A quick piece for John D... Features my old favourite Daniel O'Crow. Enjoy
He struggled to control his breathing as he was pushed to his limits by his opponents. He blocked, attacked, blocked in a seemingly endless cycle, unable to gain an advantage.
His arms were beginning to ache and he could feel blisters forming because his grip on the bo-staff was too tight.
He barely had time to raise the staff to block his opponents crushing blow, a blow that was banned from practise sessions because the defender had to always be on the ball.
He recovered and swung back, hands, wrists and arms jaring from his staffs impact against the floor. Where had his opponent gone?
He sensed a movement of air to his right, spun, driving his staff forward and following with a sweeping kick.
He felt both the staff and kick connect with a target and he planted the staff on the ground and twisted his legs, flipping his opponent onto the mat.
He became aware of several people clapping as he bent down and offered his opponent a hand up.
"Well done Daniel'Son, a clever use of a sweep, you did well.
And Freedom'Son, can you see how you were beaten?"
'Yes Sensei, I misjudged Daniel's confusion and stepped into his reactive attack, overbalancing myself and leaving myself open.'
"Correct Freedom'Son"
Daniel was breahting hard, trying to slow his heartbeat back down to normal. He felt the adrenalin of the win wearing off and the ache in his arms growing.
"Sensei, who are our guests?"
'They are Course Administrators here at Meny. They want proof that Bo-Jitsu is a suitable martial art to teach to operatives.'
A man in a cheap suit and dark shades stepped onto the mat and Daniel could see a look of disgust sweep across his Sensei's face.
'Mort is full of bullets, not sticks, how does this... this... this stick fighting help you against bullets.'
Daniel smiled, for he had practised a suitable demonstration with his Sensei not long ago. He faced his Sensei and bowed, then retrieved a blindfold from the side of the mat and got his friend Freedom to tie it.
He lifted his bo and stood in the middle of the mat, while his Sensei unlocked a cupboard in the Dojo's wall, and withdrew a Fen 603.
'Watch and learn the ways of bo-jitsu.'
The gun roared into life, a stream of bullets fired straight at Daniel's chest. With seemingly no effort, he swung the staff upwards, blocking half of the bullets and deflecting the other half to land at the feet in front of the men in suits.
Looking towards their startled gasps he said. "Is that an acceptable demonstration?"
This mail prompted a long discussion on sla-list as to whether you can deflect bullets with a bit of wood.
Which personally I believe only goes to prove the value of this type of fiction.
Whether Daniel should have been successful, or if he should have ended up mince is a decision for your wop.
Or may be demonstration was a nice bit of stage magic to impress the guy in the cheap suit.
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