Chapter 8.7

What Jaala did next surprised even him. He began to sing. These are the words of the song

Practice non action.

Work without doing.

Taste the tasteless.

Magnify the small, increase the few.

Reward bitterness with care.

See simplicity in the complicated.

Achieve greatness in little things.

Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.

Because the warrior always confronts difficulties.

He never experiences them.

It was from the sixty third book of the Lost Saints, and well known. His singing started out low and with each repetition increased in volume.

As he sang, the fight, the dance of swords, continued on and it was amazing to behold. The two moved almost at a blur, seamlessly moving from one form to another, each countering, neither leaving an opening. They were evenly matched. Jaala was most impressed and made note that should the occasion arise to ever cross blades with Katashi he would need to take this new ability into account.

Finally the chanting, was being sung at a most loud volume by Jaala, and still the two barely noticed, if at all. This was of course fine as the reason Jaala began the chanting was not to entertain or disturb the two. No, it was to put himself in a state where his mind could flow at near the speed as Katashi’s. This chant was one he often used to fully embrace Wu Wei, when he needed to act without acting.

It was at this moment that he picked up a rock and let it sail towards the two. It would seem to be the most extreme luck that the thrown rock had any chance of even hitting the two but it sailed towards them and hit the elemental on his forehead, directly between his eyes.

Enraged, the elemental let a blade loose towards Jaala, which he just managed to deflect. The elemental was highly skilled, yet even with his skill it took the barest moment of attention and this was enough for Katashi to slip inside his guard and place a small cut on the forearm of the elemental.

The cut glowed red as liquid fire slowly began to drip out, landing on the ground and starting small fires. Jaala smiled as he picked up another rock.

~ by ridgewalker on September 30, 2009.

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