14. Blue light

The drizzle seems to grow heavy, turning into a full pledged rain, light but none the less, rain.

RD is nearly exhausted. He has been running away for his pursuers for almost an hour now. With several near misses, he is thankful he is still alive.

He heard a sword slash through the air. It is coming from the cloaked man in front of him. He blocked the strike, parried the sword away and turned his head to get a glimpse of another cloaked person, a woman. She is completing her turn and ready to jab her spear at his mid section.

RD stepped back, turned toward the katana weilding attacker, lunged with a downward semi-circle slash, pulled back and parried the spear.

The rain is getting heavy now. RD is getting wet. He is feeling cold.

The male attacker is thinking of the very same thing. Except for him and his companion, their cloaks are being soaked. A little while longer and they will become both a hindrance and an advantage. Sprinkles of water from the cloak will distract their prey, but they will be meeting that same effect.

It must end now, thought the female attacker. She too realizes the problems their wet cloaks will pose. Killing their target is going to be very easy. Except that they are not there to kill him but instead to capture him. They need some information from him. Something that they must have to ensure the success of their mission and their cause. And they must not fail.

Both cloaked assailants are now walking around RD, looking for an opening. Their weapons menacingly pointed at his direction.

Standing at the center of the circle, RD extends both swords in his hands. Each kampilan pointed at its intended target. Whether to defend from an attack or strike a lethal blow, both swords moving with the targets as if sensing their presence and tracking them, keeping them at the end of its deadly two prong-shaped points.

Rain starts to fall in heavier.

Suddenly, the menacing dance stops.

With all their strenght both attackers pounced at their prey. The spear bearer thursting the ge while spinning the staff to flailed the lion hair decoration of her weapon sputtering water at her intended victim.

On the other side of the circle, the swordsman swings his katana for an upward slash. His intention, to cut off RDs hands and relieve him of one of his swords. He may die of sever bleeding from this cut but they may be able to pull out the information they need before it happens.

Thanks to years of practice in college, RD was able to think of a move to avoid the cuts about to be inflicted on him. RD makes a half counter-clockwise, lifting the sword to his left while dropping his right, twisting his wrist as he goes. This brought the attacker from his right to his left side and the one from his left to his right side. When he finished his turn, he began to drop his left arm to katana that is swing upward. His twisting right-hand sword succeeded in parrying the spear. He was no longer in the line of attack of both assasins but his position now puts both weapons inches from him. Their movements are once again locked.

RD need to do something or he will loose time to react to any movements the assailants might make.

At first, he did not notice it but the rain seemed to have stopped. RD's first thought is that it did stop. But he noticed that his hands and kampilans are still getting wet. Then he caught a glimpse of his attackers beginning to gaze upwards. He wanted to look but it may give them an opening. He must get away from this position. He must muster enough strength to push them back. Slowly he pulled in his kampilans to prepare for the push.

As he did, the push from both enemy weapons suddenly slackened.

This allowed him to look up to see something dropping along with rainwater. It began to glow. It has a blue glow. And it's headed toward him.

Too late, he thought. This is the end.

The ground suddenly shook from the impact of the blue light. It did not hit RD but it landed directly in front of him. The blue light is not some sort of a fireball as it blew off from the hand of another cloaked person.

As fast as the sound of the impact vibrated through the rainy street, a concentric ring of blue fire rippled off from the point of impact causing the two attackers to jump back.

Two against one is hard enough, now a third one came, RD's mind is racing. He now truly believes that this is his end.

13. Crowded streets

The ge is an ancient Chinese weapon. Ge means "fighting" in Chinese. To the simple observer, it can be described as a spear. But the ge uses a bronze blade tied to the end of a long staff. The blade is almost as long as a one-handed sword.

RD had survived the explosion caused by two converging fireballs shot at him by his attackers. He was able to run away hoping to loose them in this rainy night. Again, he is caught between the two, in a crowded city street full of young professionals partying in the rain. One of his adversaries is in the air, dropping down on him with a dagger in hand. The other, on the ground, a ge in hand, about to strike him. He needs to act fast to survive this. He needs to make his move at just the right moment.

