Dreams (Part 2)

Accepting the terms of the match, Stephen drew a five-meter-diameter circle on the ground, picked up a metal club wrapped in shock-absorbing cloth that Marlon made years ago to be able to train safely without having to resort to wooden sticks and...

He started the fight!

"AAAHHHH!!" Stephen yelled as he charged at Fred, who had put his hands behind his back, showing that he wouldn't use them for anything, not even to defend himself with them.

Since Fred had promised not to use his arms during this fight, Stephen did the most logical thing

Attack his legs!

If a person couldn't use their hands, kicks would be his main or even only method of attack, as well as being his only method of movement. If he focused on attacking his legs, he wouldn't only be aware of all his attacks, he would also disable his opponent with ease, winning more easily than with other strategies, such as attacking his torso or head.

This would be an easy win especially considering he had a medium range weapon while Fred didn't...

SLASHHHH!!!

However, despite all these logical considerations...

As Stephen leaned down to hit Fred's knees accurately with his club, he felt as if something was approaching at high speed.

"NANI?!"

That something was a wooden plate wrapped in shock-absorbing cloth tied to Fred's long and red braid, which he directed with great speed and precision at Stephen's forehead like a snake pouncing on a mouse.

CLANK!

A fleeting and strange attack that led Stephen to abandon his offensive intentions and instead used the club to block that attack and then distance himself from Fred's legs, that they would possibly attack him next

Did you forget about my secret weapon?

My attacks come not only from below, but also from above!

And be thankful that biting is forbidden…" Fred yelled as he charged forward with a roundhouse kick to Stephen's liver.

Clank!

A roundhouse kick that Stephen blocked with his club without too much difficulty, although the impact of the kick was considerable. However, that didn't satisfy or reassure him at all, he knew Fred's twisted and calculating personality for that reason he sensed that this wasn't the end of his attack

FIU!

A very good intuition, since right after blocking, Fred's braid quickly came towards his face in the opposite direction of his kick.

'Unpredictable and predictable at the same time'

To avoid the attack Stephen lowers his head enough to not get hit and not lose mobility to make a counterattack… a counterattack that he couldn't initiate

Slash! Clanck!

Like a snake, Fred's ponytail changed angle at the last moment, correcting its trajectory to hit Stephen's devoid head.

"OUCH!"

An unexpected blow to the head not very painful due to the security measures that had been taken and that Stephen's head was quite tough and trained thanks to Fred… but that interrupted everything he wanted to do next, leaving him very exposed

"ONE KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!" Fred yelled as he delivered a powerful push kick to Stephen.

POOMMM!!

A powerful kick that Stephen was only able to block with his bat thanks to Fred announcing his attack and that he took his time to attack him so that the fight wouldn't end so quickly… still, that powerful attack knocked him back almost out of the ring.

However, things didn't end there…

FIU!

Before he could realize, Fred had already closed the distance between them thanks to his brutal speed and was about to kick him

"AAAHHHHH!!!

Fuck!" Stephen yelled, leaping with all his might towards the center of the ring as he blocked Fred's attack again.

"Nice reflexes little Timmy!

But your ass weighs you down, just like Pumbaa!" Said Fred as he made his braid dance as if it were a whip, implying that he had proposed these rules precisely to claim that his controversial method of attack was really useful

"My ass weighs me down?

I'll make you kiss it, vomited!" Stephen replied with a rude phrase that Fred had taught him as he violently charged at Fred to smash his mouth open with his training bat.

However, Stephen couldn't do much to attack him...

Although he had the advantage of being able to use his hands and having a weapon in them, Fred was too quick and slippery. Even in a ring as restrictive as the one they were fighting in, Fred was still able to run away and reposition himself with ease, continuously attacking in a frenzy with his legs and long ponytail...

Fiu!

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

CLASH!

Crom!

Fiu!

SLASH!

His attacks were so fast, frantic, difficult to read and avoid that Stephen was forced to adopt a completely defensive attitude to avoid taking a deadly hit that would disqualify him, even though he initially believed he could take the initiative this time.

"Come on Stephen, aren't you going to do anything?

At this rate I will fight seriously!" Fred yelled as he continued to attack Stephen, thinking more of having fun than winning.

All Stephen could do was ignore his provocations and use all of his concentration to avoid his kicks and block his annoying serpentine pigtail/weighted chain with his weapon while and holding off lesser blows until the time when he could counterattack came...

Fiu!

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

CLASH!

Crom!

Fiu!

SLASH!

A moment that finally arrived!

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

Grab!

Stephen was waiting for the moment when one of Fred's pigtail attacks became predictable so he could grab it and thus not only avoid that attack, but also block the annoying source of them and more importantly, limit Fred's movements so that he couldn't escape the reach of his padded mallet

"The great weak point of your absurd whiptail is this one…

It can be grabbed and in the event that this happens you are screwed!

