Wren had always been in fights. He grew up in District 8-12 on Earth, one of the most notorious and dangerous parts of his city. Generations ago, when the Enoi first attacked Earth, the world governments chose to dispense of countries and city names and chose instead to consolidate the worlds assets into ten numbered cities. Each city was split up into one hundred districts, some districts housing the rich and powerful, the rest turned into ghettos.

Wren’s district in City 8, was by far the worst. Located in what once was South America, the remnants of cartels and gangs from generations past meant that it was rough. Gun and drug related crime was high all over the city, but it was nothing in comparison to 8-12. He tried to avoid trouble as much as possible but often that wasn’t good enough. Gangs seemed to recruit straight out of the orphanages, finding them to be the most useful and easily manipulated, but Wren was never one to be controlled.

So he fought. A lot.

To the point that as soon as he saw Chadwick’s fist coming round for a hook, he swept under it and dodged back. The bigger boy was stunned, looking at the place in which Wren should have been.

“Oh you asshole, that could have hurt.” Wren said.

“It should have.” Chadwick grunted, seething.

He refocused his eyes on his target and took two bounding leaps forward, closing the gap between the two. He kicked up dust as he moved, slightly obscuring the view for Chadwick's lackeys. Wren was stunned for half a second, he was a big lad but he could move as well. Luckily Wren regained his senses as Chadwick threw a straight jab at his head. He craned his neck, leaning his head to the side and dodged the punch within a hairs width.

Once again, Wren took a few quick steps back trying to keep his distance. That was the most important thing, he was clearly outclassed in strength and size, but if he could just keep the boy away from him with his speed, hopefully Wren would be able to tire him out and get away relatively unscathed.

But each time Wren would dodge back Chadwick would close the distance as soon as possible, throwing wild hooks to his head, jabs to his ribs. He avoided most of them but a few found their target, brushing the side of his torso as he dodged to the side. Chadwick really packed a punch. But what could you expect from someone named Chadwick? It was like his parents looked down on him as a baby and said ‘you look like you’re gonna grow up to be a big old bully who wails on kids much smaller than you and makes their life hell. We’ll name you Chad’.

Wren was doing well all things considered though. He was avoiding hits more often than he was actually being hit. He’d surprised himself. But more than that he was surprising Chadwick and all of his friends.

“Hey, do you need any help over there?” Top Knot called out from the side-lines.

“NO! Stay out of this.” Chadwick shouted back, frustration clear in his voice.

Wren couldn’t tell if the boy had a twisted sense of honour for a one-on-one fight, or whether he just didn’t want it getting out that he needed help fighting a nobody like Wren. Either way it worked out for him, he would have had no chance against five of them. He was barely managing with just Chadwick.

Chadwick was becoming visibly more and more angry, his punches becoming wilder and more frequent, he was abandoning all form or technique in his effort to hurt Wren. He even started throwing in the occasional kick here and there. One landing heavily on Wren’s thigh causing him to grunt in pain.

Still Wren did the best he could, dodging and weaving, waiting for the right moment.

It might seem that Wren was just trying to avoid getting hurt. Not attacking at all, simply being on the defensive. But this was all part of his plan. He knew that Chadwick was bigger, stronger, more experienced. But with that level of experience comes a sense of entitlement, an expectation on himself that he should be winning the fight hands down. So when that didn’t happen, Wren knew that the boy would just get angrier and angrier, burning himself out to the point where he would leave himself wide open. Only then would Wren attack.

Finally that moment came.

Chadwick threw out a wild left hook, using all of his might and power in the direction of Wren’s head. It would surely knock him out, if not more if it connected. But Wren saw it coming. Mirroring his first very first move in the fight, Wren ducked down under the hook, feeling the air move above him as Chadwick fist passed through the empty space. Wren took a step forward, pulled his left palm back and shoved his right palm straight into Chadwick’s gut, performing the open palm thrust that he’d been taught that very day.

Chadwick stumbled back and fell to his knees, clutching his gut. Wren couldn’t tell which was better, the face of his opponent as he realised he’d just been hit, and hit hard, or the look of shock and surprise on all of Chadwick’s friends faces.

Wren took a step back, breathing heavy. Although it seemed like he had been keeping up with Chadwick the entire time, the fight took its toll on him too. He was aching all over from all the glancing blows he’d taken and he was tired. Very tired.

If he thought the fight would be over with only one hit then he couldn’t have been more wrong. Chadwick’s face darkened in fury, whether it was from his wounded body or his wounded pride, Wren didn’t know, but the boy was angry now, and that meant trouble.

Rising from his knees, Chadwick lunged at Wren, fast. The force, hit him like a train and sent him reeling. He counted his lucky stars that Chadwick was clumsy, his aim had been to grab a hold of Wren and pin him down, but as they connected Wren was able to slip out of the larger boys grasp and rolled a safe distance away.

“Oh you want more, huh?” Wren teased, not feeling near enough chipper as he sounded.

The two boys fell back into their earlier dance, Chadwick punching and kicking wildly, Wren dodging and weaving as best as he could, taking glancing hits every now and again. Both boys were slowing down, feeling the fatigue of their fight, but Wren remained vigilant. He knew that an opening would be coming soon, just as it had before. He just really hoped it was soon, because he wouldn’t last much longer taking all these glancing blows, he dreaded to think what his HP would look like at the moment.

They say that good things come to those who wait, and that proved to be true for Wren, as he’d finally found his critical moment. Chadwick had thrown out a wild amateurish roundhouse kick which Wren had seen coming from a mile off. He was able to duck underneath it and was pleasantly surprised to see his opponent slightly off balance. He knew that this was his moment to strike and he gladly took it. The only problem was that his footing wasn’t in the optimal position.

In Wren’s martial arts class he’d only managed to master half of the open palm strike, the right hand with which he’d hit Chadwick earlier. But the way he was now, he was geared up for a left-handed open palm strike and he didn’t have time to adjust his stance. Going for broke, he sent the palm anyway, trying his best to maintain the rigidity of the form in the hopes that it would put his opponent on his ass.

His strike was true and it connected with the larger boys head, sending ripples all across his face that Wren definitely would have laughed at if he wasn’t fighting for his life. Chadwick felt down and immediately cradled his cheek, his eyes wide in disbelief that the much smaller boy had managed to land not one, but two big hits on him.

“Are we done here? Because I missed dinner last night and I want to go see what’s on the menu.” Wren said, looking down at the boy on the ground.

Chadwick looked over at his friends who had all somehow found something much more interesting to look at than their friend on the floor.

“Yeah we’re done.”

Wren nodded, walking away satisfied with himself. He didn’t know how he’d done it, but he’d somehow come away without being hospitalised. It was a big change to his usual fights. Apparently being an elemental made all the difference.

As he walked away he surprised to see the system screen pop up. He was sure that he had set it so that it wouldn’t interrupt him during important moments, but perhaps it deigned that this was the right time to appear.

[You have gained 50 XP]

[Congratulations you are now Level 2]

[Congratulations you have learned the Open Palm Strike (Left Hand)]

[You have gained 20 XP]

“Chadwick!”

“What are you doing?”

The sudden commotion made Wren quickly dismiss the screen and turn back to the group he’d left on the Dead Fields. He saw Chadwick stood back up with a hand pointed in Wren’s direction. In front of it was the familiar shimmer of a wind slice coming his way.