51. Development

Polkluk danced through his katas one by one. He had eighteen that he had memorized. Twelve from the Raging Rivers Sect, and six that had been gifted to him by Master Little Bug. They were distinct things in his mind, eighteen distinct styles that he was supposed to pull together and make his own, but he felt unworthy of that step.

The twelve from his sect remained his heritage. He would not forget them, and he did not feel that he was ready to ‘improve’ them. So instead he simply practiced them to keep them fresh in his mind. And if he felt unworthy of modifying the katas of his sect, then he was wholly unworthy of modifying the gifts from his new master.

So he dithered in his assignment to ‘turn eighteen into one.’ It had not impacted his cultivation upon the mountain, in the isolation with only the avatar of Little Bug to keep him company. But it remained a minor itch in the back of his mind.

He fluttered through the Queen Bee’s Righteous Dance, switching when he’d finished to the Leaf Upon the North Wind. When he had finished with the sweeping, gracious dance of that kata, he swapped once more to the Lion’s Quest for Insight.

It took him forty-five minutes to go through all of them. Eighteen distinct styles, and he had no idea which one he favored. Which one to use as the foundation of his own style.

He was sweating when he finished, and he turned back to the compound to find a moist towel when he realized he had an audience. The girls sat nearby.

“Have you finished?” Yara asked.

He blushed, wondering how long they had been there while he was in his own little world. “For now, yeah.”

“Did Little Bug teach you all of those?” Taimei asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

“No. Most of them come from my sect,” he explained.

“Are they secret, or can you teach anyone?” she inquired further. “Your dancing was wonderful.”

He blinked. “They’re not exactly secret, but they form a basis for our martial arts. I know it looks like dancing but it’s more than that, it’s—”

“I know what a kata is,” she said, teasing him.

Polkluk blushed. Was she flirting with him? He had been younger than her when they’d set out on this journey, but he was older now. Did she see him differently than she did on the endless journey from the city?

“I would like to learn too,” Lahri said simply.

“Okay,” Polkluk said. “Let’s start with the one that our children learn first. It is called the Frog Leaps Over the Scorpion.”

Fortunately, while he was sweaty, his body was in the bronze path and he could keep dancing for days. Teaching them a children’s dance was nothing in comparison to his limits, which he had yet to discover since breaking through.

~~~~~~

The ten disciples gathered in the late morning, coming to my call. They stood in the clearing outside the main compound, the one which I had erected on my first stay on my mountain and later expanded to fit everyone who followed me back.

Just as Polkluk and the girls arrived, Jumper decided that it was time to land on my shoulder and peck at my earlobe. She was getting big, and I had to raise my arm to give her a perch. I looked up at her.

“You haven’t matured at all,” I said to her. She pecked my nose and flew off.

I shook my head and turned back to my companions. “The next stage of the training is very simple. We’re going to spar. You’ve all stepped onto the bronze path but faced no challenges since then. You will be each other’s challenges. You will be each others road blocks. You will each struggle to overcome each other, and prove your worth.”

I observed their reactions to my words. Taimei raised a tentative hand while the others shifted.

“So we’re holding another tournament?” she asked.

“Yes and no. You will face each other and fight until one of you is too exhausted to continue,” I said. “But there is no winning or losing. There is only the challenge. Do not hold back, I will intervene if I think someone is going to far, but otherwise fight as though your life were on the line.”

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Xol purred in pleasure at my words, while my human disciples looked either nervous, pleased, or stoic.

“We shall begin with the match that I am most looking forward to,” I said. “Polkluk, you will duel Thaseus.”

The disciples I named reacted in surprise, in the first place, and continued stoicism in the latter instance. “The duel will take place on Polkluk’s mountain in one hour.”

With that, I sort of just wandered off and let the disciples discuss my plans among themselves.

