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Half-Dragon Solis, Chapter 22

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Chapter Twenty-Two - Standard Training In Spidey-Sense





After all was settled, James decided it would be best if we trained underground, at the river. Elise shot me a look as we walked past, a kind of what the hell do you think you're doing look, but as she was currently occupied with Damon and Charman, she couldn't spare the time to argue with me. I hoped she and Damon would be okay on their little excursion--as we all knew by now, our friend the Black Dragon was unpredictable.

"So, um this training," I said, peering over James' shoulder as we descended the metal steps, "This is combat training, right? Learning to fight?"

"Yeah," he said. "That and learning to be a dragon. It's standard, though, we've all been through it. I trained a couple of the younger operatives."

"How long have you been an operative?"

"Three years," he grunted, which meant he must have been fifteen or sixteen when he started. It didn't seem like a big amount of time, but then, most of the current operatives were pretty young, so maybe he was experienced by comparison. Still, he couldn't have been more than a year or two older than me, and it seemed strange that Charman would choose him to train me. That was the reason I hadn't wanted him as my teacher in the first place.

We made our way through the tunnels quickly, and I struggled to ignore the eerie sounds of settling dirt. Best to act as macho as possible when facing dragon boot camp. James didn't so much as glance back at me, though, just marched on ahead, looking a bit miffed.

The roar of the underground river soon encompassed us, and James led me down one of the concrete walkways to a large platform, with a railing. He leaned his back against the railing and motioned for me to stand in front of him, his expression one of controlled boredom.

"All right, first lesson is always dragon senses. Easy to access, and they don't require much skill to use. Maybe you've already used them for something--a danger sense, maybe?"

"Yeah, that's already happened once too often," I replied, recalling the unnerving sensation that had warned me to the presence of intruders back in the safe-house. "Teyaan told me what it was."

"We call them dragon senses; it's one of the things that make dragons so dangerous to begin with. Once you know how to use it well, you might not even need formal combat training. And once a half-dragon's mastered both hand-to-hand combat and the sense, damn. They're unbeatable."

I looked up, hearing a tinge of admiration in his voice, but he quickly returned to his sullen stare when I did. "Right, well, the dragon sense is the basis on all that. Unrefined, it picks up on disturbances in the metaphorical Force. If you sensed danger, that was your dragon sense picking up on the hostility of the invaders, or maybe their magic, or the fear of someone already captured--it's no exact science, as you can imagine. That's why they call it magic."

"So, you're saying I can use the dragon sense to fight?" I asked.

"Yeah--once it's refined, the dragon sense becomes fine-tuned to any enemy you face. You can anticipate moves, or easily judge how much force is behind a blow. Fights between two half-dragons skilled in sensing are ridiculously hard to follow; their senses are already like three moves ahead of their fists."

"Okay, then… so how do I activate it?"

"It's already activated. It's a sense, not a superpower," James replied with some derisiveness. "You just don't know how to listen to it. It takes a long time to understand it well, but for now, you just need to be able to recognize what it can tell you. This is the best way."

"What's the best-" I didn't get the chance to finish the question, because he slammed a fist into my shoulder with startling ferocity, forcing me to stumble back or lose my balance. I growled, working my now-aching shoulder in circles. Should have seen that coming.

"It's simple, really. Just an extension of your danger sense," James continued in an offhand manner, strolling closer. "You have to sense when I'm about to throw a punch. Once you've got that, we'll work on being able to react fast enough to actually stop me."

"Is that the way it's usually done?" I grumbled. He feinted, and I stepped away, but he didn't follow through, only grinned in a manner that was very unsettling.

"Like I said, this is the best way." As he finished talking, his other fist flew suddenly from the left, catching me in the side. I let out a huff of air and watched his movements carefully. He wasn't punching me hard enough to seriously injure me, but it freakin' hurt. "Oh, and close your eyes. Otherwise you might be able to see when it's about to happen."

Right, so now I had to use my spidey-sense. I shot him a glare, then closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. What had it been like when my danger sense activated earlier? I recalled a deathly tension in the base of my spine, increasing my alertness to the point of paranoia. I knew that James wasn't actually about to hurt me, so how could I recreate that feeling?

A whoosh of air sounded near my face and I twitched away, Jame's fist grazing the side of my neck. Damn. "Hey, no face shots!"

"Better learn to block them, then," he replied, apparently enjoying himself. I felt a spike of anger and lowered my body into a crouch, determined to anticipate his next attack. I peeked lightly out between my eyelids; saw him bobbing on his feet in what looked like a boxer's stance.

Hey, Teyaan! Any recommendations?

It's difficult to explain,
he replied. Dragons do it automatically, thoughtlessly. It's just another sense to us; we call it rey. One simply reykas something like one sees or smells. It can be refined, however, unlike most physical senses.

Thanks for the history lesson. Really, though, recommendations?


He sighed in frustration. Well. When I was learning to refine my rey, one exercise I was taught was to try and understand the emotions of my opponent. It opens up certain channels in your mind, and so strengthens the rey.

I was too slow to escape James' next punch, which hit me on my right side. Stumbling away, I could feel myself getting close to the wall behind me. I reached back and used it to steady myself, ignoring the twin points of pain on both sides of my stomach.

