Chapter 6
The Builder of Destruction
It was a rainy late-winter day, yet the huge square was filled with people. To Cao Long and Ming Li there were people as far as the eye could see. Cao was taller than most of his countrymen, but he still couldn't see the end of the mass of people. Right at the middle of the square, all the magicians who would pledge their loyalty to the state were standing, with him being one of them. The rest of the people, the masses, were just that, masses, though Cao didn't see it that way. There had been an order to come and watch the ceremony, the government wanted to use the footage as propaganda. And the image Tiaman Square filled with people who could cast magic would be excellent to give a false impression to the world; the fact that it was just the few in the middle who had the skill was unimportant.
"And so I pledge to serve the state until my last breath, defend the spirit of the revolution with my last heart-beat, never to fail." Cao hear coming out of his mouth. He had lived in a small village most of his life, with all these people saying the same as he did, he felt like a robot doing what he was told, but it was a magnificent feeling. Or was it? There were more pledges made, but they came out of his mouth instinctively, and if they wouldn't come, no one would notice anyway.
"Congratulations, you are now a part of the Peoples Magicians Guild. You will be follow me to the compound." the man in the front shouted out. Cao didn't start walking; he was instead pulled forward by the mass of people. There was no worry for him being crushed, he had casted a shield of air around him when he noticed the risk of injury here. Looking to his left Ming Li also had space around here, suggesting she had made something similar. He couldn't see her weaves, nor she his, but he supposed it was something about the gender. It was hard to understand, but he felt as he had known once why it did so, but the feeling went off as soon as he felt it. Didn't matter.
The walk to the compound was long, very long in fact. Beijing was a big city and the compound was quite a walk from the city too. They could have used cars but the propaganda value of them walking seemed to great to miss. Happy and smiling people stood all around them, several waving from the windows too. The non-channelers that were walking blended into the crowd on the sides of the street, and once they were out of the city the rest went away from group. But finally they reached there.
The compound was the least it could be called, it was a city. Or it might have been a city once, now it was almost empty. After all it had only been eight days since the wave, few people had arrived so far, maybe twenty thousand so far, Cao figured later at night when he was in his simple bed, but not now however.
As he reached the gate to the compound, after a long, very long, queue, a military officer with a questionnaire paper of some sort met him. The man spoke up with an absent voice "Please state your name, sex, age, citizen- number and former position." and as Cao answered the mans questions, he received some form of ID with his name and number on it, and was allowed to go into the compound. His ID-tag also held what room he would sleep in, and as it was already late, he was forced to go and sleep almost at once, before he could find Ming.
The night was quite uneventful, and in the morning he decided to walk around the city to see what was happening, and where the training, food and other areas were.
The streets were paved with hard concrete, and the rain was gushing down on Cao. There were no formal lessons held here so far, no one had had the time to organize such a thing in such little time, besides, who would be the teachers? Nine days and twenty thousand people, with three or more thousand new each day. There were even no formal uniforms given, most people here were just in simple farmers clothes. He didn't even have any shoes anymore, someone had stolen them while he was asleep, he muttered angrily, but low. At least the rain wasn't a problem; he had a good skill with grabbing the one power now. It succeeded almost two thirds of all the time, and it felt great. Though he feared that grabbing too much of it and losing control might have unfortunate consequences. I know, I have always know, he though, but before he could grab it, and think of where it came from, it was gone already. Probably nothing. He was having some strange feelings now and then, but everyone else was probably having them too.
Most of the people here don't seem to use the power to protect themselves from the rain he said to himself in an inner monologue as he walked between some gray apartment buildings. Not that I would call them fools, even I don't think on it all the time, Cao thought while looking at the people trying to defend themselves from the rain by drawing their coats or whatever clothes they had over their heads. Some looked at him and tried to do the same thing he did. Some failed, some did not. Some were just crying in the drains for some reason. Had the One Power made them mad? It did feel great, they probably just couldn't comprehend. But they would. Eventually.
