I nodded and Cavanaugh said, “Keep your eyes on the match and not my ass and we’ll do fine.”
My face turned red and she laughed, “What’s your plan?”
“It may not be what you guys really want to do, both of you are aggressive fighters. But if you’ll trust me we’ll win this.”
“What do you want?”
“I need one of you on each flank and using pure defense. If I don’t need to worry about my flank defense, we’ll go through them faster than you would believe. Just trust me to take care of offense.”
I could see the doubt in Rictor’s aura but I didn’t see any in Daphne’s. She’d seen me fight the Elites, she knew I wasn’t just bragging. I saw acceptance roll through his aura and I began to loosen up once more. Two more Guards joined the other side to bring the number back up to twenty-five again.
“Ok, we’ll be moving fast, we don’t stop for anything, right flank first and we’ll work our way to the left.”
They both nodded and we moved to our positions. The countdown began once more and the world slowed to a crawl again.
“Go!” rang out and we were moving to the right in a flash. The only way one of them could get to me was the flanks but Rictor and Daphne are a couple of the best Guards with swords I had ever seen. No one was getting through their defenses. Guards received “killing blows”, one after another until all of them were down. We hadn’t received a single hit.
“Halt!”
The crowd stood and applauded, while Gregor made his way back out to the center if the ring.
“Just two Guards made a great difference in that bout. This tells me that one person no matter how good can be beaten, but a person with support can do so much more.”
Everyone began putting the practice swords back on the rack until I started to put mine away.
“Hold up just a minute there Colin,” Gregor said and I felt another sense of dread. I swear they all love to do this to me. I thought it was just Kharl and Kyra, but everyone was enjoying this too much to just be them. I think all of the Guards must have a sadistic streak in them.
“The final demonstration will be a one on one match between Colin, here and a friend that came over from China, just for this exhibition. Let me introduce you to Len Yueh.”
A man walked out into the circle and smiled at me. His Soulstream was larger than mine and he carried two practice swords like he was a pro.
This was the other shoe I’d been waiting to fall. I knew there was something planned for me but I thought it was the bout with the Guards. Len Yueh approached me and placing one of his practice wands under his arm, he held his hand out to me. I did the same and shook his hand.
“Shall we give them a show?” he asked in perfect English.
I nodded and he smiled again, “You know the Dance?” he asked.
“Kyra taught it to me.”
“Good, she was always my best pupil. Let us Dance the Blades together,” he said.
This is the guy that taught Kyra? This is going to be interesting, I thought.
“Let us start slow and speed up as we go.”
“Ok”
We moved to the starting squares and loosened up. Once more the countdown began and the world slowed.
“Go!”
We met in the middle of the ring at a moderate pace and began the Dance. Every attack was parried, both his and mine. We moved with the fluidity Kyra had shown earlier.
“Faster,”
We sped up and continued, every time he sped up I matched him, our swords blurring with the speed at which we were moving.
“Now we give them a show,” he said softly, “Pull and let us see how fast we can go.”
I Pulled from the Source, my swords flared to life with Soulfire, as did his and the world slowed once again. We Danced the Blades, glowing with Soulfire and I’d never felt so good in all my life. Times like these are the only time that the rage that festers below the surface of my mind can be used. I use it and I become more than I was before.
But I can’t let it out completely, I’m not sure what would happen. So I use what I can and it feels good to be able to release it.
Around the ring we danced until we heard in an incredibly slow voice, “Halt!”
When we stopped and turned to the crowd, amazement and awe rolled through auras and everyone stood in applause. I saw Kyra at one side and there was pride rolling through her aura.
“The point of this demonstration,” I said after the applause ended and before Gregor could say anything, “Is that no matter how good you are there is always someone better.”
I nodded in respect to Len Yueh, who, from the moment we had started, held back to match my skills to make this a performance. Then I returned my practice swords to the rack and returned to where Paige, Trent and Mattie stood.
“I hope everyone enjoyed the exhibition and I would love to have more of these in the future. If anyone has any questions about any of the new techniques Colin demonstrated earlier, feel free to come to us and we will either answer the question or send you to the one who can.”
Chapter 28
“So, how many of you actually asked any of the Guards about Demons yesterday?” Nora asked us after we had gathered together once more. “My guess is, not many. But any of you who did, can share what you’ve learned.”
“Demons are partial to caves and most of their attacks are at night,” Darrel offered, “They seem to try to cultivate secrecy as much as we do. This shows that they aren’t just monsters, but they have a plan in place to deal with Humans.”
“Yes this seems to be so,” Nora said, “We haven’t been able to ascertain this plan, yet, but we keep trying. Kurt?”
“I was told that they’ve left children alone for the most part and that they’ve left pregnant women alive even when they witnessed the entire attack,” Kurt Yarden said, “There are very few incidents where pregnant women have actually been attacked by Demons.”
“This is true. But there are a few of these attacks we know of,” She looked at me, “Such as the attack on Rhayne Rourke. Maybe someday we can find out the reasons behind the few attacks that have happened on pregnant women.”
