The day came and went. Because his father left, Daniel didn’t really have much that he needed to do. Thus, he went around, checking on the apples that had fallen on the ground. Most of the time, he would find some that were still good that he would bring inside. But for those that didn’t, Daniel would just bury them in the ground, letting them decompose naturally.
His father told him that when things died, they needed to return to the Earth. People came from the Earth, thus they naturally needed to return to the Earth. Just as how the Earth continued to give people life, they needed to give their lives for the Earth.
“That one’s good,” Daniel picked up an apple and dusted it off on his pants. He took a crisp, crunch bite out of the apple. It was cool to the touch and cooled him off from the hot sun above.
He looked up at the mountain. Each time his father left, Daniel would practice his Roving Cloud skill. Thus far, he had only reached a couple hundred feet off the mountain before he couldn’t climb anymore. But he always wanted to reach the summit. The mountain was large, larger than the clouds above, but that was what made it a challenge. Daniel liked seeing a goal. Goals were what made things fun.
He looked around. There didn’t seem to be anyone watching. If his mother knew what he was doing, he would have gotten a beating.
How did he know? Naturally because she once caught him climbing the mountain before.
When she caught him, she beat him with a stick until his father interceded.
“He’s just a child,” Spencer said.
Colleen snorted. “Doesn’t mean we should let him be reckless.”
But how could this be reckless? He knew his limits.
There didn’t seem to be anyone around. Daniel leapt to the tree nearest to the steepest edge of the mountain. He needed to get to the top of the tree. There weren’t any high enough steps for him to hold on to. That was because when his mom found him, she had his dad smooth out the mountain face, making hard for him to climb there.
He looked up from the top of the tree. He already knew where the nearest step was. He had done this enough times already. But the nearest step wasn’t the challenge. During his last few attempts, he was able to make it to the fourth nearest step. It was roughly three feet high.
Daniel took a step.
He remembered what his father said.
“Each step is like thunder, but it is a controlled thunder. Too much force will hurt the world, too little force and you will hurt yourself. You need to find the balance between the two.”
With his step, the branch underneath him dipped down, but it didn’t break. He had at least mastered this much.
He didn’t want to grab onto the nearest step- that would have been too easy. To climb the mountain, he wanted to use just his feet for the first half.
While he did want a challenge, he knew that the second half of the mountain was even worse. It was even steeper and steps were harder to find. If he found one, then he would need to use it. If not, he would have to use his long fist technique to carve out places for his fingers. There were some that he had already carved out over the past year or so.
Thirty feet.
Fifty feet.
Daniel continued to rise higher and higher up the mountain. He leapt from one step to another, each step gave him a sense of freedom. He wondered if this was what birds felt every day. He could feel the wind rushing on his face. He enjoyed this feeling. He was soaring ever higher. He looked up. He could see the top of the mountain, and yet no matter how far he traveled, it always seemed so far away.
But Daniel didn’t think about reaching the top, not yet. He knew his limits. Thus far he had only gone up to a couple hundred or so feet. But Daniel didn’t measure it by that. What he wanted, was to try and add some more grips for him to climb.
Last time, he added five new grips. This time, he wanted to add another three.
Crack. Daniel used the long fist technique his father taught him. He had concentrated the technique so now it could pierce through rock. He found that the smaller the area, the easier it was to pierce through.
His father had his long fist technique, but Daniel had his claw technique.
Crack. Crack.
The farther along Daniel went, the more holes he found in the rock.
The only thing that had stopped Daniel from going any farther the previous times were how much qi he managed to gather.
The reason he had set his goal to only three more grips was because his father’s trips weren’t on a set schedule. Some would be on a longer span of time, others would be on a shorter span of time. During his father’s last trip, it had been two whole months since the time before that. This time, it was only three weeks. With so little time, he didn't expect that much of an improvement.
Crack. Crack. Daniel could feel his qi dropping. The higher up he went, the more of his qi would be sapped from his body. He didn’t know why this was, but it was something that he remembered to take note of.
Daniel made it to the final spots that he made. His mind was starting to get hazy. He wondered what was wrong with him.
Although he felt he was able to think straight, his mind felt like it was about give out any second.
“Are you done?”