This lot deserved some teaching, but he supposed that they would just have to wait until the leaders, if there were such a thing here, told them what to do. They were simple farmers most of them, and the leaders were servant leaders of the people's republic, or that is what he had been told in school at least. He hadn't been ever so sure about that, or what it even meant.
"Cao, is that you?" a female voice shouted behind him. He had been busy thinking at the foolishness of everyone around here, but not that busy. As he turned his head around, he noticed it was Ming walking towards him. It was the reason he had walked outside in the first place too, to find her.
As she came within close distance, she spoke up excitedly to him "Cao, can you believe it? I was just walking on another street, when two people bumped into each other. Then one person who was looking at them while walking forward, bumped into another person, a big and angry person. When the fight started I retreated trough an alley, and then I saw you on this street. Incredible piece of chance, don't you think? Anyways, where are you sleeping, I am sleeping with an old lady who still lives here from the times before this city was emptied. She is very nice, and even game me these new clothes. where are your shoes by the way Cao?". She spoke so fast that Cao didn't have quite time to understand it all at once, but he had always been a fast learner. Usually very fast.
"I sleep in the peoples barrack 124. My shoes were stolen by some thief while I was asleep, but I am happy to see you got the luck of the draw." he replied with a sarcastic voice. Some people just had luck, others had less luck. Usually the women came out on top whoever had the luck. The Peoples Magicians Army was no difference. Nope, none at all.
"So, thinking about taking any classes Cao?" she said to him with an expectant glow in her eyes. It seemed she was plotting something that he wouldn't want to know really. The nice dress she wore made her seem even more innocent, but he should know better, he had learned the hard way.
"Classes? Are there any classes here, or are you planning something. Don't lie to me now, I will know if you do" he said with a smile on his face. He couldn't sense someone lying of course, but that meant that they couldn't either know he was. Yes his smile widened even more. Strangely that she smiled back too, he had never actually understood why she did that when he acted like now.
"I am not planning anything my love. Go to the house on Fourth Street and ask about classes. I promise that you won't be unhappy about it." she said with a smile. "And when you return, we can rest in my private room" she then whispered into his ear. That alone was worth going there and asking for classes, besides, he might learn something on those classes too, he wanted to learn everything.
As he started walking towards there, after asking Ming's address, he was sure he could feel an evil smile at him from her. Probably just his imagination. The walk was a generally uninteresting one, by the cracked houses; pieces of clothing that had fallen on the street, and fellow channelers. At one location someone jumped out of a top floor of a six- story building down to the concrete street, yet he didn't even get a scratch from the fall, and no one had channeled to help him, that Cao was sure of. Strange, but things like that happened. Rarely, but they happened.
As he reached the building, a good-looking government building, the calm and lazy atmosphere inside the building surprised him. Didn't the leaders work as hard as the workers in China? Did they? Oh well, not important now, he though.
He approached a man who looked important and picked him with the One Power on his shoulder. "Excuse me, but I would like to ask about classes, Ming Li, someo.." he started talking, but was interrupted by the man after that. The man picked up a piece of paper on a clipboard and a pen and started talking to him.
"Name, ID, and location of stay" he said strictly. Cao answered simple "Cao Long, 210591-4325S, Barrack 124, bed 43" he answered in the same angry tone as the man had asked. The man filled in something more at the paper for a minute or two, and then promptly said. "Cao Long, you are now teacher of advanced fire-techniques in building 34. Go there and get your class hours and don't bother me any more", and with those words, the man disappeared into the building before Cao could say a word. He did notice a piece of paper in his hands, a copy of the one the man had written. Ming would pay for this, yes she would. And in the end they would kiss and make up, or that was what he hoped.
It took quite a while for him to find the correct building. Everything looked the same here, and the building numbers seemed totally random. Still, in the end he found the building, and soon he started teaching until about 12 o'clock, after which he went out of the building and started walking towards Ming's.
Later in the day he started going trough the events of the day. It had been a hard morning. Damn Ming for making him teach those students. And damn their stupidity. He was thinking of showing them some neat tricks he had learned during his travels here, and they would have done the same to him, but no. He had been forced to learn them how grasp the source safely. Strange however, almost no one else here had known how to do that, and of those few, even less were as good as him. But he had always been a fast learner; maybe it was just a coincidence.
