Finding the Lost Boy Read online

  Chapter Nine

  Many people would've looked at Master Chen and not thought him capable of much. Standing at barely over five foot and well into his sixty's he wasn't exactly the image of intimidation. He was fit,but not overly muscular and wore both his hair and beard, which were both white, in two long braids. Regardless of his appearance Master Chen was a Master in the art of hand weapon and hand-to-hand combat. He lived his life according to the teachings of his ancestors, the ancient Samurai, and his living quarters reflected as much. He prided himself on discipline of the body and mind and based his form of shockhaven control on Tai' Chi, one of his favorite forms of hand to hand combat. he wore his sword, a curved single edge katana, on his left side and had begun to require me to do so as well. "This is the way that swords were made to be worn." he had told me. "To do otherwise is to bring disgrace upon yourself and your blade."

  As always our training would begin with the two of us spaced ten paces apart. We would then bow and attack each other until one of us was neaten. Then we would reset and begin again. The whole while Master Chen would mock my sword play, pointing out flaws where he found them. In the more recent months he had taken to insulting the changes that my training with the other masters had brought to my style and verbally abusing the other masters themselves to fill the silence that was left by my improving. There were many days that I'd spent the entire time in silence while Master Chen relentlessly assaulted me with both his sword and words. To be honest I preferred to fight in silence. Letting myself fall into the rhythm of combat was one of the few joys that I had in my life and at the time it was probably the greatest. Master Chen however, believed in harnessing the power of his emotions and he would go on long rants to increase his anger.

  We both bowed to each other and the training began. In comparison to Master Jason, Master Chen was slower and far more aggressive which would allow me to work on perfecting the rebound technique. He sprang off towards me and made a move to draw his sword in a rising slash draw. Using my haven awareness I saw the path his blade would take and when it came I ducted under the slash stepping to the inside with my right foot. At the same time I drew my sword across my body, just barely clearing it from my sheath, and landed a pommel strike to his midsection.

  Master Chen gave a slight grunt, changed the direction of his blade and brought it down in another diagonal slash. "That was a foolish move. To close the distance for a blunt strike." he said as I let the blow slide harmlessly off my blade. It was true that his two handed style could boast far more physical strength per strike than the all purpose single hand style that I preferred to use, but his style was so predictable that I rarely had to actually block his strikes. I instead chose to dodge them completely, or redirect them with the flat sides of my sword so that they simply went wide and hit nothing.

  The next three of his attacks were all to vertical for me to do anything useful with. I deflected the first, dodged the second, and knocked the third to the far outside. Perfect. "You haven't attacked me once. I expected more." he said with a mocking tone. As he began to bring his blade back in the same horizontal slash that I'd hoped he would a thought struck me.

  If I, who had been training under Master Jason for only six months, could come up with, lay and harvest the rewards of a simple trap like this on Master Chen in no time at all, then it seemed highly likely that Master Jason was capable of doing the same to me. And like everything else he did it was far more elaborate and well thought out, but to what end? What point was there in making me over confident?

  Catching his horizontal slash with my blade right above the hand guard I pushed his up and over my head. Then with a simple roll of my wrist I brought my blade down and around to rest on his shoulder the blade less than an inch from his face. Had this been live combat I could've cut the exposed armpit on the way around which would've caused his shoulder to drop, leaving his neck exposed for a much cleaner beheading. I let the blade sit there for a moment until his smugness was nearly all gone. On a different day I might have been proud. After all it was no small feet to beat a master in their own art, especially with only one strike. But it felt small and as I stepped back to restart some of my disappointment must have shown on my face.

  "If you kept a firmer grip on that sword like a man you wouldn't get such lucky recovery kills." Master Chen said as he took his position. I wanted to tell him that if he had half of the honor that he constantly preached of then he would accept his defeat like a man. But hurling insults was childish in my opinion so I chose to make it clear which of us was more mature through silence and skill.

  He took up a stance this time with his sword already drawn. There was no bow to single the beginning of this bout just a simple nod. Almost at the exact moment I returned the nod he was back on the offensive, this time using short chops instead of full slashes. They were faster but the amount of different directions that they could come from was less then with the full slashes and after each chop he left a split second of venerability as he reset for the next chop. I could assume that it was enough that his normal opponents could see the opening and force themselves to try to move faster. I was almost positive that I could move fast enough to land a killing blow in that slit second, but in the event that he changed at the last moment and went for a thrust I would be open. So I took this opportunity to practice the defensive half of the rebound technique against another sword. It was easy enough to add a few extra twists of my wrist and shoulder to keep the energy in the blade it self and push it back towards the tip in time to block and absorb blow after blow. After the eighth chop landed but before the ninth began I let the pent up energy flow to my left hand and released it in an unfocused wave. The wave knocked Master Chen back a good ten feet and I was suddenly glad that I hadn't focused the wave into a blast, or added any of my own energy to it.

