The Way of Bug: Tales of the Gatekeepers Book 2 by Orlando A. Sanchez

Author:Orlando A. Sanchez [Sanchez, Orlando A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bitten Peaches Publishing
Published: 2022-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

Before bonding, every companion must undergo the Trial.

Before the Trial, every companion must be trained by their Doru.

Failing the Trial is not an option.

—The Tenets

Before being bonded, every companion has a mentor, an older companion, trained in every form of combat the new companion will eventually master.

This older companion was known as a Doru.

My Doru was Ella, an older companion who was known as the Fist, although no one ever called her that to her face. She was the only person with whom I intentionally avoided combat.

I may be reckless and prone to violence, but facing her in serious combat was suicide.

I’d prefer to take on George and Sig at the same time before facing her in a fight. She was a master in all forms of combat, especially my focus, bladed weapons.

Ella was the one who taught Port and me the Falling Lotus pattern on one condition: that we never share the knowledge of the technique with anyone.

It was too dangerous to be used.

She made an exception because the knowledge needed to be passed on to the next generation. She made us take a vow of secrecy, teaching us in isolation and at the same time to ensure the correct transmission of the pattern.

After we learned it, she forbade us to practice the full pattern out in the open, or with anyone else. On occasion, Port would practice part of the pattern, never revealing its true nature.

Dmitri had asked Port repeatedly to teach him. When Port refused, he tried to steal the technique by spying on Port’s training sessions. He had managed to learned a variant, but never the true form. If he knew the full technique, he never would’ve shared that knowledge with whoever killed those companions.

The Falling Lotus was potentially deadly for both the person executing the technique and the one being attacked by it. One miscalculation, a single missed execution at the wrong time could be fatal. The only reason Ella agreed to teach Port and me is because she knew we would never execute the technique.

It was too dangerous to be used.

Whoever had killed those companions knew part of the pattern, which meant I needed to pay Ella a visit. It meant asking the question I didn’t want to ask, but I needed to be sure. Much like Flo, I needed to see and hear Ella when she answered my questions.

Did she teach the Falling Lotus to anyone else?

If so, who?

This was going to be a painful experience.

Ella lived in a small townhouse on the corner of West 4th and MacDougal Street, in the Village. One of the last holdouts, preventing NYU from owning all of the property around Washington Square Park.

Every morning, for as long as I’ve known her, she would practice her forms with the rising sun, in Washington Square Park. If I took my time, I could make it just as she was finishing her morning routine, avoiding one of her infamous spontaneous training sessions.

I parked the Nomad on West 4th and walked over to the park.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.