And the meeting with Ming hadn't been any nice either. The old woman she lived with had been a pain, and then they had made him take classes after that. It was at the middle of the night for the sake of the state. And then he had just been forced to teach them for six hours straight in seizing the source. They had even made him teach women, although men couldn't do that, he wanted to shout in their faces. He didn't, and thanked god that he hadn't too.
Now the clock on the wall showed almost seven. He needed to clear his head of thoughts before he went to sleep. He wasn't exactly tired anymore, that coffee in the teacher's room was bound to keep him awake with his thoughts for at least six more hours. Then he noticed a sports-hall. Sports might tire his body enough to make him sleep, he though, while pushing the other people to the side walking in. If he had though about it, he would have realized that he didn't push them to the side, it was his teacher's badge that did.
The clothing room held all kinds of sporting clothes, cheap ones, but still sporting clothes. He noticed a karate-suit in a corner there, and spoke out "Excellent, some sparring is bound to clear my mind and get me tired.", though the noise in the room made it sure that no one heard him. He had always liked the way fighting emptied your mind of anything else, and that was exactly what he needed now. He even found a brown belt, and continued out to the great hall.
In there he noticed that the door outside was open, and on the grass field people were sparring all kinds of martial arts. For commoners it was technically illegal to train most of the martial arts, but in military organizations people needed to know how to fight. When he stepped outside, he noticed that someone had used white sticks to create tatamis on the ground. Excellent.
As he was looking out for a good partner to spar with, someone tapped him on his shoulders, and turning around he saw a man about a head taller than him, a very tall man, with a brown belt too. "You look like one with some skills, shall we spar a bit. They will be having a competition here in a half hour, and I never fight in competitions cold. What do you say?" the man said.
It would be a hard fight, Cao didn't doubt that; the man seemed much bigger than him, even if he had always been a tall man. But he did like good fights, and the harder the better. At home he had once won against three others.
As they stepped into the tatami, Cao took a good fighting stance and hardened every muscle in his body. He even put his hands in a fist, something that it shouldn't usually be. Then he begun.
The man was cautious, and stayed well out of kicking or punching range. His hands were set on either side of his chest, creating an opening to punch in his chest. Only few would have gone for a hit there though, it was an obvious trap. The fight went on like this for almost thirty seconds, before the man grew frustrated. Frustration was good for Cao, that would make the man tired, and tired men lost. Always.
The man started a hard right-hand punch. Very hard, if Cao hadn't moved, the punch might have even gone trough him had he been against a wall too, that is. But the mans arms were longer than Cao's, almost six centimeters. One would have been easy, two acceptable, three hard, but six, that length made it impossible for Cao to come close enough to attack without being hit down.
The man kept punching, right hand, left hand, and then the right hand again. There was even a kick. His punches made it soon impossible for Cao to pull back any more without stepping out of the tatami. The man was not worth it. Instead he started push away the mans punches. He never saw the hand coming forward of course, all good punches were far too fast for that, but somehow he managed to put his hand in position and push the man away. The eye and the backbone were sometimes faster than the brain, and even more so in fights. The man kept punching right and left respectively, but he went slower and slower all the time, it took time to draw his hand back. This went on for almost ten seconds. There might have been twenty punches, maybe more, and even some kicks, when the man made his fatal mistake. The man drew back his arm to make a punch, not a long draw, just a few centimeters, but it gave Cao more than enough time to make his own punch, and one moment Cao's punch landed in the mans chest, the other second the man was a good way back, grasping for air; which he would get, the punch had not been hard, or even dangerous, but it was a good punch.
He was just about to move his foot and push the man down, when everything started to go dizzy. The man was now five men, and all of them coming on him, then five fists hit him, all in the same place for some strange reason too, and he was on the ground. Before he passed out, he noticed that several people in the crowd around them were also stubbering, and some had fallen down already. What was happening, he though, and then the dreams begun.
