'Gouten!' Oliver exclaimed, watching as his cousin was struck by Gorgo.
Shaking with anxiety, he watched as Gouten writhed on the ground, cursing the big man as he tried to crawl away from him. Gorgo approached him with a steady gait, mercyless in his eyes.
'Sorry, kid... but you had it coming,' muttered Gorgo, raising his foot with every intention of crushing him.
'No... he's going to kill him...' whispered Oliver, paralysed, his eyes vibrating with the anguish of the moment.
'Move... move!' he demanded of himself, feeling his legs like lead.
'He's my cousin! He's my family! If no one saves him now... who will?!' he shouted in his mind, unable to speak or breathe normally. 'What can I do against a guy like him? I'm weak!'
"How do you know? Maybe the result wasn't what you expected. You'll never know if you don't try..."
'Those words... are crazy... but what else can I do now?' he muttered, taking a difficult step forward. 'If I don't move... Gouten will die!'
'I can't let that happen!' Oliver roared through his tears, launching himself into a run. Without understanding how, he landed a powerful kick to Gorgo's left side. The impact made him stagger.
Oliver took advantage of this to grab his cousin and, with a desperate leap, pulled them away from the killer.
'I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!' I won't let you kill my cousin!" Oliver shouted, his eyes filled with tears, his body tense, panting with fear and anger, not knowing what would happen next... but not taking a single step back...
'The brat has outstanding strength...' Gorgo muttered, clutching his ribs. 'It doesn't hurt... but it feels like it does...'
'Who the hell are these two brats? Their strength isn't human...' Gorgo wondered. 'They're related to that Max guy, but their strength doesn't make sense for 6-year-olds... Where did it come from...?' He didn't finish his sentence, as Oliver punched him in the jaw.
'Fuck you, brat!' roared the big man, throwing his fist again, but it was dodged with agility. 'Is fear driving him?'
Oliver ran backwards, shaking his hand, panting. His breathing was erratic, and his steps disordered.
'What the hell am I doing?' he thought, his face contorted. 'I'm scared... very scared... why am I hitting him?'
Gorgo roared and stood in front of him, raising his arm with the intention of crushing him with a single blow. At that moment, the world seemed to freeze... and then he flew through the air.
His back crashed into the bark of a tree. He stood there, stunned, not understanding what had happened. He brought his hand to his left eye, which burned as if it had been scraped with fire. It didn't hurt... but it itched like hell.
'What...?' he muttered. 'How did he hit me... When did he kick me in the eye?'
In front of him, Oliver was shaking, his body hunched over from the adrenaline. He didn't know what he had done... but he had done it....
'Karate is a martial art with many styles... and I'm surprised at how quickly you're learning,' said Baldur, his arms crossed. 'You've almost mastered Shotokan in just a week...'
'It's not that difficult if you show us how to do it properly...' Oliver replied humbly.
'Speak for yourself!' complained Gouten, fuming. 'How the hell can you do the moves with the same precision as Master Baldur?! I've never worked so hard in my life to keep up with you...'
'There's no need to shout, Gouten...' warned Baldur in a calm tone.
'Sorry...' apologised the boy, snorting.
'Everyone has their own difficulties,' reminded the master, lowering his voice. 'The important thing is to learn by practising... and to remember that the results are not always what you expect.'
...
<< The Shotokan style of karate is characterised by long, linear and defined movements. It focuses on technical precision, correct posture and perfect form, seeking to release explosive energy at just the right moment: this is called 'kime'. >>
'The blows don't hurt... but they hurt my body...' muttered Gorgo, feeling his face. 'He almost kicked my eye out...'
He watched Oliver walk away, keeping a distance of at least ten metres between them.
'He knew how to kick well... Why are there so many supernatural fighters in Japan?'
Gorgo dug his fingers into the ground and, with a brutal movement, tore up a whole strip of soil, destabilising the ground. Oliver lost his balance and his attention, just as Gorgo lunged forward and threw a direct punch.
