Continues from
Skeletons of The Closet

Time: set after the completion of Skeletons of the Closet

When Hades was hacking into the UK secure server he was not the only one. Dragon King was there as well, it was he who took the file “Agent 67”. Indeed he was about to access the file 66 when he saw it disappear. What followed could only be described at a lightning conversation. The style of the other hacker reminded Dragon King very very strongly of his brother Hades. They agreed to post a location on a public forum along with a meeting time in 10 days in America.

Ten days later Dragon King arrived at the address. It was a stand alone mansion, obviously own by some insanely rich guy (Actually one of the directors and founders of the company that produces the mutant restrains bracelets). He drove back and drove his monster bike semi deep into the bush, and camouflaged it. He had intelligence on the person in there, that he got easily enough, what he did not know was if ‘Hades’, well if it was truly Hades anyway, was the owner, the owner’s friend or if this was just some picked squaring ground, whatever it was, if it was Hades that picked it, there would be a good reason for it.

He had forged an official letter from the company that Mr Jacob owned, cordially inviting him to Mr Jacob’s private residence. He handed it to the guards at the gate.
“We weren’t notified by Mr Jacob that he was expecting guests so beat it fellow.”

“Can you at least ask him? I don’t want to get hauled over the coals for missing an appointment.”

“I told you to beat it, so beat it already, ok? Got that into your thick skull?”

The two guards who were in the guard house had come out, Dragon King turned around and appeared as if he was going to leave, he slumped his shoulders in a defeated manner, while secretly drawing an odd looking pistol from a hidden pouch, tracking the position of the two guards by the sound of their voice he appeared to bend down to tie his shoes with his left hand while suddenly plunging his right hand around his left side and quickly squeezing off two shots. The Carbon Dioxide powered darts flew true and silently, the tranquilizers quickly doing their work also the amnesiac effect of the narcotic would ensure that they would have a hazy memory of what happened before they got shot. Dragon King calmly dragged the guards back into the guard house and arranged it so that it would look as if they had fallen asleep. He then took a small computer disc into the security feed computer, a few key strokes later he put the little disc safely back in his pocket as the security recording program would strangely have trouble recording for the next three hours.

Dragon King surveyed the ground floor of the mansion, it was huge. He did a quick survey of the complex, neutralising any security he encountered on his half of the complex. The grounds were extensive. The mansion was like a mini walled city, there was a man made river running through it complete with three or four rafts. The owner obviously was a fan of Asia as the whole layout was like a traditional Chinese mansion, complete with lanterns, urns for incense sticks (joss sticks), a mini forest of bamboo, and some random stone pillars and carvings scattered around the grassy turf. Dragon King slowly walked over his “half” of the ground making sure he knew where he was possibly going to be fighting for his life, or to kill the idiot who dared to masquerade as his brother. His brother…..hmmm. Best not to dwell on that. When he was ready he dropped down to a meditative crouch under the cover of one of the mini forests of bamboo.

On the other side of the mansion a lone motorbike coasted to a stop. On it was a rider dressed in black. The bike was a cross between a mountain bike and a grand prix bike, with relatively high clearance between the bottom of the chassis and the road, it had good suspension, and the best thing of all was that it was a quick start one, and it also had a secondary/backup electromagnetic motor, which allowed it to run silent.
A few minutes later he had bypassed the security systems and had looped the security cameras to play yesterdays tape.

Hades proceeded to neutralise any guards he saw with some sleeping gas that he had brought with him. He peered down into the enclosed space. The owner of the house was obviously tonight sleeping in the largest boat moored to the side of the mini man-made lake. He was certain that the other person was here, the system check he had performed showed him that someone had altered the system just ten minutes before him. He did a through scan of the space where he would possibly be battling for his life and then leapt from the first floor to the ground, landing lightly on his feet. His cloak billowed out behind him and his cowl hid his face in shadows. He dropped into a loose couch. He could see the hooded and caped figure from where he was and knew that his adversary had seen him. He started to gesture, using universal martial arts language to issue a challenge, he first griped the hilt of one sword then both swords, then one hand on his belt then two, he then waved his hands, then formed them into fists and then lightly tapped his palms on his thighs, finally he returned to a guarded crouch. To any Asian martial artist who had any nous would realise the challenge: first fight with one hand (hard i.e. sword blade…) weapon then duel wielding, then one handed (soft i.e. whip) range, then two handed, then throwing weapons, then weapon less, finally if they were both undefeated/alive then to fight with each martial arts masters personal emergency weapon.

A ray of moonlight combined with a light breeze suddenly lit a small section of Hades face. It was deathly pale, and when his facial muscles seemed to be frozen neutral. It looked like a dead man’s face. (Indeed it was a thin mask, the “face” only moved when the wearer spoke. So the only thing you could see was the eyes.)