~~~~~~

Thaseus stood on the edge of the unfamiliar mountain. While he had spent weeks shoring up his foundation on a peak just like this not so long ago, he knew that he was in unfamiliar territory. Polkluk had spent years upon this mountain, training and meditating and exploring. It was possible that there were terrain advantages and other such considerations which the young man he was about to duel could take advantage of.

Any advantage counted, he reminded himself. He touched the bamboo blade on his hip.

It fitted him in a way that the hammer sword did not, he reflected. He had shaped it himself. The blade was black, as he had shaped it with his fire attuned Qi, carefully carving out the sword from within the bamboo shoot with the power of fire and precision control.

Fire and Wind. Those were his elements. Ash and smoke, that was what he had once sought to leave behind in his wake.

And yet he hesitated, looking around at the wilderness that crept up the side of the mountain. Polkluk was not the shy teenager who had made the journey with him. Five years was enough to change anyone significantly, and Polkluk had spent five years training with an Awakened Soul.

“Fire is more than a force of destruction,” he reminded himself. “The wind is more than the wind, the flame is more than the flame.”

Those were the words that Little Bug had given him on the first day. Things to meditate on, to concentrate upon, to build his new path upon. His new path, for he had stepped off the path of crushing all that was before him.

It would have been unthinkable before the tournament, but he knew that there was more to power than overwhelming power now.

He reflected on his own challenge rounds with Little Bug, when the Dao Avatar had played with him the same as it played with dozens of other challengers from the tournament. Little Bug had overwhelming power. While his cultivation base was theoretically the same, having only just stepped onto the bronze path, the young Awakened Soul contained such wisdom and insight that the thought of Thaseus defeating him in a duel was as unthinkable as facing Tornolai once more and emerging victorious.

But in both cases, there was more to the strength of those who had toyed with Thaseus himself as though they were a cat playing with a mouse. He lacked the words to describe it, but he was grasping at the edge of the concept. It was hard, as he had been blind to it for so long in his pursuit of overwhelming strength.

Restraint was not the right word. They had restraint, the fact that Thaseus was still alive after facing Tornolai was proof of that. But that was not what made them strong.

Determination? They had determination or they would not have become strong. But Thaseus had been determined, which is what had carried him so far down his false path. That was not the source of their strength.

Resilience? He paused. Perhaps that was a source of strength for the others, but as the concept came to Thaseus he realized that it was one of his weaknesses. When his faith in his path had been tested, his path had shattered and he found that he walked on salt and sand.

How then would his strength compare to Polkluk, he wondered? Polkluk who had night after night, day after day, spoken of his uncertainty and doubts on their long journey from Mer’cah. He did not recognize this new Polkluk, not since the transformation of the five years alone on the mountain. But he would see for himself how they stacked up against each other.

The hour had passed, and Polkluk emerged from the foliage nearby. He glanced up at the mountaintop and rubbed his nose.

“I wish that he would have picked a different place for us to fight,” Polkluk said conversationally. “I am a little attached to this place. So many fond memories, and now we’ll be tinging them with violence.”

“Are you backing down?” Thaseus asked.

“No.”

Little Bug emerged from nearby. Thaseus took one glance at the boy and saw that it was an avatar, not the real thing. He nodded to it in respect all the same. “You are here to referee?” he asked it.

“I am here to make certain that neither of you goes to far,” the avatar answered. “But you may see me in whatever capacity you wish. It is time. Begin the duel.”

Thaseus nodded and drew his sword. He took his stance and faced his opponent. He would give Polkluk his best showing, demonstrating everything that was left of his strength and everything he had rebuilt after his foundation had crumbled he would--

Polkluk also took a stance, and he moved through a brief dance. The lightning that he conjured struk Thaseus full in the chest and stopped his heart for half a moment. Then he recovered and sat up, coughing blood.

“I forgot for a moment,” Thaseus said apologetically. “That we are both on the bronze path now. I was going to face you as I was before. I shall show you who I am now instead.”

The wind picked up, blowing in heat and the smell of smoke. Flames danced along Thaseus’ wooden sword.

When the next lightning bolt came, he dodged.

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