I had a sneaky suspicion I knew why those particular women had been attacked. Perhaps they had all been children who would have been Soullords. How the Demons could have known this, I don’t know. Maybe it was a just chance and bad luck, I doubt it.
“All right everyone,” Nora said, “That will be all for today. Colin, Paige can you both stay for a moment?”
After everyone had left, Nora turned to me, “You said you wanted anyone with a special skill to add to your manual?”
“Anything you think may be useful, we’ll gladly add to it.”
“A few years back,” she paused and chuckled, “Quite a few years back, I saw a Mage use something he called a Soul lance. It was a concentrated shaft of Soulfire that shot straight into a Wraith. It took a strong Pull to use it but I thought you might like to try it out.”
As she was telling me what it was I was getting an idea for it. Almost like a flame thrower but more power, maybe. I was already crafting a tube that was about three inches in diameter with a feeder tendril to supply power.
“Ok, let’s see if it works,” I said and turned toward the remaining practice targets. I pulled and channeled into the tube, which shot a shaft of Soulfire straight at the target. The shield held fine until I Pulled hard and power pulsed into the lance, ripping through shields and incinerating yet another target.
“Do you realize how hard it is to build those shields?” Nora asked, “You’ve destroyed almost half of them already. We’ll have to dismantle the shields to replace the targets and build them all over again.”
“Exactly how does the shield work?” I asked, “There are two feeder tendrils to it. Why two?”
“That’s something only Senior Mages learn,” She said and looked at me for a moment, “But if I don’t tell you, you’ll start poking at it, won’t you?”<
br />
I grinned and she sighed, “To tie a construct to the Source you need two tendrils to, basically, create a circuit. If there is something alive at the end of the tendril, you only need one, like the Soulstreams.”
I saw what she was talking about in the shield I was looking at.
I reached out with a tendril like I had seen the Mage do when he tied off Grimes from the Source and wrapped the tendril on the left without touching it. Then I extended it to wrap the other, making a jumper around the shield. Then I squeezed the tendrils from the Source almost closed, while cutting the connection to myself immediately after the squeeze. None of the power had a chance to flow up my tendril into me. The shield flickered and almost disappeared.
“What did you just do?” Nora looked at me intently.
“I was just testing something,” I said as I reached back out and loosened both knots to let the Source flow back into the shield. I left the jumper in place for an easy way to take down the shields when they needed me to. “I can help with the shields when you want to replace the target dummies.”
Nora shook her head, “Sometimes I just want to pick you up and shake you. You do things we spent years learning in seconds. It makes us look inept and ignorant. The worst part is you don’t even realize you’re doing it.”
“I just try to do what you want me to,” I returned. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone.”
“I know, Colin,” she said, “It’s just hard on us old-timers when you come in here at eighteen years old and continually show us up.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for being who you are, Colin,” Nora placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed softly, “Maybe this is exactly what the Mages need. A little shaking up won’t hurt us. It’s just hard to sit and watch sometimes. I think the Lance can be added to the manual, though, don’t you?”
I watched all the emotions flow across her aura as she talked to me, I gained a new respect for Nora Kestril. Not only was she fighting the jealousy and frustration of dealing with me but her last question was asked in truth. She really wanted to know my thoughts on it. It felt good to earn the respect of people like Nora and Gregor or Tien. It meant that I was doing something right.
“I think it’s good to add but it takes a strong Pull to really put the power in it. The shield itself is as simple as it gets, though. We may be able to come up with some finishing touches before we put it in the Manual. But we can definitely use this.”
“It’s powerful enough,” Paige agreed, “But that was a strong Pull. Someone like me probably couldn’t Pull enough to stop a Wraith with it but a powerful Mage will probably like it.”
I lit up the new shield so they could see it too, “So can you see anything I can do to make it work better?”
They both began to examine the Lance. “Maybe if you make this part a little smaller it will focus more power in a small area...”
***
“3…2…” the world slowed, “1…Go!”
I met Kharl head on. There wasn’t much technique involved at first. We just whaled on each other. He used several moves after a bit to try and throw me, but I was prepared for them.
“Much better, Son,” He said as he fainted left and I went right. I don’t know where he came from but the next minute I was flying through the air to slam into the new “Mat” that had my face print in it too.
“If you let me get ahold of you, you’re gone,” he chuckled.
I heard laughter from the side of the Dome where the new trainee Guards were watching the bout.
“Hardee har,” I mumbled and charged back in at Kharl, using more speed than before.
“That’s more like it,” Kharl said, “Make me work for it.”
I hit him five or six times before he connected again, but when he did I flew backwards into the Mat again.
“Halt!” came Tien’s voice. We stopped and made our way out of the ring. Several of the Trainees entered and took their places in the ring for a practice. I smiled as I saw that one of them was Trent.
