Sensei of Shambala. Book III. Anastasia Novykh

a kick in the groin. And so naturally at that, that a sympathetic moan “O-o-ouch!” could be heard among the man’s part of the audience.

      It was probably the last straw to break the camel's back for Eugene. Leaping to his feet, he carried out a whole series of blows. But no matter how hard he tried, pushing himself to the limit, his arms and legs only cut through air, as the Chinese, who knows how, evaded blows literally by a shave’s distance from Eugene’s crushing fists. Above all, despite lightning speed of his opponent’s performance, Veliar had time not only to avoid strokes, but to strike back efficiently. In a phrase, it became clear to everyone that had it been a real fight, Eugene wouldn’t have had a ghost of a chance. However, Eugene was bursting into action over and over again, disregarding his obvious loss. Ariman, probably, taking compassion on him, clapped his hands once, thus discontinuing the fight. Eugene was so upset about what had happened that, his head dropped with shame, he walked our way even ignoring ritual bows. Veliar, on the other hand, absolutely without any malice, followed him with a polite bow, and made a bow to Ariman as if he were the most magnanimous and all-forgiving being in the whole wide world.

      After such a combat our fighters became tense. The Chinese man was indeed a virtuoso in the use of his body as well of the holds. His technique was not similar to the one Sensei taught us.

      Stas and Victor volunteered to go second, two against one. But this circumstance only excited Veliar and added a zest to this battle still more. After making ritual bows, the guys positioned themselves against the Chinese at an angle of about 90 degrees. The latter stood sideways, keeping both opponents within eyeshot. The fight began on a clap. Victor was the first to attack Veliar, striking a straight “tsuki”. Making a fast approach, in cold blood, Veliar intercepted the attack right at the moment when Victor applied energy to a blow and already could not veer its course. In addition to that the Chinese man not only intercepted the attack, he redirected it at Stas, who had just run up. Our fighters suddenly came into collision and tumbled down together, inevitably obeying the laws of physics. Meanwhile, Veliar stepped back complacently, not even trying to strike subsequent blows at them. He just mockingly contemplated their attempts of speedy unlocking, like the rest of the laughing audience, though. The guys stood up and endeavored a simultaneous cross-attack on Veliar. The latter swiftly got into defense, jumping aside. And wasting no time, he immediately made a fierce counterattack, with some incomprehensible abrupt cries, which – either because of their loudness or word combination – created unpleasant sound and seemed to deafen even the spectators, evoking not only fright, but also some very disagreeable feelings around stomach. Obviously, our guys did not expect such audio support during the attack, though, as well as the audience, frightened with these shouts. This told upon Veliar’s attack the following instant, as our guys suddenly found themselves lying one on another again. This time the audience was in no mood for laughter, and nor were our fighters.

      While, his arms crossed behind him victoriously, Veliar was observing his opponents recovering their feet, Stas and Victor seemed to have exchanged a few words as when they took combat stance, their fighting tactics changed completely and became more serious and professional. Veliar went into defensive action at first. But after taking some severe blows in torso and head, he instantly revised his technique. The Chinese took some unordinary stance, crouching very low to the ground. And from this position he started counterattacking aggressively and swiftly. His body moved so elastically, smoothly, and at the same time at lightning speed, as if he was no human, but some dark whirlwind. It was as if he was doing everything without a pause to take a breath. In each of his rigorous counterattacks the Chinese imitated several blows in lethally critical areas, including eyes, larynx, groin, heart, and other ones. It could give the impression that he simply gambled with their lives.

      Despite not a bad training of the guys, no matter how much effort they put into it, they still considerably lost to Veliar both in technique and in tactics of performing the combat. The struggle was so tough and aggressive, so close to real combat conditions that even the air seemed to electrify because of such tension. As for me, I was on pins and needles all the time, feeling keenly about the guys. Veliar, as a rule, used illegal blows that, as if mocking his opponents, he simply did not bring to an end. It was very clear to everyone that his one careless movement would mean a guaranteed fatal outcome to his rivals. Evidentlyб our fighters knew it as well as in contrast to Veliar they had a hard time holding the fort.

