Chapter 42 - Finish Him!
Ewan finally discovers the power that's been within him since the beginning
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Ewan’s charge took everyone by surprise, not least Ewan, he was past his father and dodging Monkey before anyone was able to react. When he’d seen Bai chained up like a disobedient pet he knew he had to act. His fathers words rang true in his head and as he moved forward every nasty remark, every insult, every bully that had ever hurt him were all catalysed in Dong Shen and Ewan knew it was his time to act, to prove once and for all that he wasn’t weak or scared and that he was deserving of the name Wu.
As he raced across the arena Ewan raised the club his father had given him and screamed.
The closest of Dong Shen’s guards was quicker than expected and moved forward in front of his master to face Ewan head on. Images of past fights, past dreams swam across Ewan’s vision and as the guard began a wide swing, Ewan ducked under the blow and placing his hand on the outside of the guards shoulder used his forward momentum to drive a jumping knee strike straight up in to the guards chest just below where he hoped the breastbone would be.
The guard crumpled under the force of the strike and pitched forward allowing Ewan to deliver a coup-de-grace to the back of the guards head with the club as he continued his charge towards Dong Shen and the rescue of Bai.
Ewan’s father and uncle both stood opened mouthed as they watched the unconscious guard collapse heavily to the floor. Lian was the first to move, ready to sprint off after his son. Lian noticed the expression on Dong Shen’s face change from shock to surprise and then excitement as he recognised who was charging towards him, he then shrugged his shoulder and cast Bai back on to his box where the guard immediately covered him up once more with the red cloth.
“Ewan! Stop! Don’t, It’s too…” But Lian’s words were cut short as Dong Shen stepped forward to meet Ewan’s charge. Not knowing what he was doing and without any experience of what to expect Dong Shen’s blow caught Ewan totally off guard. As soon as Ewan entered striking distance with his club held high and his battle cry still echoing off the walls Dong Shen simply extended his palm and with a silent word Ewan’s irresistible force met Dong Shen’s immovable object. The impact against Ewan’s chest armour clanged around the arena walls and doubled back on itself creating an audible shock wave that sent Ewan flying back through the air to hit the arena wall twenty feet away before sliding in to a crumpled heap on the floor.
Dong Shen turned his attention once more to Monkey and Lian and smiled, the pointed tips of blood red teeth visible between his thin, cruel black lips. “Come Wu, meet the true champion of this day and never claim I took unfair advantage when I destroy the pair of you like I have destroyed your pathetic offspring.”
Lian paused to look at Ewan slumped on the floor and drew his Dao and charged. Monkey reached behind his ear and pulled forth another staff which quickly grew to it’s usual fighting size and followed quickly behind.
Dylan sat transfixed as he watched the epic spectacle unfold between Ewan’s new found family and the demon lord. Dong Shen was clearly an accomplished fighter and appeared to easily be able to keep the two Wu brothers at bay with just his cat like reflexes, a wicked looking barbed whip which he’d uncoiled from his waist and a pointed sword blade which he’d slotted on the stump of his arm as soon as Lian had started moving.
Whilst Lian and his brother kept Dong Shen occupied Dylan broke from his hiding place and along with Anna and Mac they dragged Ewan back to the safety of the tunnel. Above them the crowd roared in delight at this new spectacle and proceeded to pelt the teenagers with rotten pieces of food.
Dylan tried unsuccessfully to wake his unconscious friend. Looking down he was shocked to see a perfect palm print in the middle of Ewan’s chest plate. The print appeared to be glowing red and little wisps of black smoke could be seen curling up from the edges bringing with them a sweet, sickly, sulphurous smell.
“We have to get this thing off him before it burns a hole through his chest.” Dylan said and no sooner had he finished Anna and Mac began frantically undoing the clasps and straps that held his armour in place. Dylan yanked the chest plate off Ewan and thew it as far back down the tunnel as possible. He then ripped open Ewan’s shirt where the wisps of black smoke still clung to it.
“Jees, look at that.” Dylan said pointing to Ewan’s chest. They could all plainly see the purple and black bruising that was quickly developing around the point of impact and spreading outwards. In the middle of the bruising it was easy to see the imprint of the palm strike.
“What do we do now?” Dylan asked as Ewan continued to lay unconscious at their feet, “is he breathing?”
Anna bent down and put her ear to his chest and then moved her hand to his neck. “I think so, I can just about feel a pulse.” She replied.
“What about that potion stuff Ewan gave his dad?” Dylan asked, “Mac, have you got any left?”
Mac reached in to his pocket and passed the bottle to Dylan, “how much should we give him?” He asked, Mac just shrugged, “I’ve no idea, but be careful it’s potent stuff.”