Cao stood in a dark chamber. It was a huge chamber, and the only thing that he could see there was a dark man, or it might be a man, a dark being was more appropriate to call it. It beckoned him "Come Dragon, shall you gamble again. You wish to save the world, and kill your friends. Again, and again and again, from the start of time until the end of time, until you surrender to me."
"Who are you, what gamble are you talking about, I have never killed anyone. Never will." Cao replied. Actually he shouted it out. Who was he, what was he, but more importantly, why was he? The darkness seemed to creep closer to him, though he had a strange aura of light around. He hadn't noticed it before. Why have I not noticed it before? What is this place! Who is he? The other man didn't have an aura of light around him. He had an aura of darkness, even more dark than the darkness of the chamber.
"So you say. You are wrong. You WILL serve me. You MUST! Or else you will kill everyone you love, know, like and. hate." the being said to him. Cao was sure he saw a smile form on the dark man. Why would he kill everyone, how could he even? The man at the factory had been a mistake. It wasn't his fault; he didn't mean to do it. Still, he was responsible. But he wouldn't kill anyone else.
The words that came out of his mouth surprised even himself "Never will I serve you, Father of Lies. I have never served you, and never will. I will not kill anyone. No!" and with his great shout of hate, which sounded more like the anger of a five-year old he though, he threw something he had in his hands at the dark one. They were two dices. Have I held them in his hand the whole time? I couldn't have, that's impossible.
The creature spoke out to him "A five and a four. Not bad throws, though in the real world you could do better. As could I." he said gleefully "The five for the lover, the four for the general. Now it is my turn to throw." the man said while picking up the dice. Why do I sometimes think of him as the man, sometimes the dark one, sometimes the being, Cao though? And why did I call him Father of Lies, is he even real? I must be dreaming, mustn't I? More he couldn't wonder before the dice landed before him, a six and a two. Then the man spoke up again. "You see Cao, how simple it is to kill the ones you love. The six beats your five; your four beats my two. Already you have killed your lover, banned her to death and pain. But you can still save her, join me." he said in the same dark, taunting voice.
"No, nothing you do here can harm anyone. Nothing", but as he was about to continue, he heard a scream from his left. He could barely see the figure of a woman, before she was drawn in trough the floor. A sound from his right side let him see a man, someone in casual clothing not much older than him, he though, walking away into the darkness.
"There you are mistake, my young Dragon. Or shall I call you Xiwan maybe? That was your past name you know. Aaah, you are surprised. You know so little, too little. If you join me you could know it all. Live forever with the ones you love. Just one step below me. But you won't do that, will you? But whom shall we throw for this time. Yes, the friend and the scientist. Those are always the best ones, don't you think?" the man said to him. Strange, but it seemed that the mans voice didn't come from him, but instead talked directly inside his head, Cao though. But he threw.
Two ones landed before the man. The two small dots on the dice radiated a red, angry color. And did the eyes of the man. The eyes of the dark one, Cao muttered to himself. The man didn't say a word of course, only threw them back, with two sixes landing before him. Again, on his left side, he just barely glimpsed two men falling down into the floor.
"Now it is my time to choose who we play for. We play for the builder and myself. Yes we do." The man seemed surprised, something Cao was sure that it or he had never been before. It was even more surprised to see, or not see, the two dice hitting him in the eye. And Cao ran. Ran and ran and ran, looking backwards to see if the man was after him. And then he bumped into him.
"FOOL! I AM NOT REAL HERE, BUT YOU ARE, AND WHAT HAPPENS HERE IS REAL FOR YOU. YOU BROKE THE RULES; YOU HAVE ALREADY TAKEN ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS ME. TAKE ONE MORE, JOIN ME, DRAGON!" the dark ones voice boomed inside his head. He didn't know what to do, and didn't have to either, because the next thing he knew what opening his eyes and lying on the grass ground by the sports center. Everyone else around was on the ground lying too, all of them in some kind of strange state. If he hadn't been so much in thoughts, he would have noticed how all of them finally recovered. But he couldn't help dreading that what had happened in the dream was real, and that the man was real.