The spear thrust is coming in first, he lifted his body up with his two hands, both toes pushed down on the streat. He then used his right hand to push himself further up while keeping his right hand planted on the ground for support and balance. He twisted his body rightward avoiding the ge from slicing him from the right neck down to his heart, slicing droplets instead from the sky.

As he cleared the spear, RD bent his left arm using his elbow now for support. He laid on the street as the dagger wielding attacker is within a few feet from him. He then pulled his knees toward his chest, placed his two hands on the ground beside his head and kicked off upward as the dagger strike missed his legs by inches.

RD used the strength of his arms to push his body upward, lifting himself feet first off the ground. As he pushed up, he pulled swung his feet forward making a reverse tumble landing on the concrete pavement facing the two attackers.

By now, the crowd had recovered from the initial shock of seeing three people jump down a five story building making perfect landings that only movie stunt men and some post production editing can do. Some pulled out their camera phones to try and take a picture of the scene.

One of the attackers noticed the photo taking and clapped his hands together, the dagger no longer in his hands.

"Magneto!" chanted the clapper.

Mobile phones and some exterior lights burst starting near where the three fighters stood moving outward as if an invisible concentric wave washed over them.

Recognizing the opportunity, RD crossed his arms in front of him, the middle of the 'X' right in front of his face, and pulled them diagonally downward.

"Dos Kampilan!" he chanted.

A stream of light crawling through his forearm revealed hidden symbols flashing out of his almost fair complexion that he got for staying indoors in an air-conditioned office most of the day. As the light continues its travel, now in RDs elbows, a rod of straight light emanated from RDs hands. When his hands reached his side, the lights have now vanished and in each hand, a broad sword typical of those used by early Filipinos.

"Now, we can have a real fight," said the ge wielding attacker.

He is a she, thought RD when he heard the voice. "What is it that you want with me," asked RD the strain of the chase and the fighting now evident in his breathing.

"We only want the information that you have," answered the dagger striking attacker now holding a katana.

"What information," RD asked, puzzled what is happening. He was supposed to go home after buying some tikoy in Binondo. Now the tikoy is left drenched in the street near Quezon Bridge. He dropped it when he was attacked.

"You may not remember it," said the katana wielding assailant, "but you have it. You hid it from everyone even from yourself. That old man you talked to knew about you possessing it but he does not know what it is."

"We share the same powers," said the woman stepping sidewards to RDs right. "That is a good enough clue for you."

"And this information must not come out," the man said as he took his position to RDs left.

"How can it come out if I can't even remember it," protested RD keeping watch on the movements of the two attackers, readying himself.

"Even if you can't remember it," explained the man, "someone can make you."

"And we don't want that," finished the woman lunging forward, the long ge pointed at RDs neck.

RD bent his body to the left to avoid the strike. He then twisted his right wrist to hit the staff with his sword. At the same time, the man on his left took a step forward made a horizontal slash toward his midsection. RD blocked this with the sword on his left.

"This is insane," grunted RD as he parried the sword slash and made a slash to the man's neck slicing the cloak.

The woman pulled at the spear and pushed it toward RDs chest. RD blocked it with his sword, turned counterclockwise swinging his sword to the woman's head. The woman kept the spear in place, bent her neck putting it in between her arms avoiding RDs strike, twisted the spear so that the sharpened edge faced RD, pulled it back while swinging it toward his back.

RD completed his turn brought the swing of the heavy sword, lifted his left arm to avoid the spear slash, and pushed forward the sword on his right to push off the spear. At the same time, he placed his right hand behind his head, the sword diagonally protecting his back from sword slash from behind.

Having blocked the spear slash and the sword strike, RD quickly twisted the sword in his right keeping in contact with the spear staff to point it downward while he twisted his sword behind him to point it toward his left securing the katana.

In a swift movement, he pushed the katana sidewards away from his back as he guided the spear over his head to his right, rain water splashing from the lion's beard decoration of the spear. This is a form of distraction that did not bother RD. He continued the pushing motion of both arms, his left hand changing it to a swing, again, toward the woman's head. His right arm also changed from pushing the staff to swinging, this one toward the man's neck.

Both attackers jumped back to avoid the slash and give some distance between themselves and RD.

RD now assumed an attack-defend position, his body in a 45 degree angle with the straight line represented by the two attackers on both sides. His kampilan on both hands ready to strike or to block.