Legendary Lionheart (eBook)

Andrew Oldis (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
232 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-6862-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Saving the world is not on this hero's to-do list. Surviving high school is a far greater challenge than any supervillain could pose. A suspicious experiment at school leaves 16-year-old Andrew Corleone with tremendous abilities. Armed with psychic and cat-like powers, Andrew sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding the incident at school as well as stopping the unknown villain terrorizing his New Jersey neighborhood. Fighting crime comes naturally to the first-degree Black Belt especially with such incredible powers. Now Andrew fears nothing. Except talking to girls. That's still quite terrifying. Although his newfound best friend Bianca is there to help him win over the girl of his dreams, his relationship with her becomes strained as the villainous threat to the world grows. Is being a superhero just a distraction from the problems in his personal life or is it truly more important than any high school drama?

Andrew Oldis is a first-degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do with many years of training in a mixed martial arts academy. He graduated college with a degree in forensic chemistry and works in chemistry-related fields. He uses his knowledge of science and martial arts to create riveting tales of original fictional heroes. His love of superheroes drove him to become a content creator amassing a large following on social media (@andrew_studios) for his cosplay and 3d printing content. Now he embarks on a literary journey, creating a connected written universe of sci-fi and fantasy superheroes. At least that is the goal as the first installment: The Legendary Lionheart was originally written back in his sophomore year of high school. Almost a decade of revamping later, it is finally ready for publishing.

---

The Legendary Lionheart aims to ground sci-fi superhero stories. As a first-degree Black Belt real and exaggerated martial arts techniques are used to choreograph the fight scenes. Unlike most fantastical stories about heroes, this book emphasizes relationships rather than fighting evil masterminds or combating world-ending threats. Although there is a plethora of super-powered action, it is a teenage coming of age story at its core. A quiet kid fighting a sound-based villain may seem a little on the nose until you read deeper. The Legendary Lionheart explores relatable teenage experiences: trying to win over crushes, insecurities, friendships, toxic relationships, school, relationships, psychic powers, and more!This story is geared towards teenagers and young adults.

Textauszug

1

the Incident

Blood seeped from my gums. The metallic taste made me flinch, allowing my opponent to land a punch to my head. It didn’t help that the air had a slight hint of smoke to it. The stench of ash further nauseated me. Unfortunately, I had to swallow the pain and keep fighting. Although he always won, I wouldn’t let him off easy. If the instructors had seen blood, he would’ve been automatically disqualified. Good thing the bleeding was internal. I wanted to fight him.

Tae Kwon Do was usually closed on Sundays. This wasn’t a normal class; it was a sparring seminar. I signed up to get extra practice for a tournament coming up next week. It was the first day of January, which was strange because it was hot. The sun cooked my skin as I fought my opponent. My whole body was sweating, making my uniform stick to me, heating me further. Nothing was worse than the feeling of the sun boiling you alive with fearsome rays.

The warm weather forced us to fight outside. The small workout room at Tae Kwon Do would have trapped in the heat. We begged to fight inside. The floor had soft blue carpeting, while the parking lot behind the academy had rough, unkempt blacktop. Our bare feet were getting cut up.

My opponent, David, was the best martial artist in my academy. We were both 1st-degree Black Belts and had trained for six years at Maplewell Martial Arts. The academy was hard-core. Our black belt test was four hours long. Before the test, there were numerous prerequisites, including an essay and a written exam. It was important to know the South Korean history behind our forms.

David always did better than me at tournaments. He pulled off the most ridiculous, gravity-defying jump-spin-kicks. I wasn’t the best, though I excelled at sparring. The difference was when fighting, one doesn’t have to use proper technique. When doing forms, it’s all about precision, deep stances, and fully prepared movements. David did well no matter what. He was great at forms, weapons, and sparring. The instructors told me I was decent. They claimed my moves lacked power and deep stances. I wasn’t as good as David when it came to sparring. It wasn’t a one-sided fight, though. I could take hits without getting hurt and read an opponent to predict their moves. We were a great match.

“Go, Mr. Corleone!” the main instructor at my academy, Mr. Michaelson, yelled. At Tae Kwon Do, last names were used to refer to Black Belts and above. That’s why my instructor called me Mr. Corleone instead of Andrew. It was odd that he was cheering me on. If you were going to bet on someone to win, it would be David. I was average, and being average meant my chances of success were fifty-fifty. It was possible that Mr. Michaelson felt bad for me. His booming voice encouraged me to push myself.

It was a continuous sparring match, which meant we didn’t stop fighting until Mr. Michaelson stopped us. I didn’t know if the match was timed or if he stopped us once someone made it to five points. All I knew was that I had to fight and stop when told to do so.

David scooted back before leaping forward with a jump front kick. I could see the perfect technique in his moves. The ball of his foot stuck out flawlessly, unlike my sloppy, speedy attacks. I lowered my hand to block. He punched me in the stomach while my hand was lowered. I tightened my abdominal muscles to prevent the next hits from hurting. We had padded gear on our feet, hands, and head, not the stomach.

