Kan rushed out of bed after hearing all the commotion. His heart was pounding, he was afraid that the worst thing may have just happened. He prayed and prayed that he had just misheard what the villagers were saying. The moment he opened the door, his worst nightmares were realized. Jerry passed by his room in a stretcher and his right arm oozing out blood.

“Kan, don’t look.”

Claire was in one of the other clinic room and had also come out to check what was happening. She saw that Kan was also watching and covered his eyes, but he wasn’t paying attention to her. He was in a state of shock. The disaster that was going to happen in a year was already starting.

“Kan. Kan. Kan!”

Claire called out to Kan multiple times but he didn’t reply back. It was not until Claire slightly shook him did he come back to it.

“What’s wrong Kan? Why are you spaced out like that?”

“Huh...Oh. It’s nothing Mommy, I just wasn’t prepared to see all that blood.”

“Yeah, that was quite a bloody scene. Why don’t we go back home and i’ll cook up breakfast for you.”

“It’s ok Mommy. I’m going to go out for a walk, so i’ll have breakfast later.”

“Ok.”

Kan immediately ran out of the clinic. Claire was surprised at the way Kan was acting. He had never rejected breakfast before. She watched as he ran out and she knew that something was troubling him.

……

‘What should I do? What should I do? I don’t have enough time. It’s happening too early.’

Kan was currently sitting on top of a flat boulder contemplating on what he should do. He didn’t have a plan to convince Nicole, he didn’t know if the Dragon’s Den formation was complete, and he didn’t know how many groups were going to attack the village. Everything was going out of control from his expectations. Kan had believed that seeing all those memories had prepared him for the disaster, but the Jerry getting his arm eaten event happened too soon.

His previous plans were to use this one year before the disaster to convince Nicole, give more time for the formation to activate, and become stronger. But now he didn’t have time. He could only do his best and try to think up of any plans to convince Nicole.

Time slowly passed and eventually it was afternoon. Kan had spent the past 4 hours in this place thinking up of plans but came up empty. No matter which plan he came up with, he wouldn’t be able to hide how he got his information from Nicole. If he asked Nicole for help, she would be suspicious of him because no one should know that she is going to help attack the village. The chances of her saving the village would become nil because he would be too suspicious for knowing this information. He also couldn’t reveal that he got all his information from seeing different memories of this disaster.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!!! What should I do!!!”

Kan screamed out of frustration. He didn’t have a solid plan to save the entire village. He screamed into the sky to release his pent of anxiety, but never did he expect someone to answer back.

“Why don’t we fight?”

“Huh.”

Kan turned to look at who answered him, and it was Leo. He was standing atop a stack of lumber pointing his wooden sword at Kan. He was the one who had just challenged Kan to a fight.

“Oh, Leo. Sorry but i’m kind of busy right now.”

“No you’re not. All I see is you moping around. So let’s fight.”

Leo once again challenged Kan to a fight. He was being stubborn and wasn’t going to let Kan go until they fought. Kan got irritated when Leo said that all he was doing was moping. He wasn’t moping, he was trying to think up of a way to save the village. Kan was irritated with Leo but didn’t have time to play his games.

“I refuse. I don’t want to fight you. I have things to think about.”

Kan prepared to walk away, but that was when Leo jumped in front of him to block his path. Kan tried to walk around but Leo would follow in front of him and block his path. Kan was getting angrier at Leo’s antics.

“Move out of the way Leo.”

“No. I’ll give you 2 options Kan. Fight me or Fight me.”

Leo smiled as his index and middle finger waved about playfully. Hearing the 2 options he was given, Kan grew more irritated. Leo wasn’t giving him any choice at all. ‘Since he wants to fight then let’s fight.’

“Ok, let’s fight then. I’ll win just like how I won yesterday.”

“We’ll see.”

Kan dashed towards Leo. But unlike their previous battle, Leo stood still. He watched as Kan approached, paying attention to all of his surrounding. Kan arrived in front of him with a punch being thrown at Leo’s head. Kan was putting all of his strength into this punch.

“Hmph, you think that’s going to work again.”

Instead of jumping back to avoid the punch that would break his sword, Leo did a sidestep. During his sidestep, Leo also tripped Kan and hit him on the back, propelling him forward. Normally Kan would have fallen onto the dirt but this time he fell into mud.

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you had changed the dirt. Is this all you got Kan!”

“Shut up!”

Kan jumped out of the mud and ran around the pile of lumber. The stack of lumber was taller than both of them, so they wouldn’t be able to see each other if one ran around the corner.

Seeing Kan run away, Leo jumped back onto the pile of lumber. He calmed his breathing and waited for any of Kan’s attack. In the next second, a blade of wind flew from behind Leo, but it didn’t hit. More and more multiple blades of wind flew towards Leo but none of them hit.