However, the boy's stumble caused him to accidentally dodge the attack. Two more blows followed, but the little boy, struggling not to fall, avoided each one with clumsy and unpredictable movements.
Regaining his balance, Oliver jumped back, once again distancing himself from the big man.
The big guy followed him back with his fist ready to strike, only to see Oliver take a quick stance and also prepare his fist, revealing his face full of fear and desperation.
<< Kime is a way of manifesting ki-charged strikes without the need to control energy. By exercising the correct stance and movement, kime is executed. But these types of strikes only work in the traditional Shotokan technique."
'Oliver Songoku does not yet have the emotional toughness to perform movements independently, but he does have a strong instinct and a natural talent for imitating others' movements. With Baldur Brauner as his guide, Oliver Songoku and his instinct lead him to unconsciously imitate his master in this moment of need.'
Oliver and Gorgo's fists collided cruelly, Oliver's arm had a slight burst of blood as it recoiled, and every muscle in Gorgo's arm went numb, causing intense discomfort to the big man.
Before he could raise his other arm, Oliver kicked Gorgo in the stomach and ran away, clutching his bleeding arm.
'You little shit!' roared Gorgo, red with rage. With one pull, he tore a huge chunk of earth from the ground and threw it like a projectile, brutally hitting Oliver in the back, who fell to his knees, letting out a muffled gasp of pain.
'OLIVER!' Gouten shouted furiously, charging at Gorgo with all his strength, ramming him with his shoulder and knocking him sideways.
Gorgo, enraged, raised his arm like a mace, ready to crush the boy on the ground. But at the last second, an upward punch to the jaw stopped him. Oliver, shaking and wounded, had intercepted him with a direct blow to the chin, causing the colossus to stagger backwards and fall on his back.
Without wasting a second, Oliver crawled towards his cousin and, with superhuman effort, grabbed him under the arms, beginning to drag him away from the monster with only one thought in his mind: to keep him alive.
Gorgo stretched out his arm and managed to grab Gouten's ankle. Oliver tried to hold his cousin tightly, but only managed to be dragged along with him. Both crashed into a tree trunk, hitting the bark violently, and fell to the ground, one on top of the other.
'I feel very humiliated to be seriously fighting two six-year-old brats...' Gorgo muttered under his breath, cracking his knuckles as he approached with a steady gait.
'Then why are you fighting?' Oliver snapped, slowly getting up from on top of his cousin. His face was marked by a deep scratch and dried blood, but his eyes showed no fear... only determination.
Gorgo paused for a moment. He watched in amazement as the trembling child stood there, defying him. It was absurd. Irrational. And yet there he was: a creature barely six years old, drawing strength from nowhere. In his eyes, he no longer looked like a child. He looked like an adversary.
'Uh?' Gorgo sighed, frowning, somewhat confused. 'I think I just had déjà vu... I feel like I've been through this before...'
He muttered under his breath as a blurry image invaded his mind: himself, years ago, in the ring, facing Richarzon. The smell of blood and sweat, the shouting of the crowd... the pressure to prove who was stronger. It all came back like an uncontrollable wave.
'Why this feeling now? It doesn't make sense...' he said with a lump in his throat.
His eyes widened when he focused on Oliver again. The boy... was on guard.
But it wasn't just any guard.
It was his guard.
Oliver had positioned his arms exactly as Gorgo did in his professional fights. His feet were placed at the same angle. Even his gaze... it was the same defiant look he himself had used years ago.
'But what...?' Gorgo managed to whisper, taking half a step back, almost without noticing. 'He's copying my boxing... the exact style. How?! He barely saw me fight!'
He didn't move. He just stood there, steady, fists up in a guard position, staring at him, waiting.
Oliver, breathing heavily, couldn't hear the wind, the trees, or Gorgo's footsteps. Only his pulse pounding like a drum in his ears.
And yet... he didn't back down.
'This brat... he's embodying my own skin,' thought Gorgo, feeling a chill down his neck. "And I... I am the Richarzon who faces him.
It's as if this boy is also about to break a losing streak...
TO BE CONTINUED...