Finding the Lost Boy Read online

  Chapter Eight

  It must have been six months or so since I started my training under Master Jason and where as I felt that my skills had improved a great deal, not much else had changed. I still couldn't land a single strike on Master Jason. On the plus side of things I'd already proven that I was capable of using my sight beyond sight, or haven awareness as Master Jason preferred to call it, so we were done with all the blindfold exercises. Now we were working on improving my hand to hand and sword combat using the skills that came with haven awareness.

  "The technique that I'm going to teach you today is the bread and butter of my own fighting style." Master Jason began. "It is the very foundation that everything else has grown from and where as I came up with it on my own, at least to the best of my knowledge, I don't believe that we have the same luxury of that much time." It was at times like these that I felt like maybe Master Jason's young appearance was just some cleverly thought up deception. It wasn't uncommon for him to sound as though he'd lived for several hundred years. Who knows, maybe he had, it wouldn’t have been the strangest thing that I’d seen. Maybe it was his haven awareness which had to be several years more advanced than my own. Even I had begun to see the relativity of time on my own. "I'll teach you the first part of the technique and from there you'll be able to figure the rest out yourself."

  His confidence in me was reassuring and it in turn gave me confidence. "Yes, sir." I said with a slight bow. I had become even more respectful of Master Jason since our training began. It wasn't because he asked for it, in fact more often then not he waved away my formal showing of respect as though they weren't necessary. Maybe I was directing all of my respect towards him because of how the other Masters were acting. Maybe I was looking at Master Jason like some sort of father figure. Whatever the reason, I was striving for his approval and did not want to let him down.

  "The half that I'll teach you is defensive." he said. In telling me that he told me that the half of the technique he wanted me to figure out on my own was more than likely offensive. He was more than smart enough to know this and probably told me on purpose. "It is more evident in hand to hand combat so let us start with that." he said and I took my hand away from the hilt of my sword. "The principle is that I can absorb the speed and power from blocking one strike and use that speed and power from the strike to augment my own speed and power for the next block or strike. Think about how it looks in your haven awareness when you block an attack." he paused and I thought of the flash when the two forces collide. "That flash is a mixture of shockhaven and kinetic energy being released by both parties. If you align your body correctly you can use your body as a conduit for that energy and send it back at your opponent." he smiled. "I should've started teaching you this weeks ago, but I've been putting it off, hoping that you'd pick it up on your own or just not need it."

  That caught me off guard completely. I'd thought Master Jason was going to teach me everything. Had I done something wrong, something to offend him maybe. Just as that thought settled in on my face Master Jason broke out in laughter.

  "I was holding off for my own sake. Once you master this technique you'll be well on your way to becoming far more powerful than me." he said, reaching over and putting his hand on my shoulder. "Call it my ego if you must, but I rather like being the great Master Jason as oppose to being the student."

  "I highly doubt that sir." I said politely, finding the idea a little far fetched, but still I felt relieved. I was more than relieved I was delighted that he thought me capable of actually surpassing him. Still I made no sign of anything more than the relief visible on my face.

  "They say the mountain looks tallest from the bottom, and that once you start the climb it seems never ending until you're surprised that there are no steps left to take." he said, patting my shoulder. "Just remember when you're standing at the top that there are other mountains to climb." I nodded at his encouraging words of wisdom. His was not the only mountain to climb. "Now then let's begin." He stepped back and took up a staggered stance. "I'm going to throw two punches, one right after the other. Use your haven awareness to find the right point of intersection for the first punch and use the energy to block the second blow. Keep your arms and mid section loose and just guide the energy to the second punch and you should be fine. Are you ready?"

  Should was never a word one wanted to hear during training. Should indicated doubt, and doubt was dangerous when it came to the idea of letting a collective of shockhaven enter one's body. Should was Master Jason's way of telling me about the danger and giving m a chance to ask any last minute questions. Should was unnecessary at this point in our training as far as I was concerned. I was more than prepared to face the danger. There was always danger in training and there always would be. "I'm ready Sir." I said with a nod.

  Master Jason came forward with a simple punch. I caught it in an open palm and let the punch spin me around a quarter turn. At the same time my left hand came up and in, almost on its own and faster than I expected, and caught his right arm by the forearm pushing it to the inside. With his arm across his body and as close as we were he was open to a knee strike in the abdomen or if I pushed down against his arm I could use the force to spin myself back the other way and come with a right handed upper cut to the same area as well. Even though I thought that both options would've given me the best chance to land a strike that I'd had to date, it felt like it would've been a cheep shot at the same time. The only reason that I was in this situation with this opportunity in the first place was because Master Jason had put us here. I was to block two simple strikes and learn a new technique and that was all. I would not let my own impatience soil that victory, so I stepped back and awaited further instructions.

