Chapter Six
It was early in the morning I think, but on the moon that the base had been built into it was hard to tell what part of the day it really was. Regardless I had just woken up less than an hour before my first day of training under Master Jason began. He and I stood facing each other ten feet apart in an empty training room. As always I was armed with my sword, but back the I wore it across my back from my left shoulder. Master Jason was unarmed, but I'd never seen him carry a sword, so this was no surprise.
"Eathen." Master Jason began, "The other Masters have told me that you have been progressing beyond their previous expectations."
I knew it was an attempt to make me over confident. What I didn't know until months later was that he wanted me to see his trap and act accordingly. That was the way he was, calm, cool, and calculating. I bowed politely. "Thank you." I said.
"Our training will be simple. We will take the basic skills you've learned so far and I'll teach you new ways to use them. If you're ready I would like you to try to score an unblocked blow." he said. It made sense that I hadn't started training with Master Jason until now. He and the other Masters wanted me to reach a certain skill level before he began.
"With or without my sword Sir?" I asked. Up until now I had been training under Master Chen who's specialty was martial sword art and was at least twenty years Jason's senior. Not that it mattered. Master Jason was the youngest of all the Master, at least he looked it, but it was in the unique way that he saw the universe and in turn used his shockhaven that made him truly powerful. Still I liked my chances with my sword rather than without it.
"With the sword if you prefer, but don't focus solely on sword strikes. Any solid strike will do. Oh, and Eathen don't hold back." And with that Master Jason brought his right foot forward in a staggered stance, put his left hand behind his back, raised his right hand halfway in a defensive posture and nodded.
I kicked off and left the ground and the height difference between the two of us behind. When I crossed half the distance between us I fired off two shots of shockhaven energy blasts from my right hand as I brought it up to draw my sword. I aimed the first shot high and the second low to try to draw his arm down far enough to prevent him from being able to bring it back up again to block. It was a predictable assault, but as much as he was testing me I was testing him. Master Jason deflected both blasts with a small flick of his wrist, but I was already committed to the charge and he was unarmed so I focused a great deal of energy in the blade as I drew my sword bringing it down in a diagonal strike that would've cut clean through solid steal or stone with ease. However, he not only blocked the blow but he caught it between two fingers stopping me dead in the air.
"Precision will always win over raw unfocused power." Master Jason said, and with one quick pull he pulled the sword from my grip and tossed it aside all in one fluid motion.
I dropped down and unleashed a furry of hand strikes in a random order aimed at his midsection and face. He knocked them all aside with the same deft movement of only is right hand. As I threw punch after punch I reached out with my shockhaven, found my sword and pulled back to my hand. As I caught my sword in my right hand I shot another shockhaven blast with the left. With the same two fingers that caught my blade he redirected the blast into the ceiling as though it was his own. The distraction was enough for me to regain control of my sword and bring it across in a horizontal slash. He leaned back avoiding the blade by a small measure and I stepped forward brought the blade back across and pressed the attack. To me my slash weren't wild or predictable, but focused quick and continuous. Some he blocked, others he dodged, but he was being pushed back to the wall.
It was a sound tactic, he would be trapped and unable to dodge and therefor have to block everything, and I could slip in a left hook or a kick. I brought down a vertical slash that with one step to the left he dodged and before I could change the direction of the blade and slash across his mid section he caught it. I brought up my left hand for a point blank shockhaven blast to Master Jason's face, but before I could focus the blast he inclined his head and blinked. An unseen force knocked me clear across the room into the opposite wall. I slid down to my knees and looked up only to see that Master Jason had cleared the distance between us. He stood in front of me holding my sword by the blade with the handle just shy of my shoulder.
"That was good." Master Jason said as I stood back up, took my sword and returned it to its sheath.
"With all due respect sir, no it wasn't. I failed. You didn't even have to use both hands." I said. My head was bowed in defeat. I'd been both beaten and humiliated. Physically I was fine, but my pride was shaken in the face of failure.
"You did well enough and that fact that you were humble throughout the whole bout shows that you have strong character. The disappointment that you're feeling shows that you take great pride in your skills, but you're not over confident or conceded. Also you didn't give into frustration or anger and lose your concentration. You fought with an even temper, using the skills you've been taught and openly admitted defeat. As I'm sure Master Chen may have told you the best way to get to know someone is to fight them." I nodded and he smiled back at me. "Well that is one philosophy he and I share. I think that you will take to the training quite well. The point to this little speech is that you shouldn't see this as a failure but as the beginning of growth. Understood?"
"Yes sir." I said. I gave a nod and smiled with new found enthusiasm for the training.
"Good." he said, returning the smile and the nod. I was beginning to like Master Jason more and more. He was less cut off, less distant, than the other Masters. "So let's go back to the beginning of the bout and see how you could've done things differently."
