After getting dressed and brushing my teeth I went downstairs. This time the light in Rettle’s basement was off. I went inside. I stopped, indecisive, trying to make out at least something. I heard the buzzing of an automatic drive system behind my back, and the massive door at the entrance was closed. I found myself in total darkness.
I got an uneasy feeling. Even though I was never afraid of the dark, the distaste for such circumstances was certainly inscribed in every person’s DNA. Because, come to think of it, what should a caveman have been afraid of in the first place? Not a saber-tooth tiger, but the darkness which could contain a dozen of those tigers, each holding a gun in one hand and a chain saw in the other.
“Hey, is anybody here? Rettle?”
I heard my voice crack treacherously.
“I’m here,” sounded the coach’s voice, infinitely calm and aloof.
It’s funny, but in the absence of visual references, I completely lost my ability to perceive ambient space. Rettle’s voice seemed to sound incredibly far and, at the same time, very close to me. As if in that fraction of a second, when he was saying those two words, he managed to move a mile forward and back.
The voice in the dark started to lecture me.
“The paladin is an ideal warrior, and the method of his training should be unique. No longer will there be familiar training sessions, nor usual schedule. The next lesson will begin when I decide it and will last as long as necessary.”
This time I was absolutely sure that Rettle was moving constantly in the surrounding darkness. Now his voice sounded somewhere on the far right, and a moment later it already came behind my back. I felt even more uneasy. The coach was circling around like a hungry shark, eager to pounce on me and snap off my leg.
“Take a step forward. There is a gun on the floor in front of you. Take it.”
The coldness of steel I was now feeling in my hand boosted my confidence. The shark was indeed a dangerous creature, but now I had a god damned gun and it was surely worth something!
“Your task is to hit me, being guided only by your ears and intuition.”
“Hit you? You mean to shoot at you?”
“Yes.”
“To shoot a gun?”
“Yes.”
“You want me to shoot a gun at you?”
Rettle’s toughness must have verged on insanity.
“The bullets are rubber.”
“Ok-k-key, When shall I start?”
“Whenever you are ready.”
I took the shooting stance Rettle had taught me. I instantly caught myself screwing up my right eye. Yeah, right. It’s much handier, of course, to have a good sight in total darkness. The coach was moving absolutely quietly, but he continued expatiating on the topic of paladin’s training apparently specially for me. I shifted the gun in different directions, turned around several times and finally decided to pull the trigger. There was a click and then nothing.
“The paladin’s main weapon is not a gun or even his fists. Your mind is what matters. You should learn the important rule – once a gun appeared in your hands, you should check its readiness. Remove its magazine and make sure there are bullets in it, put it back, take the safety catch off.”
Once again, I inwardly reproached myself for my stupidity and after that performed all the necessary manipulations. Now I was ready.
“The paladin should constantly analyze the surrounding situation. No matter whether it’s an actual combat, training or a usual stroll along the street.”
Rettle continued talking, and I began tracking him down again. I was overwhelmed with a bit of unhealthy excitement. It’s not good to want to shoot your master, right? But it would be so great to pump a rubber bullet into the chest of the mighty and invincible Rettle!
I shifted the gun to the left, but the coach started to move in the opposite direction. I diverted the gun to the right. The voice started to move away. I pulled the trigger. A shot rang out, and a small flash blinded me. Either Rettle had time to see my face, lit by the flash, or he once again displayed his supernatural abilities.
“Close your eyes. You don’t need them in the darkness, but your brain still keeps expending its energy on analyzing visual information despite its absence,” he said.
Judging from the fact that his voice sounded as endlessly calm as previously, my bullet hadn’t reached the target. Again, I started moving the gun from side to side, trying to guess where Rettle was. It seemed like he was behind my back. I turned around abruptly and fired… And missed again.
Maybe it was about quantity, not quality? I pulled the trigger, then moved the gun to the left and fired once more, then moved it sharply to the right and again fired into the darkness, where my invisible opponent was hiding.
“Keep in mind – you have a limited number of bullets. There’s no point in squandering them.”
I missed! Carefully, I took several steps toward Rettle’s voice, then a step to the side. He should have been right in front of me. I pulled the trigger. Again, nothing had happened. I heard neither ‘ouch!’ or ‘ow!’, nor ‘what the hell, dammit!’
The coach continued his lecture, “Darkness is the oldest enemy of the mankind. Unlike the majority of animals, people acquire most of the information about the world around them through their eyes. We aren’t designed to live by night. The dark makes us vulnerable, helpless, scares us.”
Although Rettle’s voice was basically devoid of any emotional coloring, I was sure that at that moment it became much more sinister. I fired again. And again. But this time the gun only responded with a dull click.
“The paladin should be able to combine seemingly incompatible things – total concentration on the object and constant analysis of the whole situation. While checking the gun’s readiness you should have memorized the number of bullets and remembered to keep count. And now you are left without a weapon… Alone…In total darkness…”
This time I was absolutely sure that Rettle was several feet ahead of me, and, judging by the sound, he was approaching me. “What will he do when he approaches me?” a thought flitted through my mind. I gulped nervously.
