The Ranch

Suprise Me (2)

Listening to Instructor Kane's word, the people standing in the field start to get riled up. The soldiers that were previously dueling started betting on the newbies, trying to guess who will last the longest. The most bet child was a sixteen year old boy with some muscle, the longest time bet being two seconds.

It's not that these soldiers looked down on the newbies. All the children on the island were special in there own way and nobody could be underestimated, but they've had to deal with the instructor's strength first-hand. Although he looks like a chill and laid-back person and in all honesty he is, but he also had an above-average amount of pride, especially for his profession.

But the group of newbies didn't know any of this. They assumed the soldiers were looking down on them and were ready to prove them wrong. The group searched through the weapons on the ground, if they found something they were proficient in, they would take it. The options only consisted of close range weapons, so some of the children were left disappointed.

Seeing that they were ready, the instructor provokes the children once more,"Come at me." He condescendingly smirks as he look down at the group of newbies.

Immediately, one of the more impatient children rushes out from the crowd and launches a knife at him. The instructor easily deflects it and, using the child's momentum, lightly tosses him to the ground with minimum effort. "Who's next?"

At this moment the child is still hiding in the grass, his position coincidentally being in front of the group and instructor, meaning the instructor's back is currently facing him. While the others continue trying their luck at launching a surprise attack, Tih is laying on his belly in deep thought.

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Su..prised....

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The child tries to recall any memories of people being surprised and one specific instance comes up. Once the orphans at the school were old enough, they had a choice of leaving the school to find a job or staying to become a worker at the orphanage. Sometimes, the child would see older versions of people return to the orphanage after a long period of time and stay for a while before leaving. The people they greeted would alway respond with surprised expressions.

There were also cases of people leaving to find a job only to return empty-handed and work as one of the volunteers.

Occasionally,  an outsider that he's never seen before would come to the orphanage to see someone. The child overheard conversations of people saying they were surprised.

There was one visit that the child believes will work in this situation, because that person rushed up to a worker and attacked them, much like the children in front of him are doing. Plus, after everything was over, the volunteer said he was very surprised.

While the child was deciding what to do, most of the children had already taken a pass at attacking the man, with most of them failing immediately. Even the child that many had bet on lost in less than a second. It couldn't be helped, the instructor's experience adding onto his longer reach made it impossible for the children to win.

It also has to be said, although it seems like Tih keeps meeting instructor after instructor, they are actually few in number, only having a ratio of 1:4, when comparing them to the number of soldiers on the island. Becoming an instructor was incredibly hard, not to mention a silver-stared one. For the people on the island, silver-stared instructors were top tier and well-respected idols of the soldiers. Although their are two ranks above silver, they aren't in the same realm as the rest,

The moment the others got close enough, the man's arm would find them, and fling them back, no matter which direction them came from. "Hahaha, is that all you've got? Come on, put a little muscle in it!" Instructor Kane teased, looking like he was having fun.

The soldiers that bet that no one would last longer than a second were very happy at this moment, which frustrated the children even more, but no one else was willing to step up only to embarrass themselves by immediately being flung back.

"Hmm? Is that it? Are you all giving up..." The smile stays on the man's face, but his tone get lower. He mumbles,"They really are getting worse every year, blind bravery would be better than this..."

At this moment, a blur of color makes its way to the man's back. If one wasn't paying attention, they wouldn't even be able to see the blur. Instructor Kane intuitively senses something behind him, sending warning sirens off in his head. He turns around as fast as he can, only to find the blurry figure of a child pounce on him.

Although the man was surprised for a moment, he's still an experienced soldier. He assessed the situation in complete composure. The child was small, looked around ten. If he had a kid, it'd be about his age. Short limbs, he'll have to get pretty close to use any of those close-range weapons on me. Those eyes...he wanted to analyze more, but he underestimated the child. The man had prepared for the incoming attack of a weapon, so he was not prepared when the child threw his entire body to himself.