The Ranch

Carnival (6)

"Seeing as Mr. Manners here is out of commotion and I'm the only one that was able to win a race, the prize should rightly be given to me."

Not only is the worker behind the booth dissatisfied with his explanation, the crowd is also against it. Now that the person the have to race against is injured, won't it be easy for them to nab the prize themselves?

Instructor Henri's smile wilts slightly. If they lose the prize on his watch, he'll receive a 50% pay cut. This may seem unreasonable, after all, they have to persist entire days for multiple day, but Henri and the other workers fully agreed to the condition with the confidence that they wouldn't be beaten.

"There's No Need For That. The Rules State That The Player Needs To Beat The Competitor Twice."

Leonard shows a smug look," And you plan to beat me with that." He points at Henri's sprained ankle.

Instructor Henri grits his teeth behind his smile as he attempts to stand on both feet. The pain isn't the problem, it's being able to move through the course. He doesn't know if he can beat that insolent man in this condition. Plus, if his injury worsens, it may cause irreparable damage in the future.

Instructor Henri is going over his options when he feels a tug at his sleeve. He turns to see Tih staring at him. His voice softens," Yes?"

Tih's head tilts and he points at himself.

"You...Want To Challenge Him In My Place?" Instructor Henri goes through the contract in his head,"...It's Probably Fine As Long As We Don't Lose The Prize."

"HA! You want me to fight a brat? It's fine with me, but I won't go easy on him." Instructor Leonards makes couple more jabs at Instructor Henri for needing the care of a child.

"There's no way a newbie can beat an instructor."

"Right? Isn't this just giving him the prize?"

The crowd starts debating over the new situation.

Instructor Henri let's Tih walk to the start of the course. He wouldn't let Tih do this if he hasn't already seen his abilities. What Instructor Henri doesn't know is that he hasn't seen the full extent of Tih's abilities, no one has.

Instructor Leonard gets on his side of the course and the bell rings. Instructor Leonard is pretty relaxed and isn't taking Tih at all seriously, but when he notices the child is tied with him, he starts speeding up.

Tih speed up to match the other's pace like Instructor Henri was doing for his opponents. Leonard continues speeding up, even finding shortcuts on certain obstacles, but he can't seem to lose Tih. He hurries to finish the race before the child using one-hundred percent of his abilities to dodge, jump, dive, and run.

The climb up the exact same rungs of the ladder at the same time and reach the beginning of the tightrope walk. Instructor Leonard glances at Tih and decides to take a chance. He doesn't slow down at all and tries to walk on the tightrope with a moderate pace.

This ends up backfiring as he almost immediately missing his footing and loses his balance, tilting too far to regain his balance. Unlike Instructor Henri, Leonard manages to grab hold of the rope and latch on, but in turn he loses this round. Tih has already crosses at the pace Leonard was using and continues at that speed until he crosses the finish line.

Tih walks back to Instructor Henri while Instructor Leonard shimmies his way across the rope to get off the obstacle course.

Once he reaches the bottom, Instructor Henri shows his business smile," It Seems You Lost," he turns towards the crowd," Will The Next Competitor-"

He's cut off by Leonard, "Wait! I haven't lost yet! We get three chances right!? That means I still have one more!"

The crowd stare at the shameless man with weird expressions. He just lost to a child that couldn't be any older than ten, but he has the face to say and ask for a rematch.

Instructor Leonard seems a little on edge after that loss, which Henri notices very well. He shows charity towards Leonard's anxiousness by agreeing to the last round, but only if Tih is okay with it.

Tih moves to stand in front of the start of the course and Instructor Leonard eagerly steps forward to redeem himself. They race once more, but it's obvious at a glance that Leonard is in a worse condition than he was the first and second time. He keeps getting tripped up by things or pays to much attention to Tih and almost runs into something or falls.

Leonard wouldn't even be able to see the back of Tih if it weren't for the fact that Tih continues to match his pace. Finally, Instructor Leonard makes too large of a mistake to brush off. He takes too long to stabilize and Tih gains a large lead. Leonard hurriedly tries to catch up, but then he just makes a bigger mistake, enlarging the distance between them. This is how Leonard loses his third round.

They get down from the course. Tih returns to Instructor Henri's side while Leonard refuses to accept this outcome. "He's a red-star combat instructor! How could he lose to a little shit?!", is basically his argument, but the ruckus is drowned out by the crowd who also don't think much of Tih even after watching him and wanting to be the first to challenge him.

Instructor Henri hesitates. He makes sure Tih is okay with taking over his job until his ankle heals and Tih agrees. Instructor Henri feels a little guilty and embarrassed for letting his student do this for him, but he can't think of any other options. He asks to make sure Tih still wants to do this for him after every couple of rounds.

Like this, Tih spends the rest of the day at this game, competing. Somewhere along the lines, Instructor Henri found an ice pack for his ankle and rested at the side. He also stayed the entire day to make sure nothing went wrong.

Maddox and Phillip agreed to end the carnival every day, right before it got dark. As all the game booths start closing down for the day, Tih and Instructor Henri with some crutches finds a food vendor for dinner. Instructor Henri pays for the both of them.

He once again apologizes and thanks Tih for his help. He points something out he notices earlier," Your Endurance Far Surpasses Most Adults'. I Maintain A Slower Speed And Lower Difficulty During My Classes For The Other Students...Those Classes Are Useless For The Current You. If You Continue Training At A Lower Skill Level Than Your Actual Abilities, It Might Create A Negative Effect. Why Don't You Join Me During My Personal Training Sessions?"

Tih nods. He doesn't mind.

It's not like there was much on this jobless child's schedule in the first place.