Chapter 17

I saw Grëb Sá seated before me with a look of awe on his face. "Grëb Sá has called you forth this morning to greet a new day! I know that many of your ancestors waited for this day to come realizing it might not happen within their lifetimes. Well it has come now! Do you have any questions of me?" I asked.

A noble and aged woman rose and asked "Will you abide by the words of the prophet Åräk Gü Sá and complete the ritual testing?"

"Do you ask this because of disbelief my daughter? Or do you ask it to do honor to my follower Åräk Gü Sá?"

"I ask it so that those of our people not gathered here on the spire's summit may share in the joy of your coming as they see you in the temple below. I ask so that the words Åräk Gü Sá spoke may be fulfilled in their entirety," she said bowing her head in my direction.

"You have spoken well my daughter and will not be disappointed. I also seek to honor the memory of the brave and noble Åräk Gü Sá. I will delight in fulfilling the words he spoke in times long past as I will also delight in meeting my people," I said while floating to the ground and landing in a standing position.

I began mingling with the priests and priestesses assembled on top of the spire, greeting each by name in the ceremonial fashion of the warrior. There were many startled faces registering the surprise that I would know their names. When I had greeted each of them they led me down the steps to the main temple chamber. A priest was speaking with five runners, about to send them to the surrounding villages.

"Pardon me, but may I be of some assistance?" I asked as I had Genie pause things. I asked him to transport each runner to the village they were supposed to notify. Then I had him start things up again.

"What happened? Where are the runners?" the priest asked in astonishment.

"I sent them to their destinations."

"Oh!"

The priests and priestesses were talking amongst themselves about the things they had seen and heard. I was focusing on the events taking place some distance below us on the arena floor. The one hundred warriors were down on the arena floor preparing for my time of testing.

Though they had dedicated their entire lives to the pursuit of martial arts, I still had many advantages: Quickened senses and heightened speed, increased physical strength, and an endless supply of energy. I was able to alter the laws of gravity, momentum, and centrifugal force. Of course, above all else, I could stop time and make use of quick time. In addition, I too had trained in the martial arts for most of my life.

I was not concerned about losing or failing the trials, but instead I was concerned for the safety of the warriors. I didn't want them to come to permanent harm during the trials. I had studied the body's pressure points and hoped to make use of them to incapacitate my opponents without causing permanent physical harm.

While the villagers were being gathered and the warriors were preparing for the trials, I seated myself in lotus position and once again floated into the air. I closed my eyes and held a mental conversation with Genie while the priests and priestesses looked on. I shared my concerns for the warriors with Genie. Genie reviewed me on the various pressure points I might find of use.

While I was 'meditating' Genie raised six of his little balls of golden yellow light and had them circling around the top of my head forming a crown of light. The whole thought about the flying, levitating, and light show was pretty much to assure the people that I was more than just a better fighter. Though their prophecies didn't detail what powers their Golden Warrior would possess it was clear that he had powers other men did not. Genie and I chose to make some of those powers obvious front and center while the warriors prepared the trials and some of the nearby villagers began to arrive.

It took quite some time for the majority of the villagers to arrive. Finally the large amphitheater was nearly full, the warriors were ready, and the priests and priestesses were seated in their places of honor. A horn sounded out and the temple became quite silent. A single priest stepped forward and spoke into a speaking horn very much like a megaphone. He angled the horn up slightly towards the top of the spherical chamber causing the sound to be heard in every part of the theater.

"People of the Golden Path, today we are standing at what may very well be the pivot point in our history. The day the prophecy spoke of has surely come and one who answers the prophecy has come before us and assented to pass through the sacred trials of the warrior.

"His first trial will display his accuracy with thrown weapons. This trial runs for a fixed period of time or until all of the targets have been acquired. Candidate if you will, please position yourself at the center of the arena floor. Once the trial starts you may feel free to move at will. The next time the horn blows will signal the beginning of the trial. Another horn will sound at the end of the trial.

