White Soul

by G L Rathweg

  “Really? Show me.” He commanded.

  I did and he closed his eyes for a moment then opened them nodding to himself. That is handy. Now, let’s focus on your first attack style, Pugilism. Are you familiar with it?” Dangun asked.

  “Pugilism? You mean boxing, fisticuffs?” I asked.

  “Yes, good you are familiar. This will make things easier. You will focus on keeping your hands up like this.” Dangun said, raising his arms up in an old style boxing stance. Both his hands were up, his right hand in a fist by his right cheek and his left hand held out in a fist with his arm bent at a thirty-five degree angle. He put his left foot forward toe pointing out and his right foot back at a forty-five degree angle then bent his knees lowering his center of gravity. He reminded me of an Asian Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes and I had to suppress a chuckle.

  I mirrored his stance and he nodded correcting my posture a bit and moving my arms and legs each a few inches. When he was satisfied with my stance he retook his own across from me.

  “Use your hands to deflect my blows. Bounce on the balls of your feet and bend at the waist to dodge me. Like so.” Dangun said, then began showing me what he meant.

  Two mini images of the spirit appeared facing off both in the same stance hovering in the air between us. One tiny Dangun was all black and the other was all red. Both began to hop up and down on the balls of their feet while circling each other just like a couple of boxers.

  Then the little red one began attacking the little black one by throwing punch after punch at all different areas of the black one. The black one played defense and blocked each blow with his hands and swaying side to side to dodge the blows. After a few minutes of this the two stopped and bowed to each other and the image disappeared.

  “Do you understand?” Dangun asked.

  “Yeah, it was just like Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury when he beat up the Japanese soldiers.” I said, reading the new messages I just received.

  FIGHTING STYLE LEARNED – PUGILISM (Skill Level – Novice)

  PUGILISM

  A style of combat that focuses on using only the fists. The fighter can attack and defend by using the Five D’s, dodging, dipping, ducking, diving, and dodging while using his fists to block, counterattack, and punch. This style is one of the oldest known forms of fighting and is known to almost all cultures.

  “Nice! I know Pugilism!” I exclaimed.

  “If you say so. Now practice with my image time is running short. The demons are closing in and I estimate they are no more than ten minutes away. I will go check on Tiffany and the traps then meet you back here.” Dangun said, disappearing again with a pop.

  His after image appeared a second later and took the stance. I nodded and did the same and we began. Dangun’s avatar or whatever it was didn’t go easy on me. Each time it hit my arms it felt like I was getting hit with a sledgehammer. It took every bit of willpower and effort I had to not get knocked down each time his Ki covered hands connected with my block.

  After a minute of this I remembered the Five D’s part and began to sway a bit as I blocked so each hit didn’t connect directly and pummel me. I just began to move a bit and direct the blows away from me. Another minute went by and I felt like I was getting the hang of it.

  Training Dangun must have noticed because he sped up the pace and began throwing blows to my blindside and every other which way. The first one slipped by me and connected with my side knocking the wind from me and feeling like I might of broke a rib. I sent Ki to the area and it helped with the pain.

  The hit was a brutal lesson but I took it to heart and redoubled my efforts. Another minute went by and my Ki began draining faster. I checked my Ki Bar and saw it was down to half.

  KI BAR – 125/250

  But at least I was keeping up with shadow Dangun now. Speak of the devil the spirit himself reappeared waving the avatar away as Tiffany came down the stairs at the same time. I smiled at the beautiful girl as I caught my breath and stood up straight.

  “Holy shit! You are made of metal. Dangun told me but…” She said, in awe voice trailing off as she shook her head in wonder.

  “There is no time for this they are almost here. We have just a few minutes to prepare.” Dangun said.

  “Hey, is there a way we can sense the demons as well?” I asked.

  “Yeah, that’d be super helpful.” Tiffany added.

  “Hmm… let me see…” Dangun said, placing his hand to his chin in thought.

