30.
Lord Greystoke glared
at the fighters. He had stepped out to challenge the two who had taken his
challenge. They were dressed only in the loose pants and sandals but one
wielded the long spear and other the long staff. The English Lord displayed his
metal staff held in midway. He crossed the metal staffs and stepped forth. The
spear man came at him with the front thrust when Lord Greystoke sidestepped and
used the left staff to deflect the spear while his right staff swung out at the
spearman face. The blow was deflected by the second fighter with the wooden
staff who intervened. The staff fighter then swung the wooden staff at Lord
Greystoke face but the later had pulled back to face the two fighters. He then
tossed his metal staff to Lady Jane and went into a half body crouch. His face
expression was then of snarling look and his arms swung loosely at the sides.
The spearman came thrusting the weapon at Lord Greystoke but the later had then
grabbed the spear before the head and used the momentum to swing up and with
his legs doing the drop kick. The spearman went down without his spear but then
Lord Greystoke had broken the spear staff into two pieces. He tossed the broken
pieces aside and faced the other with the wooden staff. The other one came with
the staff swinging left to right and then with a twist of the hand, it was
going for a upper blow on Lord Greystoke’ head but the later had charged in
like bull into the fighter. His arms went around the fighter at the waist and
then he heaved the figure up before his strength crushed the ribs and spine. He
then jumped holding the wounded man and did a front body slam with it. Then
Lord Greystoke stepped off the dead body and faced his other adversary.
The other fighter
motioned to the other fighters to join. The other three were armed with broad
swords and daggers.
“They are mine.” Watson
stepped forth. He reached for the daggers under his jacket. He held two each on
his hands and then braced on his stance. He did not wait for the signal and
tossed the daggers off. The daggers found their marks on the attackers’ throat.
The four fighters fell down even before Sherlock could exclaim his surprise.
“I say Watson, its
elementary you learned that in the Frontier. Why on heaven sake didn’t you tell
me?”
Everyone ignored the
man and followed the official inside the house and soon they were out on the
emptied street with a distance to the station. The train was there but they
were soon surprised by two more fighters who were versed with pugilistic
skills.
“The Woo brothers! They
are good at the Tiger and Crane styles. They are also hired killers.” Wolfgang
commented. “We cannot stop now.”
Wolfgang rushed forth
and was floored by the brother with the Tiger style. The techniques used in the
Tiger style are typically fast strikes but the nature of the tiger adopted was
its ferocity in the attack. The favoured move was the clenched fingers with the
fingers bent at the first knuckle which forms a claw. The exponent can hit with
the open palm for an upper hit on the jaws or the bridge nose; and with a
change of impact, it can do a finger clawing on the face or the body with the
fingers spread out. The exponent trained hard with their fingers to harden it
for such moves. Wolfgang was given that deadly blow when the clenched fingers
hit him in the left shoulders and took a piece of his flesh there. The wound
looked as if he was mauled by the tiger’s claws. The brother went for the
second blow to the neck but Van Helsing stepped in with his right arm blocking
the blow. Van Helsing used his armoured arm to push the brother off. With his
enhanced strength Van Helsing pushed ahead with the move to swing a punch at
the brother. His silver arm broke the other at the right shoulder before he
followed up with a right kick at the brother.
“It’s Savate.” Van
Helsing commented on his style.
The other brother
rushed in with the clenched fingers resembling the bill of the crane. The crane
fighting style uses the four limbs for its attack. The exponent basic stance
was to stand on one leg and held the arms out wide as it was how a real crane
will stand. The crane uses two basic moves which is the crane wing for blocking
and the beak for the strike. It may seem ‘elegant’ in the pose but the movement
has its strength. The spread out arms could block an attack with the forearm
just below the wrist and then encircling of the hand over and on top of the
opponent’ wrist to snap the bone there or bring it down with a forceful thrust
of the fingers.
The move was not seen
by Van Helsing but Mycroft had intervened. The huge man took up his fists to
block the right fingers aimed at Van Helsing. The hardened knuckles from the
bare fights stopped the fingers but Mycroft then moved in with the fingers to
grab the wrist there and twisted it like how he was taught at Academy then. It
was a judoka move which was taught then by visiting masters. Mycroft then
pulled the brother towards by him with the injured wrist and then landed a
solid kick in between the legs. He followed through with a hard chop on the
back of the neck.
“Portobello alley
style. We don’t like to lose.” Mycroft smiled. He was then seen to be hit by
some fast punches followed by a vicious kick to the left knee which caused him
to fall on his face. The kicks were delivered from the knees with repeated
kicks that were aimed at the face. It was done by a tall scrawny figure with a
pig tailed below his round hat and the long robe favoured by the elder
Chinese. Van Helsing rushed forth but he
was counter attacked by the long Chinese fan that swung open in front of his
eyes. The Chinese hand fan can be a deadly weapon in the hands of the skilled.
The ribs when closed on the fan can be used like a small bludgeon stick or as a
dagger into the soft flesh. The wide open hand fan also served as a camouflage to hide your fists or kicks by
shielding the opponent’s eye. That was what Van Helsing encountered blocking
his view before he felt the spine of the fan hit his throat and then the
powerful jab into his left ribs before his left knee was hit by the side to
drop him.
“Bundolo!” Lord
Greystoke leaped into the battle but he landed with his arms missing his
target. He was then assaulted by a series of flying kicks onto his face before
he was sent toppling behind. He pushed himself up and was impacted by the open
palm hit on the jaws and then his left arm locked to the ground by the elder
man. Lord Greystoke pulled himself free with great effort and pushed the
elderly man off his arm but his effort to stand was to slacken when the elderly
man used his body frame to slam into Lord Greystoke. The slam caused the man to
fall down but he was held by the arm to prevent him reaching the ground.
“You fight like a black
bear but you hold the agility of the monkey.” The elderly man told Lord
Greystoke but it was Lady Jane who replied in the local language.
“He is not of the
monkey but of the apes. He is their King.” Lady Jane then looked at the others.
“I learned Chinese from the grocer near the estate. He was from Canton.”
“That’s enough, guys.”
Lady Harkness stepped in with the rifle aimed at the Chinese fighter left
temple. “Move and I will blow your brains off.”
“Stop! Please! This is
Master Hung. He may be mistaken us for the foreigners.” Wolfgang intervened and
with a long chatter of local words, he pacified the elderly master of the arts.
“Master Hung meant no malice. He thought you were attacking the locals.”
The Chinese master then
turned to walk away leaving the remaining five still recovering from the swift
battle.
“I say Watson, it’s
obviously elementary that we met a real master of the arts. I sympathise with
Mycroft for his …”
“Snotty behaviour and
brash words? I doubt it. He did display some good moves which a crippled like
me could use.” Watson replied. “I can’t bloody do those kicks and the fan; I
might use it to swat flies perhaps. Should we get onto the train before we
ended up in some monastery learning how to sweep the floors?”
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