Brucenorris007

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce walked after Ross, the floodgates that he'd maintained around the subject gradually cracking. The truth leaked, then flowed, threatening to crash down in a wave that might ruin the stoic barrier between the world and his emotions he'd built.
"I wasn't there when they first appeared. I think I was working, or whittling... It wasn't even important. All I remeber for certain is that I was eager. A ceremony had been scheduled, and we were both-"
Bruce cleared his throat, digressing from that part of the story.
"I noticed the fires first. I ran past others who fled in the other direction, shouting warnings. When I got to the house, she was..."
Bruce heaved a shaky sigh, pinching his eyes shut.
"They were gathered around her, and her dress had been torn... She wasn't screaming. I could see the tears on her face, but if anything, she seethed at them. Her father, who'd passed away only months before, was an old soldier, but made it a principal rule that his life as a warrior and as a father would not overlap. There were no weapons in the house, only his old sheath for his blade. One of them passed a filthy hand over her face, and she bit into his fingers as hard as she could. I took hold of the first chair I saw and managed to break it over someone's head before they were on me. I was still on the ground when I heard her cries cut short- her neck was broken."
Bruce gripped the sheath at his waist, biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling.
"I didn't know magic at the time. I had only just discovered Ki, and only practiced it for minutes a day in secret, because her father had discouraged seeking out mastery of it for the fact that it inevitably led to trouble. I swear I did everything I knew to bring pain back to the nameless monsters, but they grew tired of me and put me down. They left to join others in attacking the rest of the village. I don't know why they didn't bother to end my life. I would have laid there rather than confront her face staring up at me again, but I heard my little brother's voice- hoarse, and broken, but I heard it from the next room."
A definite wavering broke through Bruce's dam and found its way into his voice.
"He was crawling toward the door with one arm and a broken ankle, asking for his sister. I stopped him just before he turned the corner that lay between him and her body. 'It hurts,' he said, once he realized who I was. His constitution had never been more than average, and blood trailed in creeping puddles from where his right arm had been severed. He begged me to bring him to his sister so she could make it better." Bruce inhaled through his nose. "I assured him, repeatedly, that if he could just fall asleep, everything would be better when he woke up. His sister would be there, I told him. I could have done something- I might have been able to save others by helping them run if I'd left him. But I couldn't save him. And though it was more likely a minute or two at most I sat there before he closed his eyes, it felt like days." Bruce finished, grateful for the movement of his body that might otherwise be on the ground for all the weight of long repressed feelings coursing through him.
"I swore then that I'd never make another promise I couldn't make good on." Bruce whispered.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's expression dropped, a cold stab piercing his heart. He glanced upward, breathing in deeply with the sky as his anchor before he answered.
"None by blood," he whispered. "In bond, her younger brother was almost as much my own. And according to law, he would have..." Bruce swallowed and let the sentence die off. "She loved music as well, but she hadn't the patience to train her fingers. Of the two of them, the older sister had the shorter attention span, at least in idle activities. He'd play the harp, the flute, anything she asked for he seemed to pick up readily."
A nostalgic and melancholic smile stretched across Bruce's features.
"She spoiled him, took his place to do the labor he dreaded so that he could keep practicing music for her that he'd reproduce at the end of each day."
Bruce blinked, remembering where he was, and the smile sank back down on his face.
"Yes, I did have a brother." Bruce said, answering Ross' inquiry.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce half smirked at Ross' dismissal of extraneous dialogue. He glanced down at his sheath where the Ki had vanished, considering Ross' question.
"A bit tricky to say," Bruce admitted. "I've tapped into the wavelengths that Mikey mentioned and found more than a few that I can reliably reproduce at will. My current hurdle is finding the means of assigning that Ki of a given wavelength into a form that I can use."
Bruce thought of likening his progress with Ki to music, though he sincerely doubted Ross would appreciate the analogy. He did so anyway.
"I've found the meter for a few different consistencies and strengths in the flow of Ki- now I need to concentrate on a container, find the right measure to define that meter such that the beat continues playing according to rhythm. I'd say I might need the remainder of the day to rediscover the actual embodiment of my blade with what I've learned."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce paced out into the courtyard, his eyelids drooped heavily and Ki flowing apparently freeform. He'd devised a means of meditation that could be implemented even in the brief minutes of walking from one location to another. The technique's origin lay in his drive to gain every spare second of training and improvement he could grasp. His pupils peeks out through the narrowest of cracks, while his Ki wavered in a rhythm around him, only occasionally missing a beat in a flow otherwise rivaling a metronome. Though, to his frustration, he'd only managed to progress so far with a handful of rhythms thus far. When he came to stand at a few arms lengths from Ross, the moving Ki receded in haste toward his sheath, where it dissipated. His eyelids snapped up, and he was all alert and clear of mind again.
"I'm looking forward to learning from you." Bruce said.