      The spectators were electrified: some in feeling anxious about their friends, some in genuine admiration of such a fight.

      “Look, such a technique?!” Andrew gave Kostya a nudge at his side. Then, addressing to Sensei and keeping his eyes fixed on Veliar, he added: “Cool! Sensei, what art is it?”

      “This is no art,” Sensei said with disgust, being in an unnatural tension, tenaciously keeping an eye on our guys, who attempted to defend themselves against aggressive attacks of the Chinese. “It’s a school of ‘assassins’. Ninjutsu style.”

      “It’s a very strong school!” Andrew muttered admiringly, captivated by the spectacular fight.

      “It’s a very lowdown school,” Sensei retorted.

      “Oh, why so categorically? Each has priorities of his own,” Ariman joined in the conversation, overhearing Sensei’s unflattering commentaries. “Besides, we are visiting not only your amicable country, but also quite dangerous places all around the world,” he said, as if justifying Veliar’s actions. And evidently in order to relieve the tension of the situation for good, suddenly he nominated himself for sparring partner. “If this style irritates Sensei so much, then I can personally demonstrate the styles you are more accustomed to. Let Veliar rest for a while.”

      Ariman clapped his hands and stopped the sparring. Probably, it was out of regard for Sensei, that he declared a ‘draw,’ although it was clear who had won. The fighters made ritual bows. Veliar headed towards Ariman, who gave him a sign. And our guys, panting, sweaty, covered with scratches, walked toward us, rubbing their bruises on the way. Volodya and Eugene started patting them on shoulders encouragingly. A quiet discussion of the fight began among the elder guys. Notably, having seen the mastery of Veliar from outside, Eugene did not look as depressed after his loss any more. On the contrary, he cheered up somewhat, probably, after the acknowledgement that he undertook to overcome such a strong opponent alone, as if saying, if I had lost, I had gained experience, at any rate.

      In the meantime, without a shadow of tiredness and even without a sign of short-windedness, Veliar stood by Ariman as a thoughtful servant, accepting his hat, jacket, and the necktie that Ariman took off getting ready for sparring. With his immutable smile, the Chinese radiated such tranquility that it might seem he’d gotten out not from a tough sparring, but from a profound contemplative meditation. Meanwhile, observing rapt discussion among our guys with a hardly perceptible grin, Ariman rolled up the sleeves of his fine snow-white shirt. And even neglecting to take his watch and his big golden finger-ring with a red ruby, which judging by their look were very expensive, he got into the ring and invited all-comers, without limitation of quantity, to participate in this sparring.

      Admittedly, at first he fairly confused our guys with his snow-white clean appearance. As even Veliar, who fought well, could not avoid turnovers and topsy-turvies on the sand. But he wore a black kimono: shake it off, and marks of falls become not so noticeable. But there? Ariman simply puzzled us. But while the elder guys kept silent, not knowing what to expect from Ariman after Veliar’s demonstration of his techniques, the junior guys, frankly speaking, were astonished.

      “Maybe it’s better to take the watch off?” Ruslan advised, motioning to Ariman’s luxurious Rolex. “What if they break accidentally?”

      The man smiled ironically, looking at his watch and uttered: “Oh, it's nothing! Come to think of it... you suggested a curious idea. Let’s complicate the task for me. The first attacker able to strike me a blow – any one at that so long as it reaches the target – will receive this watch as a gift. And the one who strikes me down, will get this yacht and all her little boats into the bargain,” Ariman waved his hand nonchalantly towards his posh vessel.

      A whoop of amazement could be heard from our group.

      “Deal!” Ruslan, Kostya, and Andrew exclaimed excitedly kind of in chorus.

      The