I thought for a moment, trying to come up with a different opening that would've been better but given the distance that I started with and the reach of my sword I didn't see any better options. "I thought that the two blasts was the best option to close the distance and engage you in close combat sir." I said. I wasn't trying to justify my option, but I didn't see a better way or else I would've tried it instead from the beginning.
Master Jason nodded. "It was as good as anything else, and the fact that you purposely staggered the blasts was a nice touch." he paused for a moment. "I think you're missing the point here. I don't want you to try and change what you did but how you did it and what would've made it more effective. So, keeping that in mind, do you know how I was able to bat aside the blasts so easily?"
The question caught me off guard. "I just thought it was because you're more powerful than me." I said.
He chuckled, "No, not in the slightest. However, my control is greater. You shot them off and just let them go in the direction without any further control. Normally you wouldn't have to worry about anything stopping them, but a skilled havenist can take control of an object in motion and alter it's path with little effort. Now if you were to maintain control and another havenist tried to alter their course it would become a contest of strength and control that would require more energy than simply blocking, dodging, or using counter blasts. Additionally, if you maintain control you can redirect missed blasts to prevent collateral damage, or hit an unsuspecting target from behind. So from now on maintain control of your blasts until they reach their target."
"I will Sir, thank you." I said with a slight bow. "So if you maintain control you could even dodge counter blasts or change the speed of the blast it self?" I asked, almost thinking out loud of all the different possibilities that could be adapted to a combat situation.
He nodded. "Yes. You could do a number of different things and we can go more in depth with that later, but first I'd like to continue through the rest of our bout." he said.
I was disappointed for a small moment then realized that if Master Jason wanted to continue that there was even more to learn. "Yes Sir." I said, letting my excitement show.
"So then you came down with a very powerful vertical slash draw. Think abo
ut what I said to you after I caught your sword and tell me how I managed to stop you from cutting me in half." he said. He was going move buy move but he wasn't telling me that the moves themselves were wrong, but rather how I was doing them.
"Well I would've said that you over powered me but I don't really know." I said, running back through the sword draw and the catch that Master Jason made. I was trying to see what he was getting at, but I couldn't make the connection and reluctantly told him. "I'm sorry Sir, but I can't think of any way that you could've caught my blade without overpowering me Sir."
"I suppose that was a trick question, because I did overpower you while at the same time using a great deal less power than you did." he said, and I gave him a hesitant nod since I didn't fully grasp what he was saying. "This is where the way in which we view the universe comes into play. The universe itself is an endless three dimensional plane spreading infinitely in all direction. All matter in the universe however is four dimensional, in that it has some measure of height, width and depth, the first three dimensions, and is in some way effected by time." he paused, letting it all sink in.
I still didn't see the connection between his view of the universe and him catching my sword. But I understood the idea behind his viewpoint and ran with it. "So you and I are four dimensional beings on, or in a three dimensional plane." I said, trying to make sure I was understanding him correctly.
"And your sword and this room are also four dimensional and all fall on the same grand three dimensional plane." Master Jason continued. "As you drew your sword the path that it would take was decided. All I had to do at that point was put more energy then was in the small point of you sword that I intercepted with with my fingers."
"Precision over power." I said as I wrapped my head around the whole idea. What he was talking about wasn't some new form of martial arts or some strange shockhaven technique. This was more or less just insanely fast scientific and mathematical calculations that had become so ingrained into everything that he did that these calculations had become second nature and had given Master Jason a far different and much more practical view of the universe.
"Precisely." Master Jason replied with a satisfied smile and a nod. "Now while building on that principal and moving forward through our bout we'll find the third and final lesson that we'll focus on for the time being." he paused, and I hid the excitement and joy of the thought of using this newly gained knowledge, or at least I tried to. Master Jason already had picked up on it and flashed a quick grin my way before he continued. "So aside from the obvious idea that I'm somehow fast enough to block an all assault from an immortal student of Master Chen that's a fraction of my age with only one hand, how did I?"
I almost jumped when I made the connection. Beaming with pride I said, "You used your shockhaven to see the paths of the blows."
"For the most part yes. The skill that you're referring to is known as haven awareness. In a sense it is the ability to see with your shockhaven rather than your eyes. You begin by extending your shockhaven outward from your body without making it solid. In this field you'll feel everything, the ground, the ceiling, the small particles in the air, all of it. Most havenists can tell the difference between living beings, solid material and air. However." Master Jason said and began to stare off. "If you apply the fact that we are all four dimensional beings in a three dimensional plane, and you place yourself at the center of this plane in your mind and if you become proficient you will have gained what some of you more elder immortals have called 'Sight Beyond Sight'." This was the third time that he had felt the need to remind me that he was not an immortal. And where as I'm not sure if I noticed it then, or if it came later, but Master Jason was not fond of immortals at all. None of the Masters were. Master Jason however didn't seem to hold it against me. "Regardless of what it's called." Master Jason continued, seeming to come back from wherever his mind drifted off to. "You will need to master the use of this sight, or begin to at least, to make much use of everything I have to teach you. So," he began and held out his hand to either side. In his left hand he held a three foot long solid black cloth maybe half a foot wide. In his right hand he had a three and a half foot long wooden rod with a strange orb at the tip. Both had appeared out of thin air and Master Jason just smiled. "Let's begin." he said.