It was the truth- though Bruce now knew that his Ki supply was, stacked against his other abilities, his most powerful, he'd always believed his attachment to the earth to be the card he played that could turn tides of battle in his favor. This belief was why he'd often avoid revealing it until an opportune moment to surprise his opponent arrived- that is, if he could afford to keep it hidden. Against the caliber of opponent he was set to face, that wouldn't be an option.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's eyes glazed over after listening to Luke's instruction. Once again, his mind traveled back in time, when his nomadic tendencies were still new. For a time, his style of combat had been not unlike Jenso's natural inclination toward force. He'd been exceedingly furious, and such a style found him as the aggressor in several situations that didn't necessarily end favorably for him, or for the innocent parties that were involved. The result of a particularly gruesome consequence of his actions were what bred caution in his own style of fighting. The consideration of returning to that frame of mind put Bruce ill at ease.
Yet, the Order would have no innocents among them.
'If it means the difference between failure and victory, I'll take any steps I have to.' Bruce thought.
Bruce nodded at Luke to show his appreciation and comprehension of the lesson. He rested his hand on his sheath- there was still much work to be done.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce blinked. Releasing all holds he had on Jenso, he stood and straightened up hastily. His mind had been moving at breakneck pace, a mantra, 'Everything is a weapon', repeating itself in his head. He subtly brushed a pressure point in his neck and the tension in his body ebbed out in a rush, bringing him back to the present reality.
"Yes. An excellent bout," Bruce muttered, replacing his sheath on his waist. His speech was vaguely slurred as a consequence of the self-imposed expulsion of bodily tension. His eyelids had drooped. "I apologize for that... lapse near the end."
'That hasn't occurred for years.'
Bruce sighed. He wanted a drink.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's vision flickered back in time. The feeling of being unarmed, Ki blocked, magic inaccessible called an image to mind that he'd been working hard to bury. Perhaps the imminence of facing a superior foe in the guise of the Order helped trigger it- it might have been the similarity of how he remembered being physically positioned back then. Regardless of the reason, for an instant, Bruce forgot entirely that it was Jenso he was grappling. And though it was brief, the memory brought down restraints against impulses he'd normally have quelled, and forced him into a state where pain of his own person didn't matter so long as he inflicted greater damage.
Bruce placed immense pressure on his right wrist to reverse the momentum of his double-legged kick. He bent back the knee of one leg, and snapped his foot toward the lower part of Jenso's right shin while Jenso's other foot was still off the floor, intent on both causing harm and throwing off his balance. Ignoring the impact of Jenso's fist, though it likely caused deep bruising, Bruce twisted his left hand such that his fingers dug into Jenso's bicep and yanked down, while at the same time he hurled up his other leg to slam his foot just below Jenso's stooped chin, aiming to bring the other combatant crashing down onto his back such that they'd be laying adjacent to one another with their feet in opposite directions. Bruce bared his teeth as his left arm threatened to dislocate as a result of the unusual way he was demanding that it pull Jenso down.
'If it breaks both our arms, so be it!' Bruce mentally declared.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce grit his teeth against the impact but refused to stop moving. He craned his neck to his left shoulder, ripping the fabric of his toga such that the sleeve would come free with the least bit of force. That in mind, he yanked his left arm out of Jenso's closing grasp, leaving behind the discarded sleeve for Jenso's hand to close in on. He rolled into one side, pulling his right arm from Jenso's shoulder beneath him, beginning to press his body up off the ground while he was still horizontal. Using his newly freed left hand, he held his fingertips together and rigid like a blunt spearhead, stabbing into Jenso's right shoulder. Assuming he'd managed to strike a nerve bundle, the arm wouldn't be able to move for at least thirty seconds. Bruce whipped his weight around, pivoting on just his right hand and bringing his feet in a swinging arc toward the side of Jenso's head.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce grimaced as the clamp he'd made around Jenso's shoulder was itself caught in a hold, securing him to Jenso's back.
'If he's determined to bring me to the floor.' Bruce thought.
He wrapped his left arm around Jenso's neck from behind in a hold before Jenso lurched forward, rolling over Jenso's head with his back hunched such as to try to lessen the damage impact with the ground would cause. He maintained his grip on Jenso, intent on slamming his body face-forward onto the floor while he was still using one leg to support himself by dragging Jenso down with his body weight.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's grip on Jenso's arm caught on his wrist as he pulled back, forcing a change in Bruce's balance so that he leaned forward toward Jenso. His right hand started to move to intercept Jenso's feint, but the split-second of being off-balance actually aided him in avoiding Jenso's sweeping kick. He latched onto Jenso's left shoulder with his right hand, released his grip on his wrist, and using the momentum of the forward fall, he kicked off the ground such that he flipped over Jenso's head and landing behind him.
'If I give him too much freedom to move, he'll just get more aggressive.' Bruce thought. 'I'd prefer to create some distance, but then I run the risk that I won't be able to grapple him again before he's managed a decisive strike.'
Bruce whirled around to face Jenso's back once he touched down, bringing up his right arm under Jenso's shoulder in an attempt to get it in a lock.