As David was swinging his knife forward to land a hit to the side of Jace's head, he felt a sudden sense of danger coming from his side and immediately stopped the attack and lowered his elbow to protect his ribs.

A strong impact hit his arm sending him sliding across the platform and almost over the edge.

'What just happened?,' David thought as he tried to regain his feet, 'I think he just kicked me'. As he tried to help himself up off the ground, he realized that his arm was busted pretty badly.

'Fuck....I think something might be broken,' David thought as the pain shot through his arm as he put weight on it to stand. Luckily, he had held onto his wooden knives during the impact.

He immediately began for focus his energy into his Body of Recover skill to heal his arm.

While he was re-positioning his footing, David heard some movement from across the battle platform. Looking up, he saw Jace reach down and pick up the broken half of his sword. He held both broken pieces in a similar manner to the way that David held his own knives.

"You know....I spent a few days watching you spar with those idiots In the gym...and I decided to try to beat you up like they did. That's why I picked a sword....I guess you finally figured out a way to counter some of those attacks...," Jace said as he started to pace around David.

"Ya...I had to learn to adapt. Knife fighting doesn't seem to be too easy," David said while trying to position himself for his next move. His Body of Recovery Skill was rapidly working to heal his arm. It was already feeling better. Seeing the two pointy broken sword pieces in Jace's hands, David had a sudden realization that he had never fought someone else using knives before.

"My specialty is actually fighting with short swords.....and you just conveniently made me two of them with that move of yours. You better watch yourself....this is probably going to hurt," Jace said before expertly twirling the broken ends of the sword in his hands.

At the sight, David realized that Gabriel must be trying to make a fool out of him. From seeing the previous fights, David could tell that Jace was actually one of the strongest of Gabriel's posse. The direct hit to the throat had been completely disregarded by Jace. he wasn't even affected by the hit. He must also practice a body skill. Jace was playing around with him when he acted like he was hurt. The man wasn't revealing his whole strength the entire time.

Jace walked up and squared up with David. The two men looked like two gunfighters in the old west that were about to have a gun fight....but instead of guns...they were holding sparing knives as they paced circles around each other waiting for someone to make the first move.

After a few seconds of squaring up, Jace decided to make the first move. He lunged forward in an attempt to stab David's chest. David moved out of the way but Jace's speed had actually increased from previously and the broken wooden sword caught David in the shoulder. David felt a scratching pacing as the broken end of the wooden blade scraped a chinch of flesh away leaving a small bloody gouge full of splinters near David's tricep.

"Ouch...that looks like it hurts," Jace said in a taunt as he moved around David like a wolf stalking a deer.

Jace took initiative and moved in again. This time the two's knives met in an exchange. David was able to keep up with Jace's attacks, but that was about all that he could do. David couldn't really find an opening to attack back.

After blocking a dozen of Jace's attacks, David thought that he saw an opening. As he started into the attack, he suddenly felt movement of Jace's sword headed towards his neck. Realizing the threat, David abandoned his attack to move out of the way. The jagged broken sword scraped the side of David's neck.

David shivered....a small amount of blood dropped down his neck as he realized he was almost lured into an attack. He started to feel like he was outclassed....after all, he had only trained with knives for a couple weeks....this guy had probably trained for years.

"Oh....got you again. You really need to train your defense," Jace taunted again.

Listening to the taunt, David decided that he would attempt one more exchange. He wasn't feeling that bad, but he knew he was outclassed. Gabriel had wanted to humiliate him in a loss to make a point with Karine. He had succeeded, but David thought that he at least had a chance to save some face and land a few hits on Jace.

David readied himself for the next series of attacks. He had some confidence in the skills that he learned.....he knew that he could at least land one good hit....if his attack failed then he would just concede the fight. If he couldn't win, there was no point in letting Gabriel's goon continue his performance.

David moved into a guard ready to the next confrontation. He decided that he would attack first for the first time. David was going to try an odd attack that he had read about in the knife skill book.

He charged at Jace. The man raised his broken sword in defense as David approached. As David neared he raised one of his hands like he was going to directly into Jace's face. Jace's guard shifted up to protect his face. As his guard went up, David actually kneeled to drop below the guard....then he immediately rammed the sparing knife up into Jace's chin with all his strength.

David was about to celebrate landing the hit when he felt intense pain as the broken end of Jace's wooden sword penetrated through his thigh. David howled in pain as he fell to the ground. He could hear loud laughter sounding from the platform above. It seemed like Gabriel was having a good old time at David's expense.

As David lay on the ground, he glanced up at the stands. Karine was standing up and yelling at Gabriel, but David couldn't hear what was being said. Deciding that he needed to get up, David tried to work himself up off the ground.

Suddenly....he felt a movement headed his way.....then an impact to the side of his head.....then nothing but darkness.

______________________________

After being knocked out, David appeared in his dark dream world instantly. He had been humiliated by Jace....he had also lost the fight. If Gabriel wasn't lying, then this loss also meant that Karine would be revoking his suitor status. With everything considered, David felt like a failure all of a sudden.

The tournament had just been an extra item thrown into his training. It didn't really mean anything much to David. His whole purpose in training to begin with had been to get some strength so that he could hunt his parents' killers. But even if he knew who killed his parents right at this moment, it would be pointless. All David would be doing was offering himself to them....and he would probably just be killed. He was way too weak....not just weak physically...weak mentally as well.

Having a poor performance in the tournament, David felt like all of his efforts were pointless.

However...instead of being brought into a world of self deprecation, David had actually started to have a bit of self reflection while sitting in the darkness of his dream world. After thinking over the situation, he realized that his talents were not in fighting with people head on. If he was in the dark of the forest with real knives, he had no doubt in his mind that Jace would be dead despite the obvious power gap between the two of them. Getting rid of any opponent was even easier if they happened to fall asleep near David....he could just crush their dream orbs in his dream world and kill them instantly. David smiled as he came to the realization that he was actually very powerful....he had just been trying to fight in the wrong way.

Reflecting back on his attempts at trying to master martial arts, David laughed to himself. He sort of felt like he had been wasting his time trying to focus on training for upfront face to face battles like the tournament. That wasn't him. He was naturally gifted to be a sneaky attacker that preyed on people in the dark when they were defenseless. He wasn't the type to charge out on a battlefield in the front of the pack to directly meet the enemy troupe in battle. If he did that...he would die almost immediately.

At this point, David's mentality began to shift and he started to understand himself a little better. The dreamworld is where his real power is....no one on Earth could defeat him in the dreamworld. He still sort of feels like an idiot for even trying to win the tournament. Over the last couple of months, David had even stopped entering the dreamworld. He had just been sleeping normally to recover his body from the intense sparing and training he was undergoing.

Why was he trying to fit into some system that wasn't for him.....That type face to face of fighting isn't his real strength. His strength is to hunt people down in the darkness of night and slit their throats from behind....and visit people in their sleep and kill them in their nightmares.

This realization made David feel less mental stress the more he thought it over. At some point, David made the decision that he was no longer going to try to be something that he is not...he wasn't going to try to fight them head on any longer....he was going to put his real strengths to use.....he was going to be a living nightmare to his enemies.