She said it and it was already happening.
Those words barely left her mouth before Eun Byol and I were moving.
We looked at each other.
One look.
One second.
That was all we needed.
She goes right.
I go left.
She goes low.
I go high.
---
We moved.
---
Chi-Long moved faster.
Not away from us.
Toward us.
---
Her right fist found my face before I understood it was coming.
At the same moment her other hand caught Eun Byol's leg.
The kick hadn't even taken full shape yet.
It was still becoming a kick.
Chi-Long pulled her in by it.
Closer.
Then a knee to the stomach.
---
She always told us.
The one thing a hunter guards with their life is their core.
---
Before we knew what had happened we were underground.
The dirt finding us.
Holding us.
---
She looked down at us.
---
And this time it was different.
I could see it.
We both could.
---
She was smiling.
---
My eyes went wide.
Blood running from my nose into the dirt beneath my face.
Eun Byol beside me on the ground.
Her mana burning through her from the impact.
The pain in her face real and immediate.
---
But all of that disappeared.
The pain.
The exhaustion.
The taste of blood.
All of it gone the moment we saw that smile.
---
It was wrong.
Something in it sinister in a way that had no edges you could point to.
Not much of a smile.
Just enough.
And yet she looked almost beautiful with it.
The sun coming down through the canopy above her.
Finding her face.
Complimenting it.
---
I felt nothing but fear.
Clean fear.
The kind with no room for anything else inside it.
---
We got up.
---
Went again.
---
She spoke while we moved.
While she avoided every single thing we threw at her without what seemed like effort.
---
"Watch your coordination."
Her voice even.
Patient.
Like she was discussing something theoretical.
"When you attack you must maintain distance. Especially when you don't yet know how to fully read your opponent."
She stepped around Eun Byol's low sweep.
"You need to learn to scan. Some opponents carry weapons. Some have longer reach than their body suggests. Some carry mass that changes how they absorb impact."
She redirected my right hand.
Used my own forward momentum to shift me sideways.
"Don't just attack."
A breath.
"Look for blind spots."
---
"There are two of you."
She said it plainly.
Like it was obvious.
Like we had been failing to use the most basic thing available to us.
"Circle your opponent. Confuse them. Coordinate your timing. Maintain your distance."
---
She said all of this while not being touched.
Not once.
---
Then she stopped talking.
And attacked.
---
"I told you."
Her voice finding a different register now.
Still even.
But carrying something beneath it.
"You can draw from your core while keeping the energy within your body."
She started moving toward us.
Not rushing.
Just moving.
"But you can also focus that energy. Direct it. Concentrate it to specific parts of the body."
Her pace increasing slightly.
"Move your mana through the hamstrings."
She was running now.
"Glutes."
Faster.
"Calves."
Faster still.
"Achilles."
"Core."
---
Something happened.
---
Time didn't slow exactly.
But something in my perception of it changed.
I was watching her come toward us.
Hearing every word she said.
And at the same time I could feel it.
The mana in her body moving.
Not seeing it.
Feeling it.
The way you feel weather before it arrives.
---
Feet.
Knees.
Hips.
Core.
---
She was in front of us.
---
The kick came.
One kick.
Both of us.
At the same time.
---
The impact moved through me differently than anything before it.
And in the moment after it I felt how the mana had shifted through her.
Could trace it backward.
---
"Hips."
Her voice above me now.
Still teaching.
"Core."
"Plant foot."
"Ankle."
"Quadriceps."
"Hamstrings."
---
"A proper kick requires all of it in sequence."
She looked down at us.
"But I acknowledge it is extremely difficult to constantly redistribute mana across the body while simultaneously containing the energy within and maintaining proper force and momentum."
A breath.
"That is the work."
---
A pause.
---
"That's all for today."
She looked at both of us.
Something in her eyes that I didn't have a word for yet.
"I believe in you."
---
Then just her footsteps.
Getting quieter.
# Chapter 63: Beautiful
She said it and it was already happening.
Those words barely left her mouth before Eun Byol and I were moving.
We looked at each other.
One look.
One second.
That was all we needed.
She goes right.
I go left.
She goes low.
I go high.
---
We moved.
---
Chi-Long moved faster.
Not away from us.
