Chapter 15: 15- Round 2

After witnessing his grandfather’s power, Rowan had a new wish.

He wanted to become a grandmaster.

However that wish seems even more difficult than becoming a knight. A person can become a knight if they reach the intermediate stage, but becoming a grandmaster meant they reached the peak of warriors. According to his grandpa’s words, only one person becomes a grandmaster every hundred years.

He decided he’ll make it an post goal, after becoming a knight.

However, first and foremost, there was one obstacle he had to overcome.

The abominable rooster, Buckbeak.

This would be Rowan’s second time facing the rooster and this time he was prepared. He had taken to heart the advice Grandpa Rodan give him. After quickly feeding Bessie and the pigs, he stopped in front of the fence that housed the chickens with two buckets in hand. He took a breath for mental preparation and then stepped in.

Apparently Buck beak was already waiting for him, along with the rest of the chickens, The rooster gestured with his head for Rowan to feed the other chickens first before getting down to business. Rowan quickly scattered the feed for the hens before glaring at Buckbeak. He tossed one bucket to the side and held the other bucket with both hands as if it was a weapon. 

Buckbeak ignored Rowan’s animosity and drew a line on the ground before stepping in front of it. He pointed at the line, then at Rowan, and then at the coop that held the eggs. Rowan didn’t speak fluent animal, but he understood the gist of it. However he asked just in case. 

“Are you saying that if i make it pass the line you wont stop me from getting the eggs?”

The rooster nodded his head then tilted it as if to say whenever you're ready.

 Frankly Rowan was happy for the handicap. The handicap was unexpected, but it was a welcome surprise.

It was a strange sight. One boy and one rooster stared at each other. A serious atmosphere developed between the two that no other chicken dared to interfere.

Rowan moved one foot forward and then instantly retreated, testing the rooster reaction. Buckbeak made no indication of following the feint and continuing staring at the boy. Rowan had been expecting it, but it still made him a bit frustrated in his heart.

Alright, no choice but to go all in from the start.

Rowan slowly walked up twitching his body left and right in hopes of faking out the bird.

Buckbeak continued standing still as a statue, not reacting to any of the movements that Rowan made. He had figured this would happen, but he held a small slimmer of hope that the rooster would fall for the feints. Just as he was two feet away, Rowan burst out with speed and lowered his body. He had lowered the bucket to scrape up dirt and threw it at Buckbeak.

Distraction.

That was the plan that Rowan  came up with to deal with Buckbeak. 

Was it honorable?

Absolutely not.

Rowan, who wished to become a knight, abhorred such tactics. However, his grandpa had said to test out different plans against the rooster. By Rowan’s estimation, Buckbeak was at least an intermediate fighter while the boy was just a novice. It wasn’t fair for the boy to fight someone who was already stronger than him, so he decided to try the only method he could think of to acquire the eggs. Besides, Grandpa Rodan said that he could try out different plans until one worked. Grandpa Rodan had been the one to  mention the dirty tactic of tattling. While it was no longer a viable method, that did not mean other unfavorable tactics did not work. He was even fortunate today that Buckbeak gave him a handicap.

Buckbeak was not impressed by the dirt and with one sweep of his right wing blew it all away.

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Rowan moved onto part two of the plan once the dirt failed to distract Buckbeak in anyway.

The bucket.

After using it as a makeshift shovel, Rowan overturned the bucket and aimed for the rooster’s head. 

This was his final gamble. With luck Rowan would be able to blind Buckbeak by shoving the bucket onto its head. The feints and dirt was all a buildup for this moment. After tricking and blinding the rooster, Rowan would sprint past the line and claim the eggs.. Rowan had not considered the possibility of fighting Buckbeak and winning at all. The difference in power was too great. If Rowan was an adult, he might have a chance because no matter what stage of a fighter Buckbeak was at, he was still a rooster at his roots. 

An adult human was stronger than a regular rooster. That was the basic truth, so even if the power levels were different, the inherent strength might have been enough to overcome the difference in power. It wasn’t like Buckbeak was actually the legendary monster phoenix.

Unfortunately, this was all hypothetical estimation of the rooster’s strength as Rowan was just a ten years old boy. If Rowan was older, he might have been able to actually match the rooster in physical strength. Rowan could only use the strength of his current ten year old self to match with the intermediate rooster.

Even more unfortunate was that Buckbeak had seen through the boy's plan and ducked to avoid the bucket, causing Rowan's blinding plan to fail. 

Seeing Buckbeak dodging the bucket with ease, Rowan was close to despair. He instantly decided on his next move. Even though he failed to blind the rooster, Rowan decided to gamble on his luck. Rowan sped up and tried to run past the male chicken since he was close to the line drawn in the dirt anyways. He could always use the bucket as a shield like last time to buy time to escape from Buckbeak.

Buckbeak was not going to let Rowan past him.

After reading Rowan’s bucket trajectory, Buckbeak's right foot slid across the ground and hit Rowan’s foo which caused the boy to trip and fall. Before Rowan’s head hit the ground, Buckbeak jumped and performed a somersault in the air before slamming onto Rowan's head downwards with his left foot in one fluid motion. This caused the boy to hit the ground harder than he should have.

Rowan could not help but wince in pain. Both his head and side hurt. He supposed he did deserve it for trying such cowardly tactic. Feeling the sharp claws on his Face, Rowan stared at Buckbeak's face who remained on his head after slamming it down. Inches away from his face, the rooster could have pecked out Rowan’s eyes if the avian wanted to.

After a few moments of silence passed before the two, Buckbeak jumped off his  face and waited in the front the line it had drawn. Not before kicking backwards like a dog and spraying dirt onto Rowan's face. While Buckbeak was silent the whole time. Rowan was able to understand his message.

Underhanded and dirty tactics would only result in Rowan landing in the dirt himself. 

Once the pain subsided, Rowan pushed himself up and faced Buckbeak once again.

Once again the boy and Rooster faced off against each other. 

Rowan contemplated on what to do. His original plan of blinding Buckbeak and sprinting past it had failed. It was the only plan that seemed feasible after thinking long and hard. Honestly speaking, Rowan was glad the plan failed. He had decided to make the logical choice to improve his chances to overcome the rooster instead of listening to his heart. Perhaps deep down, Rowan hoped he would fail. Blinding an opponent was not something a knight would do.

This time Rowan would follow his heart and go with the old fashion hand to hand combat.

Rowan once again charged at the rooster, only this time with swinging fists.

Buckbeak met the challenge with a twinkle in his eye as the bird jumped in the air to meet the boy's fist,  It obviously prefers Rowan's new head-on method instead of his initial sly attempt of blinding it.

In the end, no matter what Rowan did, he still failed to land a single blow on Buckbeak.

 However even though he left the area with more scratches and bruises than what he came with, Rowan's heart was much lighter compared to when he had entered the enclosure that day.

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