Four soldiers walked over to join us. I stood, waiting for my turn to go through the moves. They’d been teaching us a combination of karate, krav maga, jujitsu, and something Kobal liked to call demon dirty, which pretty much meant anything goes if your life was on the line.
Kobal stepped in front of me and I silently questioned if my tailbone would still be in one piece after this. “Time to warm up,” he said as he held his palms up toward me.
Still wouldn’t do me any good, we both knew I’d be staring at the sky often over the next hour. I delivered a series of loose punches and palm-heel strikes to his hands before stretching my calf and thigh muscles by delivering a series of easy kicks to his palms.
My muscles felt looser as I danced away from him. “Ready?” he inquired.
No.“Yes,” I replied instead.
He stepped forward, and before I had a chance to move, his leg swept out and knocked me off my feet. One second ago, I’d still been dancing around, getting ready for whatever he would throw at me. The next, I was on my back, watching a puffy white cloud float by and laboring to catch my breath. His shadow fell across me as he stepped alongside my sore body to peer down at me. Thankfully, he didn’t smirk, but I saw the amusement dancing in the obsidian pools of his eyes before he thrust his hand out to me.
I waved his hand away and shoved myself back to my feet. I didn’t bother to wipe the dirt from my backside. The first time I’d done that, I’d hit the ground again so fast I’d nearly blacked out from it.Always pay attention, he’d told me, and I’d learned my lesson.
I danced back and forth, trying to avoid him as he moved around me again. Going at him head-on had never worked for me; I’d learned avoidance was the best way to save my skin, bones, and pride. I’d almost completed a full circle out of his reach when he charged at me suddenly.
Prepared for the move, I darted to the side and swung my leg out in a roundhouse kick that would have leveled a human. He seized hold of my foot and flipped me through the air so fast I was dizzy by the time my chest slammed into the ground.
My breath exploded out of me; an acute pang seared through my side when something gave way in my chest. Stars burst before my eyes, dirt clogged my nostrils, and I struggled not to pass out. I felt him beside me before his fingers rested on the ground next to my head.
Placing my hands beneath me, I wheezed as I pushed myself into a seated position. The motion caused fresh agony to lance through my body, but I refused to give into it. Wiping the dirt from my nostrils didn’t help me to breathe much better.
He held his hand out to me again, but I shook my head. “No.”
He dropped his hand. “Who’s next?” he inquired of the others when he rose to his feet.
“I am,” I grated through my teeth before I spit out the dirt I’d inhaled on impact.
“You’re bleeding,” Kobal said. “Your injuries must be taken care of first.”
I wiped away the blood I now felt trickling down my forehead. “Fixed.”
The corner of his mouth quirked into a rare smile. I pushed myself to my feet and took a staggering step back as a wave of dizziness assailed me. Bending over, I rested my hands on my knees as I waited for it to pass and labored to get more air into my lungs.
When I was certain I wasn’t going to fall over, I righted myself and brushed away the blood trickling into my right eye. I felt like a broken porcelain doll as something literally grated together within my chest, but pride and anger refused to let me back down. If I didn’t breathe too deeply, it didn’t hurt all that bad, I told myself. It was a lie, but I’d had enough of this.
“I don’t know if you’re more stubborn or stupid,” he said.
“Both,” I murmured.
“Ready?” he inquired.
Releasing my wounded side, I nodded to him. My feet weren’t anywhere near as fast when we started again. I somehow managed to keep out of his range as I tried to figure out which way this would go.
Then, the sensation of icy fingers running up my spine slid over my skin and enclosed on the base of my skull. The fingers slid toward my brain as the strange feeling that came over me when I would see something orknowsomething gripped me. I forgot about my inability to take a deep breath. Images fired through my brain, and before he started moving, I knew what he was going to do.
He danced toward me like liquid mercury, all elegance and supple grace as he moved with a fluidity I wouldn’t have believed possible for someone of his size. I threw my forearm up, blocking the first blow coming toward me before slapping aside both hands that swung at me and would have grazed across my skin.
Over the weeks, I’d been on the ground more times than not, but he’d never hit me hard enough with his hands to leave a bruise on my flesh. He’d always moved so fast I’d never been able to stop the glancing taps he delivered. Now, I saw each one of those blows coming at me, seconds before he actually made the move, and they didn’t land on me as I deflected them.
The scene continued to play out in advance in my mind, and when he swept his leg toward me next, I jumped over it. He leapt up and came at me again with a roundhouse kick I knocked back. This time, when his hands rapidly came at me, looking to land on me in some way, my forearms flew up to block him.
I felt as if I stood outside of myself, watching this faster and more competent me blocking his moves with an ease I’d never dreamed possible. Was I really moving so fast and keeping up with ademon? Was it really me who kept slapping his hands away or breaking his attack plan before he could fully unleash it.
I almost couldn’t believe it, but itwasme. I could feel his hands on my body and see the black pools of his eyes. It was all strangely mesmerizing and astonishing. I’d never felt so powerful before, so competent, some. I didn’t know where the sensation came from, but it felt as if I’d finally started to discover who I was and Ilovedit.
I blocked a blow that would have caught me in the stomach. Slapping his arms down, I drove my hand forward in a heel strike that hit him dead center in his chest. The blow didn’t cause him to take a step back, but it was the first one I’d ever managed to land on him. Pride filled me as his head tilted down to where my hand still rested against his rock hard chest.
The icy tendrils retreated from my brain as gasps from the crowd who had followed us across the field filled the air. I hadn’t realized we’d moved so far from our starting point until now.
