55. Challenge

The man kept his calm gaze on Deon and Skrili for an extra moment when they didn't know how to react.

Is he really the guy? thought Deon.

Letting out a laugh, the stranger stepped forward to join them in the outdoors. Deon and Skrili moved out of the way as he slowly walked past them, hands in pocket. It seemed he was simply about to disappear into the woods, before he abruptly stopped in the middle of the cabin's yard.

"What, you guys don't think I'm the Legend Trainer?" he asked with a teasing air of disappointment. "That's sad…ah, well. I'm used to it."

He spun around to face them, his relaxed and confident smile still in place. "I'm Skip," he said. "I'm the guy who invited you here after watching the semi-finals. Well—I invited you, Ms. Skrili Kay—I don't know this dude."

"Oh, I'm—" started Deon.

"Oops: not yet, we'll get to that part," interrupted Skip. "Man, Skrili. I had this whole training plan set up and everything. Then you and Pang went and pulled a 180 on me and started new teams. What gives?"

"We just—" began Skrili.

"Don't actually answer that—I hate spoilers," Skip intervened again. "By the way, have you kept up with the news and social media? Everyone's going nuts about it—you and Pang breaking up. I mean, they should: it's literally the worst professional decision you could make. You're stars now! What are you doing?!"

Laughing, he pulled out a sleek TeamTrack and began flipping through screens. "'Shocking: New Fan Favorites Pang and Skrili quietly end budding career together,'" he read aloud dramatically. "'This just in: Skrili Kay ditches Pang, starts team with unknown boyfriend.'"

Skip tucked his TeamTrack away, shaking his head. "Teasing aside though, I love this. I'm all for it. This is a good sign."

Why? What's the point of going on about it? Deon wondered irritably. But he kept quiet—he couldn't dream of blowing their chance to train.

Walking slowly, Skip moved closer to Deon and Skrili. They took an uncomfortable step back as he analyzed the two of them extremely closely. Finally, he stood before them in silence for a moment, arms crossed.

"Okay," he said. "This is a different team. Let's pretend I don't know Skrili, either. Please, introduce yourselves."

"I'm D—"

Skip cut him off once more, and Deon clenched his teeth to keep himself from lashing out in annoyance.

"Oh, sorry, sorry: I misspoke," Skip said. "What I meant was, introduce each other."

Deon and Skrili glanced at each other wordlessly.

"Well, go on," urged Skip. "Skrili—I mean—blue-haired stranger, you first."

Why is he enjoying this so much? Deon begrudged.

Skrili shifted uncomfortably, looking down. "This is…my new teammate," she explained.

"Oh—he doesn't have a name?" pressed Skip, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Start over."

Skrili blushed. "This…this is…Deon," she mumbled.

"Deon who?"

"Deon…Stutter."

Something sounded oddly forced in Skrili's voice—Deon wasn't sure why.

Then he realized it: she'd never said his name before. After all this time together, not once had she ever called or referred to him by name.

Somehow Skip read right through it, and for whatever reason, hopped on this realization with utter intrigue.

"Alright…and?" Skip guided her on. "Tell me about him."

"He's—"

"Sorry—who?"

Skrili sighed. "D—Deon is…an Imaginer…from um…Tailcheese…"

"Tailpiece," Deon coughed.

"Right," finished Skrili. "And…he's…kind of a pain in the butt, but not always."

"Hey!" Deon exclaimed.

Skip chuckled. After a pause from Skrili, his eyes widened. "Oh—that's it? Really? That's all you have to say about this guy?"

Skrili shrugged.

"Alright then," he said, his eyes falling on Deon. "Your turn. Who is this young lady?"

Determined not to let Skip embarrass him too, Deon took a confident breath in. "This is my teammate, Skrili Kay. She's the best Power Rebound out there—she and Pang almost beat Kotono and Hiroko in the championship!"

"So obviously that's why you wanted to team up with her, right?" Skip chimed in. "Because she's strong?"

"Well…that's not exactly why," Deon denied. "She never gives up and knows who she is. She sacrificed herself and almost died saving everyone in the stadium during the championship—including me."

Skrili glanced at him briefly.

"After that, I realized that's how I wanna use my strength," Deon continued. "That's why I want to be on a team with Skrili."

Skip's eyes sparkled even further, his intrigue written all over his face. "Very interesting answers," he said slowly.

Deon smirked. He couldn't stump me, he thought.

"But like…who is she?" Skip asked.

"Huh?"