Daniel looked up. There was a ledge above him. It jutted out of the mountain as though it were a nose on the mountain face. It was just large enough for someone to be there; he couldn’t see who was up there.
“Is someone there?”
A head poked out from the ledge.
“Mom?” Daniel was so surprised that he almost lost his grip. Almost.
Colleen leapt from the ledge. She reached towards the mountain. On her hands were metal claws. She dug the claws into the mountain’s side. She slid down until she stopped right next to her son.
“What did I tell you about climbing the mountain?”
“What are you doing up here?”
Colleen smacked her son with her other hand. “I told you not to climb here.”
Tears welled up in Daniel’s eyes.
She grabbed onto the back of Daniel’s shirt as she leapt off the cliff. The two of them descended in a slow manner. Daniel could feel as his tears fell down his face. She landed on the tree tops. When she did, she began to step on each of the trees. Her step was so gentle, not even the branches rustled from her step.
Was this what his father meant? Was this balance?
Colleen went until she reached the front of their house. And right before she landed, she spun in the air. With her first rotation, she used her claws to slice a branch off the tree. In her second rotation, she was able to catch it before it fell too far from her reach.
She set Daniel down on his knees, facing the wastelands.
“If you wanted to train so badly after your father left, fine.” Her words were different than when his father was around. They were cold as a commander, demanding respect with every word. “I’ll train you while you’re father’s away.”
Daniel couldn’t help but gulp. When it came to training, Daniel much preferred his father’s. He had only trained with his mother a few times, but he found her to be much harder on him than his father. And when he wouldn’t do things right, she would hit him. His father never hit him.
“Thus far, your father has only had you practicing skills, but that is only because he wants you to build your foundations. But you need to build both qi foundation and body technique foundation.” Colleen slammed her stick into the ground. It was just a random stick and the ground was compact dirt. And yet, it slid into the ground as though it were a knife in butter.
Daniel winced at the sight. Although he found it to be impressive. That could have very well been his skin, his muscles, or even his bones.
Colleen brought out her stick. She rested it on her arm as though it were a horse tail whisk, something that she also had. “Answer me this, why was it that your qi was running out so quickly while heading up the mountain?”
“I- I-” Daniel tried to say something. He had an answer, but was it the right one? He didn’t want to be soft butter.
Colleen tapped the stick in her hand. “It is because the nuclear war ended up destroying the atmosphere above us.”
“The atmosphere.” Daniel sounded out the unfamiliar word.
“It is the space above us. Qi is produced in the body, it is formed from the air all around us. Our bodies use a fraction of the air we breathe called oxygen. In turn, our bodies converts this to allow us to breathe. In ancient days, people could travel quite a distance before they would experience a feeling known as hypoxia.”
“What is high- hi-”
“Hypoxia is something that happens when the body does not have enough oxygen to breathe. Because our bodies need air, just traveling a few hundred feet above the mountain is rather dangerous. Only special animals, some mutants, and special humans like your father and I can travel such a distance for an extended period of time.”
“Amazing,” Daniel said.
“Now do you understand why your mother doesn’t let you travel up the mountain?”
Daniel looked down. “Yes, mother.”
Colleen sighed. “It is a pity your father treats you too much like a child.” Daniel wanted to add that she treated him too little like a child. But he didn’t have the courage to say such a thing. “So while he’s away, I’ll get started on your technique training.”
“Technique training?”
“If you were to go out into the world, you would be looked at as nothing more than a brute, a country bumpkin.” He was, but she didn’t have to be so harsh about it. He was still a child. “We’ll start off with horse stance.”
Daniel took the stance. Just as he usually did.
Whack. Colleen smacked Daniel on his thigh. The pain had caused tears to well up in his eyes as he fell down.
“Your placement is off. With a stance like that, I could easily trip you up.” She looked down on Daniel. “Now stand up.”
Daniel did so.
“Again.”
Daniel shifted his leg ever so slightly.
Whack. This time it was on the other side of his thigh. He fell down on his bottom. “Your placement is off again, but you shifted it too far. Get back up and do it again.”
Daniel stared at his mother. But he didn’t say a word. He coldly got up. He took the stance again.
“Good. Now face the side. One arm out front and the other kept at your side.” Colleen yanked Daniel’s hand. “Like this.”