  As though he'd read my mind Master Jason stepped back as well and said, "That was good, very good. One thing to remember is to always let the energy you take in leave your body. It is possible to absorb another's shockhaven and use that energy or store it to be used later, but that requires you to convert that energy before letting it into your body. If it's not absorbed properly the foreign shockhaven will attack the part of the body that it's confined to if it's allowed to settle." With a smile he added, "A nice touch by the way, grabbing the second punch and displacing the body like that. You could've landed an uppercut there at the end."

  "That or a flying knee Sir, but I was on the defensive so I decided against it." I said, making sure that he knew that I was aware of the opening, but had chosen not to take it out of discipline.

  "Yes, that you were and thank you." he said patting his stomach. "But you saw the uppercut." he added, still grinning.

  "Yes sir I did." I said. In my mind I was silently defending the flying knee over the uppercut when it hit me. I was so caught up in the idea of finally landing a strike on Master Jason that I'd figured out the other half of the technique and didn't even realize it. The other half was of course the offensive part of the technique.

  Master Jason saw the realization on my face and his smile widened. "So, do you feel confident enough to try to go a round at full speed?" he asked.

  "Yes sir!" I said, with the excitement of trying the rebound technique in real combat. Even though I'd only practiced the technique once, just then, I understood the principle behind it well enough and could do it a thousand times over in practice with the same results I'd just had. We each took up our fighting stances. Master Jason, as always, had a more relaxed stance with his feet shoulder with apart and his arms slightly bent. My stance was more like a coiled spring. I had my right hand across my body resting on the handle of my sword and my legs were in a staggered stance, tensed and ready to explode.

  "Begin." Master Jason said with a nod. I drew my sword and forced a good bit of shockhaven energy through the blade. A crescent of white glowing shockhaven went from the tip of my blade towards Master Jason. The crescents are far more difficult to block than regular shockhaven blasts. They're like a blade of shockhaven energy and are far more condensed and
solid than normal blasts. How master Jason blocked this one would decide how I would proceed. Knowing this Master Jason drew a horizontal arch with two finger and cut my crescent in half. I sprang, kicking off with my left foot. His arm was going wide to the outside of his body so I would come right up the middle with a rising slash. He would be hard pressed to continue only using one hand and if he didn't that meant that he was taking this some what seriously. He blocked with his other hand and I used the force of his block to assist me in flipping over and behind him. As my feet hit the ground Master Jason mule kicked back. I blocked with my left forearm and used the force of the kick to augment the diagonal slash that I was bringing down with my sword arm. At the same time that I began the diagonal slash Master Jason rotated his foot and kicked off my forearm spinning himself around. His secondary kick gave speed and power to my slash, but was also harnessing the power from the first.

  His spinning kick meant my downward slash and the sheer power was amazing. The combined power of all the strikes and blocks so far collided and I harnessed it all. Using that energy I pushed off with my sword launching myself into a back flip and landed in a crouch. Focusing that pent up energy in my sword arm and the blade of my sword I sprung off the moment that I landed. I went for a forward thrust. It wasn't surprising that Master Jason caught the blade of my sword, but I wasn't done yet. I used my continued momentum combined with the counter force that Master Jason was providing to throw a punch with my left. Master Jason caught the punch with his other hand. Using my momentum and Master Jason's opposing force again, I let go of my sword and thrust my sword hand, filled with all the pent up energy, forward in a finger jab aimed at his throat while using my shockhaven to maintain the forward force of my sword.

  With my haven awareness I could see the barrier that master Jason had put up. I focused the pent up energy in the tip of my middle finger and stabbed through his shield with ease. That same power cut through the protective layer of shockhaven that Master Jason, and every other havenist, cloaked himself in as well. Then I felt the skin of his neck. I'd done it, the very thing I thought to be impossible this morning. Not only had I landed a strike but I'd managed to land what could've been a killing blow. In the split seconds that it took for all of this to register something else happened. A flash of blinding white light came with a wave of such incredible force that for a moment I was lost in the light. The light subsided as I was embedded in the far wall and I regained a sense of my surroundings.

