Can Anybody Find Me?

Chapter 10

Lone grunted as her fist connected, a heavy sounding thud announcing a solid hit. She followed through with a hard knee and then spun around, snapping her fist in a tight hook shot. Sweat dripped down her back, shone on her arms and pattered to the floor around her. Loose strands of her hair stuck to her neck and jaw, glued in place by the wetness of her skin.

Her breathing was heavy, slightly hitched as even she started to run out of energy. But her form remained powerful and efficent, exhaustion not making her loose and sloppy. She was determined to keep gonig until exhaustion made her drop, pushing past hte point where her heart hammered in her eards, drowning out the sounds of her strikes, past when her body felt soaked with acid.

"Enough!" a voice called out and Lone stopped but kept her guard up. The bag she'd been training on swinging from her last blow. Her shoulders heaved as she gulped in deep breaths, trying to calm her frantic heartbeat. The muscles of her arms and legs twitched with fatigue now that she wasn't demanding action out of them and she had the faint buzzing in her ears that told her she was moments from involuntarily sitting down.

The dojo sensei marched up to her, furious. "Are you trying to do yourself serious harm?" he demanded, Native American features twisted with worry.

"No sensei." Lone panted. She wanted to argue with him as he scolded her but she kept her mouth shut. He was not above putting her in her place, from a slap to shut her up or a full out brawl to remind her why she came here to learn from him. He was by far the best mixed martial artist in the city and every fighter she had ever gone up against wanted to have him train them. But he was picky and refused most applicants. When Lone had heard about him, she had shown up at his dojo without an appointment, walked to the equipment and simply started training. He saw her but said nothing, jsut watched her. She said nothing either, just used the equipment to the fullest of her ability and left for the day after training. She would drop an envelope of money on his desk and leave. This went of for almost a month before he finally spoke to her, and it wasn't to find out her name or tell her to fuck off. Instead he pointed at her "You, get in the ring." he demanded and then walked away. She climbed in the cage and the opponent he picked for her stepped in after.

It was a giant man mountain in front of her, 6'4 of heavy muscle. He looked like Conan the Barbarian ate teh hulk kind of muscles. She hadn't batted an eyelash, just bowed and waited. He struck at her as she lifted from the bow, hoping to catch her off guard. For a big man he was fast, but Lone was just that little bit faster. She hadn't learned to actively read people's auras at this point, so all his flaring served as a distraction letting him land several hits. But she finally showed awareness of it to the side of her mind and focused on the patterns of his body. Then she clicked in to how he moved, almost anticipating it and burst into furious action. She managed to stun him so he staggered against the cage wall. While he was discombobulated, she managed to hop on his back and pull the Body Triangle. She ended up choking him out while her struggled. Afterwards, Coyote came up to ask her why she had no focus in hte beginning.

Coyote wouldn't tell anyone his real name, just refered to himself as Dumb Coyote and refused to explain the genisis of that name either. So Lone called him Coyote or sensei depending on the mood. Having recently settled into the city and trying to build her reputation up so people would bet seriously, she decided on impulse to tell him hte truth. That she sees a strange light around everyone, that no one else can see. It changed but kept the same theme for each person to a degree. And in fighting it was a horrible handicap until she managed to look past it. She'd lost fights previously due to it. Coyote just nodded, accepting what she said as true and agreed to turn a handicap into an asset. And then he told her to stop paying him for the lessons, he was a real sensei not a whore. She would be his piece de resistance, the last person he wanted to work on before retiring. Because Dumb Coyote was over 80 years old. He didn't look anywhere near that old, and his body certainly wasn't bowed with age. He was still the most perfect fighter she had ever had the honour to work with and she knew her ability to control and not be controlled by her gift as well as her increased efficiency as a fighter were all due to his careful tutelage.