It was a rainy late-winter day, yet the huge square was filled with people. To Cao Long and Ming Li there were people as far as the eye could see. Cao was taller than most of his countrymen, but he still couldn't see the end of the mass of people. Right at the middle of the square, all the magicians who would pledge their loyalty to the state were standing, with him being one of them. The rest of the people, the masses, were just that, masses, though Cao didn't see it that way. There had been an order to come and watch the ceremony, the government wanted to use the footage as propaganda. And the image Tiaman Square filled with people who could cast magic would be excellent to give a false impression to the world; the fact that it was just the few in the middle who had the skill was unimportant.
"And so I pledge to serve the state until my last breath, defend the spirit of the revolution with my last heart-beat, never to fail." Cao hear coming out of his mouth. He had lived in a small village most of his life, with all these people saying the same as he did, he felt like a robot doing what he was told, but it was a magnificent feeling. Or was it? There were more pledges made, but they came out of his mouth instinctively, and if they wouldn't come, no one would notice anyway.
"Congratulations, you are now a part of the Peoples Magicians Guild. You will be follow me to the compound." the man in the front shouted out. Cao didn't start walking; he was instead pulled forward by the mass of people. There was no worry for him being crushed, he had casted a shield of air around him when he noticed the risk of injury here. Looking to his left Ming Li also had space around here, suggesting she had made something similar. He couldn't see her weaves, nor she his, but he supposed it was something about the gender. It was hard to understand, but he felt as he had known once why it did so, but the feeling went off as soon as he felt it. Didn't matter.
The walk to the compound was long, very long in fact. Beijing was a big city and the compound was quite a walk from the city too. They could have used cars but the propaganda value of them walking seemed to great to miss. Happy and smiling people stood all around them, several waving from the windows too. The non-channelers that were walking blended into the crowd on the sides of the street, and once they were out of the city the rest went away from group. But finally they reached there.
The compound was the least it could be called, it was a city. Or it might have been a city once, now it was almost empty. After all it had only been eight days since the wave, few people had arrived so far, maybe twenty thousand so far, Cao figured later at night when he was in his simple bed, but not now however.
As he reached the gate to the compound, after a long, very long, queue, a military officer with a questionnaire paper of some sort met him. The man spoke up with an absent voice "Please state your name, sex, age, citizen- number and former position." and as Cao answered the mans questions, he received some form of ID with his name and number on it, and was allowed to go into the compound. His ID-tag also held what room he would sleep in, and as it was already late, he was forced to go and sleep almost at once, before he could find Ming.
The night was quite uneventful, and in the morning he decided to walk around the city to see what was happening, and where the training, food and other areas were.
The streets were paved with hard concrete, and the rain was gushing down on Cao. There were no formal lessons held here so far, no one had had the time to organize such a thing in such little time, besides, who would be the teachers? Nine days and twenty thousand people, with three or more thousand new each day. There were even no formal uniforms given, most people here were just in simple farmers clothes. He didn't even have any shoes anymore, someone had stolen them while he was asleep, he muttered angrily, but low. At least the rain wasn't a problem; he had a good skill with grabbing the one power now. It succeeded almost two thirds of all the time, and it felt great. Though he feared that grabbing too much of it and losing control might have unfortunate consequences. I know, I have always know, he though, but before he could grab it, and think of where it came from, it was gone already. Probably nothing. He was having some strange feelings now and then, but everyone else was probably having them too.
Most of the people here don't seem to use the power to protect themselves from the rain he said to himself in an inner monologue as he walked between some gray apartment buildings. Not that I would call them fools, even I don't think on it all the time, Cao thought while looking at the people trying to defend themselves from the rain by drawing their coats or whatever clothes they had over their heads. Some looked at him and tried to do the same thing he did. Some failed, some did not. Some were just crying in the drains for some reason. Had the One Power made them mad? It did feel great, they probably just couldn't comprehend. But they would. Eventually.