"Where's she from? What was her life like before you two met? Why did she ditch Pang for a rookie like you?"

Deon stammered before freezing up—he didn't know any of the answers to these rather basic questions.

Skip shook his head, and began pacing around the clearing. "Alright, let's review: you two have never been a certified team and don't even have a fighting record together, you kind of just have this awkward dynamic going on standing in front of me, and most alarmingly: you don't even know anything about each other's lives…but, for some reason, you want me to accept you for legend training? You want me to certify someone with no fighting record at all to fight with a near-champion? For some reason, you thought this was a good idea??"

Deon and Skrili exchanged rapid glances before staring at Skip in silence. Deon had to admit: hearing it back, this all seemed ridiculous. Why did he think it would go any differently?

"We…thought it was worth a try," Skrili muttered.

"Clearly. Well, if you couldn't tell by now, this was a test," explained Skip, still pacing around. "This is how I always decide if I'll accept a team—not very fancy, I know. But yeah: you two failed. Miserably."

Deon sulked.

"So miserably, in fact," continued Skip, "that I'm fascinated. I've never seen a team do worse." He finally stopped in place and faced them again. "Lucky for you…I love a challenge."

Heart skipping, Deon lifted his head again. Wait…what?

"I don't think I've ever wanted to train a team more," shared Skip. "So, I'd love to train you, Skrili Kay and Deon Stutter."

Life flooded back into Deon. He shot a fist into the air. "YES!!!"

"It's because we did so poorly," Skrili noted beside him.

"I'LL TAKE IT!!"

He turned to give Skrili a high-five. His hand froze in place when she stared back at it emotionlessly. But in the end, she lifted a hand and dispassionately tapped it against his.

"I'm gonna have too much fun with this…" Skip observed. "Unless, that is, you guys beat me."

"What do you mean?" questioned Deon.

"The Challenge," said Skrili.

"Since I accepted you, you two can challenge me to a fight right here and now," Skip elaborated. "If you win, you'll automatically pass my training. It's a time-saver for you, but a fun-killer for me."

"You never tell me things before I need to know…" Deon mumbled to Skrili.

"Because you know so little, I can't keep track," she retorted.

"So, you in?" Skip asked. "I get it if the rookie's a little squeamish."

Deon clenched his fists and watched Skip closely. He seemed so unassuming and unguarded—though that could have been a front. But in his formal attire, he wasn't even dressed properly for a fight. On top of that, it was two-on-one.

"He underestimates us—he's never seen me in action," Deon said to Skrili. "I say we do it."

"I was already assuming you'd want to," shrugged Skrili. "Just don't get cocky."

Entirely unconcerned with the impending challenge, Skip allowed the team to put their belongings to the side, and invited them to stand across from him at the opposite side of the clearing.

"Let's keep this simple: this will be a boundaries fight," declared Skip. "See the line of trees all around? All you have to do is push me past that, or up against my house. Nothing too hard, right?"

Deon looked around at their fighting grounds. The yard was small; if they only had to force Skip back, backing him into a corner seemed possible enough between the two of them.

But Skip seemed too confident.

"Wait…what's his type?" Deon whispered to Skrili.

"I don't know. I'm not sure anybody does."

"Extra credit if you can figure it out, though!" Skip called over cheerfully.

"So…what's our strategy, then??" wondered Deon.

"We play into our strengths. Stay back and shoot projectiles—just don't hit me. I'll close in and try to force him back in close combat. We have to overwhelm him."

Deon nodded, and stretched a bit before sinking into his ready stance. "Sounds good to me."

I'll prove I'm more than a rookie, he planned.

Skip still kept his hands in his pocket. "Welp, I'm the host. I suppose I'll count it off," he said nonchalantly. "Three…Two…One…Go!"

As Deon expected, Skip launched forward towards the center, distancing himself from the natural boundary line. Despite his seemingly restricting clothing, he matched Skrili's speed while she darted straight for him.

But even still, he didn't appear as a powerful fighter—just a normal, unbothered guy moving almost unnaturally fast.

What is his type…? Deon wondered. Oh—wait! He shook himself back into the situation as Skrili and Skip locked into a close-combat brawl.

He placed several of his leather ball attack around Skip and Skrili. Aiming carefully, he fired the first one at Skip from behind. But without even looking, Skip ducked, dodging Deon's attack and a kick from Skrili simultaneously.

"Lucky…" Deon grumbled.

He fired another, but it got too close to Skrili, so he curved it back out of the way. Skip sidestepped the next few just as easily as the first, all while blocking every attack Skrili dished out.