“Yeah just give him a little to start.” Said Anna.
Dylan uncorked the bottle just as Ewan had earlier and placed the end on his lips allowing a few small drops to trickle out.
Nothing happened.
“Ok, maybe a bit more.” she said and Dylan tipped the bottle back, he only intended to pour about a teaspoon full but slipped and ended up emptying the entire contents in to Ewan’s mouth.
This time the effect was instantaneous, Ewan’s eye’s opened wide and he sat bolt upright almost knocking Dylan over and began to cough and gag.
Ewan instinctively placed a hand over his chest where Dong Shen’s palm had hit, Anna quickly tried to pull Ewan’s hand back. “Be careful, you might have broken something.”
“No I feel fine, look.” he said.
Ewan removed his hand and they all gasped in surprise when they saw that his smooth chest was clear with no signs of bruising or any other kind of injury.
Ewan tried to stand but both Mac and Anna held him back down.
“Let me go, I’ve got to help my father, Dong Shen will kill them.”
“And what about you, he’s already bounced you twenty foot in to a wall, what’s he going to do next?” Dylan said trying to talk some sense in to his friend.
“But what about Bai?” Ewan said, “whilst Dong Shen is fighting them maybe we could rescue him?”.
“You have to stay here and let your dad handle it.” Anna said trying to hold Ewan back but however much she tried she found that she couldn’t, she’d always considered herself fairly strong and had often been able to move sacks of potatoes around the shop that Ewan couldn’t budge but now she really struggled to stop Ewan getting up.
“Mac help me.” she cried.
Even with Mac’s assistance Anna was still unable to stop Ewan standing up, “I have to help, I have to do something.” Ewan insisted.
Behind them the battle still raged on, both Lian and Monkey had several cuts about their faces and bodies to show for the times when they had been able to get past the reach of Dong Shen’s whip and in return Ewan could see that Dong Shen was glistening with sweat where the combined forces of his father and uncle were slowly starting to wear down Dong Shen’s resolve.
On the far side of the arena the guard who had been holding Bai lay motionless, the red cloth lay in a heap by his side, Ewan couldn’t tell what had happened to him but he could tell from the position of the body that he was one less thing to worry about. It was clearly going to be a fight to the finish and at this point Ewan was unsure if the fight would go their way.
A thrust with the iron clad end of Monkey’s staff caused Dong Shen to back up where he stumbled over a crack in the floor. Seizing his chance Monkey lept forward and jumped but Dong Shen moved too quickly and cast his whip, the barbed end wrapped around Monkey’s neck. Pulling sharply on the handle of the whip and turning quickly to the side Dong Shen threw Monkey against the wall, the coil of the whip dug deeply in to his neck and Monkey raised his hands to his throat in an effort to stop himself being strangled.
Seizing his chance whilst Dong Shen was distracted with his brother Lian jumped, landing a perfect flying kick that sent Dong Shen sprawling and then to slip on the red cloth. Falling backwards over the dead guards body, his whip flew off to the side.
Lian surged forward and raised his Dao aiming to deliver a fatal strike but Dong Shen rolled to the side and cast the red cloth towards Lian’s face. Before Lian could react Dong Shen pushed up from the floor with his good hand and thrust the blade of his sword arm forward. The thrust found it’s mark and the blade sank deeply in to Lian’s body. Ewan screamed and pushed past Mac and Anna stepping back in to the arena.
Dong Shen looked past Lian at Ewan and laughed, “first the father, then the son. Sweet revenge will be mine.” He slowly stood up and let Lian’s body collapse back to the floor, the blade of his sword arm was covered in Lian’s blood and a thin red line slowly seeped across Lian’s chest and began to pool at his side.
“Come boy, show me what you’ve got.” Dong Shen taunted.
Ewan’s heart beat faster and faster in his chest, he could feel his feet slowly but deliberately moving him forward but had no recollection of making the conscious decision to move. He could feel the weight of Dong Shen’s stare. The blood red eyes that seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, slowly drawing him in. It was as if he was being pulled forward by the sheer power of Dong Shen’s gaze.
“Ewan, for god’s sake, get back here.”
He could hear Anna’s words in his head but it was if he was detached and watching the scene from outside his body, screaming in his head at a vision that he had no physical control over.
“Son of a bitch must pay!”
In his head he could see Dylan standing to his side shouting out a line from their favourite film as he hefted a large piece of stone from the floor and threw it directly at Dong Shen.