Leo’s defensive sword techniques was unbreakable. Every blade of wind was slashed down by his wooden sword.

“What’s wrong Kan. Why are you hiding. Why don’t you face me head on. You can’t run away from your problems Kan. Nothing will change if you don’t take action.”

Kan was hiding behind another stack of lumber. From his position he could hear Leo’s taunts as clear as day. Kan grew angrier at every taunt Leo threw out. He didn’t know why, but it stung when Leo said that Kan was running away from his problems. He wasn’t running away, he was trying to think up of plans to win.

“If you aren’t going to come to me then i’ll come to you.”

Leo jumped to another stack of lumber, which was the exact same one Kan was hiding behind. Leo sprinted directly towards Kan location and jumped down and brought down his sword on Kan.

‘How did he know I was here.’ Kan was surprised at Leo finding his location so quickly. But he couldn’t escape in time, so the only thing he could do was defend himself. He brought both of his arms up and unlocked 5% on them. He unlocked the limits on his arms because he couldn’t underestimate Leo’s strike.

Although Leo was also a combat locksmith like Kan, he was vastly weaker. In the 2 years that he had been training, he could barely unlock 1% of his potential. This didn’t mean that his strikes were weak though. Leo had learned how to control sword energy from his father and the mayor. Sword energy is a different type of technique than Kan’s combat locksmith technique, but equally powerful.

Sword energy relies on the user’s speed, strength, technique, precision, flexibility and control. It requires the user to train all of these aspects and fused them into the sword. Each strike would then become more powerful every time the user trained.

Leo’s sword slammed into Kan’s arms and Kan’s guard broke. He couldn’t hold his arms in that position anymore and had to dodge away. His arms were bruised and throbbing with pain. After dodging to the side Kan began to run.

‘I need to finish this quick.’ Kan was getting tired. Unlocking his limits on his arms used too much energy and continuously using magic was also taking a toll on him. He ran around the corner of the pile of lumber and began chanting.

“My sword will be the sharpest of all blades. Become sharper and sharper and become the sharpest. [Wind Blade]!”

Leo turned around the corner and saw Kan’s attack coming straight towards him. It was stronger than all of Kan’s other attacks and even felt dangerous. But Leo wasn’t scared of it at all. Rather it made him excited. He was able to test out a new technique he learned the day before.

“[Full Impact]”

Leo swung his sword at the incoming attack. It made contact and Leo was pushed back but he didn’t give up. He moved forward against the attack.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

Leo screamed with all of his energy and put all of his power into the attack. The pressure from Leo and the pressure from Kan’s attack was too much for the wooden sword to handle. It broke in half but it had also cancelled Kan’s attack.

Kan watched in shock as Leo broke through his ultimate attack. He had put almost all of his mana into that attack and Leo still destroyed it. This was different from Nicole breaking through it because Nicole’s strength was on a different level. This was Leo, someone his age who also started training around the same time.

“Haah...haaahh...haaahhh.”

“Haaah...haaaahhh..hhaaahh.”

The two of them were exhausted, but still stared at each. The battle wasn’t over yet. This time the first one to make a move was Kan. He was no longer running away or attacking from the side. This time he was facing Leo head on.

Leo smiled as Kan took the first step. He also began running towards Kan, but unlike Kan he was laughing joyously.

“Hahahaha, there you go Kan. Sometimes you just need to take action instead of thinking so much.”

They reached each other and threw out their punches. Kan’s fist was faster and stronger because he was used to fighting bare handed. His fist made contact with Leo’s face but Leo didn’t flinch at all. Instead he counterattacked and grabbed Kan by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the ground.

Leo immediately got on top of Kan and began throwing punches at his face. Kan brought his arms up and blocked the punches. Leo continued to throw hits but got tired and his position became weak. Kan took this opportunity to throw Leo off.

They both got up and stared at each other again. This time they were even more tired, but they still didn’t give up until a winner was decided. Blows and blows were traded, but each attack was so weak that if there were onlookers, they would think it was just to kids scuffling over a small dispute.

……

“Haahhhhh...hhhaaaahhh…hhaaaaahhh.”

“Haaaahhhh...haaahhhhh...hhhaaaahhh.”

The two of them were now lying on their backs trying to breathe in as much air as they could. All of their energy was gone but their hearts were still pounding loudly from the adrenaline of their battle.

“Thank you Leo.”

“No problem. Kan Lock more like Kan Blockhead. You’re always overthinking things, Kan.”

“Hahaha, I guess I do.”

After fighting Leo, Kan’s mind was no longer clouded. All of the frustration from being unable to come up with a plan was all gone. Kan was grateful to Leo. Leo had challenged him because he knew that he was feeling frustrated. Leo’s challenge had helped him realized that sometimes you need to take action for anything to change. He knew what he had to do to convince Nicole. Whether it worked or not, depended on Nicole, but Kan was sure it was going to work.