We both turned and watched as Tien counted down for the Trainees. At “Go!” they charged each other and began swinging. Both of them were pretty good at boxing but Trent had the reach to hold the other guy back far enough not to get as much of a pounding as his opponent.
When Kharl and I spar it looks like we just whale on each other, but really, that’s what we do as we look for the opening to do more. That’s why the Mat is there. When he does “more” I end up face first in the mat. It happens less and less as I get better though and I’d only hit the Mat three times in our match.
Trent and his opponent were just whaling on each other, there wasn’t “more” but that would come later. Trent is strong as an ox, He’s stronger than many Guards. But it has to do with the way I taught him to alter his Knot so that it didn’t leave the body to distribute the power as much. He knotted his quite a bit more than the regular knot is twisted.
Instead of one loop of the knot feeding his right leg, there were three separate loops. The body doesn’t have to distribute the power as far so the body was stronger.
“Halt!” Tien stopped the match.
“Andrew, when facing a stronger opponent, don’t just swap hits with him,” Tien said, “You have to push your speed and focus on not getting hit. If he can’t hit you he won’t beat you. For example, Mattie?”
“Oh no,” Trent muttered, then said loudly, “Somebody make sure she doesn’t have one of those knives, please.”
“I’m not frisking her,” a voice from the group of trainees said, “Friggin suicide.”
Several of the trainees laughed until Mattie looked around at them with one eyebrow raised. It got quiet very quick.
“She’s damn good with those knives, Son,” Kharl said quietly, “and almost as good with short swords. Jack’s one of the best and he pushed her all her life. Scares the shit out of most of the Trainees and some of the Vets as well, Heh heh.”
“I bet he doesn’t get one hit in while she takes him apart,” I said, “She’s wicked fast, you should have seen her fight at Morndel.”
“That ought to keep his head from swelling up too much,” Kharl laughed, “Speaking of swelled heads, can you look at my shield without yours swelling up too much? They should be paying you instructors pay, too. Gregor says you’ve taught a lot more than you learned since you’ve been here.”
I laughed, “Sure, I can look at it, and if my head gets too big, you can always throw me into the Mat again.”
Over the last month, since the Exhibition, Guards had been coming to me on a pretty regular basis with the new shields. Most of them were fine, and the few who weren’t, I lit up their streams so they could actually see as they fixed the problems.
About that time, the match started and we watched Mattie run circles around Trent. He would swing but she was never there when it reached its destination. She landed about twenty powerful blows before Tien called a halt.
“Speed trumps power under most circumstances,” Tien said, “Power is very useful in a nest of Demons, though. Numbers can counter speed easier than it can counter power.”
Mattie was smiling evilly at Trent who was looking a bit worried. I laughed at my friends. Speed doesn’t always trump power, if the powerful one has close to two hundred years of experience, speed just makes you able to last a little longer.
Kharl and I made our way across the Dome toward the showers. We stopped, away from the others and I turned to him. I opened my Inner eye.
“Ok let a trickle charge into it.”
Kharl opened the portal just a tiny amount. It looked good all the way around.
“Looks good, Dad,” I said, “Open it up.”
He opened it up and I said, “See if it interferes with the Soulblade you make.”
He flipped his wrists and his Soulblades burst into being. They seemed as powerful as they always were.
“I don’t see any problems with it.”
“Great,” He said and
the swords disappeared, “Ky has hers done too but she figured she’d get you to look tomorrow after dinner. Man, I’m glad we can eat somewhere else now. I think she was trying to kill us all those years.”
“If it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger,” I laughed.
“I guess you could put it that way,” he said, “I’m heading out to the trail, see you later.”
“See you.”
Chapter 29
The last few days had been rather peaceful, I’d worked on the Soul lance a little and I’d checked five Guards’ shields.
I’d only seen Gavin once and he was still radiating hate, but there was something else there too. He was anticipating something, maybe he would be getting his first assignment soon and we’d be rid of his arrogant ass.
I’d also checked Kyra’s shield and she’d woven a tighter shield than I did. It was quite good. She’s always had a lot of focus, and you could tell with the shield. Most of the Elites had come through over the last month and a half. They’d all gotten the shield right. I guess focus comes with age.
Almost everyone at the Academy had a personal shield by then. I’d even seen Gavin sporting the new and improved privacy screen. I felt good about that, he was such a prick, I was afraid he wouldn’t even try because I had been the source of it.
I passed Darrel as I headed to my quarters, “Darrel.”
“Hey Colin,” He said, “I got that Soullance thing crafted. If you don’t care, will you take a look at it tomorrow?”
“No problem.”
“Thanks man.”
I found a note pinned to my door. It was from Paige.
It said: Colin, meet me on the Guard trail, near the top of the mountain. I have a surprise for you. It was signed with a capitol P.
I smiled and went into my room to change into clean clothes and I put my twin swords on the rack.
I should oil them, I thought, but I can do that after I meet Paige.
I left my quarters and headed to the elevator. I ran into Daphne Cavanaugh in the elevator.
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