This lot deserved some teaching, but he supposed that they would just have to wait until the leaders, if there were such a thing here, told them what to do. They were simple farmers most of them, and the leaders were servant leaders of the people's republic, or that is what he had been told in school at least. He hadn't been ever so sure about that, or what it even meant.
"Cao, is that you?" a female voice shouted behind him. He had been busy thinking at the foolishness of everyone around here, but not that busy. As he turned his head around, he noticed it was Ming walking towards him. It was the reason he had walked outside in the first place too, to find her.
As she came within close distance, she spoke up excitedly to him "Cao, can you believe it? I was just walking on another street, when two people bumped into each other. Then one person who was looking at them while walking forward, bumped into another person, a big and angry person. When the fight started I retreated trough an alley, and then I saw you on this street. Incredible piece of chance, don't you think? Anyways, where are you sleeping, I am sleeping with an old lady who still lives here from the times before this city was emptied. She is very nice, and even game me these new clothes. where are your shoes by the way Cao?". She spoke so fast that Cao didn't have quite time to understand it all at once, but he had always been a fast learner. Usually very fast.
"I sleep in the peoples barrack 124. My shoes were stolen by some thief while I was asleep, but I am happy to see you got the luck of the draw." he replied with a sarcastic voice. Some people just had luck, others had less luck. Usually the women came out on top whoever had the luck. The Peoples Magicians Army was no difference. Nope, none at all.
"So, thinking about taking any classes Cao?" she said to him with an expectant glow in her eyes. It seemed she was plotting something that he wouldn't want to know really. The nice dress she wore made her seem even more innocent, but he should know better, he had learned the hard way.
"Classes? Are there any classes here, or are you planning something. Don't lie to me now, I will know if you do" he said with a smile on his face. He couldn't sense someone lying of course, but that meant that they couldn't either know he was. Yes his smile widened even more. Strangely that she smiled back too, he had never actually understood why she did that when he acted like now.
"I am not planning anything my love. Go to the house on Fourth Street and ask about classes. I promise that you won't be unhappy about it." she said with a smile. "And when you return, we can rest in my private room" she then whispered into his ear. That alone was worth going there and asking for classes, besides, he might learn something on those classes too, he wanted to learn everything.
As he started walking towards there, after asking Ming's address, he was sure he could feel an evil smile at him from her. Probably just his imagination. The walk was a generally uninteresting one, by the cracked houses; pieces of clothing that had fallen on the street, and fellow channelers. At one location someone jumped out of a top floor of a six- story building down to the concrete street, yet he didn't even get a scratch from the fall, and no one had channeled to help him, that Cao was sure of. Strange, but things like that happened. Rarely, but they happened.
As he reached the building, a good-looking government building, the calm and lazy atmosphere inside the building surprised him. Didn't the leaders work as hard as the workers in China? Did they? Oh well, not important now, he though.
He approached a man who looked important and picked him with the One Power on his shoulder. "Excuse me, but I would like to ask about classes, Ming Li, someo.." he started talking, but was interrupted by the man after that. The man picked up a piece of paper on a clipboard and a pen and started talking to him.
"Name, ID, and location of stay" he said strictly. Cao answered simple "Cao Long, 210591-4325S, Barrack 124, bed 43" he answered in the same angry tone as the man had asked. The man filled in something more at the paper for a minute or two, and then promptly said. "Cao Long, you are now teacher of advanced fire-techniques in building 34. Go there and get your class hours and don't bother me any more", and with those words, the man disappeared into the building before Cao could say a word. He did notice a piece of paper in his hands, a copy of the one the man had written. Ming would pay for this, yes she would. And in the end they would kiss and make up, or that was what he hoped.
It took quite a while for him to find the correct building. Everything looked the same here, and the building numbers seemed totally random. Still, in the end he found the building, and soon he started teaching until about 12 o'clock, after which he went out of the building and started walking towards Ming's.
Later in the day he started going trough the events of the day. It had been a hard morning. Damn Ming for making him teach those students. And damn their stupidity. He was thinking of showing them some neat tricks he had learned during his travels here, and they would have done the same to him, but no. He had been forced to learn them how grasp the source safely. Strange however, almost no one else here had known how to do that, and of those few, even less were as good as him. But he had always been a fast learner; maybe it was just a coincidence.
