Still… In the end, it was her business, and if Aria couldn’t get her to open up during what little girl-time the two of them got, it was clear Viv wasn’t looking to talk about things until she was good and ready.
As though to complement this temporary resolution of his curiosity, Rei’s NOED chose that moment to alert him to a notification. Seeing it, he felt his stomach do a sort of weak backflop before curling in on itself uncomfortably.
It was time.
“Looks like I’m up,” he said out loud just as Valente managed to deny Owens of her off-hand knife with a lock and twist that cut clean through her left wrist.
Around him, the other three all tensed, but it was Catcher who spoke up first.
“Keep a cool head, man. Remember what we went over. If you outmaneuver her, you’ve got a good shot at coming out on top.”
“Yeah. You got it.” Rei didn’t actually believe his friend—he’d spent too many hours over the last several nights going over all the possible outcomes in his head—but that didn’t mean he was any less resolved to make a good show of himself.
And whatever he managed to do, Catcher would have been integral in it, this time.
“Kick ass,” Viv told him plainly, looking around only long enough to punch him—lightly, for once—in the arm. “Don’t bother coming back if you lose. I’ll disown you.”
“I’d rather you didn’t? It would make things awkward in the suite, you know?”
Viv gave him a wicked grin. “Then don’t lose.”
“Right. Duh.”
Grinning despite his nerves, Rei bent to retrieve his bag from where it had been stowed between his feet before standing up. As he turned to make down the row to the right—towards the east side of the underworks the notice had told him to report to—he caught Aria’s eye. She smiled, a brilliant, natural smile that was only tinged the slightest bit with concern.
“Good luck,” she said.
Rei cocked his head at her, pretending to be hurt. “That’s it? No speech? No epic send-off?”
She laughed. “I can give you one if you want, but don’t pretend you’re not twice as aware of anything I could say than any of us are, Rei.”
He smirked, granting her that. “Fine. In that case… Thanks. And save my seat for me.”
“You got it.”
Allowing himself to trade smiles with her only a moment more, Rei finally managed to turn away and head for the stairs at the end of the row. Without a glance back he descended to the walkway below as the fight between Valente and Owens raged on, then turned right to make for the closest entrance to the underworks. Reaching it, Rei finally paused, unable to keep himself from looking up and southward, back towards the others.
He didn’t miss Viv and Catcher turning away quickly, having clearly been watching him go with hopeful trepidation.
In the end, only Aria met his eye, and after a second she lifted a hand to wave, then made a gentle, encouraging shooing motion.
You got this, Rei translated for himself.
With a nod and his own brief wave back, he allowed himself to be swallowed by the passages under the stands.
CHAPTER 38
By the time Sarah Takeshi finally called his name 45 minutes later, Rei had gotten control of his nerves. After changing into his combat suit in one of the subbasement locker rooms, he’d returned to stand silently at-ease along the wall of the Arena floor, waiting in the steadily moving “on deck” line with a cycling of five others under the watchful eye of Claire de Soto, the Saber sub-instructor. He hadn’t looked left or right the entire time, had barely registered the faces of the comers and goers, of the winners and losers of their matches. In his own head Rei stayed, preparing, readying himself as best he could.
So, by the time his name was up, he felt he had steeled his resolves to every extent his current abilities would allow for.
As he approached the field he saw in the corner of his eye another form in grey-and-red striding towards the opposite side from the west wall. He forced himself not to look, forced himself to keep his eyes forward, on the platform where Sarah Takeshi and Dyrk Reese hovered several feet above the ground while they waited. Rei didn’t lift his gaze to the major’s either, not wanting to know what sort of expression—or lack thereof—graced the aging bastard’s features as his plans took form. Instead Rei watched the silver line of the perimeter approach, reaching it and rounding the area until he was roughly near the east point of the circle.
Only then did he lift his eyes to his opponent, waiting for him 30 yards away.
