Training: day 26
 
The next morning, you are up before the sun
>Despite last night’s humiliating turnout, you are too stubborn to back out of the fight now that it has been confirmed
>The die is cast, there is no going back. Might as well make the most of it since its now or never to decide if this is will be your life’s work
>With a good stretch of your bones and a firm crack of your knuckles, you are ready to indignantly make way to the gym
>You do the gratuitous morning routine of showering, shaving and eating breakfast before making way for the door.
>But as you are about to storm out of the house you hear Rainbow Dash’s voice for the first time in Days
>“Anon”
>You freeze in your tracks with your hand rested against the front door of the house. With a turn of your head, you face your caller.
>Dash steps out of the shadows enveloping the hallway with a very bleak, very stern, very flat expression on her face
>“In the past few days…”
>she pauses and rolls her jaw around, clearly wanting to choose her words carefully
>“I was doing some detective work. I’ve been watching Diamondback train”
>You turn the rest of your body congruent with the direction your facing, telling her she has your full attention
>“He trains hard, he trains daily, he trains very seriously and he trains for speed.
>With a roll of her eyes and another pause she continues
>“…You should trust me when I say I know a thing or two about speed. And you should REALLY trust me when I say there is absolutely no way we’re going to be able to make you fast enough to beat him. You won’t be able to hit him with a few quick ones and run back because he’s going to do all that before you can. You’re not going to be able to hit him when there’s a opening in his guard, because whenever you try he’ll do that you. You don’t bait him around, he baits you. That’s how it is. He’s just too skilled…He just might be the fastest puncher in the pro league right now.”
>With that, you feel you have heard all you need to hear, turn toward the door and resume your initial plan of storming out. You would much rather face the humiliating music that awaits you back at The Labyrinth than to suffer another of these petty quarrels again
>However, the second your palm makes contact with the surface of the door, Dash continues her speech in an unexpected turn of events
>“BUT…”
>You freeze in place a second time
>“…We could make you tough enough to fight him.”
>You cease your departure and turn attention to Dash once more
Go on…
>“We could make you durable enough to take his punches head on…sturdy enough to fight past them, to ignore any shots he can throw at you for the chance to give him some of your own.”
>You turn your whole body and face Dash again. Having been knocked down repetitively by the crushing blows of Iron Will just yesterday, the opportunity to build some resistance to damage is certainly a fresh topic in your mind.
Alright Dash. You have my attention, how do you propose we do this?
>She replies with just one simple short sentence;
>“Grab your swimming trunks”
>No less than five minutes later do you find yourself looming over the brisk morning surface of a chilled pond
>You turn to Dash, already shivering from the biting cold of early morning air
How is this supposed to help?
>“It builds pain tolerance and teaches you how to ignore shock. What are you waiting for? Get in there!”
>She plants a hoof on your back and pushes, throwing you into the icy waters. The very instant you submerge you are immediately overwhelmed by the sensations this supposedly this exercise is intended to numb you to
>After pulling your head out of the chilled water, Dash speaks to you though you have barely shaken off enough of the shock to comprehend when she is about to say
>“Meet me on the other side”
>She takes to the air and crosses over the lake in a matter of seconds. If only the trek was that easy for you
>You start stroking through the pond waters, surely below freezing though not yet solidified
>every time you raise your head out of the water, you are torn between gasping for a haggard breath or screaming in agony though you hardly have the respiratory volume for either
>The combined pain from the icy water freezing your nerves and the shock of submerging yourself into it is enough to make you loose track of who, what and where you are for the first nanoseconds of being submerged  
>Each time your whole body is below the surface it is as if your thoughts are paralyzed from getting you out of your damned predicament.
>If it were not for your own baseline instinct to breath, you would surely drown.
>Applauds to Rainbow Dash’s resourcefulness, this is certainly an excellent simulation for the sensation of being punched
>Thrashing your limbs through the depths kick after stroke cannot get you to the end fast enough, it feels as though you are in the middle of an ocean that never ends.
>After an immeasurable length of time, you throw your upper body out of the water with a powerful stroke and land on the shore beneath Dash’s hooves.
>Gasping for air, you relish in release from the pond’s grasp on you as your brain and lungs are free from the impairing torture of the waters
>If you had the lung capacity for it you would shout “What the fuck is wrong with the polar bear club!?!”