And the meeting with Ming hadn't been any nice either. The old woman she lived with had been a pain, and then they had made him take classes after that. It was at the middle of the night for the sake of the state. And then he had just been forced to teach them for six hours straight in seizing the source. They had even made him teach women, although men couldn't do that, he wanted to shout in their faces. He didn't, and thanked god that he hadn't too.
Now the clock on the wall showed almost seven. He needed to clear his head of thoughts before he went to sleep. He wasn't exactly tired anymore, that coffee in the teacher's room was bound to keep him awake with his thoughts for at least six more hours. Then he noticed a sports-hall. Sports might tire his body enough to make him sleep, he though, while pushing the other people to the side walking in. If he had though about it, he would have realized that he didn't push them to the side, it was his teacher's badge that did.
The clothing room held all kinds of sporting clothes, cheap ones, but still sporting clothes. He noticed a karate-suit in a corner there, and spoke out "Excellent, some sparring is bound to clear my mind and get me tired.", though the noise in the room made it sure that no one heard him. He had always liked the way fighting emptied your mind of anything else, and that was exactly what he needed now. He even found a brown belt, and continued out to the great hall.
In there he noticed that the door outside was open, and on the grass field people were sparring all kinds of martial arts. For commoners it was technically illegal to train most of the martial arts, but in military organizations people needed to know how to fight. When he stepped outside, he noticed that someone had used white sticks to create tatamis on the ground. Excellent.
As he was looking out for a good partner to spar with, someone tapped him on his shoulders, and turning around he saw a man about a head taller than him, a very tall man, with a brown belt too. "You look like one with some skills, shall we spar a bit. They will be having a competition here in a half hour, and I never fight in competitions cold. What do you say?" the man said.
It would be a hard fight, Cao didn't doubt that; the man seemed much bigger than him, even if he had always been a tall man. But he did like good fights, and the harder the better. At home he had once won against three others.
As they stepped into the tatami, Cao took a good fighting stance and hardened every muscle in his body. He even put his hands in a fist, something that it shouldn't usually be. Then he begun.
The man was cautious, and stayed well out of kicking or punching range. His hands were set on either side of his chest, creating an opening to punch in his chest. Only few would have gone for a hit there though, it was an obvious trap. The fight went on like this for almost thirty seconds, before the man grew frustrated. Frustration was good for Cao, that would make the man tired, and tired men lost. Always.
The man started a hard right-hand punch. Very hard, if Cao hadn't moved, the punch might have even gone trough him had he been against a wall too, that is. But the mans arms were longer than Cao's, almost six centimeters. One would have been easy, two acceptable, three hard, but six, that length made it impossible for Cao to come close enough to attack without being hit down.
The man kept punching, right hand, left hand, and then the right hand again. There was even a kick. His punches made it soon impossible for Cao to pull back any more without stepping out of the tatami. The man was not worth it. Instead he started push away the mans punches. He never saw the hand coming forward of course, all good punches were far too fast for that, but somehow he managed to put his hand in position and push the man away. The eye and the backbone were sometimes faster than the brain, and even more so in fights. The man kept punching right and left respectively, but he went slower and slower all the time, it took time to draw his hand back. This went on for almost ten seconds. There might have been twenty punches, maybe more, and even some kicks, when the man made his fatal mistake. The man drew back his arm to make a punch, not a long draw, just a few centimeters, but it gave Cao more than enough time to make his own punch, and one moment Cao's punch landed in the mans chest, the other second the man was a good way back, grasping for air; which he would get, the punch had not been hard, or even dangerous, but it was a good punch.
He was just about to move his foot and push the man down, when everything started to go dizzy. The man was now five men, and all of them coming on him, then five fists hit him, all in the same place for some strange reason too, and he was on the ground. Before he passed out, he noticed that several people in the crowd around them were also stubbering, and some had fallen down already. What was happening, he though, and then the dreams begun.
