Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

by Bryce O'Connor

  That was all well and good, though, when Third Eye brought her shield up in a snap to defend from the incoming axe at a near-perfect angle.

  Forcing herself to trust in the Ability, Aria instead focused on retaliating in any way she could. Grant’s assault was fearsome, but if she could cause him further injury she could probably cut into what time he managed to maintain his Overclock. With this in mind she flung a punch the moment Third Eye blocked another blow, turning it into a heavy forward kick when Grant’s free hand swept her arm aside.

  For about a minute more they ripped into each other like that, Aria swinging and striking with armored fists and legs whenever she got the chance, Grant cutting down at her with such savage repetitions, the edges of her shield were soon gashed and dented a dozen times over by the falling axe blade. Aria kept herself in one piece, but only barely. What was more, she didn’t manage to land so much as a single blow the entire time Grant’s Device burned red, the ocean boiling into steam around his ankles and hissing off his armor.

  That was fine, though. All of that was fine. All she needed to do was survive, was outlast him. If she could do that… If she could be ready…

  And then, with a sputtering gasp from the Mauler, the end of the fight arrived.

  Just as he pulled his axe back for another hacking chop at her head, Grant’s flames flickered, his vysetrium dimming momentarily. His handsome face twisted into a grimace, like he was willing the Overclock to continue with pure resolve, and for a moment the Ability held, the fires rippling back into life. The Device came around as intended, and Aria’s Third Eye bent her arm to meet it. The burning red of the blade encountered a battered steel shield for what might have been the hundredth time. They impacted with another ringing CLANG of metal striking metal.

  This time, though, the axe rebounded back, ripping itself from Grant’s hand, and went flying to join Hippolyta’s spear somewhere among the waves.

  There is no time for mercy in CAD-combat, no time for hesitation. Even as Grant’s whole body spasmed before her, the ion flames winking out in truth now as he reached the limits of his Ability, Aria didn’t so much as blink. She lunged, driving a free fist into the Mauler’s gut to double him over with another “OOMPH!” of stolen air. Her shield came around, then, smashing into the side of his head and sending him flying so violently his entire body whipped about to trail water through the air in all directions before he crashed facedown well onto the beach again. Not waiting to hear if that had been enough to win her the match, Aria plunged after the Mauler, powering through the waves. She saw him still moving, saw him struggling to push himself up onto all fours.

  With a yell Aria took a flying leap, closing the last 10 feet of distance in a catapulting arc, and drove the bottom of her shield into the back of Logan Grant’s skull, smashing his head back into the sandy ground.

  “Fatal Damage Accrued. Winner: Aria Laurent.”

  *****

  “And there we have it!” the augmented voice of Captain Sarah Takeshi, acting commentator of the day’s matches, reached the entirety of the stands from where she shared the observation platform with Major Dyrk Reese on the far side of the field. “Aria Laurent brings it home in the end with a brilliant combination of quick thinking and Ability triggers! Congratulations to Cadet Laurent!”

  If Rei had thought the gathered assembly of staff and students had been loud when Grant had revealed his Overclock, it was nothing to the absolute eruption of noise that followed this announcement. Despite there being only some 400 people seated in the lowest rows of the south end of the stands, the cheering and applause exploded from the gathering to echo and reverberate through the stadium, the great roof above closed against the chill of the fall afternoon. As the Dueling field below them dissipated, Aria and Grant both drifting down the 10 feet to the projection plating, many cadets—particularly among the first years—were standing up quickly to clap and yell.

  Rei, for his part, stayed seated, suspecting Aria would have preferred a more subtle congratulations if possible. Viv did the same to his left, but on her other side Catcher was showing no such restraint.

  “WOOH!” The Saber punched the air and looked to be doing his best to stop himself from jumping up and down with enthusiasm. “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! WAY TO PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE, ARIA!”

  “Dude, take a breather,” Rei laughed, waving him back down as several other first years turned in their direction from the aisle below, some amused, others less-so.

