I stood upon a flat stone ring facing a man who was so handsome that I couldn’t help compare him to a movie star I remembered from Earth, namely Brad Pitt back when he was in his early thirties. He had thick metallic golden hair that reminded me of Zephyr's, a wiry but muscular build, and striking silvery blue eyes. The only thing I didn’t like about his appearance was that he was sneering at me.

“My name is Alder, and I am a hunter here at Garrison.” He said, shaking his head as he walked around me. “Not that you are even worthy of speaking my name.”

He continued looking at me, but he was obviously speaking to Lord Runax, “I have slain countless beasts on hundreds of raids, and even helped bring down one of the three late stage Reaver Wolves four years ago,” He said, suddenly turning to face the frog-chinned noble “And you want me to spar with a smelly commoner brat from the village?”

I would have zapped him right then and there, but I was still trapped in the body of a five year old who had never tested his powers in real combat. Hunter Alder (which I thought was a really stupid sounding name) was smaller than Jaws, but he was still at least four times my weight and twice my height – if he had any weird powers as well I would be in big trouble.

“As I said, I have my reasons Alder.” Said Lord Runax, “Don’t hurt him, but I want you to tell me what you think after a brief spar.”

Alder snorted, further spoiling his good looks by spitting off to the side of the ring as he shook his head. “You won’t tell me what his Cultivation Technique is, but you don’t want me to hurt him? Bloody beast, he looks like he should still be attached to his mother’s tit, how could possibly be worth my time?”

Lord Runax sighed, “Hunter Alder, consider it an order then. Spar with the boy, and report your observations to me afterwards. Keep whatever you discover confidential or consider your oath to House Flameward foresworn.”

The hunter seemed startled by Froggies words, but mumbled an acceptance and nodded his head. “Let’s get on with it then, boy.” He waited for everyone but the two of us to clear the ring, accepting the two wooden swords brought to us by a young servant girl (who was probably twice my age…) before throwing one of them at the ground near my feet.

I was still considering what to do, and how much of my power it was safe to reveal, when he suddenly charged at me. Before I could even react his wooden sword was flying at my midsection, the blow looking aimed to shatter ribs if not kill me outright – what the hell, I’m five years old you bloody idiot!

I wasn’t able to do anything except take the blow, but I had kept my Ion Shield in place since this whole thing started. And it worked… after a fashion. I didn’t feel the pain of the strike, but I was still knocked flying backwards from the force of the blow, landing on my side and rolling to a dazed stop near the rings edge. I was scraped and bleeding from my roll across the stone, and I had no idea where my practice sword had flown off to, but at least my ribs weren’t shattered…

This was the first time I had used my powers to block a significant amount of force, and I felt something different about my Ion Shield… oh crap. I could sense it was damaged, but I didn’t have any way to tell what had happened without going online – and although going ‘unconscious’ seemed like it might actually be the safest thing to do right now, I didn’t want to risk having them to come to the conclusion that I had been lying about Merrik.

I focused my attention back on the Ion Shield thought I could actually feel it start to repair itself when I concentrated, but it was a relatively slow process and not one I had practiced in the past. I saw Alder looking at me with an incredulous expression, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. He probably expected me to be half dead, but all I had was a few scrapes and bruises.

Then his expression darkened, his brows lowering as his wooden sword was suddenly covered in a sheath of fire. I panicked, my thoughts scrambling as my first instinct told me to try and use the Jujitsu I had learned in my old life on Earth – but as I stood up I realized that was simply impossible: The size and strength difference between us was much too large.

Lightning. The idea came to me, and before I could even think about it I started envisioning an ionized path between me and the most threatening thing in my field of vision – the flaming wooden sword. I struck out at it again and again, building up a contained voltage and releasing it over and over. At first there was a strange resistance, almost like something was interrupting the path of ionized air before it could reach Alders sword; but it went away after the first few strikes.

A loud yelling finally made its way through my exhausted mind, and I stopped my frantic attacks just long enough to see that Alder wasn’t standing up anymore before I lost my balance and fell down. I was so exhausted I could barely move as I saw the frantic face of Lord Runax appear before me, but I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying at the moment. He didn’t appear to be angry, however, which was nice.

I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths as I tried to process what had just happened. I had been in several fights back on Earth, but I would definitely not consider myself a ‘fighter’. More of a lover, really. But there was one strange thing that had always happened whenever I was truly threatened or actually violently attacked – I got mad. And I mean white hot don’t-give-a-shit about anything mad; I didn’t exactly go berserk… but I would get so mad I would just calmly do whatever it took to subdue my target, whether verbally of physically, it didn’t matter. I had never fully lost control, and always stopped before doing anything that could end in a lawsuit, but I had always ended up winning – and usually without much of a contest.

I found it a lot easier to stay calm when I was mad, so I had a better time dealing with conflict if justice was on my side and I could get angry first – however, right now I felt that everything happening was at least half my fault, so it was a lot harder for me to keep my cool (hard to work up a good rage when I was feeling so guilty).

Keeping my eyes closed, I checked on my stats to see if anything had changed.

Health Points (HP): 6 / 5

Fatigue Points (FP): 6 / 2

Total CP earned: 34 with 10 remaining

My fatigue was lower than I expected, but then again today was a pretty rough day for a five year old body to take. Other than that (and the fact that I had lost one HP, probably from the rough tumble I had just experienced) everything looked the same as it had this morning.

I opened my eyes and looked over at the Hunter I had been ‘sparring’ with a few minutes ago. There was smoke in the air around him, and I suddenly realized I could smell a faint scent of fried pork. His wooden sword was nowhere in sight, and his weapon-hand was burnt a crispy blackened color. I didn't know if he was still alive or not, but I couldn’t bring myself to care right then. That guy was a dick anyway.