She nodded when she saw Daniel’s stance. She began to walk around. “A smaller target is harder to hit. If you can help it, try to stay as small as a target as you possibly can.”
Whack.
“Ow,” Daniel cried out. “What was that for?”
“You need to be prepared at all times,” Colleen said. Her face looked serious. “Remain vigilant. If you don’t you may not survive.”
Daniel gulped.
Colleen coughed. “Sorry I meant you may not go unscathed.”
That didn’t sound much better.
“This world abuses the weak and hunts the strong. A good heart is well and all, but you must be able to defend yourself against others. Block.”
Colleen swung her stick. Daniel saw the stick coming for him and he held out his hands.
Whack. The stick left a mark on his hand.
“You’re using too much to block a little stick. This time use one forearm.”
Colleen sent her stick to strike Daniel again. This time, Daniel sent his hand out. The strike stung his flesh, leaving a mark.
Whack. Another strike caught him on the other side, hitting his ear.
Tears began to well up in his eyes.
Colleen ignored him. “I said to use your forearm, not your hand. You are only making yourself a wider target. And do you think your other arm is a just a noddle meant to dangle? You should be able to know that another strike is coming and block accordingly.”
Daniel wiped the tears from his eyes. His mother at least didn’t smack him again. She waited until she didn’t see any more tears in his eyes.
“Back to the first position.”
Daniel brought his arms back into the position his mother had taught him.
Colleen held up her arm as though she were flexing. “This time, I want you to hold out your arm like this.” She got into the same position she had Daniel in. “If you bring your arm up like this, you still remain a smaller target. If you extend your arms like you did before, someone would be able to slice off your arms. Do you understand now?”
Daniel was quiet.
“I said do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, mam.”
White steam began to form around Colleen. This was something that Daniel had seen from his father. Whenever he exerted a large amount of qi, white steam would form from his body.
Whack. Colleen smacked Daniel with the stick. A red mark was visible on his cheek. “Yes, mom. I held you for nine months, show some respect.”
Daniel began to cry again.
“Cry if you want,” she said. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow.”
Colleen went back inside the house.
Daniel stayed out. He couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his face. He didn’t know what he crying more about – had it been the pain or was it disappointing his mother.
He was frozen in spot. How dare he do anything to shame his family? And now he had the mark to prove it. He felt his face. There was something falling down it. He touched something wet on his face. He brought it back and noticed that there was blood.
The sight of it just made him cry even more.
He waited out there until it got dark.
Daniel looked back at the house. He didn’t want to go back inside. He didn’t want to let his family down. And what’s more, his mother brought the stick inside the house with her.
He stayed out in the cold. The wastelands were cold at night. The inside had a fireplace where his family kept themselves warm at night. But Daniel had his own way of staying warm.
Through the night, Daniel practiced the set his mother taught him.
“First stance. Block one. Block two…” Daniel continued the training his mother showed. Going from one stance to the next. It took him some time, but he found that the stances were strange after he finished. He could return to the first stance, but that interrupted the flow.
What he wanted was to find a way that he could return to the first position.
He tried again and again to find a movement where he could flow from one position to the next. But there was just something about the way his movement felt that just seemed off. He wasn’t sure what it was. Only it didn’t work.
The night didn’t bother him. He heard people feared the dark in the old world. But now there was nothing out in the world. It was a wasteland all around. There was no need to worry about animals or people. And the cold kept most people out at night.
Daniel practiced until his exhaustion took him and he passed out.
Light rose above the horizon, waking Daniel up. He found a blanket around him.
The air was still cold, so he tied the blanket around his neck and continued on what he was doing. He practiced that single stance. Readying stance. Block one. Block two.
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Colleen came out of the house just as things were about to get warm. She brought out her horse tail whisk this time. Daniel was glad to see that there was no stick in sight. But it was only a small consolation.
“You’re still working on the set?” Colleen’s words were cold and indifferent.
“No, mom, I finished that yesterday.” Daniel made sure to add the respect this time.
Colleen’s eyes narrowed. With what appeared to be a normal step, her stride increased a tenfold. She appeared in front of her son in a matter of moments. Her horse tail whisk went to strike at Daniel’s side.
He blocked it with his forearm. The block was strong and unmoving. His resolve was unshakable.
Colleen sent her follow up on his other side.
