“Come out and die like a man, you little chicken shit,” the General yelled.
As I lost my grip on the machine he yanked me into the aisle and threw me across the polished stone floor. I slid into the opposite stone wall. I felt stunned and disoriented. He grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. The next thing I knew he had his hands around my neck choking me, holding me above the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I looked over to the old guardian to see if he would help me.
The old guardian reached up and tapped his right ear twice with his index finger and then pointed to the center of his chest.
Listen to the medallion? No. Listen to my heart!
I looked at the General. He was filled with rage, blinded by his hatred and anger. I instantly knew what I had to do. With my last remaining strength I slapped both of my hands on the General’s ears as hard as I could. He yelled in pain and loosened his grip on my neck. I jammed my thumbs into his eyes, hard. He screamed in pain and dropped me to the floor. As I gasped for air I kicked him in the groin and rolled away from him on the floor. That seemed to knock the breath out of him as he collapsed backward onto the floor, groaning.
The General was six inches taller than I was and outweighed me by a good sixty pounds. I was no match for him physically. Ed’s words came back to me, ‘fight from inner peace, not anger or fear. Emotions will blind you. Stay calm and you will see what you need to do.’ John’s idea about power versus force also came back to me. I couldn’t match the force the General had, but I had a power that could trump his superior level of force. I could sense his thoughts and his feelings. I could see what he was going to do before he could move.
We both slowly stood and faced each other.
“Not as easy as you thought?” I asked.
“I step on little pissants like you every day,” the General replied. “And I’m going to enjoy smearing your brains all over this stone floor. All you are to me is dead meat.”
With that the General rushed at me with his arms spread wide. His thought was to grab me whichever way I tried to move. Instead I dove forward and to the left, rolling into his feet. He tripped over my legs and fell hard on the stone floor. He rolled to his side and sprang back onto his feet, rushing me again before I could get fully to my feet. I dove again, this time to the right, but he caught my shirt in his strong grip. We spun around, the General rolling onto his side, grabbing me with his other hand and flinging me across the floor and into the stone wall again. He was up quickly again and closing in on me fast. I didn’t have time to get up so I pivoted my body around and swung my leg sideways at his knee as he reached for me. I heard a sharp crack as my ankle connected with the side of his left knee.
The general missed me with his hands and he smashed into the stone wall head first. I slid out from under him and stood up in the aisle, backing away from him. My ankle hurt, but would still support my weight. The General grabbed his knee, yelling out in pain. I realized that even though I could see what the General was going to do in my mind, I still couldn’t think of responses quickly enough to keep from getting hit and injured by him. It was only a matter of time before he would get me and I would die. I looked back at the old priest. He touched his ear and pointed to his chest again, his look more serious than before. What was I missing?
Before I could look back at the General I felt his presence closing in on me. I ducked and pivoted to the side just missing his swing at my head. I backed away from him and stopped. The General was limping now. The injury to his knee was slowing him down. But why had I moved when I didn’t even see him coming? Something else was working for me. I could feel his movements and something instinctive was allowing me to move without thinking. I realized it must be one of the bumps on the medallion. It was different from intuition. It was something almost primal, instinctive, yet it flowed easily within me.
The endless hours I spent playing Mortal Kombat, Naruto and other Martial Arts games came flooding back into my mind. I bounced from foot to foot and waved for him to come and get me. I could do this.
“Oh… so big and so strong,” I said, “and what, you’re going to let a little pissant like me beat you?”
“Like I said, kid, you’re just dead meat to me,” the General replied.
“Yeah?” I taunted. “Prove it.”
As the General came at me I bobbed from side to side ducking down and to the left at the last second. I dug my left foot into the floor using the momentum of my body to accelerate my right foot into the center of his chest. I could hear his ribs crunch as I connected and just as quickly snapped my leg back to keep him from grabbing it. I moved away from him toward the back of the cave. The General stumbled and turned, quickly rushing me again. I bobbed and weaved back and forth diving to the right as he reached me. I kicked with my left leg against his left knee again, which brought him to the floor while he let out a painful gasp.
I got up quickly and moved further down the aisle toward the back of the cave. As the fight between the General and I moved down the aisle the robot and the old guardian followed us toward the huge elevator pit. I bobbed and weaved and bounced my way further back into the cave as I tried to taunt the General into more anger and rage. But each time I hit the General his military training kicked in more. He became calm and focused, setting his anger aside; his only goal was to kill me as efficiently as possible. He moved slower and limped on his injured left knee. I could tell his breathing had become more painful and labored as the fight continued.
The General lunged forward, this time leading with his right leg. I anticipated him stopping his advance, trying to catch me as I dodged to the side. Instead I remained in place and punched him in the nose. I quickly backed off and stood only a foot from the drop-off into the elevator pit. I bobbed and weaved and bounced and taunted the General as I had before. He wasn’t buying it. He just stood there and starred at me, blood ran down his face and onto his neck. He then stepped forward slowly intent only on pushing me over the edge.
CHAPTER 34
I could sense the General’s plan was to get close enough to push me over the edge or to grab me if I dodged to either side and use his superior strength to throw me into the elevator pit. I didn’t have the body mass or the strength to withstand being shoved, so a dodge to one side or the other was my only option. Knowing his strength and speed he was going to get a hold of me whatever I did. As he closed in I desperately searched for any weakness that would allow me to escape. Finally I saw it. I dodged to my left and the General’s large right hand swung out to grab me. I pulled back and struck with the edge of my hand at the General’s thumb. His thumb bent backwards against his arm. As he yelled in pain he instinctively reached for me with his left hand. I struck at his left hand, catching his thumb with the palm of my hand, bending it back and dislocating it from its socket. I pivoted to the right and brought my left elbow down and sideways into the General’s injured knee. He collapsed on top of my legs and tried to grab onto me. But with his broken thumbs he couldn’t grip anything. I kicked and pulled my legs out from under him. I kicked him in the side of the head as I broke free. He rolled toward the edge of the elevator pit and teetered on the edge. He tried to get his balance, but before he could, I kicked him once more in the face, the momentum of my kick carried the General over the edge.