“Begin!” Colonel Baxter yelled, and I was still a little curious about why he decided to oversee this match. That curiosity became a distraction, causing me to still be standing in place as Kenneth began to run toward the pile of scrap metal from his starting box. I wasn’t sure if I should run to my collection of wood. I could beat him without using it, but that would give away my secret. Plus, it was a danger since he would be able to utilize his pile a metal by the time I got there. That would put me at risk since the two piles were so close to each other. I told myself to be quick, and I sprinted toward my pile.

When I there, Kenneth already had metal covering his body like armor. Another bulky piece of metal was growing on his arm, it appeared to be the beginning of a lance or a sword. That’s what the Welders usually made. It would take me too long to do the same with my pile of wood, plus it wouldn’t be as strong as his metal, so I quickly scooped up a loose bundle of wood and began running away to manipulate it while moving.

“Coward,” he yelled.

I heard his taunting call as I ran away, but I wasn’t surprised. I am the only Carpenter to win a fight, so the perception is that we are weak and scared. But, of course, I won because I’m not really a Carpenter. I still haven’t quite figured out what I am. I can manipulate wood, but I can also manipulate metal; in fact, I haven’t found anything that I can’t manipulate. My only problem is I don’t want to let anyone else know.

I was getting lost in thought and I didn’t notice as a baseball-shaped chunk of metal went zipping by my head. I looked back at Kenneth and he had made a bat from the metal. He was currently shaping another ball to try and hit it at me. He had moved away from his metal pile toward me, but I guess he didn’t feel like running around and chasing me. I had been studying all the Welders since before I signed up to fight, and they liked to bulk up and try to end a fight quickly. They usually just ended up smashing large pieces of metal into each other for a few minutes until one knocked the other out.

It’s not very creative, so I was surprised that Kenneth actually thought of the bat. It seemed that he did realize that I was watching him as he trained and planned some other tactics against me. It appeared that he also realized I wasn’t going to fight him like another Welder and that I liked to stay mobile. He didn’t bother to shed any of his bulky armor though, so that kept him from running after me and also negatively affected his aim. His bat trick showed that he was a better opponent than I thought, be he still didn’t do enough to beat me. If he kept trying to hit balls at me, but he was forced to use the metal of his armor. If he didn’t pay attention to where he was pulling the metal from, it could open up a weak spot for me to attack. With my ability, I could see whenever those weak spots appeared.

“I hope you aren’t trying out for the major leagues.” I taunted. He swung the bat and another ball flew at me. It was way too far for me to even worry about. “Do you need me to move closer for you?” I added. This taunt was a little too much because he started moving toward me again, but I quickly moved further away.

I made my own ball out of the wood and threw it at him. Without armor to hinder my aim, I hit him right in his metal-covered skull. It didn’t hurt him, but I didn’t expect it to, I just wanted to get him madder at me and to think I was playing along. It worked and he started to make another ball to try and hit me. I made sure to give him a good target and to keep taunting him so he didn’t stop trying. Whenever he got frustrated and attempted to run to me, I just ran away.

I was vaguely familiar at the large number of jeers that were coming from all the cadets that were watching the match. It was probably a boring fight, but I couldn’t go toe to toe with any Welder, let alone one of their best fighters. My body wasn’t strong enough for that, even a normal Carpenter didn’t have the durability to do it and unlike them, my power didn’t give me any extra durability.

I did have some other advantages, though. Through practice, I learned that with my sight, I could see the difference in his energy all around his body. As soon as I spotted a weakness in his armor, I would be able to attack. Also, according to the rules of this fight, I only needed to incapacitate him for five seconds to win. If I wanted, I could run up to him and shove his own metal through his body, or even stop his heart with a touch, but doing that to a human was difficult because a person’s energy signature continuously fluctuates. But I wanted to win the fight as a real Carpenter might.

As Kenneth swung his bat to hit another ball at me, I saw my opening. There was a hole in the crook of his left elbow that just opened up. I made sure to move a little closer so I could make the sprint after he swung again. Just as he hit his next ball, I began running forward. The metal ball is coming straight at my face with gaining speed. Instinctively, I focused my power and changed the flow of the air in front of me. I didn’t think that ability would be useful for anything other than the bathroom. The wind caused the ball to curve in the air and narrowly miss my head. I hoped what I did wasn’t obvious, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

I continued to rush at Kenneth, and I could tell I had taken him by surprise because he was stuck in place. I had two large sticks in each hand and as soon as I reached him, I slammed the sticks over the hole in his armor. I forced to sticks to branch out in between his skin and the inside of his armor, branching out to cover as much space as possible. As I pushed the wood through the inside of his armor, I continued to use my momentum and I rammed him as hard as I could. When my body slammed into his armor, it hurt like hell. I knew I would have some bruises later, but the combination of my push and the wood did the trick and he fell over. I held the remaining piece of wood against his elbow as I continued to spread it over his body. I could see that he is struggling to move as the small vines of wood wrapped around his joints, but he couldn’t. I waited a few seconds and looked up toward the colonel. “Stop the fight,” he yelled. Aidren is the winner.”