Toward us.
---
Her right fist found my face before I understood it was coming.
At the same moment her other hand caught Eun Byol's leg.
The kick hadn't even taken full shape yet.
It was still becoming a kick.
Chi-Long pulled her in by it.
Closer.
Then a knee to the stomach.
---
She always told us.
The one thing a hunter guards with their life is their core.
---
Before we knew what had happened we were underground.
The dirt finding us.
Holding us.
---
She looked down at us.
---
And this time it was different.
I could see it.
We both could.
---
She was smiling.
---
My eyes went wide.
Blood running from my nose into the dirt beneath my face.
Eun Byol beside me on the ground.
Her mana burning through her from the impact.
The pain in her face real and immediate.
---
But all of that disappeared.
The pain.
The exhaustion.
The taste of blood.
All of it gone the moment we saw that smile.
---
It was wrong.
Something in it sinister in a way that had no edges you could point to.
Not much of a smile.
Just enough.
And yet she looked almost beautiful with it.
The sun coming down through the canopy above her.
Finding her face.
Complimenting it.
---
I felt nothing but fear.
Clean fear.
The kind with no room for anything else inside it.
---
We got up.
---
Went again.
---
She spoke while we moved.
While she avoided every single thing we threw at her without what seemed like effort.
---
"Watch your coordination."
Her voice even.
Patient.
Like she was discussing something theoretical.
"When you attack you must maintain distance. Especially when you don't yet know how to fully read your opponent."
She stepped around Eun Byol's low sweep.
"You need to learn to scan. Some opponents carry weapons. Some have longer reach than their body suggests. Some carry mass that changes how they absorb impact."
She redirected my right hand.
Used my own forward momentum to shift me sideways.
"Don't just attack."
A breath.
"Look for blind spots."
---
"There are two of you."
She said it plainly.
Like it was obvious.
Like we had been failing to use the most basic thing available to us.
"Circle your opponent. Confuse them. Coordinate your timing. Maintain your distance."
---
She said all of this while not being touched.
Not once.
---
Then she stopped talking.
And attacked.
---
"I told you."
Her voice finding a different register now.
Still even.
But carrying something beneath it.
"You can draw from your core while keeping the energy within your body."
She started moving toward us.
Not rushing.
Just moving.
"But you can also focus that energy. Direct it. Concentrate it to specific parts of the body."
Her pace increasing slightly.
"Move your mana through the hamstrings."
She was running now.
"Glutes."
Faster.
"Calves."
Faster still.
"Achilles."
"Core."
---
Something happened.
---
Time didn't slow exactly.
But something in my perception of it changed.
I was watching her come toward us.
Hearing every word she said.
And at the same time I could feel it.
The mana in her body moving.
Not seeing it.
Feeling it.
The way you feel weather before it arrives.
---
Feet.
Knees.
Hips.
Core.
---
She was in front of us.
---
The kick came.
One kick.
Both of us.
At the same time.
---
The impact moved through me differently than anything before it.
And in the moment after it I felt how the mana had shifted through her.
Could trace it backward.
---
"Hips."
Her voice above me now.
Still teaching.
"Core."
"Plant foot."
"Ankle."
"Quadriceps."
"Hamstrings."
---
"A proper kick requires all of it in sequence."
She looked down at us.
"But I acknowledge it is extremely difficult to constantly redistribute mana across the body while simultaneously containing the energy within and maintaining proper force and momentum."
A breath.
"That is the work."
---
A pause.
---
"That's all for today."
She looked at both of us.
Something in her eyes that I didn't have a word for yet.
"I believe in you."
---
Then just her footsteps.
Getting quieter.
Finding the jungle.
Then nothing.
---
I lay on the ground.
Looking up at the sky.
The blue of it clear and wide and completely indifferent to what had just happened beneath it.
Every part of my body reporting back with something it wanted me to know about.
All of it at once.
---
But I smiled.
---
Because that was beautiful.
Finding the jungle.
Then nothing.
---
I lay on the ground.
Looking up at the sky.
The blue of it clear and wide and completely indifferent to what had just happened beneath it.
Every part of my body reporting back with something it wanted me to know about.
All of it at once.
---
But I smiled.
---
Because that was beautiful.