Sparring with the Elder Disciples

Tora had been preparing for the spar since his master told him of it. He held several advantages he knew he needed to rely on to make sure he won. Tora would take no chances, his life was on the line after all.

His first advantage was that neither of the elder disciples know a spar is to take place. The master would usually announce them randomly. The second was another element of surprise, in the past Tora had only defended himself until inevitably being beaten into a pulp, the new Tora wouldn't make the same mistake and attack right away to surprise them.

His third advantage came from his body, Tora had endured hellish training for most of his life and the elder disciples added on to that, whenever the master left them in charge of conducting training they would slack off and give Tora extra work. "The difference in effort will definitely reveal itself." Tora believed.

The final advantage lay in his Tiger Strike skill, Tora through hard work had mastered it to the best of his ability. Tora had no doubt that if his Kiai crashed into either of the elder disciples he would come out victorious. His plan was to defeat one elder disciple with only martial arts with a surprisingly aggressive attack and then win the second spar by baiting the other disciples Tiger Strike and using his own to defeat him. "This will work!" Tora said confidently to himself.

The time came for group training and Tora followed the two elder disciples and his master to the group training field. It took an hour to walk through as they went from one mountain peak to the other with superhuman speed. Tora was amazed by how easy it was to move so fast, but he also knew that this speed might as well be that of an infant compared to the evil forces he may have to face in the future.

They arrived at dusk. The sun was setting and shined an almost purple light over the field. It was a 100 year old carved stone circle, his father claimed to have built it himself but Tora wasn't sure if he was being honest. The stone was old but clean, one of the chores Tora did weekly was to run to every place his father had built on the mountains and clean it by hand. The elder disciples were suppose to share in this but they never did their share forcing it onto Tora. He wasn't even sure if the elder disciples knew Tora was the masters son, Tora was never allowed to call him father and the master never showed any kind of parental affection to him.

The Tiger Hermit didn't enter the ring instead sitting on a rock outside of it. "Tora has requested to leave the mountain and explore the world, he has been instructed to do so he must first defeat you both in a spar." The elder disciples broke out laughing. The idea seemed so funny to them they couldn't keep their composure even in front of their strict master. Tora's father waited until the two saw he was serious and stopped laughing.

"Who shall face our junior disciple first master?" Asked one. The middle aged man with a slight smile to his face said "He must overcome you both at the same time!" They all laughed this time, Tora froze. It had been the first time he had heard his father laugh so loudly.

"That bastard! Is this a game to him? Does he enjoy torturing his own flesh and blood?!" Tora's mind raced a mile a minute. "What do I do? I can't afford to back down or I could die any day, and I can't keep living in this kind of abusive hell anyway! Stick to the plan! The plan will work, I just need to take out one so fast that it becomes and one on one with the other. If I can't incapacitate one right away I have no chance!"

Tora had a significant reach disadvantage, he was around the same height and size of Goku and Krillin as kids during Dragon Ball. Both of the disciples were older by a few years and both a foot or two taller than him.

Tora looked around the area for any sort of terrain advantage. He spotted a large boulder just outside the arena, and he began to slowly position himself so he lined up with one of the elder disciples and the boulder. Soon the laughter died, and the elder disciples turned towards him in with no fighting stance. Tora's stance had him low, left foot and hand in front, leaning forward on his toes ready to rush forward.

The Tiger Hermit casually raised his hand in the air and the dropped it shouting "Begin!" Half way through the word leaving the masters mouth Tora exploded forward with immense speed, the disciple he was targeting was complete surprised and sent out a panicked punch with his right hand as Tora approached. A sloppy blow stood no chance against Tora as he was now, he slipped his head under the attack and quickly jumped and kicked into the sternum of his opponent who flew back several feet and crashed into the boulder creating a small dent.

The disciple coughed loudly in pain but he was still conscious, and Tora couldn't take the chance he'd get back up again. He charged forward again taking a big right step before his opponent to turn all his speed into force and smashed his right fist into the disciple's head, smashing it into the boulder breaking it as the disciple collapsed white eyed and bloody covered in rubble. "Don't lose focus, where's the other disciple?!" Tora told himself.

Tora turned ready to defend himself against his other opponent, only instead to see that the disciple had only just turned to face him at the same spot he was at during the beginning of the spar, with a shocked expression on his face. Even the master looked surprised, it didn't seem like he believed Tora had a chance after all. "I can do this!"

Tora studied his opponent and saw the weakness in the disciple's mind on his face. Tora thought of a perfect way to bait his opponents Tiger Strike.