I was about average height, yet I had long legs which I used to fight at a further range than most. David was a few inches shorter than me, giving me a tiny advantage. I did a fake front kick that barely reached him, and just before he blocked it, I fully extended my leg and raised it to round-kick him in the head! It worked perfectly. He lowered his hands to block the fake kick and was unprepared to block the real one. I scooted back again to gain more distance for my kicks. I stared into his eyes to try and predict his next move. His eyes were fixed on my stomach. I prepared my arms to move downward at the first sight of movement from David. His eyes glanced at my face before releasing a barrage of multiple punches. I quickly darted my hands downward to block. I was able to swipe away most of his hits. He still landed a few. His fists mostly hit my arm or hand, which wasn’t a point. I don’t think he scored more than one point from all those punches.

David slid in and pressed his hips against mine to jam any future kicks. He tried to do his rapid punch thing again, but he hit my arm as I spun toward my back leg, then lifted it into the air and hook-kicked him in the head! I didn’t have to move forward or backward to land the kick. I was able to pull it off, thanks to my natural flexibility. It was a gift I used often to keep it in shape. My leg stretched up and slammed into the right side of his headgear. The loud smacking sound of plastic coating made it clear to Mr. Michaelson that I had made contact.

“Break! Time’s up,” Mr. Michaelson shouted. I spun around and placed my foot down as I caught my balance. Other students watched us closely. We were the last to fight that session. Most of them were cheering for David. I had to tune them out the whole time. Mr. Michaelson looked at us both with an emotionless stare. Only then did I realize Mr. Michaelson was wearing his favorite “Spar Wars” t-shirt underneath his uniform. That shirt always made me smile. “Mr. Kong wins!” he declared. David threw off his headgear and shook his sweaty, black hair. Beads of sweat flew as his long hair flopped around. He removed his mouthguard to tell me I was a great opponent.

“Alright, that’s it for tonight! Class dismissed!” shouted Mr. Michaelson. He put his hand on my shoulder as I walked to find my gear bag. My bag was amongst the pile clumped against the outside wall of the small classroom. I took out my slimy mouthguard as I scanned the black bags to spot which one was mine. “Try to change up your moves a bit. You depend on your right side too much. Don’t become predictable,” Mr. Michaelson advised.

“Yes, sir,” I replied out of breath.

 

Monday rolled around in the blink of an eye. My high school was huge. Visitors often remarked that it could pass for a community college. It was a fortress of red bricks and giant glass windowpanes. Inside, each hallway was painted a different color. Some were yellow, while others were green or white. The classes were ninety minutes long, the subjects were challenging, and the teachers were either brutally strict or tremendously nice with no in-between. It drove new students crazy, though most people were fine with the school.

The fresh scrapes on the bottom of my feet made it even more painful when someone stepped on my foot. Looking up, I spotted a string of bruises around a big, bulky neck, Zach. His bruises were most likely hickies from the searing look he shot me once he caught me staring at them. What a weirdo. It was unsurprising to see that Zach was the culprit. The hallway was crowded, though that was no excuse. He did that sort of thing often. “Watch where you’re going, dumbass!” Zach spat as he passed me. He stepped on me, but sure, it was my fault.

“Amazing game yesterday, congratulations!” a nearby teacher complimented. Zach swore at me within earshot, and he got praised? Several kids could do anything they wanted and never get in trouble because of their athletic abilities. God forbid a star athlete gets suspended and can’t make it to a game.

The teacher stared at me. I waited for them to comment on Zach’s behavior. Instead, I was met with a confused stare. Was I invisible?

It was strange, I know, yet I couldn’t shake this need to be more than just a face in a crowd. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the type of person who could walk up to people and make new friends. I had to wait for some miracle where I could prove myself. One big reason why I cared about being seen in the first place was girls. To be honest, it was a girl rather than girls. I’d never had a girlfriend before. I was what one might have called a loser. Although I loved my family and friends, a tiny void was opening up inside. Day by day, it ate away at me. There had to be some way I could get Avery to notice me. If I tried my best to be a good person, maybe it’ll come back to me. The void will be filled.

A small smile was plastered on my face throughout Biology class. It was barely noticeable, though I couldn’t shake it. Science was my favorite subject for two reasons. One was that I always got an A+ on everything because almost all the topics were interesting. The second was that Avery was in that class. She was in a few of my classes over the years, and I kind of developed a little crush on her. It might have been more like a major crush. Considering I never really talked to her, it was a little pathetic. At least from what I’d overheard when she spoke to her friends and from class presentations, she seemed quite brilliant.

My eyes drifted off my Biology notebook to glance up at Avery. Her blue eyes shot right through me. They were so bright compared to my dark brown eyes. My face felt hot. I looked back down and waited for her to look away. I pretended to write something in my notebook, then peered up at the whiteboard. My eyes gradually ventured away from the board and onto Avery. My short brown hair was the opposite of her long, flowing blonde hair. We were very different in appearance. She was so pretty. Somehow, she had a slight tan in the middle of Winter. My skin was almost always a plain white color, only it got a little olive-colored at times during the Summer. We looked different, yet I...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.11.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-6862-0 / 9798350968620