If it was a normal whip you could still let it go and use another weapon, but this is your hair and you don't have that option

Well... unless you decide to cut it off to save the rest of your body, but with that goodbye to a weapon that you've spent years growing...

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!" Stephen said with a victorious tone as he held Fred's red ponytail tightly, using all the strength he had in his left arm to drag his opponent towards him in order to give him the coup de grâce and defeat him for the first time in a long time

"You're right Stephen...

This method, despite looking cool and being quite useful, has this great flaw..." Fred admitted as he resisted Stephen's grasp and fled in the opposite direction on his strong legs, but without turning his back on his childhood friend and his velvet bat

However, despite being in such a disadvantageous situation, Fred didn't seem stressed... quite the opposite, it's as if he had predicted this situation in advance "Precisely for this reason I have devised two countermeasures...

And this is one of them!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Fred, using his ridiculously trained neck muscles lifted Stephen off the ground who was still clutching his ponytail with all his might and thus dragged his entire body towards him in one fell swoop.

"AAAAHHHHH!!!" Stephen shouted, who lost control of the situation and his body

Now the only thing he could do was fly uncontrollably in the direction of Fred, who was looking at him in a somewhat sinister way... he was looking at him exactly the same way he had looked at Pumbaa before killing him in the trap

"BALL BREAKER!" Fred shouted putting his Death Note face at the same time that he kicked accurately but not very powerfully in the direction of Stephen's crotch 'Checkmate Stephen, you never had a chance to beat me'

Now that Stephen fell into his trap of turning the greatest weakness of his greatest actual weapon at this moment his victory was assured, once his foot hit Stephen's unprotected balls he would have given him an almost instakill blow 'Once he's on the ground I will give him the third blow and I will have won'

However…

CLANC!

Stephen's balls weren't as unprotected as they seemed...

'Huh!?

What was that metallic sound? Fred thought extremely confused while...

PLUM!!!

Stephen hit him on the shoulder!

"YEESSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!

I WIN!" Stephen yelled elatedly as he got up from the ground and jumped in joy around Fred, who's still trying to figure out what just happened.

"One moment...

What just happened?" Said Fred as he pointed to Stephen's crotch

"I knew you would challenge me to a duel again today.

And I also suspected that you would use the same attack you used against dad against me at some point.

That's why I created this metal shell to protect my most noble parts!

And it has worked!

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!" Stephen declared with extreme joy after beating Fred for the first time in many years. However, this victory tasted better than any other, since not only had he defeated Fred in normal combat, he had managed to defeat him thanks to previously preparing against an element that he had predicted before even starting the fight.

For the first time he had outwitted him!

"Yes... you have hunted me...

It seems that I have underestimated you young Padawan

The student may have finally surpassed the master," Fred said solemnly like a Jedi master, partly proud and glad that Stephen had beaten him this way 'Even if everything was against me and I hadn't even fought seriously'

"Praise me more please!

Say I'm the smartest kid on the island!

At least for today…" Said Stephen, who was having possibly the time of his life, this beats even the day he melted down his first metal bar

"Yes... yes...

You're the smartest kid on the island…" Fred said, granting Stephen's wishes as he rubbed his pink shaven head like a kitten.

"I know, you don't have to tell me!

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!" The smugi Stephen replied as he kept jumping up and down and dancing ridiculously to express his overflowing joy.

Stephen couldn't stop celebrating this great historical achievement that could possibly never be repeated

He had to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

However Fred, who at first was proud to see how Stephen had grown so much in his eyes... began to get irritated that his little friend celebrated his defeat so energetically and for so long...

So he set out to deflate Stephen's euphoric state a bit.

"Yeah, it's been fun...

What do you say Stephen, at this time have they finished preparing my surprise party or do we need to wait a little longer before going home?" Said Fred, as he took some boxes containing the remains of Pumbaa and Pumbaa 2 that were at the door of the cave.

"Yes, I think that...

This...

Surprise party?

What surprise party are you talking about?

I don't know anything about any surprise parties...

What's more, I don't even know what a surprise party is..." Stephen answered very unconvincingly... his voice trembled, looked from side to side suspiciously and tried unsuccessfully to whistle in an extremely pathetic way.

"You lie horribly wrong...

Right from the beginning, when you told me in such a highly suspicious way to come to the secret hideout with Pumbaa and Pumbaa 2 instead of doing the logical thing… go back home… I deduced that you were trying to get me away from home precisely on my birthday, so the chances that they were preparing a birthday party for me were great...

When you showed me the boat my first hypothesis lost a bit of strength, it was probably that all you wanted was to show me your wonderful gift and that's it...

HOOOOWEVEEEEER!

When you said [kill two birds with one stone] with such pride and with a smirk I realized that it could be both things... or even three...

Your intention was to stay away from home until the time you had been told, show me the ship, pack the remains of Pumbaa and Pumbaa 2 in the Arcadia and return to the village together inside your masterpiece so that everyone in the village would see it and classify you as a genius despite being a ship made of wood

I am right?" Said Fred as he tried to sound like Conan Edogawa and posed as Joseph Joestar to complete his super deduction.

