...
Processing combat information.
...
Calculating.
...
Results:
Strength: Severely Lacking
Endurance: Severely Lacking
Speed: Lacking
Cognition: Lacking
Offense: Severely Lacking
Defense: Lacking
Growth: Not Applicable
...
Checking combat data acquisition.
...
Adequate data acquirement met.
Device initiating adjustments to:
Strength. Endurance. Offense.
...
Adjustment complete.
Strength has been upgraded from Rank D5 to D6.
Endurance has been upgraded from Rank D4 to D5.
Offense has been upgraded from Rank D6 to D7.
Rei let out a groan, shutting his eyes instinctively against the swimming script—which of course did nothing to hide the text. Gathering himself, he dismissed the upgrade notification, suspecting he would have been far more pleased with the night’s results if he wasn’t feeling nauseous from the blow that had obviously knocked him out for long enough to trigger Shido’s post-combat analysis. When he opened his eyes again, a shape had appeared above him, and it took him a second to distinguish the distinct outline of Christopher Lennon’s dreaded hair against the light. The boy was saying something, but it was a little while more before Rei could make out the words through the buzzing in his ears that had to have been his neuroline working overtime to rectify what would otherwise definitely have been some form of concussion.
“… getting faster!” Lennon’s voice finally came into being from what seemed to be a very distant place.
“S-sorry, sir?” Rei asked blearily. Quickly the rest of the room’s noises were coming into focus, and as he made to sit up he noted that Aria and Viv sounded to have stopped fighting too.
“You’re getting faster!” the Lasher repeated approvingly, and when Rei blinked up at him against the lighting he thought he caught just the barest hint of a smile. “Both of you! Your teamwork is coming together well too!”
“Glad you think so,” came Catcher’s muffled groan, and Rei looked around to find the Saber doubled over on the ground nearby, speaking into the floor. “Would be nice… urk… if we could get fast enough to avoid the gut punches, though.”
Lennon smirked. “Keep at it. We’ve got another couple weeks of lessons. By the time I’m through with you all you’ll be avoiding a lot more than that, I’m sure.”
A light hand came down on Rei’s shoulder, then, and he looked around to find Aria crouching down beside him, looking worried. She’d recalled Hippolyta, and was tucking a few loose strands of red hair behind her ear as she took him in.
“You okay? I saw that hit…”
Rei gave her what might have been a bit of a lopsided smile. “Yeah.” He raised a hand to tap at his temple. “D9 Cognition helps. Second best spec I have.”
“C2 CAD-Rank, and he’s proud of his D-level specs,” Viv sniggered good-naturally, popping into view from behind Aria. She too, had recalled Gemela, and looked highly pleased with how the evening’s training had gone.
That, or she just took more sadistic pleasure in Rei’s lagging stats than he’d realized.
“I’d leave him alone, Viv,” Aria said with a sparkle in her eye, not looking away from Rei. “If I recall correctly you’re a C0 and… Huh… Remind me what your Defense spec is? D5? D6?”
That shut Viv up, and she scowled at Aria’s back as Rei managed a laugh, Catcher joining in a little more painfully after he’d finally started pushing himself up off his face.
The Lasher, meanwhile, had been watching them with an expression somewhere between entertained and bemused. “You’re an odd bunch, you know that?”
The comment cut into their mirth, and together all four of them looked around at him.
“How so?” Rei asked. Lennon’s gaze was moving back and forth between him and Aria with interest, blue eyes lingering on the girl’s hand still on Rei’s shoulder, taking them in like they were some fascinating curio.
“This is my third year here, and I don’t think I know of a group like yours,” he said with a shrug. His eyes flashed briefly, and from outside the hall the buzz of a drone started up. “I mean… I’ve got friends, but nothing like you lot.”
“Blame the shrimp,” Viv said with a snort, coming over and looking like she might give Rei’s foot a kick. Eyeing the black of Shido’s carbonized steel plating that still encased it, though, she seemed to think better of it. “He’s been dragging me along like this since we were in nappies.”
“We were fourteen,” Rei said, exasperated. “Were you still in diapers at Grandcrest? I’m not judging, but if that’s what you’re into I want to be able to warn your future girlfriends.”
“Or boyfriends,” Viv corrected him pointedly. “As for what I’m into, that’s rude to ask. You’ll make Aria jealous.”
Rei’s face immediately felt about as hot as the sun. He gathered the courage to glance at Aria, whose mouth hung slack with an expression of paralyzed surprise, cheeks blooming an incandescent red.
Then her hand snatched away from him as she snapped to her feet before turning and, with a two quick steps, taking a grinning Viv by the arm to start dragging her towards the exit.
“Come here, you,” Rei could hear Aria hissing sidelong. “We’re gonna have a chat, just the two of us.”
Viv didn’t lose her smile, and instead looked back at him as she was hauled along, pointing at Aria’s gripping hand about her bicep and mouthing “This is what I’m into.”
Despite his embarrassment, Rei almost laughed out loud at the sight.
“Like I said, an interesting bunch…” the Lasher muttered, watching the two girls take their leave of the field with a raised eyebrow. After they were gone, though, he looked to Catcher. “Catchwick, go after them. Ward and I are going to have a chat on his way back to the first year dorms.”
Rei looked around at these words, surprised. This being the first time he’d heard of this plan, it wasn’t strange that Catcher’s reply was a little hesitant.
“Oh… Uh… Yes, sir.”
