Free of charge."
20
Elias looked down at the glove, then back up
at Julian. "I am working. Please pick up your
equipment."
21
Chapter 5: Crossing the Line
Julian's smile vanished. He didn't like being
told what to do, especially not in his domain,
and certainly not by the hired help. The fact that
the old man was not cowering in fear infuriated
him. The Viper felt a desperate need to assert his
dominance, to show everyone in the room that
he held absolute power over everyone who
stepped foot in the Iron Lotus.
"I said, put it on," Julian growled, stepping
off the matted training area and onto the
hardwood floor in his bare feet—a strict
violation of dojo rules. He marched directly
22
toward Elias, closing the distance rapidly. "You
think you're too good to spar with me? You think
mopping floors makes you tough?"
Elias did not retreat. He stood his ground,
his posture completely relaxed. His hands hung
loosely at his sides. "I think," Elias said, his voice
dropping an octave, becoming impossibly calm,
"that you have a lot of energy, and very little
discipline. You should put your glove back on
and focus on your breathing."
It was the ultimate insult to a raging ego.
Julian snapped. With a wordless roar, he closed
the final few feet, rearing back his right hand to
deliver a lightning-fast, open-handed slap aimed
directly at Elias's face. It was a move designed
23
purely for humiliation, meant to put the old man
in his place.
The students gasped, some instinctively
turning away, bracing for the sickening sound of
impact. They knew Julian's speed. They knew the
old janitor couldn't possibly react in time. It was
a cowardly, despicable act of violence.
But the sound of impact never came.
Machine
What happened next defied the
comprehension of everyone in the room. It
happened so fast, and with such subtle economy
of motion, that it looked like magic.
Julian’s hand whipped through the air with
blistering speed, but where Elias’s face had been
a fraction of a second prior, there was only
empty space. Elias hadn't stepped back. He
hadn't thrown up a desperate block. He had
simply shifted his weight slightly to the left,
pivoting on the ball of his back foot. The strike
sailed harmlessly past his ear, missing by a
millimeter.
Julian’s momentum carried him forward,
throwing him completely off balance. He
stumbled, his eyes widening in shock. He quickly
recovered, his confusion instantly transforming
into a blind, murderous rage. "You lucky old—"
he spat, unleashing a furious combination: a left
hook followed by a devastating right straight,
finishing with a vicious low kick aimed at Elias’s