Lena Jiang was glaring at him with as much distaste as he’d seen from most anyone in all his time at Galens. At C1, the black-haired girl had officially come to be the class’ top Saber a week or so before, matched for CAD-Rank with no more than two or three others, and trailing only Logan Grant’s C2 and Aria’s C3. She was technically only three ranks higher than Rei, now—who’d hadn’t quite managed to crack D9 despite a full schedule of near-endless training the week before—but with his true specs lingering closer to a D1 or D2 average, the girl was practically a full tier higher than him when it came to capability.
Silently, Rei apologized to Valera Dent. If he was going to get through this match without being used like a living practice dummy, he would still have to rely on will and wiles for the time being.
“Combatants, take position.”
Reese’s command was as clear and unfazed as any Rei had heard so far that day, and he again had to grant the man a begrudging level of respect. While no doubt the major had been anticipating this particular fight all afternoon, by the tone of his voice he might have been on the same mechanical repeat as the Arena.
Stepping over the perimeter, Rei crossed quickly to the red starting ring that had only just manifested atop the black steel of the floor. Reaching it at the same time as Jiang across from him, he met the Saber’s gaze unblinkingly, unwilling to give the girl so much as an ounce of satisfaction by looking away.
“This is as an official Duel.” Reese performed the arbiter’s speech once more, and Rei wondered if it was customary to give it before every match in the Intra-Schools. “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. Is that understood?”
Rei nodded, and Jiang did the same. There was a moment, half a breath, in which the Arena went silent, even the stands going quite as the promise of another fight settled.
And then the world began to shimmer and shift around Rei.
Since starting squad-training, the first years had been privy to a much greater variety of fields than the Neutral Zone variations they’d always used in Dueling practice. Still, despite this, zone manifestation was yet a fascinating experience to experience, particularly from inside the projection.
The first thing that shimmered into being was a billowing black sky of smoke and orange and red fire. Not a hint of the heavens was visible, and Rei wouldn’t have been able to guess if it was day or night no matter how long he’d attempted to catch a glimpse of sun or stars through the roiling smog. Next came the floor, rising dark from the plating as it lifted Rei and Jiang more than the standard 10 feet, telling him immediately they’d be fighting on some kind of incline. Sure enough, a rough, crumbling rock formation pixilated into being beneath them, and he found himself standing at a steep angle of some 30 degrees.
That would have been bad enough, had it not been for the running lava that boiled and bubbled in a dozen streams of varying curvatures and breadths down the slope of the field.
Unable to help himself, Rei—and Jiang across from him, he was glad to catch—turned north, where the spot around which Reese and Takeshi had hovered was now completely overtaken by the very-convincing rendition of an active volcano in process of steadily erupting high, high above them.
Rei couldn�
��t help himself.
“Holy shit.”
“Field: Volcanic Slopes.”
Rea had seen the variation of the zone before, of course, witnessed it some scores of times over in the SCT feeds. That, though, was an altogether different experience to standing in the shadow of the spitting, trembling mountain, all while feeling the burn of the molted rock and the blow of hot wind through his hair.
“Cadet Lena Jiang versus Cadet Reidon Ward. Combatants… Call.”
At last Rei recalled where he was, and turned to face forward again. “Call,” he echoed, and in a whirl of metal and light Shido was around his arms and legs. Black steel over white reflected a bloody red sheen in the dim illumination of the field, the claws protruding from Rei’s right knuckles flickering like solid flames with every subtle motion. Around and through the armor the vysetrium strips felt even brighter than usual, rippling their icy blue light outward as the Stryon particles within whirled into life upon the Device’ summoning.
And across from him, blazing in the smoke, Jiang’s CAD was outlined in similar brightness, a stunning white that made her rather easy to distinguish from the trailing whisps of all around them.
The black-haired girl stood—20 yards away now—in greaves of a brilliant, rainbow-blue offset by dark purple, the interlocking armor reaching all the way up to her hips. Her right arm, too, was encased almost completely by her CAD, trading off for nothing more than a glove of steel plating over her left hand, though each finger was tipped with a glowing white claw. Her sword too, was edged with white, a single-handed variant like Catcher’s, and it left a trailing wash of bright light across Rei’s eyes as the Saber twirled it at her side a few times to limber up her wrist.
