Bloodrage - Helen Harper Page 0,60

mesh net. Bolox nearly hadn’t made it out alive himself, as the dragon-man had reverted back to his true form in his final death throes and had gouged a deep enough chunk out of the warrior’s shoulder that he almost died from his injuries afterwards.

Back in the virtually derelict Protection building that Health and Safety would have had a field day with, I found myself looking forward to what Thomas had to offer. Over the past week, we’d managed to maintain a cool ambivalence towards each other whenever our paths crossed. My hair was now already almost an inch long and I was still tempted to keep it shaved if for no other reason than I’d be able to keep rubbing in his face how much of a prick he’d been. But when I met him for our second round, he was all relaxed smiles.

“So, Initiate Smith, you’ve been encouraging the younger ones to attack using the element of surprise and the unexpected, have you?”

I was surprised myself that he had chosen to no longer make more of my teaching of his pet subject, and just nodded.

“Well then,” he continued, “let’s see if you can practise what you preach.”

He motioned me towards the centre of the gym, and then stood in front of me, his entire body proclaiming a calmness that I found bewildering. His stance was completely open and vulnerable, and I couldn’t begin to see how he could possibly be successful.

Thomas laughed at me. “You look confused, Initiate. T’ai chi chu’an is not about tension or the centrifugal force that modern fighters so mistakenly rely on. Rather it involves looseness in order to subdue potential aggressors with the minimum amount of effort. Your task is not to fight back, but merely to avoid my own attacks.” He bared his teeth at me in the semblance of a grin. “I doubt you will cope.”

Bullshit. I grinned at the mage, confident that this was going to be a piece of cake.

He began to gracefully extend his arms, in a move reminiscent of our previous lesson’s drills. “When your body is emptied and vacant of force and tension, your muscles relax and a resolute strength takes its place. This strength, you shall discover, is superior in every way to all other forms of attack.”

I watched him, waiting for the moment when I could block his movements and prove to him yet again, that anything I could do would best him. He was moving so leisurely and deliberately that it required no effort on my part to track his movements. Until all of a sudden he whipped out with his fist and caught me in my stomach, causing me to double over and exhale all the air I had left in my lungs. I was so stunned that he’d managed to hit me with such strength when he was moving around so slowly, that I barely managed to stand back up before he lashed out again, this time with his foot. He connected with my leg mid-thigh and, yet again, I went down.

“Keeping your body weight on one foot alone aids the movement and attack,” Thomas intoned, spinning around like a ballroom dancer in slow motion, and flicking out again to knock me on the side of my head. “Using two feet to equally distribute your weight impedes your agility.” He cast around with his arms, then brought them together and bowed.

I straightened up and stared at him, aghast that he’d found it so easy to connect and attack. The rage within me that set my bloodfire roaring threatened for one moment to overcome my thoughts, but I counted to ten instead and concentrated on re-gaining my breath.

Thomas smiled at me, pleased. “I didn’t think it would take you such a short time to manage to not reflexively return my assault.”

I had to admit that I was rather taken aback myself. I figured it was because I knew that he wasn’t really going to hurt me all that much.

I shrugged. “I guess I’m just a fast learner.” I twisted my body to the side, trying to snap out the pain that still throbbed from my stomach muscles. “But explain to me, Mage Thomas, why these techniques didn’t work before?”

He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“In the cafeteria. Before. When I attacked you. You didn’t try any of this stuff or at least you didn’t manage to beat me anyway. That was an easy win for me.” I wasn’t trying to goad