Chapter 6: Fight and fleeing are the same in all situations

9 a.m., following several hours of strength and muscle training through shadowboxing and exercise. Lesley employed this strategy during his free time while serving his country; it was a technique exercise that reflected real life. The mirror technique is used to create a mental replica of a real-life event, such as a tag team vs. solo match that benefits the opponent.

Lesley had developed a peculiar mentality during his many tours in conflict zones: even in a battle for existence, running and fighting are the same. Fighting demands skill or the ability to perform well under duress. There is no shame in running away from the strong; the only shame is not making the most of the opportunity to learn how to fight so that you may become strong. While running is a stimulant of cowards, Lesley saw it as a necessity to get stronger.

Bran must learn both running and fighting in order to survive in a society ruled by those with incredible power, but first he must bulk up bit by bit in order to accomplish his objective of strength. Bran performed a variety of workouts, including planks, Russian twists, and push-ups.

He performed some fundamental parkour skills on the abandoned construction equipment, including leaps, climbs, feints, and rolls—all of which are necessary while evading on foot. After a strenuous, demanding workout, Bran sat down on the chilly surface and sipped some water from his rucksack. His muscles were aching for some rest and relief.

He got up, took a towel, and dabbed at his face as he peered through the closed windows. When he first looked upon it, the city's morning clock had begun to tick. The noises of autos and boisterous speakers promoting food and apparel stores gathered with the rest of Hollow's peak city's noise of liveliness.

Bran grinned, inhaled, and continued,

"Well, it's time for me to return. I have some things to finish off before I return to school. Apologies, Academy.

Bran was reaching the bottom floor from the fifth story as he spoke, using a sequence of hops, feints, and landings. His post-workout foul mood was evident in his lethargic gait as he made his way home. Still wearing his training clothes, which were dripping with perspiration and consequently reeking of foul odor.

Bran surmised that there were many who did not use their divinely bestowed energies to the art of fighting. Some people utilize it for routine tasks like building, plumbing, and treatment for illness, among others. One thing, though, is that no half-breed is permitted to use their divinely bestowed vitality for this purpose, for fear that they might lose control at any moment and revert to the Lost Ages.

'I should learn more about the Lost Ages; I explored Bran's memory for that information but only discovered snippets; global history is crucial for any Transmigrate,' Bran reasoned inwardly.

He walked into a crowded street packed with people of all shapes and sizes; a man with long, sharp vertical ears and green skin was hoisting a tiny daughter of the same colour onto his shoulder, and a woman with lime and white long hair was clutching a basket of apples while wearing an exposing linen dress.

When Bran noticed this, he ducked behind the man's stand—a brown-skinned man with a red bandana—and inquired, making a head gesture in the woman's direction.

"Who is she?"

The man scoffed and signaled with his hand that he needed something to respond. Bran rolled his eyes and thought, 'People are the same even in this world.' As he said this, he took out a B10 bard note from his back pocket and handed it to him.

"Her name is Margret Morlord, she is the next herbal expert to be employed by the Academy"

"Since when?" As he stated this, the man made his gesture, and Bran rolled his eyes again, taking another note, this time grabbing an apple from the stand and biting into it as the man continued to respond:

"Since the last Herbal expert got fired just last week for drug manufacturing in school premises, Wow what a rough indeed"

"I know right" commented Bran as he took another bite, the man looked at him strangely asked:

"Have you been working out or does your deodorant smell like that?"

Bran smiled and made the similar gesture to the stranger, which startled him slightly. Bran responded before he could respond:

"Working out, need to prepare for the Academy"

"Oh interesting, by the looks of things, you were training your physique," said the man, looking Brandon up and down.

Bran grinned and continued,

"There is no physique to train, just did some parkour in the nearby neighborhood" he mocked himself.

The man scoffed a bit and asked:

"Are you going to be a freshman there?"

"Nope" replied Brandon and added, "I am a second year"

"Really?" said the man in astonishment "So are you in the same year as the White wolf of the Karma clan"

"Oh Matthews, yes I think so" said Bran as he bit the apple again

"Great, it will do you good to keep tabs at the next Clan leaders that will reinvent the next generation of the Hollow's peak"

Hearing that statement, Brandon smiled and took out another B10 bard note and added:

"It's for the apple"

As he said this, he left the street vendor alone again. The man smiled and said "Good kid"

Brandon went through the same street with bubble floating house, the house entangled by a large tree and the haunting location on top of a hill. As he passed another row of houses, he comes across a playing ground for children.

On the blink spot of the playground, a group of delinquents were busy beating up a youth who tried to fight but is overwhelmed by the numbers. When he tried to beat up this one, the other one beats him when he tried to defend himself against this one, the other one retaliate.

The youth who looked to be defending himself against the numbers was a goblin teenage wearing a basic T-shirt and boxer shorts that made look like a boxer. The ones attacking him were a mix of human and elves who were enjoying this, some filmed him getting attacked while the other ones called him names.

Bran looked at this scene with some distain as he thought 'Can I help I wonder?' as he was about to leave this conflict. A flood of memories showed that original Brandon used to try to retaliate like that teen and no one had been think to save him, they took one look at his naked back and thought disgraceful being and don't get near him they thought.

Bran couldn't read their thoughts but those look alone made them leak out, as the memories subsided to the back of his head. Bran smiled and left the scene, after a while as the Goblin youth fell on his knees with a bruised face and a leaking nose. The group delinquents were going to finish the youth, when suddenly they heard a noise of a whaling sound and saw blink red and blue lights just by the row of houses.