He’d have to watch out not to be blinded, if he wanted the fight to last more than a few seconds.
Then, at last, the final command came.
“Combatants… Fight.”
There was the CRACK! of shattering stone, and Jiang erupted forward in a blaze.
Rei, fortunately, had already made the decision to hold his side of the field by the time she moved, which turned out to be the right call. Despite his top spec being his D4 Speed, he didn’t think he would have made it more than 5 or 6 yards towards the middle of the zone before the Saber caught him, and likely flatfooted. Set as he was, his Cognition was high enough to see her coming, and so Rei managed to settle and spot the opening blow before Jiang was on top of him.
CLANG!
His new D0 Defense, it transpired, was on par enough to handle a direct blow from Jiang’s sword. The Device hit the heavy plating of his left arm, biting in only barely before rebounding. Jiang cursed, smoothly jumping back several feet to accept the momentum of the ricochet, then lanced forward again, sword straight before her. It was a direct thrust Catcher had used more than once, and Rei bashed the assault aside with practiced familiarity, letting it slide by him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to launch a counterstrike before the Saber’s opposite leg came up to kick at his face. He blocked the blow only barely, finally staggering sideways out of his starting place.
“I get it! It’s run away or turtle up now, huh, Ward?!”
Rei was so caught off guard by Jiang’s question he very nearly let himself get impaled as another thrust came. Barely dodging it, he had to fend off a series of quicker, shallower strikes in rapid succession, the girl prying for an opening through his swift adjustments.
“See?! You’ve gone from a mouse who couldn’t stand and fight to a wall that doesn’t know how to! Is this why you can never hold your weight in squad-training?! Because you’re too scared to throw a punch?!”
This time Rei registered Jiang’s seething words more clearly, and he felt a pang of irritation. While it wasn’t strictly against the rules to taunt an opponent in sanctioned matches, it was considered pretty shit form for a member of the ISCM, not to mention incredibly disrespectful. The spectators wouldn’t hear anything, of course—not unless something was yelled loud enough to reach the stands over the rumbling of the volcano—but the Saber’s words would be clear to Reese and Sarah Takeshi.
Then again, Rei doubted the major cared, and the captain’s job at the moment was only to provide good entertainment for the crowd.
A cut from the right ripped around, and Rei barely managed to catch and redirect it with his claws. This turned into another kick he turtled against, which unfortunately left him open for a slash from Jiang’s claws at his face. He wrenched back, avoiding getting blinded, though the distortion of his reactive shielding as the vysetrium tips just caught the field told him just how close it had been.
“Oh, look at that! You’re still slippery as ever! Good for you, asshole!”
Rei grit his teeth, ducking a cross-blow from the left before spinning sideways to avoid the following axe-kick from above. Jiang was relentless. Worse, she was sure-footed despite it. Even on an incline of 30 degrees her attacks came quick and clean with hardly a pause, while Rei was having a hard-enough time holding onto his bearings while keeping himself from getting chopped to pieces. He could feel his neuroline tingling as his Cognition took on this problem, but he was challenged by another furious volley of blows before he came up with any ideas.
“Seriously?! Is that it?! All that growth you’ve been rubbing in our faces, and all you can do is huddle up and take a beating?!”
Oh, and on top of everything else, Rei also had to fight to keep his cool, which helped nothing.
Crunch!
As he stepped back yet again, ceding once more to Jiang’s intensity, Rei felt the stone beneath his feet crumble and give, and he fell into an awkward half-split when his back foot slid down the hill over the resulting rubble and debris. He only flailed for a moment to keep his balance, but it was all a quick fighter like the Saber needed, and she stepped in quick to cleave down at his right shoulder. Unable to get the defense plating of his left arm around, Rei did the only thing he could, blocking with his right. He cursed internally as the blow landed, fearing what would happen once he lost the function of his offensive hand. There was a CLANG, and he braced for the pain of the phantom-call cutting through the thinner steel into flesh.