  I shared a grin with Tiffany and she looked back and smiled.

  “How’d it go? Are you ok?” I asked, genuinely curious because I had no idea what kind of traps the two of them had set up.

  “I think I’m ok. Dangun while being a sexist prick isn’t a bad guy. Oh my god Hiro! The traps we set up are crazy. Apparently, these demons are a lot more like vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the whole sunlight and garlic thing. Oh, and you don’t need a wooden stake either anything that destroys the heart will do.” She said, excitedly.

  “That’s really…” I tried to say, but she just kept talking.

  “…and we set up traps all around the houses perimeter and then in subsequent circles every five to ten feet closer to the house. We didn’t have time to dig any pits or anything but I raided your garage and shed out back. We used all the pointy sharp objects we could find and created all sorts of hidden nastiness. It’s like Home Alone on crack in this biatch!” She cheered, her eyes taking on a glazed kind of crazy look.

  Note to self don’t get on Tiffany’s bad side.

  “How do you know all this?” I asked, really impressed.

  “My dad was a Colonel in the Marines and taught me all about fieldcraft and stuff at a young age. After he died I really got into it. It was a way for me to still have him around after, ya know?” She said, all of a sudden going quiet and looking away.

  I couldn’t take it she was so vulnerable and sad right now I threw caution to the wind and went to her and hugged her tight. She was startled at first and then settled into my embrace a second later and put her head on my shoulder. After a minute she looked up and grinned.

  “I appreciate the hug but this metal body is not the most huggable.” She teased.

  Just then Dangun snapped and motioned both us of over to him. We broke up our hug and went to him.

  “Bow your heads and close your eyes.” He instructed.

  As soon as I did I felt his hand or at least the presence of his hand on my forehead. A flash of light and a mild headache later and an image appeared in my mind. I had a birds eye view of my house and the surrounding area.

  “No way…” Tiffany whispered.

  She must have the same thing going on. I refocused on my own image then Dangun started talking.

  “This is a top down view of the house and the surrounding one mile area. It is all I can do for you at the moment. All the glowing red dots on there are demons. The brighter the dot the stronger the demon. Understand?” Dangun asked.

  I grunted in reply as I studied the map and heard Tiffany say something but I was focused on the copious amounts of glowing red dots headed our way on my map. I opened my eyes and gave Dangun an incredulous look.

  “Why didn’t you say there were over a hundred of these fucking guys coming our way?” I asked.

  “Is there a big difference between fifty and one hundred? The number changes nothing, you still must defeat them all or enough of them to make them flee.” Dangun said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “That is a lot of fucking red guys and they are almost here. They’re coming up the street as we speak.” Tiffany said.

  “Your woman is right it is time. Come, we will go upstairs and your woman must stay here.” Dangun said.

  “Wait, I’m not going with you?” Tiffany asked, heatedly.

  “No, you cannot, you will just get in the way as you are right now.” Dangun said, matter of fact.

  “You son of a bitch! After all I did…” She railed, starting i
n on Dangun.

  “No, he’s right Tiffany. I know you want to help but you have to stay here. You can help us more by staying here and being safe.” I said, staring her in the eyes and trying to make her see my point.

  She stood there fuming for a second and I thought she wasn’t going to go along but eventually she let out a deep breath and just nodded at me in the affirmative.

  “Thanks Tiffany, besides, you really can help us from down here.” I told her with a wicked grin.

  TRACK 8 – FALL BACK DOWN – RANCID

  “Can you hear me? Over…” I said, into my phone’s earbud.

  “Of course, dork, you’re using your Bluetooth headphones for your mobile.” Tiffany said, as if to a child.

  “Ah, yeah…” I replied, reddening under my Iron Body and glad she couldn’t see me. Then realizing she could because of all the cameras.

