"Cobra Kai is about being badass," explained Sensei Lawrence to his class, his voice vexed and full of boiling frustration, "and the baddest badass is the one who beats his opponent when he's at his strongest." He got in Hawk's face and shouted, "Not when his back is turned!" He took a step to his left and then snapped at Miguel next. "Not when he's injured!" Addressing the whole group, he asked pointedly, "Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sensei!" the students answered in unison.

"From here on out, those are pussy moves," continued Sensei Lawrence, sternly pacing back to the front of the lines, "and you don't wanna be pussies, do you?" Miguel and Hawk gave each other a puzzled look, both caught completely off guard by their Sensei's anger. They had never seen him so mad. It was the last thing they had expected the day after Cobra Kai had won the championship. They had thought their teacher would be thrilled. He hadn't given any indication the previous day that he'd been upset with their actions during the tournament. His reaction was blindsiding them, like a semi-trailer crashing into them out of nowhere on the highway.

The class responded again, "No, Sensei!"

Sensei Lawrence gave a little nod. "Good. It's why I had you wear white belts, we're starting over." Giving another glance to the two boys he'd just finished thoroughly chewing out for their behavior at the All-Valley Tournament, he barked, "Diaz! Hawk! Fifty pushups on your knuckles! Miss Robinson, warm them up."

Everyone did as they were instructed, while Sensei Lawrence trudged into his adjoining office. Hawk dropped down on the mat beside Miguel, and they both commenced carrying out their punishment. That was what it was: punishment; humiliation; a total blow to their prides. And for what? Doing exactly what their Sensei had taught them to do? Why did that warrant being called a couple of pussies? Especially in front of everyone else?

That's what Hawk wanted to know. He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't believe all of that had just happened. What had he and Miguel done wrong? And if they had somehow misunderstood Sensei, if they hadn't totally comprehended the meaning of those black words on the white wall - Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy - then why didn't Sensei just pull them aside and tell them in private? Did everyone just secretly enjoy embarrassing him in public?

seven…eight…nine…ten….

Pushing himself up on his knuckles for the eleventh time, Hawk replayed Sensei Lawrence's question in his head again, hoping he could find the clue for where he had gone astray. Two cobras in the jungle. One kills a lion, the other kills an injured monkey. Which cobra was it better to be? That was the riddle.

nineteen…twenty…twenty-one…twenty-two….

Aisha had said it was better to be the cobra that killed the lion, because the lion was the stronger predator. The bigger the opponent, the more badass the snake. Obviously that must have been the correct answer, since that was what Sensei Lawrence had agreed with and praised Aisha for saying. But Hawk didn't see why the answer was so glaringly obvious. Why was that the better choice in that scenario?

Why would a cobra ever attack a lion? Hawk racked his brain, but couldn't think of a good reason. They wouldn't ever fight over resources. A lion was much too big to eat. No cobra was large enough to swallow a lion whole; not even the biggest one, the king cobra, which only ate other snakes anyway. And a lion was too massive a predator for a cobra to waste venom defending against, if it was the lion that attacked first. A smart cobra would slither away from the lion, wouldn't it? An intelligent cobra would never take on an enemy it had no chance of winning against, would it?

thirty-five…thirty-six…thirty-seven…thirty-eight….

The cobra that killed the injured monkey, though? That was the smarter snake, in Hawk's opinion. Cobras were opportunistic hunters. If a cobra was hungry and saw a little injured monkey lying on the ground, why wouldn't it go for easy prey? It reduced the risk of harm for the cobra, which was most important to the animal's survival.

Besides, unlike the lion, the monkey would have had a healthy fear of the cobra, it would've known to otherwise stay away. Eli had once read in an article that primates had innate fear of serpents, it had been observed by scientists many times across various species. They thought snakes probably played a big role in primate evolution, for that very reason. Monkeys knew to keep a distance based on instinct. They warned other monkeys whenever they spotted a snake from the trees. They knew how dangerous cobras were.

forty-six…forty-seven…forty-eight…forty-nine….

So wouldn't it be better to be the cobra that killed the injured monkey? It would have faced an enemy that at least knew and respected its power, and it only would have attacked the monkey for an easy meal; at least the prey wouldn't go to waste. The cobra that attacked the lion? It probably would've been eaten by the lion, in all honesty. The lion didn't fear the snake at all. So what was so badass about taking down something that never saw you as a threat in the first place?

And what did any of this have to do with Hawk attacking Robby when his back was turned? Whether it was facing a lion or an injured monkey, what did a cobra care where it bit, as long as it could sink its fangs into its enemy?

Picking himself off the floor after he finished his final pushup, and wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm, Hawk looked over at Miguel as he walked over to Sensei Lawrence's office. He must have been just as confused about Sensei's blow up as Hawk was. Eli thought about following his friend in there, to ask for some clarification, because he was totally at a loss as to what Sensei's point had been. Maybe he could explain it more clearly to him.

But then Hawk decided against it. If he brought up his points to Sensei Lawrence about the two cobras, his teacher would probably just call him a smartass or an idiot or something like that, and then yell at him some more. And Hawk felt stupid enough as it was, he didn't want Sensei to be even angrier at him. So, instead, he just continued with the warmup drill, listening to Aisha as she had them all practicing front punches.

Whatever. If Sensei Lawrence said the answer was the lion, then it was the lion. And since it would take an unbelievable amount of venom for a cobra to take down a lion, Hawk figured whenever he faced the lion, he would just have to bite as viciously and persistently as possible to bring such a formidable enemy down. If that was what it took to be badass.

Which cobra did he wanna be?

Whichever cobra survived to see another day.