"F**K it's the cops, let's split" as one of them said this, they scattered and left the scene as fast as the eye can see, leaving the kneeling youth as he collapsed on the hard surface with a tired expression on his unrecognizable face.

The green youth slowly opened his eyes as he was met by the sounds of swaying metal crushing upon the wind, it was the sound of a swing. He was still at the playing ground, he slowly got to his feet and used his hands to remove the dust from his clothes.

"You are up early" said a voice behind him, he turned to see a young man with small vertical straight ears like an elf, white hair with black snip bits on the ends, his blue eyes showed compassion and kindness and wore a white vest damped by sweats.

"What happened, where are the cops. I thought I would be sleeping in a cold jail right now" said the goblin as he looked around for any signals of those guys and cops.

Just as he was going to say something, the Elf youth took his pager and pressed a button. The whaling sounds and blinking red and blue lights were displayed like dazzling disco ball during dance Fridays, the Elf youth smiled at the Goblin and added:

"First rule of rescue, deception is key"

"Oh" gasped slightly the Goblin, "Thanks I guess"

"No worries" as he said this, he turned off the pager's whaling noise and lights.

"Who are you Elf, why save me?" asked the Goblin.

"I am not an Elf, just a half-breed. I saved you because you needed saving" as Brandon said, the Goblin shivered a bit but not too much that someone can get a read on. Brandon's smile dimmed and added:

"Problem? are you feeling cold?" Brandon said this as comfort statement. He knew that Half-breed have always been ridiculed for what those during the Lost Ages did. Even though those Half-breed weren't his ancestors and wouldn't related to him, Brandon had accepted this ridicule and was just feinting ignorant.

The goblin then knelt and bowed his head, added: "Thanks and I am a bit better, Trim will heal me slow"

Brandon smiled and said:

"Don't bow please"

Brandon gave a hand at the kneeling youth and said "I am Brandon Wilson and you are?"

The youth smiled and took the hand, stood up and added:

"Adrien"

Brandon added as he gestured to the swing:

"Care to join me?"

Adrien said:

"I can rest for a while"

The two sat on the swings, Brandon said:

"Adrien can I ask you something?"

"Sure ask away"

"What happened to you?"

Adrien took a hefty breath and said:

"They wanted me to get them drinks and girls for their party"

"Couldn't they get those on their own?" asked Brandon.

"Yeah but not for free"

"Pray tell"

"Well, Father is the founder of Gob's drinks establishment and my mother… is …. Lady sugar lips" as he said Adrien blushed red and looked to the sky.

Hearing the name, Brandon's mind was introduced to another flood of memories of original Brandon looking at his laptop with a box of tissues, on the display screen was woman with red hair and rectangular body shape with green skin, with a human male with large 'gift'.

Seeing this, Brandon fronted and said the title out loud:

"Green day, come day"

Hearing this, Adrien looked at him and added with a stamper in her tone:

"You… have… seen…it?"

"bits and pieces, I got curious. Is all" as he said this, a long awkward silence loomed the Playing ground. Brandon sighed and got off the swing and asked:

"Did you refuse to give them what they want?"

"Yeah, after they told about my mother's identity and job. I snapped and started a fight but they cheated by using Aura and Mana techniques to fight"

"Why didn't you use your Trim techniques to fight back?" asked Brandon.

"I don't know how to use Trim yet"

"So you went to disadvantageous fight without any knowledge of what your enemies can do?"

"Yes" replied Adrien.

Brandon scoffed and smiled "Why didn't you run away?"

"I… was…trapped… in… the heat of the moment after the things they said about my mother"

"hah, can I ask you something?" asked Brandon.

"Yes you can" replied Adrien

"Did you know this people?"

"Some"

"Yet you choose to fight them?"

"Yes during the heat of the moment"

Brandon took a breath and said:

Running is appropriate when the circumstances and environment do not favor you, but fighting is done when the conditions are favorable for a triumph. That was the right time for you to have fled.

When Adrien heard those words, his guard went up and he asked, a little grumpy:

"Leave and let them insult my mother."

Brandon responded with brevity:

"Yes."

Adrien abruptly got out of the swing and was going to swat Brandon to the ground. Adrien believed that because he was a half-breed, the majority of his strength was shut off.

Brandon quickly sidestepped the approaching tackle and spun around at breakneck speed. He tripped over Adrien and pinned him to the ground, using his momentum and Adrien's attack to lock Adrien's hand to his back and pin the other with his knee.

"Anger is a poison that influences decisions; you let yours take over, and now you're defeated again. This poison will not spare you from the contempt that your mother will face; you can protect her by just running away."

"Running wouldn't save me or my mom"

"No it wouldn't"

"So you think I should just run forever"

"No, let me finish. You running is another opportunity to fight back"

"I don't get it" as Adrien said this, Brandon let his grip lose and stood up, added:

"Running creates an opportunity to gain strength to fight back, some battles are won by a standard retreat. So that the generals and the army can plan ahead, that is were true strength comes from… running is sometimes a weakness but it is also a necessary way of fighting. Don't run forever, just run, build and then fight. Think about that for a while"

As he finished saying his piece, a sudden beep from the pager caught Brandon off guard. He looked at the message from his dad:

Alice is here with Ashley; they want to talk"

Reading the name, Brandon's face dimmed a bit as one thought came to mind: 'AGENT 6'

"Oh sorry for this Adrien, but I have to be on my way"

Brandon quickly departed, leaving the Goblin by himself with his thoughts as he stammered over the advice Half-Breed gave: "Just run, build, and then fight."