Dragon King saw him clear as day, he stiffened slightly as he saw the “face” and recognised it for what it was. He should recognise it, as it was using a similar design to the one he was wearing, it was just that “Hades”(if it really was Hades) one was toned to replicate a pale human skin, while his was made to look healthy, still the constantly expressionless face was intimidating enough in its self. He rose and came out of hiding, he drew a huge blade from the sheath on his shoulder, and the blade alone was 26”. When one looked at the blade as it moved about one got the impression that it was on fire. It was golden yellow. With dragons engraved down t he length of the blade. The etchings while not the finest work of art and were slightly crude looking, nevertheless conveyed raw strength power and in this case rage, for they were in fact rage class weapons. There was the impression of heat radiating off the blade.

He nodded, accepting the challenge. He then moved slowly towards Hades, then when he was a short distance from Hades, he suddenly lunged forward, his speed startling for his size and his arm became a blur and there appeared arcs of golden light forming a # symbol. Then he retreated, as he sensed or he thought he sensed movement from his opponent.

It was a hunch, but if you have been fighting for as long as Dragon King had, you learnt to follow your hunches especially in a fight. Thus he used a move called defensive wall as he leapt back from Hades.

Hades saw the attack coming, he anticipated that it would be a rapid one, with no cover, no element of surprise there was only one thing that you could do, and that was to throw a rapid attack and hope to stun or wound your enemy and immediately retreat, for one was most vulnerable when attacking.

He stood relaxed as a giant blade heralding pain and death hurtled towards him. Then quick as a flash he leapt back at the same time meeting the arcs of light with arcs of his own. Suddenly his sword was in his hand. It was a elegant affair. Not shiny, oh no. It was a mixture of grey and black, thin, slim and efficient. When he drew it, he immediately sensed the wave of cold that followed any razor sharp blade being drawn.

He only let his sword make contact with the attacking blade when it was at the end of its arc. Even so he had to continually leap back to avoid the advancing moves. Once and only once did their weapons properly clash, and at that Hade’s blade shock slightly. This was not a battle he could win by strength.

One leap back, two leaps, yet still Dragon King gained on him. As Dragon King slashed down for the last time he was almost upon Hades, who had no choice but to leap back and do a front flip in mid air, while using his sword to keep the blade from cleaving him in two.

Then as suddenly as the attack had started, it stopped, with Dragon King retreating under a blur of golden arcs.

*Humph, Dragon King or not this fighter knows what he is doing.* but no time for hesitation. As soon as Hades right toe touched the ground he was leaping forward, sword held before him, streamlined, deadly.

A Chinese sword is different from the stereotypical western sword. The common western sword is a stiff relatively heavy affair. Any fool can pick one up and stab and lunge and slash with it, but it takes skill to wield it efficiently, but any fool can simply pick one up and stab a tree with it. Not with a Chinese “ soft” sword, oh no, it is thin, slim and flexible. If one picks one up and casually stabs a tree with it you will not succeed, as the sword will flex and bend. Thus once mastered you can slash your enemy with the main body of the blade, while the tip of the blade is whipped round to stab another important body part or pressure point.

That was precisely the technique that Hades was using, as he surged forward, seeming to almost to glide forward as the tip of his sword flickering madly. If the creator of the way of Lightening and Thunder saw Hades using it he would be proud. The first 37 moves are all using the tip of the sword to appear to simultaneously threaten 20 or so vital pressure points and weak points. Only a sword master or the attacker himself will know which “flicker” is not fake but real.

He had Dragon King on the retreat. Then, suddenly Dragon disappeared from Hades line of sight. Hades did a back flip and turned as he kick launched off a pillar nearby and launched himself towards Dragon King, but he knew that he had lost that advantage. It would be close quarter fight, with not enough room for Dragon King to prepare a power/strength attack, nor the time of himself to focus for a rapid or speed attack. It would be a test not of speed or unpredictably weird moves but it would be down to solid skill and technique.

Dragon King covered his retreat, he did it on a haunch, that hunch almost certainly saved his life. He expected Hades, well if it was Hades, counterattack to be swift, he did not expect it to be this deadly. It was almost as if Hades had summoned a wall of sword heads to charge towards him. Each flicker of the head was pointed to a vital point. He leapt backwards; mentally he knew that he was getting close to a bamboo garden and a group of pillars. Suddenly as one flashed passed him, he reached out his left hand and tapped the other side of the pillar, not enough to swing him round, but enough to change his momentum from backwards to sideways. He immediately landed, and turned as he heard someone do a kick flip in the background and there was a wave of cold air heralding an attack coming towards him.