“You shouldn’t be afraid of the dark, but you should beware of it,” with every word, Rettle’s voice sounded closer and closer to me. “You should always remember what the main danger of the dark is.”
For a second, there was complete silence and then…
“You never know what is hiding in it!”
A voice whispered these words right into my ear. But that wasn’t the coach! Rettle was right in front of me, and the one who said the last words was behind my back! Panic exploded in my chest like a bomb, spreading splinters of fear to every corner of my body. And that was just the beginning of the nightmare. Suddenly someone encircled my neck with his arm in a classic UFC-style chokehold.
The attacker was squeezing my throat harder and harder. And as if it weren’t enough, he started lifting me up. Fear started thrashing around in my head. I was vainly grasping at the attacker’s arm, choking my throat, and still trying to pant for air.
“You should overcome your fear. It’s all in your head. You are not dying. Nothing is over yet. Remember what you’ve been told. You’re a vampire and you need much less oxygen than a human. You can spend several minutes like this without any harm to your health or fighting efficiency.”
Rettle’s voice sounded right in front of me. Now, there was less than one foot between us. But I continued panicking, barely getting what he was saying.
“The paladin’s main weapon is their ability to make the right decisions in extreme conditions. Stop for a second, cease to struggle. Clear your mind and think.”
This time I heard Rettle’s words more clearly. My hands kept grasping at the attacker but not as vigorously as before. I began to realize the pointlessness of my attempts to take a breath.
“Distract yourself from what is happening right now. Look at the situation from the outside. What do you see?”
Now I was clearly hearing the coach’s voice. My hands dropped, my mouth closed no longer trying to catch a desired portion of air. I looked at the situation from the outside. I was standing straight, and the attacker was behind me, holding my neck. My hands were free, his were occupied. He was open. He couldn’t defend himself and continued choking me at the same time.
“Do you see it, Sam? Now you see what you should do, don’t you? Don’t hurry. Prepare yourself. You still have loads of time. Do everything right.”
I thought over my every move, mentally took a deep breath and got into action. I swung my left hand up and punched the enemy right in the chin. He didn’t let go of my neck, although his grip weakened. I seized this opportunity, grabbed his arm with my both hands, hung on it and hit the opponent in the legs. He staggered, losing his balance. The attacker’s hand slipped off. Already standing on both feet, I grasped his arm even tighter. I bent over sharply and made a throw. The attacker’s body flew over my shoulder and collapsed on the floor right at my feet.
At that moment a sharp pain pierced my head. All lamps hanging from the ceiling went on at once. I let go of the attacker’s arm and started rubbing my eyes vigorously. After some time I managed to figure out what was happening around. Two men were standing in front of me. They were Rettle and Stoker. But, of course! Needless to say that it was Stoker who attacked me! Who else but this slimebag would have agreed to play such a mean role and attack an unarmed person from behind?! Frigging bastard! For the second time in the day, this dick surreptitiously attacked me! What a douchebag! My thoughts of revenge were interrupted by Rettle, “Not everything went perfect but you’ve made it. At the end of every test like this, we will be analyzing your mistakes. So what do you think you’ve done wrong this time?”
“You had pants on this time!” Stoker winked at me mockingly.
“I guess I should have examined the room in the first place.”
“How? It was pitch-dark in here, and searching the whole basement blindly is not a good idea. What you should have done in the first place was…”
“I should have retreated!” I cut the coach short.
Rettle nodded.
“I should have retreated, found a switch or gone for a flashlight. For a flashlight and a gun!”
“Correct. Darkness is a red flag in itself. If I asked you to come to my basement then why is the light off? You should be able to catch red flags like this.”
“So what should I do if I’ve already found myself in the darkness? If I came into the room and the door was closed right behind me?”
“In this case, you should take the most secure position. First, step aside. If someone was waiting for you inside he saw where you’d stopped while the light was still coming through the door. Now he no longer needs light to shoot you because he knows perfectly well where you stand. And always protect your back. You should stand in such a way that nobody could attack you from behind.”
“And the fact that I couldn’t manage to hit you – where did I make a mistake?”
“Nowhere. You just need more practice. Speaking of it. Unlike a usual Order member, a paladin must not only know how to shoot and fight but also possess all other necessary skills. So from now on, you’ll be taught not only by me but also by other members of the Order. Stoker, for instance, will teach you breaking and entering.”
“Why? Is he too old to do it himself? Do you need a newer and better-looking burglar?” I quipped, staring at Stoker.
“A paladin is a unique fighting entity, able to conduct any operation alone. Each of us possesses a wide range of different skills – from object search to its elimination. If you want to become one of us you must know all of that too. We are as strong as the weakest of us.”
“Sounds cool!” I replied.
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