“It’s not about who’s stronger. I’ve beaten the crap out of a lot of guys who were stronger than me, because I knew what to do,” Charlie said.
“He’s right,” Chancey offered. “I’m an angel, and I’m stronger than Charlie, but when we get in scraps he’ll kick my ass any day of the week, because he knows how to fight well. It’s about using your opponent’s weaknesses against them.”
“I’m still in a wheelchair. That puts me at a disadvantage,” I pointed out. “I can’t run away, so I have to incapacitate my enemies or kill them to stay safe.”
“You’re thinking in black-and-white terms, considering a fight winning or losing,” Charlie objected. “When you’re struggling to survive, it doesn’t matter who wins. All that matters is getting through to the next moment, and buying yourself one more minute. The longer you stay alive, the greater chance you have of someone coming along to help. It doesn’t matter if you come out on top. What matters is you keep fighting long enough to stay breathing. Even if it’s just one more second, you keep buying yourself another shot at life.”
I supposed if I didn’t have my powers now, learning this stuff would at least keep me alive. Magic or not, some dipshit was always trying to kill me.
“Sometimes, if you put up a struggle, the guy going for ya will consider you too much work, and leave you be,” Chancey put in. “Bad guys like easy targets, not ones that fight back.”
“But… I didn’t always fight back every time.” Dark memories flooded my mind, and though I tried to push them down, they rose up like a crashing wave. “I had to let John do whatever he wanted just to stay alive.”
Oberi gave a low whimper. I reached out to pat his head, and he licked my hand.
“Not every situation is going to be the same,” Charlie said. “You did the right thing back then by not fighting back, because if you had tried, he might have killed you.”
“Exactly. Fawning might’ve been the best thing to do in that situation. The point is to live on to fight another day, in whatever way you can,” Chancey said.
“But the next fight that comes along might be different, so you’ll have to pick a different strategy. There’s always another guy, Ava,” Charlie added. “You get rid of one, another’s waiting there to take his place. You have to promise yourself no matter what it takes, you’re going to outlive the guy trying to harm you, even if it means others get hurt.”
“Or if it means you get hurt in a way less than what he’s trying to do to you,” Chancey added.
I nodded. “Okay. So what can I do to defend myself?”
“The goal is always to de-escalate and escape. You wound them badly enough so you can get away, if possible,” Charlie started. He moved closer. He took one of my arrows and said, “If someone gets close to you, you take one of your arrows and hit them here and here.”
Charlie pointed to the artery in his neck, then his eyes. “The throat is always your best choice. Eyes are a close second. They can’t see you, they can’t follow.”
“It’s going to be hard for me to reach their face if I’m sitting down,” I argued.
“Then go for the gut. Either here between the ribs”— Charlie lifted up his shirt to show me— “or a gut wound. You fuck up an internal organ, they’re bleeding out and not getting back up. If all else fails, you stab at the groin. You cut a man’s balls off, he’s not coming after you.”
“Other good points are the nose and the ears,” Chancey added. “It’s hard to give chase if your nose is broken or your head’s spinning because your eardrums got busted.”
“Try it on me.” Charlie placed the arrow in my fingers, then clasped his warm hand over mine. My heartbeat thrummed as he slowly moved the point to a place between his ribs, then to a soft spot on his side close to his liver.
“That’s what you’re aiming for.” He knelt down, raising my hand so I was pressing the tip of the arrow against the artery in his throat. “You don’t have to apply much pressure for this to burst. You slash this, you kill me. You could end my life right now without even trying.”
His vein pulsed against the arrowhead. I swallowed and said, “They could knock the weapon out of my hand, or take it away. And if they’ve got supernatural strength, like an angel or a vampire, I’m done for.”
“Angels and vampires still have weaknesses, like everyone does.” Chancey extended his arm, showing me his wrist. “You put pressure onto these points and twist, they’re gonna drop whatever they have. Try it on me.”
Charlie handed Chancey the arrow. He swung it slowly at me to demonstrate. I grasped his wrist and twisted it, pushing pressure onto the points he’d shown me. He gasped in pain then dropped the arrow, rubbing his wrist. “Damn. Little sloppy, but you learn quick.”
“So I stab them, and the threat’s neutralized?” I asked.
“It’s not always that simple. Without the use of magic, it’s rare for anyone to deliver an instantaneous death. It’s going to take them a while to die even if you get a good spot,” Charlie said. “Minutes to hours, depending on the wound. A centimeter can mean the difference between life and death for some people, but you just need to get far enough away to find help.”
Charlie talked about this like he knew, and he probably did. He’d lived life on the streets for years without magic. I knew he’d been in enough brawls and knife fights to understand what he was talking about.
“What if they knock me out of my chair?” I was terrified of getting pinned. Being held down was my worst fear. It had happened to me one too many times, and I never wanted it to happen again.
“That’s gonna be a bit of an issue. Usually, you’d put your legs against the ground and push up to throw them off, but that’s not gonna work with you,” Chancey stated. “And pinning your wrists isn’t the worst thing that can happen.”
Didn’t I know it. I’d been punched and choked when John had held me down. I wanted to avoid that situation entirely, but if I couldn’t avoid it, I at least wanted to know how to fight my way out of it.
Charlie put a hand to his mouth as he thought it over. “You’re gonna want to shoot your arms out to the sides, straight out, to get them off balance. Then you’re going to sweep your arms back around in a circle, grab on to their middle and twist until you’re on top. Then you grab whatever weapon you can get your hands on and keep striking until they’re done.”