I growled under my breath and stared at him hard from behind closed eyelids, following Teyaan's advice and trying to imagine how he was feeling. Frustrated with the situation, for sure, at having to train me when he could be doing something more helpful. As a result he was angry at me, and didn't view me as an equal. Despite all that, he did seem to be enjoying himself a little. Nice to vent some anger by punching the guy who put you in this situation.

As I recognized these points, I started to feel something, a tiny mental spark. I concentrated on that tiny piece of understanding with all my might. Listening hard, I could hear James stepping from one foot to another, could somehow feel him shifting his weight as he did so. A moment later, he struck.

His weight shift had been just enough warning for me to raise my hands and sort of push in the direction the punch was coming. His fist met my palms at an awkward, painful angle, but at least it hadn't been my chin. I grinned fiercely and peeked out between my closed eyes.

He came at me again almost immediately, and yet I still managed to sense it. This time I tried blocking him with my forearms, though the punch was harder than I expected and it was probably a bad idea. I hopped back with a curse, rubbing at my arms.

"There, looks like you're beginning to get the hang of it," James said, neither impressed nor dissatisfied. "Trying to block punches like that is pretty stupid, though. You'll want to either avoid them completely or redirect their force. Like this, try to hit me."

I obeyed with what was perhaps a little too much readiness, aiming a fist at his gut. Almost before I even began, he executed a neat manoeuvre, stepping back with one leg and sweeping away my hand at the wrist, angling it to the side and away from him. I pulled back, re-evaluating him with narrowed eyes. He was fast. Maybe he wouldn't be such a bad teacher after all.

He must have seen my grudging admiration, because he grinned rather smugly. "See that? Don't try to just block all the force, you've got to redirect it, preferably at the opponent's arm or wrist. They might be clawing at you, too, in this line of work, so you've got to compensate for that extra reach. Half-dragons are strong, you'll always want to avoid a shot if you can. If there's no time, protect your face with your shoulders, or tighten your stomach muscles if there's one coming that way."

What stomach muscles? I mused to myself, but decided not to voice that particular thought.

"All right. Try it. Sense when I'm coming and redirect my punch," he said, falling back into his boxing stance, chin down and fists up. I tried to imitate it, definitely a lot sloppier. So sue me, I wasn't a boxer.

This time he came with a quick jab, fast enough so that I was barely able to sense in time, though without my dragon sense I wouldn't have seen it coming at all. I leaned away and knocked at his wrist, redirecting the blow.

"Better," he said, though in a tone that made it clear he found my performance mediocre. "Don't rely on leaning, though. Step back with your weak leg, give yourself room to move. Make sure you're standing on the balls of your feet."

We worked at it for quite awhile, over which time I was able to divine that James Kunze was quite the boxer. Being a half-dragon only enhanced his skill; his punches harder and faster and his blocks far more intuitive. By the end of our session I was gasping for air and starting to feel the bruises--well, I'd been wheezing since the middle of the session, but by the end I was definitely gasping. No one ever said I was in shape.

By comparison, James was barely breathing hard. "That will do for now," he decided. "You know, you're not exactly in shape. You could use a workout or two."

"Yeah, I know," I puffed, hands on my knees. "Wasn't exactly into martial arts before this dragon thing, you know. I did cars. Joined the writing club."

"Writing club?" he raised his eyebrows as we started back to the tunnel. I still wasn't the guy's biggest fan, but we'd come to understand each other a bit better when fighting. He was a good teacher, and I got the feeling he was coming to see me as a little less of a child then he had at first. I'd landed a pretty good right hook on him, after all. Though maybe he'd left himself open on purpose to see if I could even land a shot. Still.

"Yeah. Writing club is awesome, man. Ever try blogging? Just write down every cynical and insulting thought you have and put it on the internet. People find it hilarious."

"…I don't think that is how most people blog," James sighed. "Well, maybe you could guess, but I just did sports in high school. Before all this, anyway."

I looked at him. "Did all of you have to quit school?"

"No, not most of us. I mean, before all of this business with Half-Dragon Black, we could live our lives almost normally, unless we were unlucky enough to get weird features on our human form. Laura goes to school--or, well, she used to, before all this. Now she's on extended vacation, I guess. I thought she'd like it but she seems unhappy." He shrugged. "Anyway. I dropped out of my own volition. Wasn't going to go far anyway, and it's not like I could go into boxing like I am now. Medical examiner might notice the scales."

"Your shifted form-"

"You can tell by my arms, mostly," he said briskly. "It's not important. We've got Mr. Charman now, and he's going to take care of us."

"By putting us into a war," I muttered, though considering I'd volunteered, it might not be my place to grumble about it.

"Yeah, well, I guess it's my job to get you into fighting shape before you actually… well, have to fight." He was unable to suppress something of an evil grin. "Won't this be fun."
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Art by Cindysuke

I actually really enjoy writing James, for some reason. He didn't initially have a very big part in the story but I like him.

Oh, by the way, due to internet issues I may not be on DA much throughout this month :( I'll still be sure to sign on to post the chapters on Tuesdays, though!
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Azarius-Flashfang's avatar
I like the idea of 'training' the 'sixth sense' like that, just from reading that little display it must be absolutely devastating in the claws of someone who's very in tune with it.