The effort of drawing Ewan forward required complete concentration so Dong Shen didn’t notice the stone until it hit him square on the side of the head causing a deep laceration and a trickle of black blood to seep down his face. Dong Shen raised his hand to the side of his face and looked confused as it came away covered in his blood.
With his concentration broken the link to Ewan was severed and Ewan was free again to move. Out of the corner of his eye Ewan could see Bai lying on his box, knowing what he needed to do Ewan raced over and picked up the Dragon Lord ripping the golden chain from around his neck, freeing his friend and holding him close to his chest.
Ewan turned back to face Dong Shen who was looking up to see Dylan cowering back in the tunnel entrance with Anna and Mac by his side. Dong Shen seemed a little perplexed looking from Dylan to the blood in his hand and back again. Without taking his eyes of Dylan Dong Shen smiled and an impossibly long tongue snaked out from between his lips and began to probe and lick clean the gash on the side of his head. When he’d finished Dong Shen winked at Dylan and then laughing turned back to face Ewan.
“Your little friends have spirit, maybe I’ll keep them around as puppets to entertain me. You’d be surprised how little there is to do here in the deep dark night.”
In his head Ewan knew that Bai was talking to him but he was struggling to hear over the beating of his heart which felt like a kettle drum pounding away in his chest..
“Focus Ewan, he is taunting you. He’s underestimated your power, I can feel your strength growing. Relax your body and focus your mind, let the spirits of your ancestors guide your hands.”
“But I’m not strong enough,” Ewan thought back, “he’s going to kill me like he’s killed everyone else.”
“Relax Ewan, this foul beast is nothing but a bully and like all bullies is terrified of facing real power. He wants to destroy your confidence so you end up defeating yourself. Don’t give in you are stronger than that, you are Dragon Wu.”
As the echo of Bai’s words faded Ewan opened his mind and thought back to the last time he’d seen Dong Shen defeated. In his dream he’d been hiding as a decrepit old man before changing into a monster, maybe Bai was right, maybe he was nothing more than a bully hiding behind an false image and Ewan had finally had his fill of bullies.
Remembering the dream he thought back to the real Dragon Wu and again he could hear Bai’s words, “You are the next Dragon, it is your destiny to wield the power. Open your heart and accept what you know to be true.”
In his dreams Ewan had watched his uncle perform the complicated hand gestures that would focus his power countless times. He tried his best to relax like Bai suggested and before he knew what was happening he’d stepped back in to the Dragon stance and as he felt his pulse relax his hands started to mimic the gestures. Ewan was tempted to look down to see what his hands were doing but as soon as thought formed in his mind he heard Bai once more, “focus, Ewan, focus on your enemy allow your body to flow naturally.” Keeping his gaze fixed on Dong Shen Ewan felt himself opening up inside like a conduit able to channel the power of the Dragon Spirit and command it to do his bidding.
Dong Shen watched Ewan with interest, mocking his attempts as pathetic. Soon a look of confusion spread over his face, finally the confusion gave way to fear as he realised that Ewan was in fact performing the same summoning ritual that he’d last seen performed by the boy’s uncle so long ago. Dong Shen couldn’t believe that Ewan would be able to channel the power of the Dragon Lord. He began to move towards Ewan and raised his sword arm intending to end this quickly not waiting to see if the boy would actually be able to complete his spell. But Dong Shen was too late, his arrogance had caused him to wait for too long and before he could reach his target Ewan completed the sequence.
As he thrust both hands forward Ewan felt a calm descend over him. He’d felt the fire growing, heating his body from the inside. He instinctively knew how to build the ball, making it grow as he moulded it’s shape with his hands and fed it with his energy. Moving it up from his core with his mind, bringing it up into his chest and finally bringing it forth to roar as a ball of living flame. The final thrust catapulted the ball forward where it struck Dong Shen with enough force to drive him back and engulf his body in a bright orange fire.
Dong Shen screamed as the fire rushed to consume his body and he fought back to regain the ground he’d lost. Slowly walking forward the fire continued to burn and each step took longer than the last. The rest of the arena was deathly silent and the only sounds that could be heard was the scream of Dong Shen. Behind him stood Monkey who having freed himself from the choking embrace of the whip had rushed towards Dong Shen. In one swift movement he’d pulled the relic from the scabbard on Dong Shen’s back and with a single backhand swipe cleaved Dong Shen’s head from his body.
The fire quickly burned itself out and Dong Shen’s headless corpse pitched forward and fell at Ewan’s feet. Monkey dropped the relic and ran to Ewan’s side, scooping him up as Ewan collapsed in to his arms his eyes closed and his body limp.
Monkey carried Ewan back to his friends and laid his body on the ground.
Wow!