dan were both panting hard and completely out of breath. Although Dan was tired, he thought this might be the only chance he would get to introduce himself.

Novis could see someone approaching him and as he looked up it was a face he recognised well. The two of them attended the same school and there wasn't a person who didn't know who Dan was, he was well-loved between the girls and hated by most of the boys.

"You….is…. Beautiful." Dan said.

Dan was so out of breath that the words that were meant to be spoken out of his mouth came out wrong. What he was meant to say was. Your running is beautiful. Novis took this quite literally.

"I don't know how to politely say this but, I don't like sausages."

Dan hearing these words out of his mouth was confused. Why was the boy talking about sasuges? Then a thought came to his mind, perhaps Novis was trying to engage in the art of small talk.

"I love sausages," Dan said with a huge smile.

Although Novis didn't care for the love between two men. He himself was not interested. Then he noticed that Dan was sweating and panting. Dan must have been running after him this whole time he thought. Novis was starting to get worried that Dan was a big-time stalker.

"I have to get going to school otherwise I'll be late sorry," Novis said as he quickly took off.

Even though Novis was so beaten down from running he mustered up all his strength so he could getaway. As Dan watched Novis run away, he had one thought, he must truly love running.

Author Note: Hi everyone, I am currently living in china where we have the Corna virus outbreak going on, because of this I have been stuck at my GF parents' house for the last few weeks. Finally, I will be able to go back home. Because of this, I will be travelling for the next two days. During this time, I will write more chapters. so you guys can continue enjoying the content I will post one chapter a day. Then later will post the 6 extra chapters for hitting that 800 Stone goal.

Let's go for 900 Stones this week!