ALL NOVEL Chapter 3: Chapter 3
That was not the case here. The woman's movements were not only precise and smooth, but also flowed into each other perfectly. It was an amazing sight to see, and showed how much dedication the woman had put into her martial arts to be capable of combining two very different styles along with the basic concepts of a third style into something beautiful.
Harry waited patiently until the woman was done practicing before stepping further into the room, alerting the two to his presence.
"Harry," Master Wei greeted as the woman with them turned around to look at Harry, a smile lighting her features when she saw him. "You're just in time for a spar. I am sure you remember Katrina?"
"Of course," Harry replied as he greeted the only female of the group cordially. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Katrina. I heard you finished third place in the national mixed martial arts tournament. Congratulations."
"Harry," Katrina replied with a grin. Her voice did not have an English accent at all, not surprising, considering she was not a native. "Yeah, I kicked total ass. Showed those jerks that a woman can do anything a man can do, only better."
Katrina Whethers was an American woman who had moved to Britain with her parents when she was twelve. The young woman was very bright, with a level of intelligence that almost matched Harry's own. She also had what many people in England called 'the American Cowboy' personality. Or perhaps cowgirl would be more accurate term considering her gender.
Harry did not know much about her past, but he did know that she had been practicing martial arts long before she moved to Britain. By the time Harry had joined, Katrina, who had been twelve at the time, already had several medals from various tournaments under her belt, though none of them had been first place. She had also been one of the key figures who had helped develop his fighting style.
She had also been one of two people who had given him enough bruises to last a lifetime.
The other person was Master Wei.
He did not necessarily consider her a friend, but she was also a bit more than an acquaintance. He had a healthy dose of respect for her strength and ability in martial arts as well as her intelligence. Aside from being a top ranking martial artist, she also had a full-time scholarship at Oxford. Last time she had been in Surrey, she had mentioned she was studying Health and Life Sciences in order to fulfill her life goal of researching and coming up with a more humane and efficient way of dealing with cancer that did not involve radiation therapy or drugs. A worthy goal, and one Harry could not help but admire.
"It's good to see you're doing well. I heard from the old coot here that you've gone off to some boarding school."
Said 'old coot' grunted at the disrespectful term Katrina used for him, but did not actually say anything. The words were merely a term of endearment and not actually meant to be disrespectful, even if Master Wei was not necessarily pleased at being called old.
"So," Katrina's grin widened as she looked at Harry with an excited gaze. "Are you up for a spar? I've been looking forward to seeing how much you've improved since the last time I was here."
"With you? I am always up for the chance to test myself against a martial artist of your caliber," Harry couldn't help the excitement building up inside of him at the thought of sparring Katrina. While sparring Master Wei was nice and definitely helped him improve every time he came in, getting his ass beaten by an old man tended to leave a bad taste in his mouth.
Not that getting beaten by a woman just seven years his senior was any better, but then, Harry just disliked losing no matter who he sparred against.
"Still a smooth talker, eh Harry?" Katrina chuckled as her soon to be sparring partner tilted his head and looked at her in mild curiosity. Eventually, he shrugged the girl's words off. She had been saying things like that ever since Harry had memorized the dictionary and started using at least two of the words he learned every time he spoke.
Even after all this time, he still didn't know what she meant. He also didn't care enough to find out.
"Just let me change into my uniform," Harry said before Katrina could say anything else. He didn't want her to begin trying to embarrass him like she was sometimes wont to do.
Harry made his way into the changing room where he quickly and efficiently changed from his normal clothes to his uniform. It probably would have been more efficient to just change at home before arriving, but Harry always felt it would be awkward to walk down the street in his karate uniform.