"May your aim be true!"

I floated down to the center of the arena where a circle of white sand had been drawn as my starting point. "Genie," I thought to my constant companion, "as soon as that horn blows, please shift me to quick time and help me sense all my targets. I'll want to be using a mix of throwing stars, knives, and those throwing darts you created."

The one hundred chosen warriors formed concentric rings around my position. Each warrior held a container filled with different types of targets. At the sound of the horn about a dozen warriors threw targets high into the air. I had shifted into quick time and could see the pulsing red circles that Genie had used to identify my targets. I sent a throwing star into the center of each, moving as rapidly as I could while maintaining accuracy. Now another grouping of warriors began to throw their targets into the air. This time I began picking off the targets as soon as they left their hands. I could hear the slowed down speech of the priests as they yelled instructions down to the warriors telling them to launch more targets at a time.

Again a flock of targets flew into the air and I shot them down with a salvo of throwing knives. Another set of targets were taken down with the darts Genie had designed. I could see that the supply of targets left in the containers was nearly exhausted. I had Genie pause things entirely while I began to dart to and fro among the warriors placing darts, stars, or knives into the targets while they were still in the containers. Once all of the targets had a weapon embedded in them, I returned to my starting position and had Genie start things up again.

There was a mix of emotions on the faces of my audience: confusion, awe, sheer disbelief, and praise for the accomplishment. Many of the priests and priestesses came down to the arena floor to investigate. I noticed that many of the throwing stars, knives, and darts that they plucked from targets were secreted in their robes.

The priests and priestesses conferred first with the warriors and then on their own before drawing a conclusion. Then a priest with a megaphone began to speak, "Warrior people of the Golden One. This trial is complete. Never has a candidate hit all targets in so short a time with such accuracy. Never has a candidate hit this many targets while they still remain in the container. As is our custom, the candidate will decide whether or not to proceed immediately to the next trial, or to rest for a day."

Genie again amplified my voice as I replied "Let us begin as soon as you are able."

Once again I rose into the air in a lotus position and closed my eyes while I spoke with Genie. "How do you think we did? Is this the type of display that will convince them that I'm their Golden Warrior?"

"Yes Karl, I think this is exactly what will do it. You're doing fine. Did you know that many of the priests and priestesses recovered some of your throwing weapons to keep as memorials to this day? They speak of it even now."

"I saw them doing it, but I didn't know exactly why. I guess we'll discover now if this valley is as completely isolated as you think it is Genie."

"Oh? Why do you say that Karl?"

"Let's just put it this way, if one of your darts show up on e-bay I'm going to have a few doubts."

A signal horn sounded and once again the audience became quiet. I opened my eyes and focused my attention on the priestess stepping to the edge of the dais with megaphone in hand. "This trial demonstrates the candidate's skill in unarmed combat. The One Hundred are positioned and ready to test this candidate. They will enter the arena first one or two at a time and later, if the candidate is deemed ready, in larger groups. The trial will end when the candidate is overcome or there are no warriors left standing in the arena.

"Candidate if you will, please take your position at the center of the arena floor. Once the trial starts you may feel free to move at will. The next time the horn blows will signal the beginning of the trial. Another horn will sound at the end of the trial.

"May your form be perfect and your inner strength abundant!"

I moved to the center of the arena and into the little circle of white sand cast to mark my position. As soon as the horn sounded Genie slipped me into quick time again and I moved to my opponent long before they could venture near my original position. I saw their kick moving rather quickly even in this variant of time and moved even more quickly to dodge it. I aimed a focused punch with no more than the necessary force to wind them and let it fly at their sternum. I ran alongside their body as it flew through the air and pinched a nerve at just the right point to render them unconscious.

I now ran full bore towards my next opponent and launched myself into a high somersault with the effects of gravity reduced. I flew most of the way across the arena in that singe leap and landed just behind my opponent. I caught their spinning leg with both of my arms and used their momentum to toss them onto the sand on their back some fifteen feet away. Again I paced their flying body and applied another nerve pinch to render them unconscious.

