The Power of Ten

Chapter 6-163 - Hotfoot and Wings

With cheers from the crowd, they were off.

Edward’s feet were trailing flame as he powered forward, and as he did he moved diagonally at the same time. He threaded between Milty and Harris, then reversed back between the startled Kasper as if inertia wasn’t a thing; bounced off nothing in front of flaxen-haired Niorn; zipped sideways in front of the tall and lanky Jason, and slapped Sama’s hands two strides ahead of the sprinting Thomas, making it look easy.

Thomas almost crashed into the padded walls in shock at his loss, Sama’s arm swinging out of his way before he could touch it.

“Uh, wow?” the tall blond had to admit, looking back at little whispers of fiery chi on the floor fading away in front of his shocked fellow students.

“How did he do it?” Sama called out, and the students all milled about in confusion. “A couple of you managed basic Lightfoot. Any ideas?” She waggled her eyebrows at Thomas, who just looked chagrinned.

“Not a clue, Senpai,” he admitted, and none of her other students had any ideas.

“While they are called Fire Dragons, that is simply because all chi-users are called Dragon Hand Warriors, and Dragon Hand Adepts. The style that the House of Fire uses is called the Phoenix Claw. Does that help at all?” she asked archly.

The kids were embarrassed that they didn’t know this. Surely it couldn’t be hard?... But nobody spoke up.

Sama made a sound of exasperation. “How do phoenixes get around? Natalie?”

The pouty neo-goth girl was startled to be called on, but despite herself, had been paying attention at this not-so-boring assembly. “Uh, they fly?” the black-lipped girl managed.

“What, they don’t run around?” Sama shot back.

“Uh, no, they’ve, like, got wings, S-Senpai!” she managed to answer. She wasn’t one of Sama’s students, but that was everyone called her in Wakefield.

“And where would wings be on a human?” Sama pointed at Chadwick Forster sharply.

“Uh, the arms? The... hands?...” he trailed off slowly, and saw both Sama and Edward grin.

“Yes, precisely! The Phoenix has WINGS. Arms out, Edward.” He stretched them straight out from his shoulders. “This is a basic Hotfoot exercise. Rotate right, not moving.”

Without moving a muscle, other than obviously flipping his hands over in opposite directions, Edward began to spin clockwise, soon at a very decent clip, his feet sliding around a central position on the floor, as if the floor was spinning, not him.

“Left!” He halted so sharply he might not have been moving at all, and then reversed speed, almost bouncing in the opposite direction. “Right! Left! Right! Left!” Despite there only being a few seconds behind her words, he still stopped and got up to full speed in the opposite direction before the next command. “Halt front!”

He snapped to a full stop, his feet still poised shoulder-width apart in his original position, completely stable. It was a small show, but anyone who’d spun in circles was impressed despite themselves at the fact he wasn’t dizzy in the slightest.

“While lightfoot includes the whole body, the Phoenix Claw Hotfoot technique makes exquisite use of the hands to change the motion of the body in erratic and hard-to-predict ways, allowing for acceleration, deceleration, and changes of direction and motion that the other lightfoot styles cannot emulate.

“Picture it as having little rockets he can turn on and off, positioned all over him.” Their eyes lit up in understanding at the image. “Master Edward, a stroll between the kids again, if you will.”

In slow motion, it was totally apparent there was something going on, as he was walking straight ahead, but being shoved first left, then right, sliding above the ground sideways to get past them, even as his forward stride wasn’t interrupted in the slightest. His hands and elbows were shifting slightly, fires burning here and there as he was shuffled back and forth. It was almost surreal to watch in slow motion.

“This is the Waveskating Step of the House of Waters.” Sama took over with a skating motion, and while it was smooth and graceful, it was plainly apparent that she was moving slower than he had, actually having to push off right and left and adjust her course to weave between the grinning students.

“Likewise, watch these kicks. Phoenix Kick, on three, right leg.” She stood next to him, facing the kids. “Watch his hands!”

They started the kick together, but he got to the apex faster than she had, his palms towards the ground, and then fires on his elbows and shoulders pushed him back to the ground faster than gravity. The same fires this time brought his clawed hands up from below wicked fast, as if he had no inertia, and he finished the move of flaming claws ripping up into an enemy almost a full second ahead of her.

“Minerva!” Sama pointed, as they both straightened.

“He pushed off with his hands as well as his feet for altitude, getting to face height faster so he could kick before someone could guard. He switched it to his elbows and shoulders to land faster than he should be able to, so he could attack from under their raised guard, Senpai!” she replied eagerly.

“Exactly right,” Sama confirmed. “Now, can any of you do any of that?”

There was sudden quiet in the room, and Edward suddenly felt awkward.

“That’s right... no, you can’t. If you want to fight someone like Edward, you can’t fight him the way he can fight you. You’ve got to be better on fundamentals, it’s the only way.”