Daniel brought up his other arm up to block, and kept his other arm down. His defense was firm, unyielding, and strong.
Colleen placed her arms behind her back. “You should have been able to do this yesterday. If you fall behind in training, you’ll end up dead in this world. Now, what have you been working on?”
“I was trying to find a way to move from the first block to the next, and finally make it back to the first position.” As he explained, Daniel moved his body in such a way that he was showing his mother what he had been testing thus far.
Her eyes watched her son.
When he was done, she nodded. “It is because you have yet to gain more experience.” She sighed. “But you are your father’s son. Perhaps you may be able to pick this up easier than most.”
Colleen got into position. “I saw you figure out from first block to the second. You were able to move in a fluid manner. That is right. Many will be able to see a strike coming for their head most of the time because that is where our eyes are. However, if it comes from the side or below, it is better to keep our arm there just in case.
“But when you go back to the starting position, you will need to switch to a more defensive stance.” Colleen assumed the same stance as Daniel. “Your arm stretched out is meant for an offensive skill. Offense requires you to be able to focus on mid-range to close quarter combat. But when it comes to defense, you hold your arm out as though you are readying to block.
Daniel held his hand in front. He felt something different.
So that was what he was missing. It was so simple, but he was so focused on the original stance that he was having trouble finding what the first stance was.
“So the first stance can be used for offense and defense.”
“Naturally. Remember this, when it comes to offense and defense, it is better to strike first. A decisive blow can damage an opponent’s rhythm and end a fight in a single exchange. Cowards retreat, the strong must press forward.”
“Uh.” Daniel didn’t have a response for that. He didn’t even know where to begin with it.
“What should I expect, you are still a child after all.”
“I am not a child!” Daniel said this, but he didn’t even know how old he was. His parents didn't bother to keep track of days or even what year. What did it matter?
“Regardless, you still need proper training. And unless you are stronger than your opponent, it is better to know defensive skills rather than offensive ones. We’ll start with Black Tortoise Shell technique. It is simple against those who have no martial prowess, and only a mid-tier technique overall. But it should be fine for a child to start it.”
And with that Colleen began her training with Daniel. During the training, she used her horse tail whisk to try and guide Daniel. She didn’t grab the stick again. And when he did something wrong, she would smack him with the back of the whisk.
Ever since that strike on Daniel’s cheek, nothing she did ever compared to it. Still, each mistake Daniel made earned him another beating.
The two of them trained until the sun was high in the sky. They took a small break, but not for long. They trained until Daniel was covered in bruises and his technique had already formed a rough outline in his head.
The next day, they tried again. They practiced from dusk until dawn.
And the day after that. Again, they practiced from dusk until dawn.
And then came the day Spencer arrived home.
He came with a giant leap. He burst through the door just as the two of them were taking a break and eating more apples.
Spencer looked around the room. His face was red as though he had been working too hard in the fields. Then again, he had been out during the hot desert day.
“Where are they?”
“Where are who?” Colleen looked around. She hadn’t seen anyone come by. But there had to be someone if her husband was so frantic. She immediately grabbed onto the horsetail whisk she kept strapped to her side.
“The Nirvana Conglomerate, I heard that they had taken you hostage and were using you to force me to join them.”
“No one has been here.”
Outside of the house, there were sounds of engines roaring.
The family went outside to see what was going on.
A small group of men, a little over a dozen of them were gathered outside of the house. They wore dark leather suits that must have been blazing in the wasteland. However, none of them seemed to be bothered by the heat. They all also wore helmets and sun glasses. All of them also rode on a large vehicle, one that Daniel had never seen in his life. They were also the only vehicle he’d seen in his life. There were different makes and models. Some were old and rusted. But all of them spewed out a dark smoke at their back. Large metal tubes were behind the vehicles with fire sometimes coming out of them. At the very bottom were two wheels, one in front and one in the back.
Daniel thought he remembered hearing about these things before. His father had called them motorcycles. Or were they called bikes. He couldn’t remember.
At the head of the pack was a rather lithe man with a thick handlebar mustache. His leather jacket was torn at the sleeves, showing off arms that were large with muscle, but skin could barely be noticed due to a thousand images inked on each one of them.
