"Fan out and kill them all!" the Gallik Baal'ian Captain shouted ferociously, and yet with a calm, casual composure. They seemed without a sense of morality; without regard for life.

A young woman stood in the quickly emptying street. A husky, lightly armored man approached her, but his attention was bound to the fleeing crowds. He gave her a glance, his eyes lingering on her slender form. He licked his lips, rolling his right wrist, giving a twirl of the sword he held. Underestimating her, he gave a quick, absent-minded thrust of his sword toward her torso.

She swayed her body to her left, catching his wrist in her right palm, pulling it past her side. Bringing all her moment back to her right she vertically stuck the outside of his elbow with her left forearm, snapping it instantly. He screamed in agony as the sword dropped from his limp hand. She brought her left hand down 90° grasping his wrist with her left hand tightly. As she did so, she released his wrist with her right hand with a savage, blinding open palm strike to the face, pulling his broken arm toward her as her right hand placed opposing force in his neck. His head was forced back, contorting and hyper-extending his spinal column, cutting his scream of pain short. It all happened so fast you could have missed it, giving him virtually no time to react given his basic military training with a heavy focus on the use of weapons to control the situation and deliver damage.

His helmet was knocked clean off his head by the sheer force and upward momentum of the strike. He hit the ground hard, a slumped mess of dead weight as his comrades looked on with perplexity and anger. His helmet rolled to a stop in the middle of the dusty street.

She took a low kokutsu-dachi stance with her right foot to the rear, her eyes always on the ground before her. She closed them slowly, drawing a deep, long breath. The sound of the fleeing crowd behind her washed away. All become silent now, only the sound of her breath and heart beat remaining. This young woman had been honing her senses from as early as she could walk. The key to Kel'no Synn was not just skill, training, but mastering ones senses. A joining of mind, body and spirit on every level imaginable.


Her eyes shot open as she heard the scuffling of feet over dust and the light clanging of armor.

A man was before her, winding up for a savage horizontal swing of his razor sharp sword. She pushed off her right foot, anchoring her body her with left, She swung around, her back to her attacker, clutching his blade hand with her right, sinking a devastating left elbow into his rib cage that staggered him backward.She tugged his right hand as she raised her right leg, bent at the knee. As he was yanked toward her again, her right foot snapped out, connecting with his jaw line with force. He dropped his sword, nearly falling to the ground. He became angry in his embarrassment and he rushed her, throwing a heavy right hand in her direction. She stepped backward, taking care to avoid any contact. With a circular motion of her left hand from the outside, up over the top, she blocked his strike, forcing his arm to the outside. With a calculating step forward, she landed a blistering open palm strike to the soldier's face. Another in repetition with her left palm, this time sinking deep into his abdomen. Another right to the soft tissue of the right side of his throat, and he was stumbling to backside in the middle of the street.

She once again took her kokutsu-dachi stance, calmly awaiting for her next opponent. Her heart pounded out of her chest. There was no shortage of fear here. She had never actually fought hostile opponents with weapons, much less those who were trying to kill her.