Looking for a story where the protagonist used a weapon called spetsod or maybe something else

Question

Hi I am looking for a book where a soldier has a spiritual experience while fighting a battle and walks off. He learns a martial art and becomes a freedom fighter using a spetsod (?) that fires darts that paralyses the enemy soldiers. I think he owned a bar as a cover.

The book would have been from the 80s or early 90s. The main character was a soldier in a federation type arrangement. He was in a battle and had a sort of spiritual moment and dropped his rifle and just wandered off. He met someone who trained him in a martial art and then started a one man campaign against the organisation he used to be a part of. His idea was to bleed the enemy of resources so never killed, only used a paralyzing dart that left people unable to move for months and meant they had to be cared for, bleeding the enemy resources. The weapon he used was attached to his hands and hidden using a flesh...covering.

Answer 1

This is Steve Perry's "The Man Who Never Missed".

The main character is Emile Khadaji, a bartender in a Confed world who secretly is taking out the Confed soldiers. He wields a "spetsdod" which is a small dart thrower on the back of his hand. He uses paralyzing darts so the Confed has to take care of the wounded.

In his back story he'd been a Confed soldier who walked away from a battle and been picked up by a mystic trainer named "Pen".

Further books in the Matador series are prequels following Pen's training and sequels with Khadaji's followers training to take down the Confed