"So you thought you could escape your shame, did you?" the aged training coach glared at Karol with narrowed eyes. "Only a coward runs away the way you did."

This wasn't the reason Karol left at all, and it occurred to Karol that he was the only one who really knew and understood why he left town. It would have been easy to assume that he had left in embarrassment, especially since he was so renowned.

"But you are not a coward," the coach continued, "No. My pupil told me what happened—how he threatened you. [i]That[/i] is a coward's play! The Mountain seems to have just been a molehill all along, winning his fights through threats..." He looked away, disgusted. "I have been looking for you since I discovered this, and here you finally are."

He looked Karol dead in the eyes.

"Fight me. If you win, you can out my pupil as the coward he is in front of the whole town with me as a witness! If you lose, I still consider you worthy of a rematch with the 'Molehill', and you can regain your honor fair and square."

The coach threw his baseball cap off, tousled his own gray hair, and struck a fighting stance in one swift motion, eyes fiery.