The Best way to Get Hit

"Before you learn how to hit someone, you need to learn how to get hit. You have good resistance to pain, so I will not hold back"

I entered my fighting stance and Evan dashed at me.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* The punching sounds were so loud that echoed through the whole temple.

It was a one-sided beatdown.

He was too fast, I couldn't see any of his attacks, and his punches were flying at me at an absurd speed. While punching me, Evan started to speak.

"Concentrate, don't try to see them, look at your body, try to determine where I am gonna hit, and do something about it"

'How am I supposed to do anything while being beaten up like this?'

Although I didn't believe I could do anything, I still tried. Slowly, I realized that the only parts of my body that were being hit were the head, the chest, and the stomach. It was something simple, but realizing it while feeling your body being made a sandbag wasn't so easy.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

I was trying my best to understand but my head couldn't think properly.

'This training isn't to improve my footwork, my resistance, or my strength. Then it's for what?!' Blood flowed out of my mouth. I was quickly losing conscience while feeling my body being showered by punches.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

'I can't dodge, I can't block, all of the attacks are sure to hit the three points' I was starting to feel helpless but still trying.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

'He said I had to learn how to get hit...? Do I have to make his punches weaker? But.....'

*BANG!!!!!*

When I almost understood something, Evan's punch landed on my head and all my thoughts turned messy. I couldn't hear anything anymore and my vision was darkening.

Suddenly, I lost balance and my feet moved back just a little. At the same time, a punch landed on my chest. Then I thought I was done for, but to my surprise, the punch was weaker than the others.

*BANG*

'Why?' Instantly another punch came to my stomach. I couldn't balance myself properly and my feet moved back again trying not to fall.

*BANG* It was weaker again! My mind quickly started to work with the last bit of energy left. I needed to think of something or I would pass out...

'I get it!'

I made a theory about why the punches were weaker and started to test it. He probably made the difference more obvious for me to see it.

*BANG!!!* *BANG!!* *BANG!* *BANG*

When the punches were almost hitting, I moved my body slightly closer or further from it. I still couldn't understand why, but it worked. The punches were getting weaker and weaker as I understood more and more of my theory.

Then, Evan smiled and stopped the punches.

"Well done, we can stop for now"

After hearing him, my legs lost all their strength, and I fell closing my eyes on the ground.

Evan sat by my side and started to talk.

"You learned it faster than I thought. You deserve a reward. How about I answer one of your questions like last time?"

Unluckily for him, I had already passed out and didn't hear what he said. Evan looked at my body full of marks from the sparing and started to regret it a little.

"Maybe I exaggerated a little?... Should I make his training easier?"

.

.

.

"Nah... He will be fine... Maybe"

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I woke up in the cave, but I didn't move and stayed there looking at the seeling. I was feeling lost, 'where am I?', 'why am I here?', 'how did I get here?', 'Why is my head aching so much?'. Then I started to remember all my memories, from the moment I was born to now.

The first time I opened my eyes, I was in a dark brown room and some people took care of me from time to time. The only thing I know from them is that they wore black and white clothes.

Then, one day I woke up and wasn't in the dark brown room anymore but in a dark white room, quite the change isn't it? There was a man called 'doctor' that made what he called 'experiments' on me, it hurt a lot at the start but I got used to it and the pain didn't bother me too much anymore.

Then I kinda escaped the lab and started to live in the forest, the animals in the forest always treated me well and I didn't need to feel pain every day like in the lab. But then I found a bad man that lied to me and because I helped him, all my friends died and my home was burned.

Then I fell into the canyon, found a purple forest, and started hunting monsters to grow stronger. One day I found a monster that was too strong and he captured me and brought me to a village full of monsters like him, where I met Evan.

Then, I and the annoying fellow were forced to fight some monsters, and we were thrown into a deep hole. We survived the fall and found a strange temple that had a lot of things and maybe a way to get out of here but it's blocked by a really strong monster'

I passed through a lot of things during the three years since my birth and started to wonder if there were other people like me.

'Do other people pass through those things too?' I didn't know, I didn't have anyone to compare.

'Maybe I can ask Evan, what did he do?' I was interested.

I looked to the side and stared at Evan who was in deep sleep.

"Hey Evan" I poked his shoulder, but he didn't seem like he was gonna open his eyes.

"Wake up, I want to talk" I started to shake him.

Evan took his time to wake up and after some time we were sitting in front of each other.

"This is new, you usually don't want to talk. What is it?"

"I don't talk because of you! The last time you just wanted to talk about useless stuff" Sometimes I wondered if I would be like him when I became thirteen.

"Hey! remembering the name of the stars in the sky isn't useless"

"I don't think so... Whatever, can you tell me about your life?"

"Well, Sure, I guess. But why do you want to know?"

"Nothing important, I just... Can you stop asking and start talking already?"

"Okay, okay, someone woke up with a sour mood today" he teased.

Evan needed some time to think and started to tell his history. As I expected, his story was way different from mine.

He was born in a village very very far away from here, he said that he didn't pass through anything special in his first years of life.

He had a mom and dad, they took care of him and loved him very much. He loved them very much too.

He told me about how the three of them always ate together, about how his mother would insist on putting him to bed even if he already could do it alone. The birthday parties, the picnics in the forest, the fairy tales that his mother used to tell, he told all of it with a big smile on his face.

I couldn't help myself from being enchanted by it, I imagined myself with a mom and dad doing all of those things and I couldn't help a smile forming on my face too.

Like this, we spent a lot of time talking in a happy mood, way different from before.