Ch. 2: Battle Scars

When I woke up the next morning, Steve, was already awake. He was cooking something in the furnace.

I looked up at him. He looked at me and said, "breakfast is almost done. After we eat we will make our way to the training room underground."

"To train me to do what?" I asked.

"Well fight of course" He answered. "You already have some fighting ability, but you need to learn how to use it, when to use it, and how to control it properly. So, I am going to teach you all of that myself in a well-organized and high-tech training wing I have constructed underground." I look at him with wide eyes. "You know, im not just some old ragtag minecraftian scientist that does lab work all day" he said with a grin of satisfaction.

I looked at him for a second and then I produced a large smile full of excitement. "Sweet! what are you going to teach me first?! how to fight someone one-handed? OH! or maybe how to do a cool like fake out move! You know where it's all like , you think you know my moves, but then its all like WAACHAAA! Or maybe..."

"Woah, Woah, Woah hold on there for a second!" Steve said with a chuckle. "Boy, You're like an enderman all over the about we start with something a little more basic. Maybe I could teach you some sword combat?"

"Oh..." I said, noticing i wasnt going to have a one day samurai crash course. "Well, that sounds good!"

"Well alright, now eat and then we'll get to work" he said, handing me a plate with eggs and a piece of bread.

I had suddenly noticed how hungry I was. "Thanks, I'm starving!"

"Okay now choose a sword" Steve said.

"I'll pick... this one" I said, picking up an iron sword out of the large chest.

"Okay now we'll start with something basic. Here's a test robot, I made him myself" he said happily with proud smile. "Now when I say go, I want you to battle against it. It will not fight back, it will just simply block itself. I have another one for that job." he said, processing another self-satisfactory smirk.

"Okay, got it."

"Okay, when your ready."

I dash towards my artificial opponent and take a slash at it. It blocks it. I take another hard hit. It ducks under my sword and swoops back up, untouched. I keep taking swings and jabs at it. I take a step forward with every hit. I manage to produce a small tear in its arm, resulting in exposed wires emerging from the "wound". I start feeling this adrenaline. I suddenly go into a battle stance and dash towards my target. I Jump over the enemy and turn around, facing its back. It turns around and i take a hard and powerful swing of my sword. It falls to the ground, motionless. Steve stands, in awe, as if he wasnt expecting to see anything like it. I look over at him almost as shocked as he is.

"That...was...AWESOME!" I exclaimed as my heart was pumping, yearning for more. "So what do we do next?!", I ask, trying to do cool spins with the sword. He looks at me as if im a creeper that cant explode or something. I put the sword in my hands and stand straight saying, "sorry. ha-ha."

"Maybe we should try something... a little more... advanced" he said, obviously still shocked at my natural abilities. Though, I thought he would know how skilled I was considering he made me, but maybe there was some surprise coding in my internal mainframe that even he didn't know about. The thought of it made me feel this thunder inside. I felt this sudden surge of raw complacency. "Okay, so obviously you can wield a sword quite well, but lets see if you can handle more than one target at a time" he said. He sent out two more of the robotic opponents.

"These wont fight back either but they are more advanced so you wont get a hit as easily."

"Okay, I think im ready."

He activates the opponents and they come toward me. I take a hit at one of them and it dodges it. I take a hit at the other one and it jumps over the sword. I stand with one on either side of me. they both look at me with their eyes, waiting for me to take another swing at them. I feel this fire inside of me and I suddenly trip one of them and swing myself back up. I look down at the robot on the floor and pierce its torso. It short circuits, and then it lies motionless. I look up at the other opponent. My heart pounds and I feel blood pump through every one of my veins. I charge at it, never failing to look at its eyes, and it never failing to look at mine. I take a jab at it, it dodges. I swoop back and take a swing at it. I end up beheading it. It too, short circuits and then lies, split it two, motionless. I look down at it, shocked, proud, and with a pumping heart. I feel as if my heart is going to penetrate through the walls of my chest.

"How was that?"

"That was amazing. I think you ready for something WAY more advanced" He says. "Lets see your defense. This one will fight back. It wont fight too hard but you will have to defend yourself and dodge. You may get a few cuts but nothing major. It wont kill you or anything."

"Great way to put it" I thought after he made this statement. I suddenly feel this lump in my throat. I say "Okay" with a shaky voice but I get in battle stance. He brings out the enemy. It has a sword. I feel my heart nervously pulsate faster and faster.

"When ever you're ready" He says.

