Hanzo couldn’t believe he actually agreed to continue his training with the old fart.

Moments after the man demonstrated some novice water abilities that even a clown could perform at one of those circuses Hanzo attended as a child, the old man teleported him inside a small cave wherein clear pools of water lie in absolute stillness.

Crystal lamps kept the place well lit enough for Hanzo to see what he’d be doing. The old man handed him a stick for starters.

“See these fishies?” He pointed at a few small fish in the water that definitely had not been there before.

“You have to nab them with your stick. If you do that, then you get a special treat!”

Hanzo wanted to crack the man in the face. Did he think he was a dog?

“This isn’t training.” He grit his teeth.

“Of course it is.” The fool insisted. “Learning the water element requires outstanding levels of precision and concentration. This task here might seem easy but when dealing with small flinters like these, you’ll get a run for your money!”

Hanzo fixed his glare on the slim fish called flinters. Trivial as the test might’ve seemed, it would be a challenge nonetheless. Sometimes the best teachers set their pupils up to seemingly meaningless tasks only to later discover a profound significance within them that would greatly impact their training overall.

Even the bit about water techniques requiring certain levels of precision made some sense.

Hanzo threw his doubts aside for a moment and aimed the sharp stick like a spear.

“No. No. No.” The master shook his head. Annoyed, the warrior dropped his stance and grilled the fool sharply.

“You have to do it like this. We call it the Poké Maneuver!”

The old man took the stick from Hanzo and proceeded to demonstrate.

Then he began poking wildly at the water, letting is free arm flap loosely while his shoulders rocked back and forth. If someone were to pass upon the spectacle they would have thought the idiot was having a seizure.

Hanzo went mentally blank.

“Wh—What the hell are you doing..?”

“It’s the Poké Maneuver!” He chirped, returning the stick to his new student. “You should try it! Go on ahead, pal!”

“No.” Hanzo grunted and went back to spearing the fish properly.

“Boy, I tell ya..” the old timer rambled, “Y’all whippersnappers nowadays too pessimistic. It’s a damn shame. You know, back in my day we had to do that maneuver on bricks! We weren’t allowed to break them either. We had to hit em’ and make perfect holes and if we messed up they sent us to the washers with Aunt Betty to get our hind parts laid out. Y’all young whippersnappers don’t know how good y’all have it! Boy, I tell ya, you ever been raped by a lady? Happened to me before...”

The last bit made Hanzo lurch in surprise.

“She spread us all out on the cobblestone floor...” The old man continued, “..took a long fiery rod out of the furnace and then shoved that bad boy way up our—“

“Hey!!!” Hanzo flared up in anger, “Nobody wants to hear all of that, you moron!!!”

The old man chuckled and palmed his staff but he didn’t want to stop talking just yet.

“And ya see pal, I wasn’t having that! I stood up to that Miss Betty and said, I ain’t gonna bow to the likes of you! And then I walked out of the room. Can you believe that, pal? Heh! Neither do I. Anyway, did you start catching the fishies yet?”

“Maybe I would if you could just shut up!!” Hanzo seethed.

Every shot he took at the fish was in vain. It didn’t seem like something he’d pull off in a single day. It would take practice.

“Well you see,” the old man frowned, “You’re not using the Poké Manuever like I told you. That’s the only way you’ll ever catch the fishies.”

“Kick rocks, old man...” Hanzo grumbled.

He honed in on one of the stupid flinters and struck hard and fast but missed again. There was no giving up here.

He kept at it for several minutes, tuning out the senile master’s rambling until he couldn’t even hear him at all.

Nearly two hours went by. Still no luck. The fish never went far either. They swam around in the same spot as if making a mockery of Hanzo’s poor aim.

His patience ran out. Overcome by frustration, he threw the stick into the cave wall and pulled at his hair.

That’s when he noticed the old man wa gone.

“Did he just leave me in this freaking cave???”

He was distraught. Knowing that clown, he’d easily forget about him down here.

With nothing else to do, he continued his attempts to spear the fish. Five tries away from giving up entirely, he released all of the tension in his muscles and simply gazed into the sparkling pools without looking at any of the fish directly. For moments he stood there with no consideration for either hitting or missing.

In a burst of motion, he fired and struck the bottom of the pool with a loud thunk.

He peered into the water feeling hopeful but not one of the five fish were missing and nothing was on the stick.

Didn’t catch a thing. His shoulders fell in disappointment.

I hate my life.

He glanced around the rocky abode, down it’s dark corridors, curious to discover an exit but wasn’t so sure if there was one.

He looked at the stick in his hand then into the shallow pool at his feet.

“Ah, forget this crap.”

He huffed dismissively, tossing the twig down like a knife.

To his astonishment, it plunged right through a flinter and pinned it in place. The flat, scaled creature wagged in agony.

“Are you serious?”

Hanzo complained, irritated by his sheer luck. He pulled the branch out and studied the skewered little fish.

It started wagging harder with enough force to make his arm shake. Then it started growing rapidly.

What the hell?

Before Hanzo could realize what was occurring, the fish swelled to great proportions and toppled him over. It transformed into a great sea predator with sharp teeth and smothered the boy under its weight.

It buried him underwater nearly drowning him as he let out a garbled scream. This had to be a nightmare.

He needed his sword.

The giant, shark-like creature evolved into a dragon of sorts and blew the roof of the cave open with a blast of blue flame.

Sunlight streamed in, blinding Hanzo as he scrambled out of the overflowing pool.

Well, there goes my exit.

He panted. He gripped his sword and climbed out of the smoldering cave.