She pushed off to three paces away from him, sliding across the floor as if it was made of ice, all the students watching hungrily. “Master Edward, your Blades, if you will.”

His mouth was suddenly dry as she put her hand to that dagger, pulled it out, and with a flick of her wrist it became a meter-long gleaming Sword. The sight of it instantly silenced the whole gym so hard you could hear them breathing.

Her green eyes bored into his own. “Come at me, Master Edward, with everything you have. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to hurt me.”josei

He was the Powered person, but he was the one swallowing as he pulled out his new Blades against their maker, and knew he wasn’t going to be winning anything today...

------

Edward let out a long, low breath as the last of the kids filed out of the gym. Thankfully, their silence didn’t end until they were out of the room and the soft ringing of the Sword in her hand was inaudible, at which time she sheathed it behind herself.

“You put on a very good show,” she smiled at him, and he could only shake his head.

As she had said, he hadn’t been able to touch her. Every move and trick he could think of, and some he even tried for the first time in some desperation, just failed. In footwork, awareness, positioning, anticipation, threat of retaliation, ability to redirect and parry, and just plain see through everything he was doing, she was leagues above him, and he was fairly certain even Master Blaze wouldn’t be a challenge for her.

Of course, she had beaten Firehair Shvaughn, the fire-wielding Warlock swordswoman of Chicago, widely considered one of the most fearsome fencers in the world. He definitely wasn’t even close to a match with her Sword in her hand.

He was definitely going to have to watch some of her matches in Green Bay after this. Well, he’d have to see what she was performing under there, as there was tons of interest in the Golden Hag, but she wasn’t known to fight in any arena repeatedly. Probably using a different name there, and maybe not even using a Sword...

“Your fundamentals are indeed leagues above me, and if you could take Shvaughn, you aren’t worried about fire at all,” he admitted, sighing and shaking his head. “That was a good lesson. You are incredible with a Sword.”

“I’m gifted, smart, and Talented with one,” she admitted with a straight face. “Being a Swordswoman is literally what I am meant to be. Perhaps, in a world of guns, that is not so lucky, eh?”

He had to laugh in agreement at that, walking over to get his jacket and cover up his ripped shirt. It was a small price for an incredible lesson in Profound Swordplay. He had been dominated entirely, while not humiliated in doing so. If the kids couldn’t tell that his life had been in her hands at every moment, he certainly was able to!

“Come, take a walk with me, Master Edward,” Sama said, heading for the door out, and he hurried after her. Getting a chance to talk with someone this skilled was an opportunity you didn’t let pass!

-------

“Forty, huh...” Edward stared off into the distance, hollow-eyed, as he considered his fate.

He would still be a young man by Powered standards, but he wouldn’t be young, and his best years, his drive, would be behind him. He would have lost his flash and exuberance, and he could see what not being able to progress did to other Powered, beating them down with the weight of their own inability to improve.

He didn’t want to be one of them. He... didn’t want to disappoint his dad that much.

“Progress in the Fire Dragon is very dependent on your chi. If you haven’t got the Stats to wield your Chi effectively, you aren’t going anywhere.

“Your Road to Seven or Eight is not the Fire Dragon.”

“Seven? Eight?!” He snapped his head around to look at her.

She nodded at him. “But it will take a different road than the one you are working on.”

“You’re going to have to walk away from the Fire Dragon, maybe for years. You’re Powered... you aren’t bound to what you are naturally best at. You can make yourself ‘naturally best’ at something else.”

He clenched his fist, feeling as if his entire life had been a waste, pursuing a dream that had just run into a brick wall. He suddenly knew how Master Fillmore and Senior White felt, up there calling out forms, correcting postures, watching these students who might be able to grow further than they had... and the others who wouldn’t get any further.

He was one of those students, and he had to find a way around it. He didn’t want to be one of those untalented, unlucky souls who just couldn’t go anywhere...

“The Fire Dragon is the only style that operates off Charisma. You have the cheerful free spirit of one, but you don’t burn.” At that moment, he finally realized the difference between himself and the really gifted students. It wasn’t that they were smarter than him, or harder-working.

She was right, they burned in a way that he didn’t. He just didn’t have the ego, that drive, that arrogance and pride, all emblematic of the Fire Dragon. He thought he had his own style and way... but that had been wishful thinking.

To master the Fire Dragon, you needed to burn, not to play with it...

“What style do you use?” he had to ask. “I mean, I know you’re not Powered, but you’re using the water-style lightfoot...”

“I’m a Wolverine. I use them all.” That terrifying, battle-hungry smile lit up on her face again, and he almost flinched to see it.

That wasn’t a burning smile, it fairly glowed with heat! She had it behind calm serenity and eyes like iron, but this woman was like a furnace, just waiting to erupt!

If she was Powered, he didn’t want to think how dangerous she’d be...

“There’s a Wolverine style?” he had to ask, thinking about that. Naturally he’d heard of tons of styles, but that was a new one...