“Begin!” Colonel Baxter yelled.

I was curious about why he decided to oversee the match. That curiosity became a distraction, causing me to stand in place as Kenneth began to run toward the pile of scrap metal from his starting box. I was so behind that 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 of metal by the time I got there. That would put me at risk since the two stacks were so close. I told myself to be quick, then sprinted toward my pile.

When I arrived, 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 was the only Carpenter to win a fight, so the perception was that we were weak and scared. But, of course, I won because I wasn't a Carpenter. I still hadn’t quite figured out what I was. I could manipulate wood, but I could also use 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 barely noticed when a baseball-shaped chunk of metal zipped by my head. I looked back at Kenneth; 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. They liked to bulk up and try to end a fight quickly. They usually just smashed 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, so that kept him from running after me and 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. He kept trying to hit balls at me, but he was forced to use the metal of his armor. If he ignored where he was pulling the metal, 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. I hit him in his metal-covered skull without armor to hinder my aim. It didn’t hurt him, but I didn’t expect it to. I wanted to get him madder at me and 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 kept taunting him, so he didn’t stop trying. Whenever he got frustrated and attempted to run to me, I simply ran away.

I was vaguely familiar with 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 energy all around everyone's body. As soon as I spotted a weakness in Kenneth's 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. However, doing that to a human was difficult because a person’s energy signature continuously fluctuates. But I wanted to win the fight as a genuine Carpenter might.

I saw my opening as Kenneth swung his bat to hit another ball at me. There was a hole in the crook of his left elbow that had just opened up. I made sure to move a little closer to make the sprint after he swung again.

Just as he hit his next ball, I began running forward. The metal ball was coming straight at my face with increasing speed. Instinctively, I focused my power and changed the airflow 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 I slammed the sticks over the hole in his armor as soon as I reached him. I forced the sticks to branch out between his skin and inner armor 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 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 my push 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 was struggling to move as the small vines of wood wrapped around his joints. Soon he was utterly immobilized. I waited a few seconds and looked up toward the colonel.

“Stop the fight,” the colonel yelled. "Cadet Alson is the winner.”