The man at the head of the pack turned off his motorcycle. He remained seated, but he cupped his hands and gave a respectful bow. “Greetings, Red Willow, Spencer Shaw. I’m Decadence, an elder of the Lone Rider Gang. We are just a humble few who have joined in brotherhood to roam the wastelands as free agents.”
Red Willow? Lone Rider Gang? Daniel hadn’t heard any of these words used in tandem with each other.
“Greetings, Decadence. It seems my name proceeds me. What is it that you are doing in my family home?”
“Naturally we would like to invite you to our gang. We are newly formed with only thirty years of history. And while many would find it hard to catch us on our motorcycles, naturally we would prefer to save face and slay those who would oppose us.”
Spencer's face became angry. He snorted. “And do you think I’m thug that you can bring around and show off.”
“We wouldn’t dare think of you that way,” Decadence said. “It is said that you alone are strong enough to wipe out a minor sect in close quarter combat. Your prowess, our speed, no one could touch us. Think about it. Together, we can find a way to be mutually beneficial to each other. Our leader, the Wandering King himself has even said that he would guarantee you a title of elder and teacher if you were to join our gang. Think of how many students would look up to you. Venerate you.”
“I have a family, do you think I can go where I please?”
Colleen squeezed Daniel tight.
Daniel tried to squirm out of her grasp, but with the strength that she was exuding at that moment, there was no way he would have been able to get out.
“Naturally your family can stay at our headquarters. Many of our member have their families there. They will naturally be looked after. I can assure you, there will never be a night where you or your wife will be lonely. As for your child, he will be looked after as though he were one of our own.”
“You’ve discussed what happens if I agree, but what if I refuse?”
“If you refuse, then you will forfeit your life.”
“Escape.”
It was just a single word. A single command. And yet, it was at that moment that the world seemed to shatter.
Spencer and Colleen leapt into the air. Now Daniel understood why his mother was holding so tight. It was because they were leaping as far as they could.
Just a single leap and Spencer had already crossed a hundred feet. So this was how far his father could go in a single stride.
The moment the Lone Rider Gang saw them flee, some of them roared their engines and began to give chase. Some of them remained behind. Daniel wondered what they were doing. Soon they became lost in the distance.
Daniel’s eyes followed the riders chasing after them. They were moving fast. He hadn’t seen anyone move that fast before. With metal machines, if felt like it was cheating. And yet these men were doing it anyway.
But their family wasn’t stopping either.
“Colleen, is something wrong?” Spencer asked as they were in the middle of the air. He was getting ahead of them.
“Carrying Dan-Dan is slowing me down.”
“Dan-Dan, roving cloud skill.”
Daniel nodded. During their next stride, he directed his qi into his feet. Both of them together, Colleen and Daniel, the two of them launched themselves once again into the air.
This time, the two of them were able to make it eighty five feet in a single stride.
“I’ll slow down like this,” Spencer slowed down until he was gliding next to them.
The Lone Rider Gang were catching up. While they had a rather slow start, the motorcycles were gaining speed. There was no telling when they would be able to catch up.
“We can’t keep running like this,” Colleen said.
Thus far, they had been keeping to the base of the mountain. But at some point, they would go right back to the house and that was where the rest of the Lone Rider Gang were waiting.
“Maybe, but where else can we go? The mountain?”
Colleen shook her head. “Dan-Dan hasn’t trained long enough. He won’t be able to survive very long if we take him up there.”
“You’re right. But where else can we go? The nearest village is dozens of miles away.”
The two of them looked around. There had to be a place they could go.
“I can go up to almost two hundred feet into the mountain,” Daniel said.
“What?” Spencer looked at his son, his face in confusion.
Colleen didn’t feel like explaining to her husband what happened. “Even though you are able to survive that far, that would only be impressive for children. Adults have fully formed lungs and would be able to hunt us for the same amount of time that you would be able to survive up there.”
It really seemed that they had no choice.
The two of them turned in the middle of the air to face their pursuers. When they hit the ground, their heels slowed them to a stop.
“Daniel, stay here,” Spencer ordered.
Colleen took a stance.
“You too,” Spencer said.
“But the two of us can handle them.”