Cao stood in a dark chamber. It was a huge chamber, and the only thing that he could see there was a dark man, or it might be a man, a dark being was more appropriate to call it. It beckoned him "Come Dragon, shall you gamble again. You wish to save the world, and kill your friends. Again, and again and again, from the start of time until the end of time, until you surrender to me."
"Who are you, what gamble are you talking about, I have never killed anyone. Never will." Cao replied. Actually he shouted it out. Who was he, what was he, but more importantly, why was he? The darkness seemed to creep closer to him, though he had a strange aura of light around. He hadn't noticed it before. Why have I not noticed it before? What is this place! Who is he? The other man didn't have an aura of light around him. He had an aura of darkness, even more dark than the darkness of the chamber.
"So you say. You are wrong. You WILL serve me. You MUST! Or else you will kill everyone you love, know, like and. hate." the being said to him. Cao was sure he saw a smile form on the dark man. Why would he kill everyone, how could he even? The man at the factory had been a mistake. It wasn't his fault; he didn't mean to do it. Still, he was responsible. But he wouldn't kill anyone else.
The words that came out of his mouth surprised even himself "Never will I serve you, Father of Lies. I have never served you, and never will. I will not kill anyone. No!" and with his great shout of hate, which sounded more like the anger of a five-year old he though, he threw something he had in his hands at the dark one. They were two dices. Have I held them in his hand the whole time? I couldn't have, that's impossible.
The creature spoke out to him "A five and a four. Not bad throws, though in the real world you could do better. As could I." he said gleefully "The five for the lover, the four for the general. Now it is my turn to throw." the man said while picking up the dice. Why do I sometimes think of him as the man, sometimes the dark one, sometimes the being, Cao though? And why did I call him Father of Lies, is he even real? I must be dreaming, mustn't I? More he couldn't wonder before the dice landed before him, a six and a two. Then the man spoke up again. "You see Cao, how simple it is to kill the ones you love. The six beats your five; your four beats my two. Already you have killed your lover, banned her to death and pain. But you can still save her, join me." he said in the same dark, taunting voice.
"No, nothing you do here can harm anyone. Nothing", but as he was about to continue, he heard a scream from his left. He could barely see the figure of a woman, before she was drawn in trough the floor. A sound from his right side let him see a man, someone in casual clothing not much older than him, he though, walking away into the darkness.
"There you are mistake, my young Dragon. Or shall I call you Xiwan maybe? That was your past name you know. Aaah, you are surprised. You know so little, too little. If you join me you could know it all. Live forever with the ones you love. Just one step below me. But you won't do that, will you? But whom shall we throw for this time. Yes, the friend and the scientist. Those are always the best ones, don't you think?" the man said to him. Strange, but it seemed that the mans voice didn't come from him, but instead talked directly inside his head, Cao though. But he threw.
Two ones landed before the man. The two small dots on the dice radiated a red, angry color. And did the eyes of the man. The eyes of the dark one, Cao muttered to himself. The man didn't say a word of course, only threw them back, with two sixes landing before him. Again, on his left side, he just barely glimpsed two men falling down into the floor.
"Now it is my time to choose who we play for. We play for the builder and myself. Yes we do." The man seemed surprised, something Cao was sure that it or he had never been before. It was even more surprised to see, or not see, the two dice hitting him in the eye. And Cao ran. Ran and ran and ran, looking backwards to see if the man was after him. And then he bumped into him.
"FOOL! I AM NOT REAL HERE, BUT YOU ARE, AND WHAT HAPPENS HERE IS REAL FOR YOU. YOU BROKE THE RULES; YOU HAVE ALREADY TAKEN ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS ME. TAKE ONE MORE, JOIN ME, DRAGON!" the dark ones voice boomed inside his head. He didn't know what to do, and didn't have to either, because the next thing he knew what opening his eyes and lying on the grass ground by the sports center. Everyone else around was on the ground lying too, all of them in some kind of strange state. If he hadn't been so much in thoughts, he would have noticed how all of them finally recovered. But he couldn't help dreading that what had happened in the dream was real, and that the man was real.