“Because I don’t think much of Drake either, but I’ll give him credit for one thing. When there’s trouble, he doesn’t just stand aside and assume it’s not his problem,” you continue. “For all the faults in his approach, I’ll take it over someone who just sits back and watches, even when they know they could help. Let alone getting in the way of help like you are.”
“I used to think like that, too,” the grebling mutters. “I learned better.”
“Sounds to me more like things went bad once, and you took that as an excuse to assume they’d never go well,” you reply. “Me, when I mess up, well, it’s like just now. I didn’t keep lying on the ground wallowing in self-pity, I picked myself up and tried again.”
“And is that helping your aches?” he asks pointedly. “Looks to me more like you’re forcing yourself to stand despite being in intense pain. Can’t say that’s how I want to live my life.”
“Yeah, well. I don’t either. But sometimes you have to stand up even if it hurts, because it’s important,” you retort. “You’re just pretending you don’t. You’re just lying down on the ground and telling yourself it’s okay to stay there. In fact, you’re better than those fools who get up and hurt themselves again. You’re just going to lie down here for the rest of your life and let the guy who knocked you down gloat about it. But it’s okay, because you don’t have to see his face when you’re lying on the ground.”
As you speak, you notice a brief twitch and quickly roll aside as he charges you again. It hurts like hell, probably more than the blow he was going to give you. But it’s worth it to make him miss.
“I’m not really a gloater,” he says, turning towards you. “Suppose I’m more of one than you’re a fighter, though. That’s the worst dodge I’ve ever seen, and can’t be good for your injuries.”
“Sometimes it’s better to wound your body than your pride,” you say calmly. “I’ve taken enough blows to it tonight already.”
“I suppose most physical wounds recover sooner,” he mutters. It sounds like it’s more to himself than to you.
This is the best opening you’ve had in this whole conversation. He’s thinking things over. He was sure he’d hit you, and he didn’t. Arguably, you hit yourself instead, but in this kind of standoff, you really have to work for an advantage.
Now you’ve got one. You need to make the most of it with what you say and do next.
“Seems like someone taught you that lesson the hard way, you want to talk about it?”
“If you know wounds heal, why are you protecting the one that didn’t?”
Invite a challenge, now that he lowered his guard:
“Make me earn at least one device, if I fail your task, I’ll leave”
Stand straight, enduring the pain, to prove his point.