I approach the enemy slowly and cautiously. I take a swing at him. He dodges it and takes a hit at me. I try to dodge it but it swings toward me, creating a small wound on my arm. I pause and look at my arm. I see blood emerge from the wound. I feel this stinging and piercing pain. I put my hand over my arm as I look up. I look at him as he comes toward me. I look at Steve, he motions me to move forward I look back at my artificial opponent. All of a sudden everything in my sight disappears. I see only my enemy, and my sword. I move toward him cautiously and stealthily. He looks at me, picks up his sword, and swings at me. I duck under his blade, emerging and jabbing at him with the point of my sword. I manage to create a wound underneath his shoulder. He looks at me and swings his sword. I end up with another wound on the side of my rib cage. I grunt in pain. I look at the cut. It is deep and it is bleeding excessively. I feel my heart pump hard through every vein in my body. I slide through the gap between his legs emerge behind him and swing at his head. This opponent, too, lies motionless on the floor, split in two.

Steve looks at me as I'm keeling over in pain with a concerned look but also proud of the fighting I did. I don't think he expected his robot to make that deep of a wound on my side as it did. "Great job. You did it quicker than I thought you would" he said. "Are you okay? He hit you pretty hard there."

"Yeah, im fine" I said although I was feeling pretty dizzy and the wound burned like fire. I mean at least it didn't "kill me or anything" ( said sarcastically). "It hurts pretty bad though."

"Hey, you really surprised me today. I wasn't expecting you to already be that skilled" he said, obviously still in awe at the fighting I had done. "As you train more your training days will become longer and your skills will grow stronger. Lets head back up to the hidden room and take care of those battle scars." He gave a small grin and helped me up.

"Hmm... battle scars" I thought to myself. "I could get used to the sound of that."

We walked up to the room. I kept falling over becoming more and more dizzy from the blood loss. When we finally arrived at the room I nearly flopped on the floor. I landed on my wound on my side and gnashed my teeth in pain.

He opened a large kit full of medical supplies. He pulled out this bottle of liquid. "I'm going to have to disinfect the wound first" he said.

"Is it going to...OWWWW!" I exclaimed with a roar of pain. "hurt."

"Hehe... sorry. Well I guess you know the answer now." I looked at him with a sarcastic frown. He pulls out a needle and some string and starts sowing my skin together. He then wraps my wound secure and gives me a clean shirt. I sit up slowly.

"Thanks" I say.

He gives me a nod."Do you need me to treat your shoulder wound?"

"No, It's okay. It's just a little cut. I think I can just treat this one with water and bandaging" I said, also trying to avoid that hell in a bottle he used earlier.

"Okay, well while you do that, I'll start lunch."

"Okay." I treat the wound and then plop down on the bed. I suddenly pick up the journal he showed me on the first day. I look through it and stop at an interesting page. It talks about my minecraftian like attributes like feelings of love, madness, sadness, and hunger. It also talks about my ability to feel physical pain which at this point I am regretting the fact of having. I suddenly feel the pain multiply by having my mind on the fact of pain. I put the book down and sit up. I touch my side and what it says in the journal is confirmed as true. I grunt as the bottom and top rows of teeth in my mouth meet. Steve said that I would become more pain tolerant the more we went through training. At this point, I was hoping he was right. Steve sits at my bed beside me and hands me a plate with a piece of chicken on it with some bread.

"How's your 'battle scar'", he said still feeling a little bad about his robot going a little deeper than he expected.

"I'm fine, thank you." I replied, trying to not grunt in pain. I eat the food and then hand him the plate.

"Nice to hear. So any questions or anything. Anything you're wondering about yourself or even me and stuff I'd be glad to answer."

"Well, I do have one question."

"Ask away", he says.

"Have you ever been hurt in battle?"

I see his facial expression twist into a look of pain mixed with saddness. He takes a long pause and then replies, "yes". He lifts up his shirt revealing a large scar underneath his breast bone. "I almost died, until someone saved me."

"Who saved you?", I asked.

"I don't know. I had been unconcious and the next i remember I woke up in a small wooden cabin and took off from thre. I never saw the one who saved my life. I did leave a piece of bread from my sachel to at least compinsate for the generous act."

I take a long pause then ask, "Who were you fighting the battle against?".

"The one who is pursuing you", He replies.

"May I ask who he is?", I said. I noticed at this moment that I had never asked about the person we were hiding from or who he even was.

He took a long pause as a tear streamed down his face. He balled up his fists and replied, "My brother".

- END NOTES: So yeah, hope you liked the second chapter! My chapters will become way longer as they come so please bare with me. Sorry for any grammar mistakes. I will try to fix that too as I go on. Thanks for reading! p.s- I still havent figured out a name for the brother so if you want to review a suggestion then please do so.