Now there were three coming at my position. As they drew near I leaped into a high back flip and watched them scramble to avoid careening into one another. I landed in a low crouch and swept the feet out from under the nearest opponent. I barely had enough time to apply the nerve pinch before a second opponent was upon me. A quick but subtle move swept his feet and caused him to pitch forward. I applied the pinch again and leapt high into the air just as the heel of the third fighter's foot arrived in the location formerly occupied by my head. He had thrown a snapping lunge kick which would have most likely snapped my neck had it connected. His choice of attack had committed him to a forward motion. My leap had carried me above his head and behind him with my back to his back. I snapped a reverse kick into the back of his left knee using my right foot. The kick would put him down, but I hadn't aimed to injure him. Again I applied the pinch.

This time when I looked for new opponents I found seven of them headed in my direction. I kept my body in a low crouch as they approached. I'm not sure just what their intention was, but their formation was much like a triangle with one fighter at the point followed by a row of two and then a row of four. It looked to me just a bit like bowling pins and I decided to treat it that way. Running faster than I had ever run before, but adjusting the momentum so as not to permanently injure anyone beyond their ability to heal, I bowled into the lead fighter. The lead fighter was knocked back into the two fighters behind him and they in turn knocked over three of the four in the back row. I took care of the last one standing with a measured blow to the sternum knocking the wind out of her before I applied the nerve pinch. I moved quickly among the six already downed on the ground and gave each of them the pinch.

I stood up and turned to look for another opponent just in time to catch a fist aimed for my midsection. Instead of completely avoiding the blow, I chose to turn and let it slide over my midsection causing my opponents body to follow through with the punch. When their back was towards me I reached for the nerve bundle at the base of the neck and squeezed with just enough pressure to put them out.

I looked again and found that there were no warriors standing in the arena. Seeing this, I rose into the air again and resumed my seated lotus position. The horn sounded and the priests and priestesses came out onto the arena floor along with the warriors who had not participated in this trial. They examined the fallen warriors much as one might on the battlefield; trying to determine the number of serious injuries and casualties.

About this time some of the warriors I had knocked out began to revive. In about fifteen minutes they were all standing - though some were a bit bruised and shaky.

Another priest moved forward with megaphone in hand, "Warrior people of the Golden One. This trial is complete. Past trials of this nature have brought their mixture of joy and grief: joy as a new warrior arises among us and sadness at the injuries or occasional death that such trials often bring. Today we are most wonderfully blest to have seen such a display of martial artistry and yet our warriors have suffered no casualties or serious injuries. It takes greater skill to incapacitate one's opponent in such a fashion and is much faster to seriously injure or kill. To be able to show such skill while under attack from many opponents over and over again makes this perhaps the greatest display of unarmed skill ever seen. The candidate has most certainly passed this trial.

"As is our custom," the priest continued, "the candidate will decide whether to wait the allotted day to rest and recuperate, or to continue with the next trial."

In a Genie amplified voice I replied "Let us begin as soon as you are able."

Again I closed my eyes while they made their preparations. This time my conversation with Genie was much shorter and I found myself listening to the conversations of the villagers. They seemed truly excited about my arrival and subsequent performance in the trials. They had been very nervous for the warriors during the last trial. I once again realized that the warriors I was fighting against were brother, sister, son, daughter, niece, nephew, or cousin to many of the people present. No wonder the priest's announcement of no casualties had brought forth such a joyous response from the audience.

"Genie," I once again thought to my ever present companion, "we absolutely have to focus on disarming these opponents and not harming them wherever possible. I know that's what we've been trying to do, but it might prove a bit harder in armed combat."

"That's true Karl, especially if you realize that your opponents are allowed to wear various forms of armor. I have some prepared for you that should offer protection while not crimping your movements. Why not pause things and take stock of the situation."

"Alright Genie, please pause things."