  "Are you alright?" Master Jason said. The force had obliviously come from him. His words sounded as though he was winded and he looked visibly shaken.

  "Yes sir." I said, as I crawled out of the hole in the wall that I'd made. "Are you, sir?" I asked. Honestly I was fine, given the fact that I'd hit and dented the walls of the room more times than I'd like to recall. Still I'd been caught completely off guard and if it wasn't for the natural toughness of my body I would've been hurt.

  "Yeah fine." he said. The confident grin that was slowly creeping its way back to his face told me that he was alright if just a little shaken. "As I'm sure you can imagine I wasn't quite ready for that." he added.

  "What was that sir?" I asked. It wasn't that I'd never felt power like that before, but it had never come from Master Jason. His attacks, his whole philosophy was based on the idea of precision over power. Whatever that was, it was unfocused and wasteful in comparison to everything I'd ever seen him use, and it just didn't feel right.

  "That was an old defensive spell that I'd put in place years ago that I haven't had a reason to take down until now." he said with a smile.

  "A spell?" I said with a good deal of confusion in my voice. "You mean like magic?" I said almost sarcastically.

  "There are forms of haven control far older and stranger than you may think." he said with the same almost grin that he always had when he was being purposely cryptic, but he was implying that he was talking about some form of magic. "However, that is for another day and for another Master to teach you." he paused, and when I went to protest he held up a hand for silence and continued. "The reason for this is simple and is not up for debate. I know little more than a beginner when it comes to spell binding and of all the forms of haven control it is by far the most dangerous, uncontrollable and unpredictable. Combine that with the depth of your shockhaven well and you'll see my point."

  Reluctantly, I saw the logic in his words and had no choice but to agree with him. "I understand sir."

  "Relax and cheer up." he said patting my shoulder. "You'll learn it all eventually by a much better teacher. Besides, the only reason we're having this conversation is because you nearly killed me."

  "Really?" I said, quite pleased with both myself and the turn of the conversation as well.

  "That blast was my last line of defense and if you wouldn't have held back you probably would've knocked a good bit of wind out of me if not crushed my wind pipe completely before getting knocked back." he paused and I didn't know what to say. The thought of actually hurting or killing Master Jason was unsettling and a little hard to process. On the one hand I liked Master Jason and would never want to do either. On the other, he was training me and the only real measure of success was me being able to. "You've picked up the rebound technique quicker than any other student I've ever tried to teach it to before. You should be proud." he said, breaking the silence.

  "Thank you, I am sir." I said and then bowed.

  "So am I. You're the best student I've ever had." he said and his smile turned back into his normal self confident grin and he chuckled. "I'm going to have to start training a little harder if I want to keep my title of Master."

  I stood frozen for a moment caught off guard by deja vu. He'd said that those technique would make me his better before we had even began. Had he known this was going to happen somehow? Was this just a simple coincidence and was my paranoia getting the better of me? I put nothing past any of the Masters abilities, especially Master Jason. Could he have somehow been in control of the whole bout from the beginning? If so and this was more than just a coincidental choice of words then the real question was why. Without the why the rest was just useless speculation that would lead to only more speculation.

  "Speaking of Masters," Master Jason began and my train of thought stopped. "You are training with Master Chen this afternoon and I would hate for you to be late or unprepared because of me. Besides I have a few more wards that I should probably remove before we continue training. I'd give you the rest of the day off in honor of your first strike, but between you and me, I doubt that Master Chen would appreciate that. So you're dismissed until then."

  "Thank you sir." I said and with a bow I left for my quarters. I Cleaned myself up and changed into the more formal training uniform that Master Chen required me to wear. Master Jason was not nearly as strict about what I wore to train in since they, like the shorts and shirt I'd just changed out of, more often than not wound up torn and destroyed.

  The entire time I thought about what other wonders Master Jason might have known and if I was giving him too much credit. He was the most powerful master by far and I had just struck him with a killing blow. Was it planned or had I become that much more powerful and I was just underestimating myself. I doubted it. If after a few months of training I was able to kill one of the greatest masters in the known universe then he wouldn't have held on to his title for as long as he had. I couldn't figure it out and although I was proud of myself for learning the rebound technique so quickly I couldn't bring myself to believe that the strike I'd landed hadn't been orchestrated from the beginning. So with the underlying thought that I had somehow been manipulated, I quickly set off to Master Chen's in a foul mood.