  “Sorry,” Catcher apologized, though he was still grinning from ear to ear as he sat again, not looking away from where Aria was offering Logan Grant a hand up after the boy appeared to have regained control of his limbs. “I just really needed to see that. Didn’t you?”

  “Maybe,” Rei answered noncommittally. He himself wasn’t actually looking at the Arena, but was instead taking Viv in sidelong. She was sitting quietly, surprisingly subdued. He hadn’t really noticed it at the time, but Rei realized her cheering, too, had seemed a little low-spirited compared to the day’s previous bouts, and the look on her face now as she watch Aria and Grant limp off the field in opposite directions was odd.

  She looked almost… concerned.

  “You okay?” he asked, unable to help himself while Catcher continued to whoop and holler.

  Viv started, jerking out of whatever reverie she’d been in to immediately plaster an alarmingly convincing smile across her face.

  “What? Yeah! That was awesome, wasn’t it?!”

  She began shouting along with Catcher, not missing a beat, leaving Rei to take her in with his own frown. He didn’t like this, hadn’t liked this for a month, now, ever since Viv had come back from witnessing Logan Grant put the beatdown on his entourage. He hadn’t pushed her for more information—and hardly thought this was the time—but still… He was starting to have solid suspicions as to what the pair of them discussed, that night.

  He just hoped Viv would eventually realize it was okay to talk about…

  "Next match: Conrad Fae versus Casey Foreman. Combatants, approach the field.”

  Sarah Takeshi’s amplified announcement brought Rei back to the present, and he turned his attention to the Arena again in time to see the next two first years step into view from where they’d likely been hugging the wall of the floor. He just caught a glimpse of Aria’s red hair vanishing under the east walkway, and as she left the noise of the spectators finally started to ebb, allowing the atmosphere to return to one of tense anticipation.

  The elevated projection Takeshi and Reese stood upon at the far end of the Dueling field was much like the one Michael Bretz and the other instructors sometimes used to oversee their training from above, if a little wider. Below the two officers, Fae and Foreman were standing rigidly just outside the east and west ends of the silver perimeter, waiting to be called on.

  Reese didn’t keep them long.

  “Combatants, take position.”

  As one the two first years stepped over the perimeters, taking to their starting circles in near-choreographed unison. Though Rei was loath to credit the man any positive attributes, Reese definitely knew how to run a tight ship when it came to the first day of the Intra-School tournament.

  “This is as an official Duel.” The major repeated his arbiter’s speech for what had to have been the fiftieth time that day already. “It will therefore be subject to regulation ruling. Once the field is formed you will be ordered to call, then engage. Premature Device manifestation will result in a penalty. Premature approach, attack, or the like will result in a match loss. Understood?”

  Together Fae and Foreman nodded. Rei saw Reese’s eyes flicker briefly, and at once the field began to come alive.

  In a steady, graceful rise the area built itself up beneath the two boy’s feet, pixilating into being. As they had been all afternoon, Rei, Viv, and Catcher immediately started guessing what the zone would be, trying to piece it together as parts fell into rapid place.
>
  “Is that white?” Viv asked, pulling up her NOED to zoom in on the growing projection. “Is it a Neutral Zone variation?”

  “Nah, too uneven,” Catcher said with a shake of his head. “Looks like… snow, maybe?”

  Rei was the first to put it together.

  “Tundra,” he told them, grinning as he felt a sort of devilish pity for the two boys.

  Sure enough, about 10 seconds later the field solidified, and the matched combatants now faced each other across a frozen incline of slick, snow-blown ice. From the stands the projection seemed to extend beyond the far perimeter of the area, stretching into a frigid, empty whirling of grey and white that nonetheless allowed for a decent view of Reese and Takeshi, their platform distorted by what could only have been a blizzard, shrieking and biting. Indeed, the raging sounds of a harsh wind had filled the Arena, lashing in what had to have been cruel blasts over Fae and Foreman.

  Rei was anything but envious of them.