The rest of the flinters had already grown into great predators, continuing their harrowing transformations into full blown dragons.

Hanzo ran in zig zags as a volley of fireballs bombed the landscape around him. Sheets of rock went soaring over his head.

Shrapnel stung his back and likely could have impaled him if his dragon skin jacket wasn’t on.

The dragon hovered sky high, flapping its mighty wings. The rest of the flinters flew over to join in on the fun.

The blistering heat tore into Hanzo’s skin and streaks of blue fire threatened to consume him.

The dragon shot another fireball right in front of him and he was launched into the air.

His body fell limp as it flipped toward the dragon’s open jaws.

Suddenly, Hanzo gripped his sword at the last moment and cleaved through the reptile’s face. He dropped right into a perfect roll as he hit the ground and sprinted onward. The dragon carcass collapsed behind him with a quaking boom. Fire consumed the creature in a flash and Hanzo started laughing hysterically.

The rest of them soared along freely, keeping the running boy in their watchful eyes.

He darted up a huge mound of rocks and jumped as far as his legs would spring him.

His sword plunged through a dragon’s tail.

With a frightening shriek, it spiraled over the pine forest. Branches and leaves smacked the boy relentlessly and he almost lost grip.

Digging his fingers into the reptile’s scales, he crawled his way up to the thing’s spine and started ramming his sword through it. Hot blood sprayed across his face.

The dragon shrieked in pain as it sailed over the edge of a cliff.

Hanzo couldn’t even be bothered.

He plunged the black blade repeatedly into the ropy flesh, feeling the sharp glow in his eyes when another flinter swooped in.

Monstrous talons gripped his arm painfully and tore him off like a leech.

Teeming with adrenaline, he quickly severed the dragon’s foot but sacrificed himself to a mile long plummet below. The other predators wouldn’t be coming to snatch him either.

He’d been too hasty.

“I’m finished...” he panted as the earth came zooming toward him.

Then a ring of powerful spirit pressure suddenly appeared beneath the boy and he fell right into it and disappeared.

Gravity suddenly reversed as if he were falling upward.

Then he fell down on his back with a thud that knocked the air out of his lungs.

He lie motionless, gazing through towering pine trees into a starlit sky.

Owls hooted, crickets chirped, critters rustled in the brush and an eerie howl brought Hanzo to his senses.

He turned over cautiously.

Beams of light from a giant moon punched through a sloping forest, spilling white along the ruddy barks of a million red pines. A large, magnificent stag stood at a distance, watching Hanzo rise to his feet.

Another strange howl filled the atmosphere. The stag bolted off in a hurry.

Hanzo’s bones turned to ice as he finally recognized the noise.

The howl of a wolf.

A small pathway of parted leaves led the way for the young warrior to follow.

He moved along quietly, eyes darting in every direction. The path soon thinned out of existence but he could only keep moving.

“Oh, Odyssey?” He sang out, in hopes the giant would appear and give him a long overdue explanation on what in the hell was going on because Hanzo was already beyond his limits of comprehension.

He was just in a cave fishing, for God’s sake. The use of teleportation and portals wasn’t hard to get but getting thrown across the globe in an instant was not Hanzo’s idea of a good time.

He skid to a halt at a sudden rustling in the bushes ahead.

A brawny wolf stalked out of the shadows with fangs bared in a vicious growl.

A fuming aura bled through his shiny pelt like steam. He had eyes cold as ice and bright as the moon. One peculiar feature was the three steel rings pierced into his sharp ears. The lean wolf had Hanzo awestruck for a moment before he got into his own stance, poising his sword in front of him.

“Go ahead, you stupid little mutt.” Hanzo growled. “I’ll hack your walnuts off.”

The wolf barked once and in an instant, a hundred more wolves appeared, various shapes, colors and sizes. Hanzo was nearly blown off his feet by sheer spirit force. These weren’t normal wolves.

Surrounded at every angle, there was nothing he could do but fight the dogs.

His own spirit pressure started to rise and the unanimous growls of the stalking beasts made the ground tremble.

“Enough!!!” A deep voice boomed. All at once, the murderous wolves shook away their bloodlust and retreated a few steps back with their heads lowered respectfully.

All the adrenaline that Hanzo built up suddenly had no outlet.

He looked up to the origin of the voice and found an elderly warrior standing proudly at the top of a slope wearing wolf skin about his neck.

Hanzo nearly mistook him for the old man on the beach.

They both wore similar garbs but his were of darker shades and sustained a few pieces of exotic looking armor.

Along the man’s shawl were faded clan emblems that vaguely resembled wolves. He carried a long staff strung with ornaments and he wore rings on his fingers. His jaw was ridden with stubble and hard featured.

Like the old man he had a receding hairline, but his hair was whiter.

The elder’s eyes seemed normal at first glance but a closer look revealed the rimmed lenses of a wolf’s eyes and they gazed upon Hanzo with interest.

“So you’ve finally come...” he rasped as he began his descent.

“And who the heck are you??” The youngster snapped. “Another escapee from the nursing home?”

The wolves snarled hatefully at the rude remark and some were about pounce on him but the old master raised his hand and they fell silent.

“I have been waiting so long for you...” he exclaimed as if Hanzo were a long lost son.

Just when nobody expected it, the old man stepped on a faulty rock and his feet flew right out from under him. With a great cry, he went tumbling down the slope at rattling speeds and cracked his spine on a sharp rock jutting out of the ground.

“AAAAAGGGH!!!” He shrieked in agony, clawing at his broken back.