The Perfect Specimen

Alistair is unable to comprehend the situation. He has always relied on his instincts to avoid danger, but his instincts fail him when he prepares himself in advance.

A sickening thud permeates through the room, sounding as if leather were to be slammed on concrete. Alistair is laying down on his back with his face staring at the ceiling, not moving in the slightest.

Due to this being a match to knock down the opponent fastest, Alistair loses his first match in class against Taylor.

"Winner: Taylor!" The drill instructor states.

Silently fist pumping himself for his actions, Taylor makes his way back to the line. The way it is set up in the matches is that the loser would continue fighting until they achieve a victory, as long as the loser is still capable of continuing.

The drill instructor begins to make his way to Alistair in an attempt to ascertain his if he could fight. When he walks towards Alistair though, the boy who heckled Alistair previously could not miss the chance to rub salt on the wound.

"Teacher, don't waste your time. This kid smacked the ground harder than a sack of potatoes, it's best to call one of the nurses now or else he will sustain serious injuries." The boy next to him chuckled when he heard this.

Taylor speaks up to agree with the sentiment with no animosity in his voice, "Teacher, he is right. Alistair threw his entire body weight behind that attack. Adding my weight to it and the force of the strike, I feel I went overboard."

The drill instructor pays no heed to them and continues walking over to Alistair, much to the confusion of everyone else.

"Alright kid, get up. I know you are fine so it's time for your next match." He slightly kicks Alistair on the side to nudge him.

Immediately after, Alistair snaps up to his feet and turns to ask the drill instructor, "Teacher, how come I couldn't sense him coming at me? Usually my body moves on it's own and I am able to dodge strikes I can't even see."

The drill instructor shows surprise in his eyes. When he first met Alistair, he wanted to set an example to the other students and use the most popular kid as a means to do so. He figured Alistair to be the most spoiled child of the bunch due to showing up late his first day.

He soon realized this class that Alistair is not as popular as he thought, and everyone seems to be congregating towards the heckling student.

Although that was enough to take Alistair off of his radar, it caused him to look at Alistair objectively and see his capabilities. He confirmed this when he went to feel Alistairs muscles at the start of class.

He knew exactly how tough this little bald child is. After hearing his question though, he feels that his opinion of him might have been a tad too high as the answer should be obvious to a body practitioner such as Alistair.

He instructs Alistair sincerely, "What you are used to when you are fighting should be the reaction to blood l.u.s.t. It is an effective sense to have when in life threatening situations. Here however, it will be fairly useless to you. Let me ask you this Alistair, what would happen if a person attacked you without the intention to kill you? Would you still feel like your life is in danger?"

As if a fog is cleared, Alistair realizes his mistake and sincerely reflects on his actions. "Thank you teacher! I will do my best to improve!" After saying this, he sees the drill instructor smile slightly and walk back to the corner of the room for a better view.

"Next contestant!" The drill instructor shouts at the class. After seeing the poor display Alistair put on in his first match, the students figure him to be an easy target to help them stand out.

Another student walks over to Alistair and says, "Timothy! Fighting style: Boxing!" He quickly takes his stance and hopes to secure an easy victory. Along the way he can please the popular boy in the class and try to solidify himself with the cool kids, making his school life here a lot easier.

Alistair reflects on his actions the entire time since he finished his thanks to the teacher. Not even paying attention to the students introduction. He thinks back to the move he experience from the Taylor earlier.

He focuses his mind inward and blocks out the outside world while imagining himself in Taylor's position, with himself charging at him. The way he felt and what occurred during the move all the way through. He decides to try and imitate the move in the darkness of his mind.

He see's himself as a fuzzy figure that charges at him ready to attack. This time though, the attack that the fuzzy figure is using is coming from a slightly different angle than he remembers. He pays it no heed and reenacts the scene from memory.

The fuzzy figure shoots it's fist straight into his face. He moves his head to the side while grabbing the extended arm and kicking the figures leg as he is turning around. The next thing he notices is the fuzzy figure slamming against the ground.

The darkness around him blasts away along with the impact, and the fuzzy figure turns into a unconscious student on the ground.

A minute earlier, after Timothy announced his name. The class waits for Alistair's response but do not hear anything. After a few seconds pass by, the Timothy says, "You can at least say your name before I beat you." However, he receives no response.

Believing himself to be ignored, he gets agitated and asks the teacher "May we start already? We don't have time to wait for him to shake off any brain damage from the last fight." He chuckles and looks over at the two boys who were heckling before and sees them being amused by the comment.

After seeing his humor worked, he felt emboldened and after the drill instructor gave his permission the match began. First, he waited for Alistair to come charging at him like he did with the previous student but still sees no movement.

"Fine! If you won't come to me, I'll come to you!" He dashes straight at him with his fists guarding his face. After getting within arms reach, he sees Alistair staring out into space with his eyes looking unfocused. Instead of feeling something amiss, he decides to try and end the fight as flashily as he can to impress the teacher.

He throws a right lunging jab with all his might towards Alistairs face. What awaited him though, was something that startled the entire class, but completely shocked one person in particular Taylor.

Alistair quickly reacts to the punch and successfully completes the move that he lost to in the previous match. After Timothy hits the ground, he loses consciousness from the sudden impact.

It is then that everyone hears the drill instructors voice and brings them to reality, "Winner: Alistair!"