Blue Dragon

Mother.
    ‘I won’t kill my friend,’ I said loudly.
    ‘Good,’ Wong said. ‘That means you’ll have to let her kill you .’
    The Mother slithered forward, its skinless head nearly brushing the ceiling. Its serpent back end didn’t leave the usual slimy trail.
    I readied myself. I would defend myself if I had to, but I wouldn’t kill April. I studied it with my Inner Eye. It appeared to be a Mother right the way through; no trace of April at all. But I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
    ‘You can take off now, coward,’ I said.
    ‘No, I think I’ll stay and watch,’ Wong said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the doorframe. He glanced up at it. ‘Still got the chip that Leo took out of the frame last time I was here. You should get that fixed.’
    I made the sword sing. The Mother still came at me.
    I silenced the sword, dropped it, and readied myself for hand-to-hand.
    ‘This would be a good time to come out,’ I said loudly.
    The Mother lowered its front end so that its eyes were level with mine. Its serpent-like forked tongue flicked out; so long that it brushed the top of its skinless head. It lunged for me on its black coils. I dodged and struck it in the face.
    ‘Very good,’ Wong said with amusement.
    ‘Where the hell are you, Gold?’ I said as I lunged back out of the way of another swinging strike.
    ‘Oh, Gold ,’ Wong said as I ducked under a vicious swing and struck twice at the Mother with my feet, hitting it in the abdomen and having absolutely no effect whatsoever. ‘Gold’s gone. Pissed off.’
    ‘No way,’ I said. ‘Not possible.’
    I managed to dodge the punches that the Mother aimed at my head, left and right. It wasn’t trained in the Arts, but with its speed and strength it didn’t need to be. It just used brute force.
    It feinted at my abdomen with its left and I spun around it, but I was too slow. It grabbed me by the throat with its right hand and lifted me.
    I rose. It had me by the throat and lifted itself on its coils. We were close to the ceiling. The Mother charged forward and slammed my back into the wall. It held me, ignoring my struggles. I tried to grab its hand where it held me but it was too strong. My efforts to break free were useless.
    I concentrated, filled my hands with chi, and slammed them into its shoulders, blasting it with energy from the outside in. Absolutely nothing happened. No damage at all, except that I had wasted nearly half my chi.
    It remained unmoving, holding me pinned against the wall. I waited for it to taste me with its tongue but it had learned from the one that Leo had destroyed.
    Wong sauntered closer and stopped beside the Mother, his head level with my stomach. He still had his arms crossed over his chest, casual and relaxed.
    He raised one arm and punched me viciously in the centre of the abdomen. I wasn’t ready for it. The blood gushed internally, and I quickly concentrated to heal myself.
    ‘Let’s go,’ Wong said softly.
    I came around on the floor of Kitty Kwok’s office at the kindergarten in Kowloon Tong. I shot to my feet andlooked around; the shock of the incongruity of the location nearly knocked me over again. This was the desk where Kitty had sat and asked me to spy on John Chen Wu. I’d promptly resigned and walked out. It seemed like a million years ago.
    I raced to the door: solid wood, and locked. I shoulder charged it and tore a tendon in my shoulder. Stupid.
    I went to the window as I healed the shoulder. I couldn’t afford to do too much more healing; my energy reserves were running low.
    The window, like most windows in Hong Kong, was barred. And not just the usual decorative grille; these were half centimetre square steel bars ten centimetres apart. I tried to bend one but I didn’t have the strength.
    I concentrated, put my hand on the bar and hit it with chi, attempting to melt it. Not possible. The bar was too hot to hold way before it was hot enough to melt. I couldn’t throw chi at it; the energy would go right past it. I had to hold the bar to hit it with chi. Waste of time. I gave a few of the bars some optimistic pulls and was unsurprised when they didn’t shift.
    I tapped the stone as I opened my Inner Eye to look around.
    Holy shit. The kindergarten was full of kids . Human kids. They were right outside the goddamn door . The bastard was using them as a shield to ensure that I wouldn’t explode myself.
    The stone didn’t make a sound, but it was probably me