Moon 514 || Blaze and the White Griffon

2 || the Simulator

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Last revision: 4/24/2014

ECHOING THE DAY BEFORE, HE SILENTLY GROUSED, Unintimidating.  His bruised ego was obstinately sore and it was showing in his disposition this morning.  With furrowed brow, he tensely rehearsed a staff kata of his own invention, flexing his muscles as tightly as possible while slowly moving through the form.  Liquid misdirection, he silently drummed into his subconscious mind.  Although very young, Blaze had been trained by Master Kitana – a nickname that was so engrained in everyone’s mind that few remembered his birth name – Xun.  Training with Xun was an advantage for anyone but few were able to be trained from their youth like Blaze had.  

Xun had studied the entire UWC (The Ultimate Weapons Contest) database and several forms of martial arts before he died at 116 years of age.  The natural extension of all hand to hand combat forums, the UWC took fighting to its inevitable climax: what style of martial art and what weapon would come out on top in battle with real weapons?  Initially begun with smart armor and inert weapons designed to prevent permanent damage, the sport was woefully unpopular because it lacked realism.  Decades later, as technology increased, the sport was revived with a simulator that allowed each opponent not only to feel simulated pain from blows received, it also simulated injuries so that a deeply cut muscle would fail to perform as it would in real combat and so that simulated blood loss would result in faster fatigue and lessened strength.  Other advances eventually allowed the athletes to fight until one of the parties would have been killed in real life – but at the end of the simulation, each athlete would essentially leave the simulator physically unharmed – apart from occasional and unpredictable imperfections – or “glitches” in the programming.  

Criticized for being too similar to the barbaric practices of the Roman gladiator games, UWC was a popular sport for centuries and eventually replaced nearly every form of martial arts practiced during the Classic Ages.  

But Xun did more than watch the UWC database, he dissected it, digested it, reviewed its most significant contests, and developed his own form of martial arts.  Founded upon empty handed techniques, Xun’s style was largely based upon modified, redirected circle theories and only focused on practical weapons that survived the millennia.  Although Blaze learned several weapons under Xun, he was essentially addicted to bo staff and short sticks.  Every other weapon, it seemed to Blaze, was just a modification of these two weapons; in private, he would admit that this was not really true but in public, he regularly jested that the only reason to learn other weapons was because it was important to know what to do with your opponent’s weapon once you disarmed him.

Strike, arc, trip, strike, he rehearsed without really thinking of each step separately – each action was simply a moment in time from a larger fluid motion.  Trying to retain fluidity, he flexed his legs even as he jumped, performing a spinning hook kick and then spinning again as he landed, striking an invisible, fallen opponent with his staff.  Moving back to starting position slowly and methodically, flexing specific muscles all the while, and doggedly focusing on every detail of his kata, Blaze ended the form and instinctively bowed before relaxing.

Unintimidating.  Blaze rounded the corner of the gym and approached the simulator.

“Alien,” he gruffly instructed Jim, the programmer.  “Six feet, five inches tall, four arms, and weighing in at 275 pounds,” he concluded.

“Come on Blaze,” Jim retorted.  “Seriously?  Are you forgetting how sore you were last time you tried that?  I almost got suspended from my job!”

“Yeah, I remember,” Blaze grumbled, “but we both know that was just a big political façade – no one else can really do your job well and no one wants the thankless task anyway.  You and you alone are the master of this arena.  Make it 300 pounds.”