"Oh God...

Fred... apart from having prophetic dreams, talking to animals and snoring like a monster do you also have the ability to read minds?

Or have you seen all this in one of your dreams?" Stephen asked with his jaw at the height of his chest because Fred had been completely right, and the most hurtful thing is that this had been precisely his best plan to date.

"I can't read minds...

I am not capable of having prophetic dreams of myself...

AND I DON'T SNORE LIKE A MONSTER!

I'm just smart and you're easy to read young Padawan" Fred responded, once again protesting strongly against the plot that the whole town had created to make him believe that his snoring was paranormal

"You don't snore like a monster?

Please, we could all hear your snoring from my house last night" Stephen said, still remembering the horrible night he had because of him

However, Fred refused to believe that it was real, maybe he snored a little loudly, but it was clear to him that Norman, the Steel family... and the whole village... was just exaggerating to laugh at him a little "You know that's not true!

That's impossible!"

"I'm serious...

Come on, let's leave all this in the Arcadia, I want to see how fast you move my machine while you sing your songs from the future" Stephen answered while loading other boxes and taking the initiative to go to the Arcadia to leave said boxes inside the ship, which was now empty

"Well, if you insist...

I guess I'll have to please my audience...

MUA HAHAHAHAHA!!" Fred replied laughing like a villain as he followed Stephen while he thought what song to sing today

"Seriously…

Your face…" Said Stephen a little disgusted by certain facial expressions of his friend

---

Many minutes earlier in the village of Narhad...

In the house of the Freed family...

Norman, Marlon and Roxanne had been preparing everything for Fred's surprise birthday ever since he and Stephen went into the woods and Stephen was entrusted to entertain him until at least 8:00 p.m.

"It's already 19:15...

I hope Stephen will bring him soon…or the afternoon snack/dinner will go to waste…" Roxanne said as she looked at the clock and the huge amount of food on the table that she had been preparing for hours with Norman.

"What worries me is that they have started to eat part of what they have hunted

What if they aren't hungry now?" Norman answered, who luckily or unfortunately knew perfectly the habits of his son and nephew

And Marlon also knew them, however, he wasn't at all concerned about that detail "It's highly probable that they have eaten...

But I wouldn't worry, those kids have more stomach than body...

They will eat absolutely everything and order more to go

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!"

"It's normal, after all they are restless children

Every day they are learning and exercising, it's normal for them to eat a lot to recover energy

And these in particular burn way too much energy…" Roxanne said with a smile that was hard to interpret. Although she was aware that neither Fred nor Stephen were completely normal, few living beings were capable of training as much and eating as much compared to their weight as those children...

"Yes, they are little monsters, especially Fred...

That god of training in the form of a child is amazing!

Today he has beaten his own record again... although tomorrow it will be difficult for him, since I have increased the weight and tension of his training suit by 33%.

That's my birthday present, I'm sure he'll be happy when I tell him about it

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!" Marlon said with all the good intentions of this world and other worlds around him as he secretly ate what was on the table

And upon hearing a certain code word from Marlon, Norman remembered a certain somewhat murky matter that he wanted to discuss, especially now that they had time "It's true, the training...

Marlon, I forgot to mention this yesterday, but...

Did today's rigged bets go well?"

"Good!?

They have gone wonderfully, I have tripled the...

This...

Bets?

Rigged?

I don't know what you're talking about... you've got the wrong person" Marlon said with trembling voice and looking from side to side in an extremely suspicious way, proving that Stephen's poor ability to lie is hereditary.

"Fred has confessed..." Norman answered, implying that any excuse were useless.

"Ah... I see..." Marlon said calmly... and then he leaned at his wife's feet to whimper "IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!

I NEVER WANTED TO DO IT!

HE TEMPTED ME!

YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME HONEY!"

However, Marlon's excuses only worsened Roxanne's fury, who glared at her four-meter husband who now prostrated himself before her like the biggest trash on the island. "Yes, of course...

A ten-year-old boy has corrupted a forty-year-old adult who has a son the same age as that boy...

You're finally starting to look like a real mayor...

You have become a corrupt and a liar...

Tomorrow I'll burn that bandana"

"NO HONEY!

ANYTHING BUT THAT!" Marlon shouted as he fearfully hugged in a fetal position his mayor's bandana with metallic letters that his own wife made.

An extremely comical image that Norman and even Roxanne couldn't help but laugh at "Hahahaha!

HAHAHAHAHA!!"

Nevertheless...

CLANC! CLANC! CLANC! CLANC!

Their laugh stopped short when they heard the sound of the bell near the port, which was only rung when a ship approached the island.

"A ship is approaching?

Today?

Now?" Marlon, Roxanne, and Norman wondered rhetorically as they leaned out the window to look.

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You'll be able to see 8 chapters in advance in my Pa-treon

pa-treon.com/user?u=83938371