*Bang!* *Bang!*

  "That’s it! Good!" Ricardo was holding up a pair of red hitting mitts, targets for the young man in front of him to unleash punches on.

  "All right, you’ve got the 1-2 down. Not bad!" Ricardo nodded in appreciation. Ben’s technique was amateur but at least this kid was packing surprising power. Ricardo’s hands were even numb from the shock. When he first felt it, it only reaffirmed Ricardo’s willingness to train Ben to become a champion. However, it would still be a long road.

  "Ok, that’s enough for today." The middle-aged trainer took off the mitts as he told Ben when to come back. Today, he trained Ben one on one to show him the basics but he’d soon join the standup class.

  Meanwhile, breathing heavily, Ben wiped the sweat from his brow. Striking wasn’t simple, and he made a lot of mistakes even while learning a couple of simple punching techniques. Yet, progress was progress. Having finished for the day, he removed his red thick boxing gloves before he said goodbye to Ricardo and heading towards the locker room.

  Unlike before, when Ben went into the locker room nowadays, he received respectful nods and greetings. After all, everyone there already heard about the white belt that won the purple belt tournament against Nick. That was no easy feat. In terms of achievements, they could now consider Ben a senior amongst them. Plus, that wasn’t the only area he was crowned champion. Within the locker room, he was also a senior of the shvontz……

  Soon leaving the gym, Ben returned to his college life, going to classes, work, and now training more often at Barbosa’s. He didn’t skip out on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes either. In fact, Ben had received permission to move up to purple belt class so it was more interesting for him. This time, however, he didn’t get any trouble from the purple belts because they’d seen or heard about him winning the tournament. Instead, they approached him with friendliness in order to avoid the Poison Dragon’s vicious breath.

  However, as good as Ben was at BJJ, the same couldn’t be said for standup. Or at least, he was having a lot of trouble.

  For the most part, the classes involved various exercises and then drilling techniques. However, at the end, like in BJJ, there

  was open practice, and Ricardo never let Ben go home without staying a little while extra. On this occasion, it wasn’t only the two of them. Ricardo was at the side of the cage watching Ben touch gloves with another young man. It was a sparring match.

  "Isn’t it too early for him to be sparring?" A thick beauty walked over from the side as she gazed at Ben with interest. It was Valentina, approaching her father.

  He looked at her. "Too early? We started sparring when we were little kids in Brazil. He needs to hurry up!" Ricardo turned his eyes back to the cage.

  *Pow!* *Pow*

  Ben’s gloves were covering his head as his opponent wailed on him. There wasn’t much Ben could do but take the punches. He tried to use his superior speed but his opponent was more experienced, finding ways to cut him off so Ben had nowhere to go. At this rate, all he could do was take a beating.

  *Ding* *Ding*

  Ricardo rang a bell at the side of the cage which he got from god knows where……

  However, it was a relief for Ben as he went back to his side of the cage, feeling a little better when he saw Valentina watching him, until he remembered he was losing. His face wasn’t looking too pretty either. Although they were both wearing headgear, the punches still left some bruises when they hit the right place.

  Ricardo’s face became serious as he gave Ben some water. "I told you. Feint! Feint! Lure the opponent in before attacking."

  Ben didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. This old man tended to spout random nonsense like it was a Karate Kid movie. In any case, break time was soon over and Ben soon went back to spar another round.

  Ricardo sighed as he watched Ben’s back. He’d been trying to teach Ben the art of strategy, drilling in the classic principles from his favorite strategy books, however……

  Ben soon unleashed his best strategy. "You look like a deep-fried Justin Bieber."

  His opponent twitched. He was looking a little weird……

  Even so……

  *Pow* *Pow*

  He soon recovered.

  "Tsk" Ben went back to covering up. He’d learning while training that people who trained standup were more resistant to his verbal attacks. He guesses it was that they possessed higher willpower from taking strikes. It also made it difficult to chain insults when he was receiving strikes to the head. That meant standup wasn’t as easy as BJJ for Ben. That was natural though, because he wasn’t able to utilize his strongest weapon—his d*ck.

  His curses weren’t working well either. Seeing this Ricardo sighed. In fact, he appreciated Ben’s cursing. Somehow, it was effective in BJJ and even during striking, to a degree, but that wouldn’t be enough.

  Ben was also becoming frustrated. He’d been getting beaten on like this for some days now. Still, what was he supposed to do?

  *Pow* *Pow*

  As punches rained down on his guard, Ben knit his eyebrows underneath as he stared hard at his opponent. ’How can I fight?’ His curses weren’t working. His strikes weren’t landing, and he had become a human punching bag. Yet, he never gave up, always looking for a way, and because of that, at this moment, Ben saw something as he stared at the opponent’s chest. ’Huh?’ Ben had a sudden intuition, and moved his head to the left.

  *Fwoosh*

  His opponent’s right fist passed right by his face, but Ben almost didn’t react as he continued to stare somewhere with intensity, and for the first time in a long time—it wasn’t at a pair of tits.