  “Field: Arctic Tundra.”

  It was the Arena’s voice, now, that took over the announcements, speaking up in the smooth, mechanical intonations that were uniform across every planet of every system.

  “Cadet Conrad Fae versus Cadet Casey Foreman. Combatants… Call.”

  The two first years’ commands were lost to the shriek of the storm winds, but—like it did for more solid obstructions—the field projection adapted for the viewer, allowing Rei to clearly see the glimmering blur as CADs were summoned. Casey Foreman, he recalled then, was the Mauler Aria had once helped out of a ravine during squad-training. His hammer and armor gleamed white and purple, with the grey glow of his vysetrium only barely distinguishable against the background of whirling snow. Across from him, Conrad Fae was a Phalanx Rei had actually teamed up with before himself, a spear-wielder like Aria. His orange-and-silver weapon, however, was a bit longer and far more slender than Hippolyta, the black vysetrium tip more like a sharpened stake than a blade.

  Almost the moment the match started, though, Fae proved his battle-instincts went beyond the delicate appearance of his Device.

  “Combatants… Fight.”

  It was over so fast Rei was sure he could have blinked and missed it. Poor Casey Foreman orchestrated his own defeat, in the end, charging forward across the ice with a howl that could just be made out over the blizzard. Not only did Fae let him come—as Phalanxes often tended to when faced with a more aggressive opponent—he actually started retreating immediately, backing up in quick steps that had most of the rest of the stadium laughing.

  Except—Rei noticed—the third years’ section.

  That was when he decided to pay close attention, and he was glad for it not a few seconds later.

  “Fatal Damage Accrued. Winner: Conrad Fae.”

  “WHAAAAT?!” Viv’s confusion was echoed hundreds of times all around them, and for once even Catcher seemed at a loss on her left. Below them the field was already dissipating, with Fae retracting his spear from where it seemed to have materialized to stick out the back of Foreman’s skull, having taken him through the eye before most of the viewers could deduce what had happened.

  “Oh, and there’s the fastest end to a match we’re likely to see for some time!” Takeshi’s voice called out, the sounds of the storm fading away with the dematerializing of the field. “Quick thinking and appropriate use of the environment will do that, on occasion! Congrats to Cadet Fae!”

  “But what happened?!” Viv demanded, looking between Rei and Catcher almost desperately, the latter of whom could only shake his head.

  “Looks like Foreman impaled himself?” he tried uncertainly.

  Rei was about to come to his rescue when a familiar voice answered from the right.

  “That’s exactly what happened. Fae’s pulled that move before, though never quite this efficiently. You’d think that spear of his was too thin to be much use against a Mauler like Foreman, but he sure knows how to use it.”

  All three of them turned, and Rei did his best to keep his face steady as Aria settled down in the empty seat he’d been saving for her at his elbow. She was still in her combat suit, and he had to chuckle at the sweat on her brow.

  “Did you run up here?”

  “Damn right. Didn’t want to miss the match. Barely caught it as is.”

  Rei laughed louder this time, allowing Viv to look around him hopelessly.

  “But how? How do you run yourself onto your opponent’s weapon like that?”

  Rei didn’t miss the fact that she didn’t congratulate Aria on her fight.

  If Aria herself noticed this, though, she chose to make no comment of it. “Lieutenant Imala calls it a ‘pike dig’. Apparently it was used against cavalry in ancient warfare. Butt the end of your spear into the ground, and let your opponent’s own momentum impale themselves.”

  “Fae was really clever about it,” Rei agreed with a nod, continuing for her as she started to pull out the tight bun of red hair behind her head. “The ice wasn’t ideal as a support for his weapon, so he withdrew, sliding the end of it back until it caught, probably on a crack or lip or something. Then he aimed for Foreman’s face.”

  “Straight on, it would have been hard to gauge the distance from the tip of the spear,” Viv wrapped for herself, understanding dawning. “That’s why Fae aimed at the head, instead of the body. It was so slender, depth perception would have basically been nullified until it was already in Foreman’s eye.”

