The big barbarian called sexual assault training? Clenching her fingers into a tight fist, widening her stance, Tessa punched straight at his rippling abdominal muscles. Instead of striking flesh, she hit some kind of invisible and impenetrable barrier right up close to his skin. Her knuckles stung from contact, but contact with what? A force field? A mental shield? She’d half expected him to shift out of the way, but he remained rock still, not even raising a hand to defend himself. Still testing, she followed through with an uppercut to his jaw. Same result. Her fist smacked into invisible armor. All hopes of taking him down a peg vanished. So she used the opportunity to release her frustration and to seek areas of vulnerability. In quick succession, she slammed her foot down on his toes, kicked shin, ribs, groin. Systematically she targeted the kidney area and his exposed temple with the same unsatisfactory results. She had no more impact than a gnat. Since she couldn’t penetrate the force field surrounding him, she switched tactics.