>You look up to Dash with the daybreak of the morning sun being eclipsed behind her. Looking to her for instructions, she gives you the last thing any sane mind would want to hear after enduring what you had moments ago
>“I want to see you do twenty laps, Anon. I hope you understand; this is just the beginning”
>You can feel the frost setting in on your skin and hair as you shiver in place in the water but it has no measurable effects on curving her demands. She simply holds a stern look of high expectations before taking flight a second, crossing the lake in second display of enviable ease
>With that you know training can only intensify from here on
>This really is just the beginning
 
>After surviving the horrendous endeavor of the waters you rush into the house, not caring if you trail a mess in the process
>Still shivering, you sprint for the bathtub and turn the hot water on, fidgeting uncomfortably while it fills up and plunge in the very instant it is high enough to envelop your body
>Upon entry, you feel the tingling on your nerves as their numbness fades and the blood flow resumes. A rather pleasant turn of narrative as they had lost so much sensation you had half a mind they had been amputated
>As you rest simmering in the water, you look across the floor and see this month’s issue of the Black Eye Times boxing serial laying on the tile
>Picking it up with your frigid finger from where you had negligently throw it to the side a few days ago, you skim over to the index
>Searching from top to bottom, a couple of article titles attract your interest.
>Among them; “Iron Will announced to make his 10th title defense in his 45th fight” “The Labyrinth changing owners! It’s official” “Ground finally broken at the new ’Iron Mal’ Grand Coliseum site. Being Built to seat an audience of 14,000” “Cruiserweight contender Gruff’s loses via fifth round TKO, ending his knockout streak of eleven”
>But what catches your eye; Near the bottom in Bold yellow Print “Diamondback! Back on the road to the belt. An exclusive interview with the Fighting Lightning”- page 42
>Curious about this mysterious opponent of yours, you skim to the second half off the issue and find an interview on the page you were looking for. You assume Diamondback is answering
>“Q: How did you stay in shape while your fracture spent a slow 18 months healing”
>“A: Running and rope work. Just cause my wrist was wasn’t working doesn’t mean I’m about to let myself become slower than a Road block. I can still run circles around every chump in the sport even with a cast on and, if it was up to me, I would have. If all these big brawler-types trained to move around they wouldn‘t hit the floor so hard whenever I knock them out after they got tired of lugging their weight around”
>“Q: on returning to the ring following your recovery, you won by in a decision even though you had been on a knockout streak of seven. Does this have you worried about your match with Iron Will that is still on hold?”
>“A: Fighting Granite was a cinch. So what if he hits hard? His body and brain move way to slow to do anything but stay in the middle and brawl. That doesn’t mean I’m about to stoop to his level. I aint worried about Will now and I never will be. His time has come anyway. I promise I’ll take good care of the belt when I get it. I respect what he’s done for the sport but I’m the best who ever was.
>“Q: Why did you choose to fight Anonymous, A journeyman who came out of nowhere and has yet to win a single bout”
>“A: I prove I’m the best by beating every fighter there is. Or better yet, Every type of fighter there is. I’ve knocked out Griffins, Diamond dogs, Minotaurs and other Dragons but there’s only one human in the circuit. I wish he was a more challenging boxer but oh well, it won’t matter either way. Everybody looses to me in the end.
>You groan and roll your eyes at what you are reading. Not out of intimidation but more so out of contempt for your opponent’s asinine responses
>“gees, what a prick” You say to yourself
>Before you can read any further, you hear dash knocking on the door loudly
>“What are you doing in there? Get out, already! We’re going hiking!”
>With that, you skim over the rest of the Q & A before casting your reading material off to the side and removing yourself from the tub. By the look of it, there was little more to read that did not entail your opponent flexing his bloated ego
 
>Later on a mountain path
>Dash is following right behind your trail and railing on you with every single step you take
>Of course, you have heard it all many times before so there is little it can do to fuel your drive
Where exactly are we going?
>“We’re not going anywhere with how slow you’re moving! Run faster!”
Run faster? You said this morning that there is no way we’re gonna make me faster than Diamondback…
>“That doesn’t mean we should forget about your speed completely. Diamondback has lightning quick reflexes, haste in the ring and anticipation like a snake. If you want a chance at beating him, you’re gonna need to have all that and more! Now stop talking and MOVE IT!!”
>Your speed remains unchanged. However, with your attention facing forward, you do not realize that she takes off from her usual position of following behind you. Returning with a cloud, she springs on it. Causing it to produce a loud booming clap and startle you into running faster as you scream in surprise
AHHHH!!!
>“FASTER!!” She shouts again as she begins springing on it rhythmically, The repeating cracks of lightning and ensuing bellows of thunder fuel your adrenaline
>Eventually, the two of you do make it to your destination high up on the trail of the mountain. A large cave apparently, though she issues you a rest period before the two of you cross the threshold to conduct whatever errand lies beyond
>“Alright, Anon. Take five” she says as she kicks the cloud in a fashion that causes it to disperse
How much harder is this going to get, Dash?