He's impossibly good…it's got to be his consciousness powers, Deon thought. What is he? A Predictor like Hiroko? But…he hasn't even looked my way to see my attacks coming.

Dismissing the leather balls from existence, Deon replaced them with five mini-Twitchy's. If he could get any of them to claw onto Skip, maybe he could control them to help pull him out of bounds. It wasn't a technique he'd practiced much, but it was worth a shot.

After the floating squirrel monsters formed, he commanded them to charge forward together. Skrili flipped out of the way just in time, and the beasts all crashed into Skip. Deon struggled commanding all of them to grab, so instead he made them all push their target.

Just when it seemed it might work, Skip spun effortlessly, kicking them all away. The Twitchy's vanished in response.

"Crap!" Deon exclaimed.

Wasting no time, Skrili closed back in on Skip, but he only continued to perfectly block and evade, returning no attacks of his own.

Maybe he really has been seeing my attacks coming out of the corner of his eye, pondered Deon.

He imagined another larger leather ball attack, but he placed this one high in the air above the trees. He waited for Skip's back to turn to him, but still at an angle where the attack would miss Skrili. Once the moment was right, Deon sent the ball swooping down.

But in that moment, Skip abruptly switched to an offense. He swiftly grabbed Skrili's defending arm, tugged her towards him while switching places, and then tossed her into the air in a fraction of a second—right in the path of Deon's attack.

"Wait!" shouted Deon—but it was too late to imagine the leather ball way. It slammed right into Skrili's gut, blasting her backwards.

Right towards the large black boulder beside Skip's house.

In a panic, Deon tried imagining a giant pillow against the boulder. To his utter relief, it appeared a mere instant before Skrili crashed into it. The pillow caught her as she sank down to the ground, unharmed.

"That's one out of bounds," came Skip's voice calmly.

Deon returned his attention to the ongoing fight, but he was far too late—in the moment he'd shifted his focus to saving Skrili, Skip had darted straight for him. Skip's face was directly in front of Deon's, his expression still unbothered.

He hadn't broken a single sweat.

The fight was over before Deon had even realized it. He would have tried to defend, but it was simply impossible to follow Skip's moves. He felt himself trip, then spin, and then suddenly he went airborne. Deon's tunic caught a branch high up, and he dangled there, out of bounds.

Skip casually walked over to the tree where Deon hung, hands once again in pocket.

"That was easy," he said. "You mostly made the right call protecting Skrili, but it cost you the fight."

"What was I supposed to let her die?!" Deon countered.

"No. You were supposed to attack in a way that wouldn't have put her in harm's way," explained Skip immediately. "I knew you'd have no choice but to let your guard down and save her. I'm just glad you weren't kidding when you said you want to use your powers to protect, or this could have gone badly. And it would have been your fault."

Deon clenched his teeth.

"You did the right thing to correct your mistake," continued Skip. "But that's not how certified fighters do it. They're prepared to rescue their teammates, and have a plan in place to win anyway. Skrili knows that—she forfeited to save Kotono and everyone in the stadium, but she gave Pang her Power Rebound in case there was still a chance. That's a legendary move. Yours was rookie."

After a pause of sheer humility, Deon nodded.

"But you…" started Skip. He turned around to look at Skrili, who sat against the boulder now that the pillow had vanished. "You're just as much to blame for this loss."

She is? I'm the one who blew it, thought Deon.

"You don't trust your own teammate's ability," Skip said pointedly. "You can't beat a Legend Trainer by sidelining your teammate for background support while you try and do it all yourself. A team relies on each other—you should know that, Ms. Conscious Competition Runner-Up. Come on."

Skrili stared silently.

"If you worked more closely with Deon's style, the two of you could have fought in so many more creative ways against me. All the combos and special attacks you should have…it's disappointing." Skip exchanged glances with both of them. "A team fights as one unit. We'll be working on that, for sure."

Despite the pathetic outcome of their faceoff, and how silly he now felt, Deon smiled. There was no question in his mind anymore: this guy was the real deal. He was the Legend Trainer.

And they were about to get so much stronger.

Skip turned and carelessly made his way back to his front door. "Crash up in the trees tonight—they're weirdly comfortable. We'll start tomorrow." He gave a cool wave. "Skrili, meet me here first thing in the morning. Deon, come a bit later."

"Huh? Why separately?" Deon inquired.

"No spoilers," was all Skip said as he closed the front door, returning inside.