The fighting was close quarters and relied on technique and skill and experience, they parried and fought. Hades was just that much faster than him, but his moves were that much stronger than Hades. At one point in the fighting their palm’s met and they both flew backwards. DRAGONKING took the chance to retreat and pout a distance between him and this person claiming to be Hades. His fighting style was similar to Hades. Anyhow, he was flying through the air when his right hand swept down and his blade carved an arc scooping up a large bronze urn (the type that is used to store incense) to fly up. Immediately he used the back of his hand to strike the top of the urn, spreading a curtain of ash between him and Hades, while nudging the urn towards his chest. Going down on one knee ne moved his left palm in a half arc and propelled the urn through the cloud of ash and soot towards Hades. As his left palm swept forward, his right hand was by no means idle, as it carved a horizontal arc, ending the life of a nearby tree. Time seemed to freeze for a second, his poise was perfect, left palm extended right hand holding blade extended directly behind him, his feet forming a perfect archers stance.

Then he exploded into action, right blade swinging back as he rose from his crouch to slice the tree trunk down the length, his swing continues to end the life or a tree on his left side. Not stopping for a second he continued his turn and raised his right foot and delivered two powerful kicks, one to each half of the trunk to his right. Springing into the air with his left foot, he flipped himself horizontal and delivered two heel kicks to the two halves of the tree on his left. Leaping backwards he was just dropping into a defensive crouch when he felt the premonition of another attack coming.

When their palms met, Hades gracefully drifted backward, the sword in his right hand carving the sign of infinity into the bamboo as he flew past. Moving the sword with speed and control, Hades manipulated six stalks of bamboo to his left side and launched them in a scattered fashion. He then did the same for the right side. It was then that through the cloud of ash he felt the wind of on coming projectiles, his sword flashed the first and second “half a tree trunk” were cleaved aside and split clean down the middle, the third one hit him in the left shoulder and spun him around. Upon hearing the fourth one whistling towards him, he dropped to a crouch and met it with an open palm, stopping it in mid air, then with a shout he sent in back in the opposite direction.

The urn hurtling towards him was heard just as much as felt. As it almost reached him, he dropped flat to the floor, on his back, his sword’s impossibly sharp edge reinforced by Hades martial arts training and inhumane strength, cutting clean through the bottom half of the urn. As soon as it had passed over him he back flipped, brining him in front of the urn again. Reversing the sword in his right hand so that the blade now rested along the length of his arm, he used the hilt to tap the urn upwards, then his right hand and hilt of sword still in contact with the urn, he used his body to redirect the momentum of the urn, effectively helping it make a u turn. The urn now started to fly away from him; his left palm brushed it, adding an erratic spin to the urns trajectory. Flash, then the urn flew onwards, despite Hades slicing through the other half of the urn, anyone trying to stop that would be in for a nasty surprise as the urn would split into multiple fragments upon any impact.

Having accomplished all that he stood straight, sword in right hand, the tip pointing towards the ground, ready for whatever his enemy would throw at him next, at the same time, the possibility of this “person” actually being Dragon King increased slightly, his fighting style was getting more and more similar.

The first few bamboo projectiles were cleaved neatly or deflected by Dragon King’s blade, and then one got through. It hit a nerve cluster on his right arm, instinctively he did a side flip and avoided the rest of the projectiles. Then the sound of the urn flying towards him reached his ears, he tapped some pressure points in his right shoulder, taking care of the numbness, the he destroyed the urn, two arcs formed an X appeared on the urn and then one horizontally straight through it, ensured the urn flying into many pieces and away from him, even though the threat was neutralised, Dragon King was still mad, hopping mad.

With a roar he drew forth his second great blade. Two sweeps of his blades send two smaller ornaments in Hades direction; he leapt into the middle of a clump of your saplings and did a clockwise spin with blades extended, then stopped dead, and reversed, then flicking his wrists so the handles of the blades were trapped between his thumb and first finger, he palmed the wood forward.

Dragon King was in the flow. People who do martial arts or any sort of high speed sport or play musical instrument will know what I am talking about, you know that stage where in those few seconds there is no time for thought and your body just reacts. Like in Ping Pong, when both sides are firing high speed balls, there is no time to think, your body just does what you trained it to do. In martial arts your enemy rapid attacks you, and your rapid parry, there is no time for thought, your body acts on reflex. For that instant in time you know exactly what you need to do, when to do it, and the best thing is that… your body just does it, the glorious freedom and perfection and fluidity felt is exhilarating.

What happened next seemed to happed in slow motion. During all this attack Dragon King saw Hades move and counter attack, but he kept on going. Doing whirlwinds with his feet, kicking pebbles as he went, sending them forward, sweeping up stones and rocks with his blade and hitting them forward with the blunt side of his blade.

