Chapter 45 : Dim Mak

Jack's heart thumped against his ribcage as if it was trying to punch its way

out through flesh and bone. His lungs became tight and constricted, as if a

snake had coiled its way round his chest and was squeezing the breath from

him. He collapsed against the alley wall and slid down into the thick mud,

where he lay juddering and gasping.

Dragon Eye crouched down to admire his handiwork.

'You have as long as a fish out of water before your heart gives out,'

he stated, wiping a strand of Jack's blond hair out of his eyes in a gesture

that was almost affectionate. 'You would have made a great samurai, gaijin,

but I can't risk allowing you to fulfil such a destiny. Maybe in another life,

eh?'

Jack was no longer listening. His breath whistled in his ears like wind

in a cave and he could feel his blood pulsing through his body, pooling

around his dying heart.

Thud… thud… THUD.

Dragon Eye spun round. A huge figure, large as a mountain bear,

confronted him at the mouth of the dead end.

'Move on, blind man,' warned Dragon Eye, spotting the tall white staff

in the man's hand. 'There's nothing here for you to see.' He laughed coldly

at his own dark humour.

'I smell blood,' said the figure with distaste.

Despite his disorientation, Jack recognized the deep thrumming voice

of Sensei Kano.

'Not just your blood, but the blood of your many victims. Ninja. How I

despise your kind.'

'You're too late to save the boy,' hissed Dragon Eye, silently slipping a

shuriken from his belt as the samurai approached. The ninja threw the

deadly silver star at Sensei Kano. 'Or yourself, for that matter!'

The shuriken spun through the air with a faint whistle.

The sensei had no time to avoid it. Instead he shifted his staff in front

of him and the silver star lodged itself in the wood, striking at a point

directly in line with his throat.

'Predictable,' scoffed Sensei Kano.

He then thrust the end of his staff at Dragon Eye, targeting his

stomach. Stuck in the narrow passage, the ninja's only choice was to throw

himself flat against the wall. He barely avoided the attack. With lightning

speed, Sensei Kano struck again. Dragon Eye tried to deflect it, but the tip

of the bō caught him in the ribs. He grunted with pain and staggered

backwards.

Jack's eyes weakly followed Sensei Kano as he stepped over him and

drove Dragon Eye further and further back into the dead end.

The ninja was trapped.

The staff was too long and Sensei Kano too swift for Dragon Eye to

retaliate. Jack realized that the ninja would soon have nowhere to retreat to

and then Sensei Kano could deliver the killing strikes that would finish his

enemy's life.

For Jack, though, his life was also fast approaching its end. The

crushing pain in his chest was intensifying and his breathing only came in

fits and starts. His head felt as though it would crack open like an egg.

Blackness crept in at the edges of his consciousness and fingered its way

across his vision. He just hoped he would live long enough to see Sensei

Kano defeat his father's murderer, the seemingly invincible Dokugan Ryu.

Sensei Kano shot his staff at the ninja's groin. This time Dragon Eye

leapt into the air, spreading his legs wide so that he straddled the gap

between the two buildings. The bō passed harmlessly underneath.

Impossibly, Dragon Eye then ran above Sensei Kano using the upper walls

as leverage.

Sensei Kano thrust his staff skyward, but missed.

Dragon Eye scuttled overhead like a cockroach and Jack, in his

delirious state, felt raindrops falling on him like iron pins. He watched them

shower down from the heavens and heard them tinkle on to the ground

before realizing that they were real. The area around Jack had been carpeted

by the ninja with sharp triangular metal spikes, designed so that one point

always faced up.

Dragon Eye reached the end of the alley and dropped back down to the

ground.

'Come on, blind man. Let's see how you fight in the open,' he dared.

Sensei Kano charged down the alleyway at Dragon Eye. Jack tried to

warn him of the danger, but all he could manage was a feeble croak. At the

last second, Sensei Kano planted the end of his staff in the mud and vaulted

over Jack. He landed neatly at the entrance to the alleyway, safely clearing

all the deadly spikes.

'Tetsu-bishi, how uninspired,' commented Sensei Kano. Jack

desperately wanted to laugh at Dragon Eye's failure, but the pain proved too

great.