  That was where she was at the moment, at my computer watching us through our house’s security cameras. My step grandpa was a lot of things and paranoid fucker was one of them. He had security cameras installed all over the house and front and back yards. I tied into them from my computer as soon as had I moved in. Getting my ass almost killed by Nick had made me paranoid and scared of shadows. The cameras really helped me manage my PTSD.

  Tiffany began talking again and I refocused on the now.

  “…ok, it looks like the first wave of the fuckheads have arrived. It’s a bunch of Chester the Molester vans, although these are black not white.” Tiffany said.

  Dangun gave me a look and I quickly explained how big white vans equaled child molester and that I’d tell him all about it later and turned my attention back to Tiffany. Between our mind maps and Tiffany watching real time with live feed cameras we should have total tactical advantage.

  “Nick is the first one out and it looks like there are three vans and about thirty douchebags total so far. Looks like they are waiting for the rest of their buddies.” She said.

  “It would be better if they attacked in waves instead of one large mass. Let us see if we can lure them to us before the rest of them arrive.” Dangun said.

  “Don’t worry I’ve got this shit.” I said, then went to the front door and opened it wide and let it slam against the wall theatrically before striding out to my grandma’s front porch.

  “Hey Nick! You tiny dicked pillow biting fucktard of a wanna be bitch boy! I’m right here!” I yelled.

  I had been dreaming of this moment for quite some time. My front doorstep was the perfect soapbox for calling the bastard out and telling him all the shit and names I’d stored up for years.

  My grandma’s house was at the end of the cul-de-sac and the vans had parked at the end of our long driveway where the natural acoustics just rocked. The trees muffled the sound on both sides of the drive and funneled my voice perfectly to the end exactly where Nick and the others were milling about. Judging by the hoots of laughter and then Nick’s yelling they heard me just fucking fine. I said a few more things I’d been saving up. Mostly about Nick’s mom, dad, dog, cat, gerbil, and how he was the main star of the family grouping.

  “I think that got their attention.” I said, laughing a bit and elbowing the noncorporeal Dangun in the ribs. He may not have felt it but I’m sure he got the gist anyway.

  “Here they come, let’s get into position.” Dangun said, then disappeared going on ahead of me.

  I shut the door and locked it then hurried to my starting spot. Tiffany would watch them in the yard and keep us informed. Which, she was currently doing a great job of.

  “The next group is about five minutes away. Nick is currently directing these thirty demons and they are splitting up. It looks like half are going to the backyard and the other half are coming straight up the nice open driveway to the front door.” Tiffany said, the glee obvious in her voice.

  I listened as I moved, entertained by her sports announcer take on things.

  “Here comes bozos one and two first in line coming right up to trap one. Oh, damn! That’s smarts right in the gibbly bits! Suck on that ass faces!” Tiffany hooted and hollered.

  I winced in sympathy as I recalled trap one. It was a particularly clever one and rather nasty as well. It was a dual pronged trap. One set at ground level and the other just above the waist for part two. My driveway was long and had a large dip in the center where shadows obscured the area making it the perfect place to stage a caltrops trap. These were just a bunch of long roofing nails bent into crooked U’s, but it’s amazing what you can do with a few household goods and chemicals.

  According to Tiffany’s play by play goons one and two each hit the caltrops at a full on jog at which point I heard both howling in counterpoint to Tiffany. Next, as they bent over to examine and nurse their injured feet a craftily placed fishing line was tripped by goon one’s knees and activated the second part of the trap. Two metal rakes flew up each catching a demon, goon one in the face and goon two in the chest.

  Both demons dropped to the driveway already turning to ash and dissipating.

  “Two bitch ass demons down! The ones in the front have paused and are reassessing, but the ones headed to the back didn’t see their buddies die so they are still headed your way. Get ready to set off the next set of traps on my command.” Tiffany informed us with glee.

  I nodded to myself and got my head in the game. The backyard was a veritable web of traps and I had to wait until most of the demons were in the kill zone so to speak before I activated them. Dangun had an ingenious way to use Ki that was left at the trap zone and could be used to activate the traps like a remote control. His Ki wasn’t actually here in the real world so we had used mine.