  “Exactly,” Aria finished with her hairband between her teeth, running her fingers through her locks to tug them free of knots. “Add that to the wind and snow blowing in their faces, and Foreman’s only chance would have been if he’d taken things a little slower from the start.”

  “Which Maulers are sooo good at doing,” Catcher said sarcastically, leaning back to grin at Aria from behind Viv and Rei. “You got a taste of that too, didn’t you?”

  At his left, Rei felt Viv tense, but pretended to make no note of it.

  “You bet I did,” Aria grunted, popping her hairband over one wrist before shaking her left hand with a grimace as below them Sarah Takeshi called on “Kasper Valente” and “Janice Owens” to approach the field. “Dude did not want to lay off me even for a second! How is having that much Endurance for a Mauler fair?! And then the Overclock?! He about gave me a damn heart attack!”

  “Yeah but you kicked his ass in the end!” Catcher looked like he was having a hard time staying in his seat again. “That was a match and a half, girlfriend! When he tossed your spear… man!”

  The pair of them chatted across Rei and Viv for a while more, until the field under Valente and Owens began to shimmer and rise. As a variation of Cargo Bay formed—manifesting into the spacious storage area of some massive intra-system transport ship or another—they settled down to watch.

  Only then did Rei lean over to whisper sidelong to Aria.

  “Good fight. I figured you had it in the bag, but still… Nice job.”

  She looked rather pleased at the compliment. “I channeled you for half that match, you know,” she muttered back as the combatants were told to call. “By the end I was reading him like a damn book. At least until he pulled that Ability out of his ass.”

  Rei snorted. “That’s got less to do with me and more to do with the fact that you’ve put more hours into training than anyone else.”

  “With you, dummy. Putting more hours of training in with you.”

  Rei shrugged, unwilling to concede the point. Both grinning, they lapsed into silence for a bit, watching Owens—a Duelist—launch herself across the largely-empty bay space with both blades at the ready the moment the Arena called for the start of the match.

  Valente met her nearly in the middle of the field, his Saber’s Speed not quite matching his opponents, but impressive, nonetheless. His Device was of the two-handed variation, and while it packed less of a punch than a Mauler’s axe or hammer, it could be wielded much more freely, even single-
handed for brief periods if needed. In the end the pair appeared to make a good match, because a minute into the fight neither had demonstrated any sort of significant edge on the other.

  “Is Viv okay?”

  Aria whispered the question in a short lull in the match, as Owens pulled away from Valente to circle him a bit, looking for a better opening than she’d found close up.

  It took a moment for Rei to answer. He was hardly surprised Aria had noticed—Viv was usually her most vocal cheerleader, so long as Catcher wasn’t caffeinated—but he just wasn’t sure how to best put his suspicions into words.

  Or, indeed, if he should at all.

  “Yeah, she’s fine,” he finally decided, responding just as quietly as Viv and Catcher yelled beside him when Owens ripped inward to engage the Saber again. “I think she just… I think she might see Grant in a different light from the rest of us. After whatever happened that night…”

  “Ah,” Aria caught on quickly, and bent just a little to study Viv’s face from around his own. “That night, yeah… I’ve asked her about it, but she’s been pretty tight lipped on telling me what happened.”

  “You did?” This did surprise Rei, and he snapped around to look at her directly. “What did she say?”

  “Hey. Eyes forward. You’re gonna give us away.”

  As she said it, Aria pushed his face back around with a smirk.

  Rei’s cheek burned where her fingers had touched him, and he willed himself not to go red.

  “Like I said,” Aria continued, “she hasn’t told me much of anything. Nothing more than she explained when we got back to your suite that night.”

  Rei grunted, happy to get his thoughts on track again. He recalled the shaken state they’d found Viv in. Most of that could probably have been assigned to the shock of watching Grant flatten the better part of his entourage bare-handed, but he’d never believed that explained everything…