Chapter 11: The monkey and the trees

He stared down his three remaining opponents, shifting all of his weight to the left leg.

'That took more out of me than I expected.'

He looked at the sun trying to guess how much time has passed. ' I wish I brought a watch with me. It would be such a tragedy if, after all of this, I fail because of a time out.' The boy amused himself with the thought.

'A normal attack damages them, but it doesn't break them, and if I put more force into my strikes I also take damage. After the first one, my hand went numb, it's not damaged but it's not a hundred percent okay as well. My leg on the other hand is busted. I can still run, but it will not be at my top speed, and to top it off it hurts even when I stand still.'

'I can't use kicks anymore. Even if I kick with the left, and I don't know if that will even have enough force to do the job, it will still be a disaster. If I put my weight on my right leg I risk losing my balance and falling down. Then I will be just like a dead fish, ready to be skewered and roasted. Man, I miss going camping' the boy's thoughts wondered as he was going through his options.

'Focus Ciaran, you can have fun later, first let's chop some wood.' He shook his head and tried to direct all his attention to the problem in front of him. He was a clever boy, too clever in fact, but his greatest weakness was that he got distracted too easily at times. On the opposite end, he sometimes got hyper-focused on one singular task ignoring all else. He tried his best to control himself, but episodes like this one, where his mind would wonder at the worst of times happened frequently.

As he was watching the trees they got into formation. Two of them were in the front, one in the back. They were standing close enough to each other so that they may gang up on the kid if he attacks, but kept enough space so that they can maneuver should they needed to.

'I thought I got lucky but it seems I was wrong.'

'When I was fighting a single tree, he was not only slow, he was stupid as well. The only reason it was close was I was reckless and wanted to end it as fast as possible. When they were five they were positioned well. But hey didn't seem organized.'

'So that's your game is it, whit each casualty they get smarter. Keeps the overall difficulty the same I guess.'

The trees did not move, they simply stared and weighed. Time was on their side after all.

'A frontal assault it is then.' The boy decided and dashed.

Their arena wasn't small, but it wasn't big either, so the Ciaran was running clockwise in a circle around them to pick up speed. He had decided on a straightforward assault, but he found no need to inform his targets of his plan.

He got faster and faster, and then as he got close to the limit of what he could achieve he dashed for their frontline.

This time the trees reacted much faster than expected, as they got into a defensive stance. Their hands were positioned to block an assault on the keys and to their head. The third one had a different position but his arms were raised so that when the boy attacked he would counter.

The boy did not slow down; it seemed he was intent on ramming them at full speed.

He aimed himself like a bullet at the left tree. Using his fist he attacked straight at the arms of the defender. It seemed the boy was truly intent on brute forcing his way to victory, however, at the last possible moment he opened his palm and grabbed onto the tree's arm instead.

He twisted with as much force as he could; even managing to single-handedly put the tree in balance. His aim was something else, however. He used the momentum to push past the defenders, aiming for the small gap between them. With this maneuver, he redirected himself forward and up right at the head of the defenseless tree at the back.

He launched himself with a high knee at its chest. Sadly for him, the tree was not as defenseless as he thought. It stepped back as much as it could and managed to put up a guard to protect its vitals.

'Change of plan'

In midair, Ciaran pushed his other leg forward and landed on the tree in a horizontal squat on its arms. With all the force he could muster he launched himself towards his previous target, twisting his body for an elbow strike, as his foothold had been knocked back and landed on its ass, or whatever it had instead of one.

The defender had previously been put off balance and it had no time to put up its defenses. The one tree that was left out of this offensive tried to get in the boy's way, but it was too slow. The elbow connected. To be sure he got the job done; he used his right arm to hammer the elbow stick deeper.

'Maximum penetration' he thought.

They both fell down, and his victim wasn't getting back up, but Ciaran wasn't done. As he hit the ground he rolled over and, standing on all fours dashed to the second defender. When it tried to stop his previous attack it left itself defenseless. The trees needed a moment to get in position and recover. Something he intended to exploit as much as he could.

He stayed as close to the ground as he could as he dashed to his target, when suddenly it seemed like his leg gave out and he was falling to down, nose first to the ground. He placed his hands on the ground and as if he was a spring he pushed himself off the ground, his legs aimed at the tree's head.

Just as he was about to deliver a devastating double kick to the head, he parted his legs, wrapping them around instead. Using his momentum and his body weight he then proceeded to twist. The tree was swung, but that wasn't Ciaran's aim. He twisted his upper body and grabbed the tree's chest, using it as a counterbalance. The resulting force was enough for the kid to rip the tree's head right off its shoulders.

Ciaran let go of the body and ran in the opposite direction, as the last tree had recovered and was already on its feet.

Still dizzy from that whole charade Ciaran needed a moment to catch his breath. As before he got to the exit, he needed to make sure it worked so he checked the holes.

All were glowing except the one in the middle.

The boy's eyes were shining, but his lips were twisted in a frown. 'I wish I could say it all went according to plan, but it didn't.' He thought

'My initial plan failed hard. Those things are not only getting smarter but also more nimble. They caught me off guard and I paid the price for my hubris' He was clenching his wrist. That first twist had a lot of force behind it. It had allowed Ciaran to catch them off guard, but he had sprained his wrist in the process.

'I even did a full handstand after that, hell, more than that I put so much force into my sprained wrist I should be happy it's not broken. '

'That's what I get for acting like a monkey and doing flips. But man was it cool when I drilled that fucker. I wish Ray could have seen in.' The boy showed a hint of a smile and then frowned again.

"If it was Ray, he could have beaten them without the theatrics," he said, once again not realizing he is voicing his thoughts out loud. It didn't use to bother him, but his brother kept growing faster than him in power. It's gotten to the point where Ray beat him in all of their spars.

'I would beat him if I employed more "creative" tactics, but I can't, not against Ray. The dumb dumb is my brother, and I would be damned if I do that to him.

'Gramps always says, cruelty is for the battlefield, and love is for family. As cringe as it sounds I tend to agree.' The boy smiled again and looked in front of him. There the last tree stood.

"Right, forgot about you." The boy said trying to sound as much of an ass as he could. Better for his opponents to think of him as rude, than for them to know of his flaws. Not that it mattered if they did. In Battle his lack of control never hindered him. But periodically random thoughts would invade his mind.

'It will get better by itself. Gramps said it's a kid thing' The boy mused.