The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin

Author:Alexander Darwin [Darwin, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B017OMXR7O
Publisher: Insight Forge Press
Published: 2016-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

10

The Harmony and the Valkyrie

When attempting to finish the triangle choke, a Grievar can easily tire. With a finish at hand, one risks extinguishing their ki by utilizing weak adductor muscles to attack the neck of an opponent squarely in front of them. One must instead find the proper angle prior to attempting the finish, perpendicular to the opponent, while utilizing the far stronger gluteal muscles to constrict the exposed arteries.

Passage Four, Fifty-Third Technique of the Combat Codes

Cego spent three days in the medward. He mostly stared out the window, watching the rain. He tried not to think too much about the Trials or any of the confounding revelations that had come from them. It hurt his head too much to do so.

One of the clerics, a lithe girl with candleflame eyes and straight black hair, stopped by to check on Cego a few times per day. The girl never said anything; she only stared, her face awkwardly close to his at times. Cego could see the blood flowing beneath her translucent cheeks, traveling down her neck in narrow rivulets. Her breath was warm.

The girl examined him with cool indifference and took notes on the lightpad strapped to one of her wrists.

At first, Cego was amazed to see a small spectral hovering just over the girl’s shoulder. When the girl examined him, her little spectral would float across Cego’s body, as if it were observing the spots she was concentrating on.

Every so often, a senior cleric would stop by to check on the girl’s work—a man with a round bald head with thick veins running atop it. The man would review her lightpad and then ask the girl several questions that Cego didn’t understand.

“Base photosensitivity?” he asked.

“No movement,” she replied, in a blank voice.

“Spectroscopy levels?”

“No signs of differentiation.”

“Signs of neuropathic schizophrenia?”

“Rapid eye movement standardized during sleep; no emotive elevation during waking hours.”

On his fourth day at the medward, Cego made an attempt to speak with the cleric girl. After his experience in the simulation, he felt the need to reassure himself that the world he occupied was the real thing. He’d spoken with Murray earlier, but that was different. Murray was somehow a part of it all—the Citadel, the Lyceum, the Trials, the Sim. He needed to speak with someone that wasn’t a part of it. Whatever it was.

The girl came by in the morning as she had done the previous three days, her little crimson spectral in tow just over her shoulder.

“Does… Does he follow you everywhere you go?” Cego asked.

Though she didn’t stop examining him, she replied. Her voice was monotone.

“What makes you think it’s a he?” she asked.

“Hmm. I’m really not sure,” Cego responded. “He… er… it looked like a he to me.”

“Typical Grievar,” the girl said. “Always assigning emotional value to everything.”

Cego considered her words. “Well, you seem pretty happy with the spectral yourself. You keep checking to see if he… or it’s there.”

“You mistake my vigilance for what you call happiness, Grievar,” she said blandly. “I’m making sure my Observer is functioning properly.

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