“Think about it, why would they leave some of their men behind? There are two explanations. One is they expect us to double back and have left their men to catch us. The second, is they’re heading around the mountain to do a pincer attack. If that happens, you need to run. If something happens, at least one of us needs to live on to teach Daniel the family skill.”
Colleen tightened her fist. She knew her husband was right.
With just a simple nod, Daniel turned to focus on his opponents. Steam began to form from his body. Reality around him began to become hazy and a white aura started to form. This aura wasn’t steam, it was too fluid. It was like an aurora borealis. Daniel hadn't seen his father's skill like this before.
The Lone Rider Gang had almost caught up to them. They were less than fifty feet away now. They could all see what was happening up ahead.
“Where is that steam coming from? Do you think they’re going to set off a smoke bomb and try to escape that way?” One of them asked.
“Does it matter? Look at how many of us there are. At least one of us will see them if they try to leave” A man with large mutton chops pounded his chest in pride. “Using such a useless diversionary tactic will only be a minor nuisance in the end.”
“Still, we need to be prepared for anything.” A man with platinum blond hair and a dark rimmed sunglasses said. On his jacket was tag that said Lt. Malfeasance. He held up a fist for the men to see. “Prepare for evasive maneuvers.”
“Right,” all the others said.
Each one of their engines roared. It was like a herd of elephants charging forward. Their metal vehicles drove them forward into the fray. All of them were unafraid. Their engines were their war chants. Their engines were in unison.
There was a saying of the Lone Rider Gang. “Our hearts beat as one. Our engines beat with our hearts. As long as our hearts and engines are one, we are one. Man and machine able to rove the endless wasteland unafraid.”
And yet, Spencer wasn’t impressed. He leapt towards the oncoming horde. His speed was even faster than before. With just a single leap, he was able to crash into one of the men at the front. Almost no time had passed. How could any of them even think to dodge?
Spencer’s knocked the cyclist back and onto the ground. The motorcycle swerved off course and landing on its side, absolutely useless.
“What?” One of them shouted.
“How can he be so fast?”
“I didn’t even blink and yet he was already so far away.”
“There’s no time to worry about that,” Lt. Malfeasance yelled. “Everyone begin formation, Sun Chariot formation!”
The bikers began to circle Spencer. They first started out in a rather wide circle, but then they began to get closer. It was as though a person were getting closer and closer to fire. The closer one got, the more burnt they got.
“Our speed is the greatest!”
“Who can match our speed!”
“No one, we shall roam free in these wastelands!”
All of them began to chant. Each one of them hammered the words into their heads. Even if they had seen something different, their words needed to be what mattered. They had faith in their speed, because what else could they do? Run? With Spencer’s speed, that didn’t seem like an option. Thus, they needed to kill him before he became a threat to them in the future.
“Is this the fastest you can go?” Spencer chuckled. To him, they were moving in as though they were on foot.
Even if they were moving fast on their motorcycles, he was just as fast without one. That meant his reflexes were just as fast.
Spencer leapt in the air, ready to strike at one of the bikers. His speed was fast, certainly too fast for any of them to see.
And yet, one of the bikers had already predicted this. He slowed down so that Spencer flew right past him.
What they lacked for in speed, they needed to make up for in intuition. They watched Spencer move. Each movement from his eyes, his knees, his elbows; all of them needed to be taken into account to predict his next move. These weren’t amateurs.
But neither was Spencer.
He leapt into the air. He extended his leg as he began to spin around.
Daniel watched all of this from afar. “Mom, why isn’t dad using his long fist technique?”
Colleen sighed. “It was probably the trip. For your father to move at such great speeds, naturally he needs to exert his qi. And in a hurry, naturally he would expend his qi to try and get to us. And right now, while your father is exerting himself even more, it is because he wants to end this fight quickly.”
Daniel understood. But then, didn't that mean his father couldn't fight at full power?
Spencer used offensive techniques while the Lone Rider Gang were using defensive maneuvers. It would only be natural that these men would be able to win in the long run.
“Fuck,” Spencer said. He was glad that his kid was too far away to hear it, but that was a small consolation considering that his qi was already running low. He needed to think of something.
They were all riding around him, but none of them came too close. In terms of offensive and defensive, he would lose. But what would happen if he switched. In defense versus defense, nothing would happen.
Spencer took a defensive stance.
The Lone Rider Gang continued to circle him.