  It was what I imagined the spells Cantrips or Prestidigitation from D&D was like. If you don’t remember the spells they were minor casts that basically let you cast small effects within ten to twenty feet. Dangun’s had more range but was less versatile, at least at this skill level.

  SKILL LEARNED – KI TRIPS (Skill Level – Novice)

  KI TRIPS

  Allows user to project their will on their KI up to a distance of fifty feet. As the Ki Practitioner grows in skill and ability so does their ability with Ki Trips. The many different uses of Ki Trips change and become more complex as they level up.

  “Oh shit! I learned a spell. I mean a skill!” I said, impressed with myself.

  “Yes, yes, good job you learned something that all Martial Cultivators can use from childhood. Hurrah…” Dangun mocked.

  I was about to give him a raspberry and piece of my mind but Tiffany called out.

  “Now! They’re in the zone, now!” She cried.

  I closed my eyes and pictured my waiting Ki. The backyard appeared in my mind’s eye from the point of my Ki which was at the center of it and about thirty feet up. I had a bird’s eye view of the backyard in a black and white kind of Call of Duty image thing. Tiffany was right and most of them were right in the center of the web trap.

  Rigged throughout all of the trees and power lines were a mess of garden tools and spare blades among other rusty sharp odds and ends. They were connected with Ki enforced fishing line and they were all connected by my main Ki hold in the center. There were dozens of the sharp pointy things and Dangun had used a Ki reinforcement technique on them which I wasn’t able to grasp yet.

  Basically, the weight of each object was forced to their tips and when I released my Ki, not only did they fall to the ground, they would rocket downwards as if thrown. Dangun nodded and I released the stored energy. My eyes went wide, it was as if each projectile had an engine of Ki in it’s ass.

  “That is crazy! You turned those guys into pincushions. All but two of them. They have moved by the rain of death and are on the patio at the back door. They’re in for it now. Flick on the switch.” Tiffany commanded.

  I flicked the power on and the wires attached to the back door filled it with power, charging the door handle and filling it with electricity.

  “Hurry the fuck up! We got
ta make that little bitch pay for what he did to the others. Open the door!” A voice growled.

  “I’m on it, but hey do you smell that? What is that?” Another voice asked.

  “God damn it I don’t smell shit, now move the fuck out of the way.” The first voice hissed, and then there was the sound of a little scuffle.

  “All right you little shit we’re coming for you!” Voice one yelled.

  “Wait, don’t open the door it’s fucking gasoline!” The second voice cried.

  Then the door handle lit up like the fourth of July shooting sparks to the dumb fuck who grabbed it and into the surrounding gas soaked patio area. Screams of the burning and dying demons along with sparks of electricity, Tiffany’s laughter, and the lights blinking on and off due to the power usage created a surreal scene.

  The lights and screams finally died down. The smell of ozone, burning meat, and ash filled the air. I coughed and waved the spot in front of my face with my hands. It was a weird thing to equate the smell of burning flesh to the smell of bacon and I felt bad for doing it.

  “Always reminds me of cooking pork.” Dangun said, in a conversational tone.

  I looked askew at him as if he was reading my mind, but if he was, I couldn’t tell. His comment did have the effect of making me not feel so bad and I appreciated that.

  “That’s all but three of them out back and they were injured and are hightailing back out front to their buddies. On that note the rest of their reinforcements are arriving. Don’t wait on them though, the demon douches in front have reorganized. It looks like they are getting ready to come in again, this time more carefully.” Tiffany told us.

  “Gotcha! Moving into the second position.” I replied, running from the kitchen and back to the front of the house.

  Tiffany kept talking keeping us updated and things were going smoothly. I really felt like we had these bastards and I was finally going to make Nick the shit pay. We were just entering the front hallway when I noticed Dangun freeze in place with a quizzical expression on his face.