Finally, he arched his left arm back and sent his left blade spinning like a Frisbee staying close to the ground right towards the charging Hades. He followed after his left blade by charging forward, his right blade a blur of motion, like a fireball he charged.

Hades heard the commotion, and as soon as Dragon King leapt into the clear with both blades drawn his second left sword seemed to leap from his right sheath into his hand. Suddenly he was flying backwards as Dragon King started to whip up projectiles. He passed through a corridor walled on each side by bamboo and thin trees as he did so his swords were a whir of motion. One jump back, two, a back flip, twist in mid air another leap backwards, end of corridor. He stood still both swords pointing towards the ground. Time itself seemed to slow down, Hades looked almost shapeless in his loose black robes, the way which they moved made it seam if Hades was not human but a think black liquid. Hades stood, his swords still, the blades not even wavering. Suddenly his wrists twitched, and the tips of his swords started to flicker wildly, he did an almost fluid shrug of his shoulders, (at this point any martial artist with any nous would have said “****, we are screwed”). The next minute Hades upper body lunged forward and his swords swept forward in an arc, almost clapping together and then they were flicked out again.

In response to the two power flicks, first the top half then the bottom half down to say 10cm suddenly seemed to disintegrate and fly in a mass towards Dragon King, the whole corridor of bamboo, shrubs, bonsai suddenly became deadly shards of shrapnel flying to meet Dragon Kings hail of stones.

The next sequence of moves seemed like a blur, to merge into one another to become one big complex fluid movement. First his right foot stepped back as he sheathed his right sword, and bringing his left sword around to clasp it between both hands on the right side of his body. The tip was dead still, a nanosecond of total stillness then… explosion of movement, the sword shot forward with Hades following not far behind it, his right sword arching out of its sheath, he flew forward to meet Dragon King while using the tip of his sword to deflect any stones that came close.

It was interesting watching the two charge towards each other, Dragon King seemed like a fireball, obliterating anything in his path, while Hades was more like a needle, darting this way and that, deflecting obstacles, there was a sort of deadly beauty watching this great duel, this great dance.

Dragon King was surging forward, he noted that his thrown blade seemed to have slowed Hades down slightly, then suddenly *flash* one of Hade’s swords suddenly appeared almost touching his nose. Time seemed to stand still, *Oh *****. On pure reflex, there was not time for thought; Dragon King did an iron bridge

(Iron Bridge is when you go from standing and bend your knees so that the rest of your body is horizontal, each style of martial arts has their own way of supporting the body while in this position)

The blade of the sword passed so close to his face that the blade practically grazed his nose, and his face felt the sharp wind generated by its passing. “Sheesh, that was close” he thought. It was then that he saw Hades charging towards him like some avenging angel of death blade extended before him like the tongue of a snake, flickering wildly.

*Oh….* since Dragon King had thrown his left blade he was currently supporting himself by his right blade. How he acted now could make the difference between coming out with a graze and death by impaling. He slapped his palm on the hilt of his blade and spun himself sideways, almost like he was rolling over in mid air, on his way over he gripped his sword and held it parallel to him just above the waist to protect his vital organs. His blade touched something soft then *Clash*. He landed feet in a kneeling pose let hand outstretched on the ground for balance, right hand with blade held to the right of him as Hades shot past. He was still for an instant, no more, and then he was leaping forward, his blade launching a constant flurry of rapid attacks.

Hunter took a seat in his office at Mondragon labs and logged onto the computer. It was immediatly apparent that someone had tampered with it, and Hunter knew who it was. He watched the streamed live feed from a camera that he already had a program tracing the real world location of as Hades and someone unknown were dueling.

Honestly, Hunter was impressed. He'd not seen such level of martial arts mastery in quite some time. Infact, the pair were not too far from his own level of skill. Besides reminding himself to practise more he began analysing their techniques, looking for openings and weaknesses. There were few, and fewer still that coudl be exploited by humans. Truely impressive. He'd have to have Hades tell him who this stranger was once the two stopped sparring.

Hades was charging toward Dragon King, following the sword that he had thrown, his other sword bending this way and that controlled by the moving of his wrist to deflect oncoming shrapnel. Then he saw a flash coming at his feet flying at high speed, he left the ground with a touch from his foot and then spun himself in mid air liken to a horizontal tornado, the wind from the thrown blade whipping painfully across his face, but he had not time to muse over that as his sword made contact. One flip and he was upright with his sword moving in a blur, his body was not still, but moving, spinning, twisting, flipping, now a kick there a palm, Hades was pushing to gain any sort of edge on Dragon King, at one point he did a jump turn and caught his other sword, now that he had two blades the fight was another story, but to his dismay he saw that Dragon King also had caught his blade back, with a roar he attacked again, then they both froze mid swing (a true test of skill) for they both heard a sound.