Neither one of them wanted to go for a reckless attack.
Time went on.
“Mom, why aren’t any of them acting?”
“Look, your father is recovering. If he can fully recover, do you think that any of them would be able to stand in your father’s way?”
Daniel nodded. He had seen his father move. He was fast, but if he was already exhausted, naturally he would be weaker than if he rested first.
“Then why is steam still coming out of father?”
“It is merely a show of strength. If you cannot win easily, appear strong. If you can win in a single strike, pretend to be weak and capture your opponent in a trap.”
Daniel nodded.
An explosion rang through the air. Spencer chanced a look, just as he moved to the side. A small hole appeared right behind where he had been standing.
“They brought guns to this fight?” Colleen was shocked.
“Mom, what are guns?”
“They are rare in the wastelands, only organizations are able to carry them. Just a single one of their bullets can travel about ten times faster than your father can move.”
“Is dad in trouble?”
Colleen bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know.”
A sound of roaring engines was coming from the distance. Behind them!
Daniel and his mother turned. Coming around the mountain were the rest of the Lone Rider Gang. Decadence was at the head of the pack. They rode forward with fire blazing out of their bikes. They rode in a V formation. They were traveling farther than the first group. Too fast for them to escape.
Colleen gritted her teeth. She placed her hand in front of her son. “Dan-dan, get behind me.”
“Let me help,” Daniel pleaded.
“Do you think I want to see you killed,” Colleen asked. “The fact of the matter is, you don’t have enough experience to face off against these men. If you were to die, and we were to live, wouldn’t we mourn you endlessly? Do you want that for your parents?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“Leave these men to me,” she said.
She leapt into the air, just as Daniel murmured, “don’t go.”
On both sides, Daniel watched as his parents were facing off against two groups of people. He was left all alone. He watched. He wanted to do something, anything to help, but what could he do? Useless. In this world, his father told him, it was a place filled with people looking to just survive. Was this the price they had to pay to be alive?
The Lone Rider Gang threw out smoke bombs in front of Spencer. The smoke it formed made things hard for Spencer to see where the others were coming from. But it also, made it hard for him to breathe. There was no time to wait around. He needed to pick a direction.
Spencer leapt in front of him. If he was lucky, maybe he would be able to knock someone off their motorcycle and hide amongst the crowd. If not, then, he would just have to be swift enough to dodge the oncoming motorcycle.
“Huh?” Spencer took his step, but there was no one. He was already out of the smoke cloud.
He looked over around and noticed that the biker gang were making their way over to Daniel. He took a step and leapt with all his might. He felt the wind rushing in his face. He needed to get to his son before the Lone Riders did. He could see it. He was catching up.
Bang! A bullet screeched in the air. It was too acute for a normal person to hear.
In the next instant, Spencer felt a sharp pain in his back. His eyes twitched as life began to escape from him.
The bikers had stopped, they all smirked at Spencer as he lay on the ground.
Off in the distance, Colleen was keeping track of her opponents. The six of them were tough to deal with. Unlike her husband, she wasn’t born into the Shaw family, thus the amount of qi she had was on a much lower scale. If she were her husband, she would have wiped the men out during their first exchange. However, each one of them were able to just barely dodge her attacks.
Many of the bikers had even pulled out knives and chain whips to try and deal with her. But even then, they were only able to keep her at bay.
Neither could wound the other, leaving them at a stalemate.
But even while fighting, Colleen was able to still pay some attention to Spencer’s situation every now and then.
She heard the men laughing. She looked off to the side and saw Spencer on the ground.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“No.”
She could hear some of the Lone Riders laughing and jeering.
“I heard he once was able to face off against a hundred raiders protecting Pure Land Sect, maybe a hundred people isn’t so hard after all.”
“Or maybe he’s just an idiot,” another one laughed. “Look how simple it was to kill him. All we had to do was threaten to kill his kid. Who cares about kids, they cost too much to feed. Kill them all I say.”
“Didn’t you see how he was running away earlier? He knew that all that talk about him was just for show. There’s no way he could handle a real sect. As for his wife and kid, we can probably get a decent price if we sell them.”
Colleen couldn't hear the words they were saying, but she could guess. She gritted her teeth. Her fist clenched together. She took a breath. It was long and slow. No one even paid her any attention.