Infuriated, the ninja thrust a spear-hand strike at Sensei Kano's throat.

The samurai deflected it with his bō, then swung the staff round into

Dragon Eye's midriff.

Surprisingly, the ninja didn't try to evade it. Instead he absorbed the

blow, trapping the staff between his arm and body. Taking Sensei Kano by

surprise, he then pulled the huge samurai off-balance before driving him

backwards into the alleyway. Sensei Kano remained on his feet, but took

one step too many to regain his centre and his rear foot landed on a metal

spike. The tetsu-bishi went straight through his thin-soled sandal, spearing

his flesh.

Sensei Kano dropped to the ground, crying out in shock.

Dragon Eye was on him in an instant. He stamped on the staff,

snapping it in two. Then he front-kicked Sensei Kano full force in the face.

Jack heard the sensei's nose break and blood gushed out.

'Did you honestly believe you could defeat me?' said Dokugan Ryu,

grabbing hold of Sensei Kano's head to expose his throat for the killing

blow. 'Don't you know that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is

king?'

With the speed of a cobra, the ninja chopped the knifeedge of his hand

at Sensei Kano's windpipe with the intention of snapping it.

Despite his disorientation and pain, Sensei Kano instinctively blocked

the attack. Taking hold of Dragon Eye's wrist, he locked the ninja's lead

arm and thrust a spear-hand into his face. The ninja barely avoided the

counterstrike, but managed to retaliate with a vertical fist punch at the

samurai's barrel-sized chest. Sensei Kano's greater strength allowed him to

absorb the blow and fight his way back into a standing position.

Through a haze of excruciating pain, Jack watched as the two warriors

battled at close range in lethal chi sao. The first to make a mistake, Jack

knew, would be the one to die.

The speed of their attacks and counters was so fast that Jack only saw

their arms as a blur. Their skills were evenly matched and each strike was

met with a block, each trap with a counter. Neither gave any ground.

'NINJA!' came a cry.

Dragon Eye glanced up the main passageway and saw a vanguard of

castle samurai approaching. Disengaging from Sensei Kano, he vaulted the

alley wall with a single mighty leap on to the roof. Taking one last look at

Jack, he spat, 'There won't be a next time, gaijin. For you, at least!'

A moment later he was gone, a shadow in the night.

Sensei Kano hobbled over to where Jack lay slumped against the wall.

'What's that ninja done to you?'

Jack could hardly breathe now. The world was dim and distant, Sensei

Kano's face seemed to be at the opposite end of a long dark tunnel. His

heart still thudded hard, but had slowed as the pressure had built. He

thought his whole chest was about to explode.

'Death… Touch,' Jack somehow managed to gasp.

'Dim Mak!' breathed a horrified Sensei Kano.

Immediately, the great sensei ran his hands over Jack's body. Having

found what he was feeling for, he pulled Jack forward and, in five rapid

strikes with the tips of his fingers, hit Jack at key points on his back and

chest.

Like a new spring dawn, Jack's body jerked into life.

He drew in a great breath as his lungs expanded wide. The pressure in

his chest vanished as if the gates of a mighty dam had been opened, and his

blood flowed through his body in one life-giving flood. His eyesight rushed

back and he could now see the bloodstained, bearded face of Sensei Kano,

his fingers searching for Jack's pulse in his neck.

'I'm all right, you can stop now,' said Jack wearily as his sensei began

to massage his chest.

'I can't. I must ensure your ki is flowing freely.'

'But how do you know what to do?'

'I learnt the black art called Dim Mak from the same blind Chinese

warrior who taught me chi sao,' explained Sensei Kano quietly.

He began to work on Jack's limbs.

'Dim Mak is the source of the ninja's Death Touch technique. Think of

it as the opposite side of the coin to acupuncture. While acupuncture heals

using pressure points and nerve centres, Dim Mak destroys. You're

extremely fortunate to have survived, young samurai.'

He carefully picked up the weakened Jack like a bear cub in his huge

arms.

Before heading back to the temple, the great samurai took a moment to

pull out the bloody metal spike that had speared his foot.

'Probably poisoned,' he mumbled, inspecting the tetsubishi. 'I'll need

to keep this for the antidote.'