>“Oh, you’ll find out when you see what’s in there”
>You roll your eyes and sigh, readying yourself to deliver the news about your future in the sport
Listen…I didn’t want to tell you this since we started fighting so much but I’ve been thinking about giving up the sport before I get seriously hurt
>She cranes her head toward you and holds it still. Her eyebrows raise as and she remains silent as if she expects there to be a follow up sentence.
If I can’t do good in this next bout, I’m stepping out of the ring once and for all.
>She sighs and shakes her head as she prepares to deliver some fateful confessions of her own
Anon. I knew you weren’t going to win your first fight against Will…
>You cut in
Well, Duh!
>Even though you’ve had experience before coming here, its still completely ludicrous for a nobody with zero verifiable records in this world to beat a seven time champion. She Continues…
>“But you gave it your all and I’m proud of you for that. But since that, you just don’t seem like you have the same fight in you anymore. If it’s not for you, then its not for you”
>You nod, content with that answer for the time being. You have no idea whether or not dropping the sport will give her initiative to leave you but for the moment you do not care.
>Even though you had gotten into this for her, that was a different Anonymous living in a different time. Now, you are in a separate chapter of your life.
>“Breaks over, in we go!”
>stepping in past the threshold, the two of you are a greeted by a rather crusty looking carpet taking up but a quarter of the cave’s floor
>Curious, you step in to get a closer look at the dry flakes of scaly tiles knitted together in a seamless fabric. You think you have an idea of what this is
Huh? What is this, a snake skin?
>“A Dragon skin. I‘ve been looking for one for weeks”
>You nod your head as you rationalize what lies before you. This would have had to have been molted by a snake of proportions no one has ever heard of
>“The big guy who lives in here shed himself out of it yesterday. I have no idea when he’s coming back, so we better fold it and run”
>No objection on your part. With you and her standing on parallel sides, the both of you press out the folds and creases by giving the opposite ends a good tug . Despite having a dead and crusty look to it, it feels quite fleshy and alive.
>You and Dash roll it up like a carpet, finishing just as you hear the load roaring cry of a full grown dragon coming from the outside.
>The both of your eyes dilate in terror simultaneously. Hoisting your plundered loot on to your shoulder, the two of bolt for the exit.
>Emerging faster than greased ball bearings, Dash leaps behind a rock with you following suit, hoping to hide from whatever beast was the source of that cry as you would rather not risk getting in a scrap with him.
>Granted, you are soon to fight a dragon in the ring but he is young, roughly your size and height and will be subject to follow the rules of the ring. You cannot say that nearby airborne monstrosity will give you the same privileges
>You look up and see the gargantuan reptile flying overhead, He emits another thunderous cry though he does not approach the cave. Instead, he just continues his flight path
>The two of you watch nervously as he flies overhead and distances himself from you. Looks like it was just a false alarm. You have no idea if he is one who calls the cave you had just pillaged his home and is still amid the commutes and errands of today or if he was just a coincidental passerby
>But with you being content without clarification, you pick up the molted skin a second time and take to the path you came in on.
 
 
>Later…
>The two of you have the skin spread out over the basement floor
>You are trying to cut it up into a smaller piece that you can wrap around the surface of your heavy bag, though that is far easier said than done
>It is quite remarkable substance. Malleable, flimsy and flaccid enough to be rolled like a cloth but alarmingly difficult, albeit not impossible, to be slice across the grain
>Regardless, the two of you press down heavily on the pair of sharpened gardening sheers that have accounted for the progress you made thus far
>“One…Two…Three…Push!” Dash coordinates the combined efforts as the both of you manage to deal another cut to the skin
>“One…Two…Three…Push!” she cries a second time as you deal the last snip to the skin, effectively giving you a nice square piece of the scaly fabric laying on the ground
>“Get it on there, I’ll get the duck tape” she motions toward the heavy bag hanging from the rafters.
>The two of you attach the square of dragonskin to the surface of the bag and waste no time wrapping and gloving your wrists thereafter as you prepare to practice on the bag
>“Ready?” she asks just as you slip into the gloves
Ready!
>“Start punching! Doesn’t matter how, just do it!”
>And with that you begin swinging wildly into the bag. Sure enough, the skin as resistant to blunt force as it is to cutting.
>After a mere two dozen strikes, you stop to shake the mild strain off of your wrists before jumping back in to dish out more
is the purpose of this exercise, to help you learn how to strike an opponent with armor-like skin
>What ever ache or discomfort on your joints must be adapted to. That
>Everything is about adaptation now…