She only said three things. “Spencer, forgive me.”
Steam boiled out from her body. Reality began to distort.
All the bikers took notice of this.
But it was too late. Colleen used her horsetail whisk and wrapped the strands on one of the Lone Rider Gang. With a yank, she broke that Lone Rider’s neck.
All the others couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Based on what they had seen earlier, she wasn’t able to move very fast. At least not comparable to this.
“Kill her,” Decadence roared. “We need to kill her now.”
The bikers who were near Daniel drove past him. They had seen how fast Spencer could move, how could they allow Colleen to gain momentum?
One of the bikers took his dagger and threw it at her. Her horsetail whisk snatched the dagger in the air, sending it to one of the other bikers. The dagger pierced him in the side so hard that he flew off his motorcycle.
One of them men threw out his chains. His chains clashed against Colleen’s horsetail whisk. Both of them were bound together. The biker circled around Colleen, neither one of them willing to let go.
Colleen was the first to understand what to do, and used the biker’s pulling to launch herself towards him and letting go of her whisk. She landed on top of his head. And with her fingers, used her husband’s Long Fist skill to inject her qi into his head.
This was similar to Daniel’s rock climbing technique. Only this one pierced straight into the man’s skull like grape. His body slumped to the ground.
Colleen glided down. As she did, she picked up the motorcycle and used its momentum in a circular motion, launching it at one of the other bikers.
The two bikes collided together. Combined with the combustion of the engine and an explosion occurred where three of the nearest bikers were caught in the crossfire. Their bodies were set alight.
Of the original group, ten remained.
Colleen turned around. The remaining bikers circled around her. They all used their weapons at once. Daggers, whips, and bullets were launched towards her.
There didn’t seem to be any way for her to escape in time. Just as she was about to be hit, she leapt into the air. All of the weapons flew past her.
But the bikers were trained in case something like this would happen. Their formation made it that none of them were hit when they went past her.
Colleen grunted at the fact that none of them were hit.
And now she was in the air.
Bang! A gun fired right as she was in the air. She felt a pain in her stomach. She looked down to see that a bullet had caught her just slightly above the navel. She had used her qi to block most of it, but there was only so much she could block.
She grunted in pain as she spat out a globule of blood.
She needed to stop the bleeding. She ushered her qi to the spot, using it to slow the amount of bleeding she had.
With all the men around her, there was no way that they would have made it to next village. There only hope was to make it to the mountains.
Once Colleen landed, she leapt towards one of the bikers.
He sent out his chains to try and tie her down, but she was able to move past it.
She tumbled into a roll and began to run towards Daniel.
Pain was coursing through her. She couldn’t think straight. All she cared about was getting to her son.
Bullets flew past her. She was too far for the Lone Rider Gang to get an accurate shot.
The Lone Rider Gang revved their engines.
Daniel and Colleen watched as the gang was closing in on them.
“Daniel, we need to run.”
“Where?”
“Up the mountain. We’ll try to find a place to hide for a short time. When I’m better, we can re-”
Colleen felt something wrong in her stomach. Her qi- it wasn’t working as she wanted it to. Something was distorting it. She couldn’t move, not even a leisurely pace felt possible.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“Run, Daniel. You need to run.”
Daniel looked at the riders.
Colleen grabbed her son’s face. Blood was trickling down her mouth to her chin.
“Daniel, forget about me. You need to run to the mountain and find a place to hide.”
“But-”
“What happens next will be up to you. Go!”
Daniel looked between his mother and the riders.
She was screaming at him. She wanted him to leave her. But he couldn’t just leave her. She would die against those men.
He waited until it was already too late. The riders were close. Decadence held up his fist. The gang stopped a few feet away from them. They were close enough that if they wanted, they could have shot Colleen and her son right then and there.
“How does it feel,” Decadence gloated. “You’ve been hit with my Three Doves poison. Tell me what you think?”
Colleen glared at the man. She spat on the ground.
Decadence smiled. He pointed two fingers towards them as though they were a gun. He fired the imaginary gun.
The riders let their engines roar to life. They were ready to kill.
Then a booming voice came from all around.
“Who dares to be audacious in front of me!”
And after the call, the guns were shattered. A glistening dagger had sliced them in half.