Chapter 11

"Next!" The 'Path' instructor, the man who Kat still thought of as the Chief, was Minerva's husband and the hand-to-hand combat instructor for the Citadel. 'Path' was fighting technique that traced its origins to several ancient disciplines on Old Earth. Part Savate, part Krav Maga with some Judo-style grappling included, it was a fast, brutal art that did not lend itself well to tournaments. It taught its practitioners to injure, disable and kill opponents as rapidly as possible.

Kat had been training with the Chief since her first week and found that she had a real knack for mayhem. She had trained in the martial arts on multiple worlds and in several different disciplines, but as much for the self-discipline and the exercise as for the fighting capabilities it offered. This new Path style combined much of what she had been taught and added a focus that she had lacked. The smooth flow of movement, the level of concentration required and the sheer brutality of it appealed to her in a way she never would have imagined. She threw herself into the training with a will and had progressed quickly.

Kat stepped on to the padded mats and assumed a relaxed stance; her feet shoulder width part and one slightly behind the other. Her hands were held loosely in front of her and she looked deceptively relaxed. The Path didn't teach the stylish, and ultimately useless, formal movements and niceties of other disciplines. You did not bow to an opponent or offer them a warning of an impending strike; you just attacked, hard, fast and with the intent to kill as quickly as possible.

The Chief stood across from her, also appearing relaxed. He stood with his fists on his hips and looked to the whole world as if he was going to give yet another lecture. Kat was not deceived, and when the Chief launched a lightning-fast snap kick at her groin, she was already moving.

A shift of weight to one side moved her hips just enough for the kick to pass by. Her right arm flashed out, not blocking the kick as much as redirecting it, assisting the forward momentum and trying to pull the Chief off balance. She used the movement of her hips and continued in a full circle, sweeping her right leg into a roundhouse that, had it connected, would have shattered the Chief's temple.

The Chief was no neophyte; in fact, he was the deadliest man Kat had ever met. He accepted the additional forward momentum her block gave him and used it to launch a knee strike towards her sternum.

The flurry of blows, blocks and counter-moves continued for a full minute, fists and legs, knees and elbows flashing almost too fast to follow. There was a resounding thump as a blow finally connected and Kat felt the air leave her lungs in a whoosh. She lay flat on her back, the Chief above her with his knee planted in her solar plexus and a finger strike poised at her trachea. Had she not been armored, that knee would have crushed ribs, punctured a lung and probably her heart. The blow to the trachea would have ruptured her windpipe, killing her more slowly, but just as surely.

Standing back up, the Chief offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Much better this time, Themis. You still missed the follow-up after my elbow strike though. I am beginning to think you need to have the vision checked in that left eye. Your reaction times to strikes aimed on that side is a little slower than the other." The Chief looked meaningfully at her left eye and Kat knew that he was referring to her implant. "Get it checked."

Kat nodded and moved off the mat, making room for the next trainee. She didn't think the implant had anything to do with her loss to the Chief, but he was adamantly, some would say blindly, set against Tech mods.

She felt a bit embarrassed as she watched the next trainee spar and recalled her first meeting with the Chief on the ship that had delivered her to the Citadel. She had arrogantly imagined snapping his neck, not knowing he could have wiped the corridor with her and never broken a sweat. She still wasn't in his class, but she felt more capable than ever before.

After three more bouts on the central mat, the class split up into pairs for sparring and donned the extra gear needed to insure the students didn't injure each other. Unlike sparring with the instructor, student against student bouts could, and sometimes did, go horribly wrong.

Kat paired off with Anders, a bulldog of a man from one of the heavy gravity worlds. He was her height, but almost as wide as he was tall. His strength was phenomenal but his speed suffered from the thicker bones and more dense muscle that heavy worlders needed to survive. She had the edge in speed and skill, but he shrug off a beating that would have put her in a coma, and if he were to get his hands on her just once, it would be over.

Her speed was the deciding factor. She had taken several blows to her arms, legs and one to the hip that had her limping slightly. Anders, attempting to capitalize on the pain, over-extended himself in a kick and allowed Kat to deflect the kick far enough that she could step inside and land a back fist to his temple followed by an elbow strike to his jaw. There was a moment, when Kat recoiled into a ready position for the next exchange, when she thought she had missed or had not hit him hard enough. Anders eyes looked a bit wider than normal, as if he were surprised, then they rolled back in his head. He hit the mat like a giant tree being felled.

Concerned, Kat dropped to a knee and checked to see if he was breathing. A soft groan that sounded like two granite boulders rubbing together rumbled out, felt through the mat, and slowly, Anders rolled himself over on to his back. His eyes opened and he grimaced, rubbing his jaw with one gloved hand.

"How the hell does a wee girl hit so damn hard?" he complained, humor evident in his basso voice. "Felt like I got run over by an autocab."

Kat offered him a hand, more of a peace offering than an actual offer of assistance since he outweighed her by a factor of three or four. He sat up, crossing his legs and declining to stand. "I think I'd just as soon spar with the Chief" he grumbled, but without real heat. Anders peered at her from under his heavy brow. "I've watched you spar with him and you two move so fast, I can't even follow. I don't know how you do it."

Kat shrugged, a little embarrassed. "I trained in a half a dozen disciplines before I came here so sparring is nothing new. This Path stuff just, I don't know, makes sense to me. Like the rest of the training was leading up to this."