Remember More

Chapter 40

REMEMBER MORE

CHAPTER 40

Zhang sat on the boulder in the distance. He placed his palms together as he began to meditate. He closed his eyes. The yellow glow to them was diminished somewhat but it still showed through his lids.

John took a second and stepped away from Yan. He wiped his arm across his forehead for the sweat. Bending over, he rested his hands on his knees, as he continued to drag in breath like he'd just run a marathon.

Yan, in contrast, wasn't out of breath at all. No wonder, it wasn't her qi that the two of them had been using all this time.

She went to rub down his back. "You all right?"

John flicked his head over in Zhang's direction. "What's he doing?"

Yan shrugged. "I don't know. I thought that…"

The two blinked and Zhang was gone.

John swung his head up.

Having arced through the air, Zhang was now diving straight for them with his fists held out in front like sledgehammers and glowing bright yellow.

Yan went to take her position but John stopped her.

Even now, as Zhang was still a hundred feet above them, the pressure from his attack was squeezing the air from John's lungs. His knees shuddered. His shoulders drooped. The ground, in a four-foot radius around their feet, was being pressed into the earth like a dinosaur print.

Oh no!

John shoved on Yan to go one way.

He lunged off himself to go the other.

Zhang's punch connected.

That dinosaur footprint was now an eight-foot hole in the ground. Zhang zoomed out of it and went after John again.

John was just gaining his feet. He held up one hand to block.

Zhang snuck in under it and landed a jab into John's ribs. It sent him flying through the air.

Zhang sped off after him.

John spun with the hit and landed on his feet. "Hey, hold on a minute…"

Another one of Zhang's kicks.

John blocked and went flying again. This time, when he made ground, he didn't bother to look. He shot off right away and began zipping around the field, copying the footwork patterns that Yan had used when they were still fighting as a duo.

This proved useful. At the very least, it kept Zhang hopping so while he still threw out punch after punch at John, none of them came close enough that John had to raise his arms to block them.

Still, John knew he couldn't slow down. He kept running. "Can we…could you just…?"

John stopped. Dead in his tracks. He held his hands up. "Stop!"

Zhang overshot his prey and leaped over his head. He came to a halt some fifty feet away. He turned around.

The old man stood still for a moment, with his hands by his side, burning hot and yellow like crackling irons from the fire.

John was short of breath. "What…what's gotten into you? Why are you…?"

Zhang sighed. "You've learned everything I have to teach you." He turned his face and looked away. "You've learned all you can from Yan. Now it is time for you to open the last Gate."