Instead, Jiang cursed as her strike rebounded yet again.
That, at last, was when his still-struggling Cognition finally clicked.
As Rei found his footing once more, so too did he see the advantage he might be able to take hold of. Jiang was built for Speed, and clearly had a respectable Endurance to boot. Her strikes were quick and endless, absent any indication of slowing down after what was probably a minute of ceaseless hacking at Rei. To have such advantages, there had to be a balance, right?
If even his lighter carbon-steel plating could handle a blow from the girl, then didn’t that mean her Offense—and Strength, too, therefore—were probably severely lacking?
Oh this is gonna suck, Rei moaned silently to himself, setting his feet.
Then it was finally his turn to lunge.
The surprise on Jiang’s face as he turned the fight on her was apparent, and immediately made the incoming pain on the horizon worth it. She slashed at him, from below this time, and Rei brought up a steel-clad shin to deflect the strike as he threw his first punch, claws going straight for her face. The Saber dodged back, cutting downward as she did, but in her retreat her range fell well-short of a killing blow.
And Rei let the slash fall even as he followed after her.
The tip of the vysetrium-edged blade bit into the top of the left side of his chest, cleaving shallowly through the knotted muscle he’d been steadily building up over the last 5 months. Rei ignored the blaze of pain, taking advantage of not having to defend to close the distance between them in a blink. Her sword was in a bad position after the blow, and Jiang tried desperately to dodge as Rei punched again. The move saved her life, but only kept the hammering claws of his fist from taking her through the chest.
Instead, Shido slammed into Jiang’s shoulder, cutt
ing deep through muscle and bone as it impacted with a thud!
D2 Strength was nothing to scoff at, even if it was well-shy of the average Galens cadet’s specs, and the Saber was launched sideways several yards, tumbling to the ground and rolling down the hill in a shower of crumbling black stone. Rei started after her, but found the footing too precarious to handle the decline in a rush. Making a split-second decision, instead of chasing he rushed west along the incline, towards the middle of the field, leaping several of the flaming streams of magma until he was roughly in the center of the zone. Touching down in a wide delta between the two thickest lava flows, he finally turned to see what had become of Jiang.
Had he been any slower about it, that would have been the end of the fight for Rei.
Rainbow-blue steel flashed behind its white edge, and Rei brought his arm up just in time to deflect the cut that would have taken him in the side of the neck. The Saber wasn’t finished, though, keeping with her momentum to slam a shoulder into his chest, sending him staggering backwards. He caught himself only inches from stepping into the slow current of molten stone, and managed to rebuff her next attack more solidly, accepting the blow on both arms before wrenching forward to force her back.
Idiot, he cursed himself as Jiang staggered two steps before stopping herself from tumbling back down the slope again.
He hadn’t been thinking, had he? He had been trying to set himself up in an advantageous position, a place where his willingness to wall up worked in his favor. Among the lava streams, another slip-up on Jiang’s part might very well mean FDA by environmental factors, or at least severe limitations due to burns or lost limbs. He hadn’t been thinking, though, when he’d turned his back on her.
It had been her shoulder he’d hit, not her legs.
C5, Rei decided the girl’s Speed had to be. Maybe C6. Indeed, despite the fact that her left arm hung limply by her side, now, Jiang had closed the distance between them in barely 2 seconds, and that had been uphill, not to mention starting from where he’d sent her to the ground. 6 feet away she stood, glowering behind loose strands of disheveled hair, her sword held before her at the ready. Though her teeth were bared, she was watching him more carefully now, dark eyes trailing his body to taking in his steel-clad shins, knees, arms, and elbows. Her gaze drifted over him, lingering eventually on the left side of his chest, and the expression that crossed her face was distinctly irritated.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 67
