05 Tyche in Friendship and Focus
Added 2020-03-06 20:01:00 +0000 UTCEven though we were only sparring for points, the outcome wasn’t really in question. None of the masters could match me one-on-one; even two or three together could never score more than a point or two before I learned their strategies and tactics and overwhelmed them. It came as a complete surprise when Chao scored two quick points in succession on the first two passes.
We squared off again and I took a deep breath.
I reviewed the action in my head. Each time, I had seen an attack coming, had been certain that Chao was committed… and he’d managed, somehow, to step into my counter, redirect his momentum, and land a perfect touch on my unprotected flank.
He hadn’t even moved particularly fast; instead, he’d taken the initiative and led me through counters as inevitably as calculus, so that each of my counters was, in turn, the set up for his next offensive until he’d led me sufficiently off-center that I couldn’t defend myself. It was a technique I was familiar with; I’d used it myself, sparring with Arachnia, and all the precognition or danger sense in the world was only marginally effective against a skilled, focused opponent.
* * * * *
This story has been sitting on my hard drive for more than a year; it was never released, although, properly, it belongs between A First Small Apocalypse Part 01 and A First Small Apocalypse Part 02. I like it because it's a good little slice of life, but it was always too short to stand by itself as a purely textual story, clocking in at only a little over 1300 words, all told.