  "What was that?" roared in angry Master Chen as he rolled to his feet. I said nothing and took up my stance. "No I've had enough of your disrespectful silence boy. You will answer me when I speak to you. Now, besides wasteful and weak what was that suppose to be?" he said as he continued towards me.

  At this point he was less than three feet away from me. I dropped my stance. "That was the pent up energy from your failed attacks that I chose to release unfocused to avoid causing you serious harm since you were obviously unprepared for it." I said. I had no fear of Master Chen at that point. I considered myself a better swordsman and havenist already and I was done being disrespected by those that I considered to be beneath me.

  "What did you just say to me?" he said, making it a point to look down on me. At the time there may have only been three or four inches between us in height so I could tell that he was trying to intimidate me.

  "I said that had I wanted to I could've focused all of you wasted energy into a blast that from that range would've killed you. I said that I could've ended you and that you with all your wisdom and skill owe every continued moment of your existence to that choice." I said.

  I was ready for the next string of insults, that were sure to come my way, when Master Chen closed what little distance that was left between us. However, what I wasn't ready for was the punch he threw. It hit square in the nose and I saw stars and was stunned. "That's nothing compared to what you deserve. Maybe after this lesson you'll learn some respect." he said.

  My eyes were still blurry but through my haven awareness I could see that he was getting ready to throw another punch. I quickly focused a great deal of energy into a shockhaven blast far more concentrated than the one before and shot it off before he threw his punch. He was knocked back about twenty feet but he was ready for the blast this time and protected himself from the worst of the blast. My eyes cleared and Master Chen was on his feet charging me. The red anger of his shockhaven coated him and his sword in a bright red glow as he closed the distance.

  "You stupid, stupid child!" he yelled, as he hacked and chopped with his glowing red sword. He was trying to channel his rage to be faster and stronger, but
for all of his anger he was still just as predictable as he was before. This time however I took to discharging the built up energy along his arms and legs leaving small cuts up and down his arms and a few larger gashes on his legs. None of the cuts were large enough to cause anything more than discomfort. I didn't want to do any lasting harm to Master Chen, I just wanted him to know that he'd been beaten. instead all the cuts did was fuel his anger and push him closer to a blind rage. There was no hope of me reaching him with words at this point though and I had to think of another way to stop him without killing him. As I began running through how I might take him down with minimal damage I felt a familiar presence in my haven awareness.

  "That is enough!" Master Jason yelled as the doors were still swinging open behind him. How had he known that this was happening? Was his haven awareness so attuned that he could sense this all the way from his chambers, I asked myself as he continued towards us.

  "This is none of your business. I will discipline my students however I damn well please Jason." Master Chen said nearly spitting out Master Jason's name.

  "From the looks of things nothing in this room appears to be very disciplined at the moment." he paused and I fought the urge to laugh. Master Chen might have thought he could teach me respect, but he knew he couldn't hold a candle to the power that Master Jason could wield and no matter how mad he got he would never openly attack Master Jason if he valued his life. "Also it would do you well to remember that he is my student as well."

  "I don't care who's student he is. I will not be talked back to by some child and I will not be given orders in my own dojo by someone barely old enough to be my child." Master Chen shot back. I could barely believe it. Insulting me was one thing, but to openly insult Master Jason was another.

  "If you'd like I can let the child, as you put it, get back to cutting you down to size and maybe you'll piss him off enough to stop holding back and he'll kill you." Master Jason said letting the kind understanding leave his voice entirely.

  For a while nothing else was said and the two men just stood there locked in a staring match. Then out of nowhere Master Jason was the first to take a step away from Master Chen and backed down. At first I didn't understand why Master Jason would back off of a weaker opponent like that. Now I know that it was to help make things somewhat smoother so that Master Chen would stay on the Training team. But back then that move was just as much a mystery as the rest of Master Jason himself.

  Master Jason turned to me and said, "Eathen return to your quarters." I wanted to argue, to tell him the truth, how I'd been able to beat Master Chen with such ease while using the rebound technique. However, when I went to speak he held up his hand to tell me not to. "Unless it is something that can't wait, you and I will speak at great lengths quite soon, but for the time being it would be best if you returned to you quarters. Now." he said with a forced calm that slipped at the end.

  Quickly I realized that I was not welcome to be a part of the conversation that would undoubtedly take place after I was gone. "Yes sir." I said reluctantly, and with a slight bow I headed for the doors.