He held out the cloth and nodded and I could tell that he wanted me to take it. "I'm not sure I understand Sir" I said, as I took the cloth.
"Oh, well it's pretty simple. That is a blindfold. And this," he said, striking his open palm with the rod like a paddle. It had the same familiar smacking sound of wood connecting with flesh that I had grown to know very well from my training with Master Chen. "This is a haven-scepter. You're going to put on the blindfold and using your haven awareness you're going to block the blows from the haven scepter."
I put the blindfold on and took up a defensive stance. I wasn't sure if I was actually sensing it or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me but I could see the room around me in my mind. It was all in a grainy, black and white sort of cartoonish look, but I could feel myself, Master Jason, his haven-scepter and the rest of the room.
"It's up to you but I would recommend you get use to how your sword feels, or looks, in you haven awareness." Master Jason said in his same even tone. I could see his voice as the sound rippled like waves as it moved through the air outward from him and bounced off everything. It was amazing. I understood at that moment why Master Jason spoke with so much passion about the beauty of seeing the world like this.
I drew my sword and it shown so bright that my instincts too over and I moved to try to block the blinding white light with my hand. Then I realized just how foolish I must look to Master Jason and lowered my hand.
"Use your shockhaven to surround it and contain the energy." Master Jason said. I followed his instructions and the glow was contained to the blade. "Good. Although if you learn to let your shockhaven penetrate objects you won't have that problem. Are you ready?"
I could still sense the vibrations as Master Jason spoke, but I prepared myself and did my best to put my awe aside for the moment to concentrate on the task at hand. "Yes sir." I said, knowing I was as ready as I'd ever be.
He drew back the scepter with one hand and swung horizontally. I blocked with my sword, but I wasn't ready for the strength of the blow and it knocked me off balance. The follow up seemed to come instantly and I moved my blade a little to far to the outside and the orb of the scepter connected with my chest. Everything in my haven awareness went white and I went flying. The only thing that stopped me was the unforgiving steal wall that I'm sure I dented with as hard as I hit it.
"Maintain your focus Eathen." Master Jason called as I got up slowly. "You can use your shockhaven to control your own movement as well." I got to my feet and put my pride aside and focused my attention only on trying to avoid being batted around the open room.
Despite my best efforts Master Jason was still continuing to land strikes. However, they were becoming less and less frequent as the day grew to a close and the distance that each strike sent me was decreasing as well.
"That's enough for today." Master Jason said, after roughly four hours of continuous combat. "Go ahead and take off your blindfold and relax."
I pulled off the blindfold that, like the rest of my clothes, was soaked with sweat. Opening my eyes was painful because of how long they'd been shut and how bright the room was, but they adjusted fast enough. I know now that all of the things that my body did, and still does, on its own come from how much thought the scientists and doctors put into making me a better weapon, but back then I took it all for granted. When my eyes adjusted to the light and I looked at Master Jason, my respect for the man jumped again. Where as I was panting, wet and doubled over in a combination of pain and pure exhaustion he stood tall. His breathing was even and calm and he didn't have a drop of sweat on him.
I tried to straighten up more for my own pride then to show respect in the presence of one o
f the Masters. "Relax Eathen. You did good. Very good. Go back to your quarters and rest, you have more than earned it. Also get yourself something to eat as well."
"Yes Sir." I said, as I finally got my breathing down to a respectable level. I went to give him back the blindfold only to see that it had disappeared already.
The self confident smile that Master Jason was giving me told me that he had plans for my future. "I plan on teaching you everything that I know so that one day you won't stare in awe at my skills." he said. With that he left the room and I gave up trying to maintain my composure and fell to the floor. Later I could get up and make my way to my quarters. Later I would eat and regain all the calories that I'd lost. However, for the time being, I was content to lay on the ground lost in the wonderful new way that I could see the universe. This was only the beginning and I knew that I was capable of learning everything that Master Jason had to teach me. So as I laid on the floor both physically and mentally exhausted there was one thought that kept me from giving into my body's needs. If this was as Master Jason put it, the beginning, and in one day my view of the universe changed, then what would I be like at he end?
And that was the first day that I'd met Master Jason.