He glanced at Rei, who shrugged to indicate he had no clue what was going on, then pushed himself to his feet, recalling Arthus as he did. Hurrying after Aria and Viv, it wasn’t long before he left Rei alone with Christopher Lennon.
“I have to admit to a bit of jealousy, Ward.”
Rei frowned, unsure of what to make of this cryptic statement. Starting to stand himself, he massaged the bottom of his sore chin with the back of one gauntleted hand before answering. “Of what, sir? Of my friends?”
The Lasher chuckled, shaking his head so that his grey dreads shifted about his ears. “No, no. Well… Maybe a little, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” His cool gaze settled on Rei, and for the first time in a while they pierced him with that same predatory intensity that had graced their initial session, when Lennon had been getting the measure of them. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were a D9 when we first started these sessions, weren’t you?”
Rei’s mouth went dry, and he had to stop himself from taking a step back as he paused in his rubbing the tender spot under his jaw. He wasn’t really surprised the topic was finally being broached—in all honesty he’d been wondering for a month when the Lasher would bring it up—but he wasn’t any more ready to address it now than he had been at any time before. It was dangerous territory to wade into, especially when it had been made clear so many times—by Aria, by Viv, by Valera Dent, and Major Connelly well before any of them—that the fewer people who knew his secret, the better.
As expected, Shido’s growth had slowed down dramatically once Rei had reached the C-Ranks. His individual specs had continued to rise steadily through the Ds—their average even catching up a little to his CAD
-Rank—but his Speed had only moved from C0 to C1 after a couple of weeks of work, indicating he could expect the climb to get steeper across the board. Still, even with this increase in time between upgrades, Rei had gained more than two full Ranks in 4 weeks, an improvement rate that was still several times faster than the other Cs among the first years. By the end of November, Rei suspected he would be tied with Aria for the highest level in the class, or have caught up to the likes of Grant and Kastro Vademe at the very least…
With a pace like that, it was small wonder the likes of Christopher Lennon—star of the Galens cadets—had seized the strangeness of Rei’s situation.
“To clarify, Ward, I’m not about to ask you why your CAD is upgrading at the rate it is.”
Lennon’s words caught Rei flatfooted, desperately trying as he had been to find a good way to escape the conversation. His astonishment must have shone clear, because the third year cocked his head as he brought his hands to rest on both hips.
“That’s not to say I’m not curious, but I’m too keen on keeping my place in this school to hound you about it. You’ve been a bit of a conversation topic among the upper class for a while, ripping through the D-Ranks like you did after arriving as an E, but Captain Dent made it pretty clear to me I’d be out on my ass if I pressed the issue with you, so do me a favor and let her know I didn’t when next you speak, would you?”
Rei nodded numbly. Dent again… One day, he would have to find out what it was she hoped to gain from all this assistance.
“Anyways, it’s like I said: I’m a little jealous of you. CADs—especially one with a decent Growth spec like my Ouroboros—give back purely based on what you put into them in blood, sweat, and tears. You four are a rare group—outside of your peculiarity, I mean. For so many first years to be so driven… It’s like seeing a front line combat team following on the heels of its squad-leader.”
“Uh…” Rei wasn’t sure what to say. “Is that… Is that a compliment, sir?”
“Definitely.”
“Oh… Well… Thank you?”
Lennon nodded before pressing forward.
“You do know your growth rate is nothing short of alarming, don’t you?”
Rei nodded again. “All too well, sir.”
“I figured. I guess it’s part of the reason Dent set these evenings up for you all. You’re gonna have a lot of eyes on you soon, Ward. And not many of them likely to be friendly.”
Rei almost laughed. If the Lasher knew just how late to the party he was, on that warning.
The third year’s next question, though, brought him up short.
“Do you have any sense of the direction of the CAD’s evolution?”
Rei, not sure he understood, paused. A sense of Shido’s direction?
“Looks like you’ve got no idea what I’m talking about.” The Lasher didn’t sound the least bit surprised, his eyes lifting over Rei’s head as the whirling of the drone he had triggered earlier sounded to be finally approaching. “Let’s talk on the way back to your dorm. Otherwise you’re gonna miss curfew. Sorry if it’s awkward, but—” he motioned for Rei to turn around “—I didn’t want us to be overheard, regarding this.”
Looking over his shoulder, Rei was just in time to see the drone arrive, carrying with it two sets of military regulars.
*****
“C-Rank is around the time a lot of A-Types start to deviate. Were you aware of that?”
Fall was reaching a true chill with the arrival of November, and Rei’s breath misted in thick fountains of fog in the dim light of Castalon’s skyscrapers rising up all around them. After they’d changed, Lennon had insisted on waiting a few minutes longer, obviously intent on making sure Aria, Viv, or Catcher didn’t linger in an attempt to walk with them.
Now, Rei understood why.
“What?” He looked around at the Lasher sharply, then caught himself. “I mean… No, sir.”
“Calling me ‘sir’ in training is one thing, Ward. Out here, you and I are the same rank.”
“Oh. Yes, s—I mean, yes. Okay.”
Lennon nodded. “So you weren’t aware… Not shocking. I didn’t figure it out myself until most of the way through my first year, when Ouroboros started to change after I hit C3. They don’t teach you much about Atypicals in class here, do they?” He looked a little annoyed, bringing one gloved hand up to push the brim of his cap back a little off his soft face.
“We’re pretty rare,” Rei offered, looking forward along the path again. “A-Types in general. Even more so those of us who are combat-functional.”
“I suppose,” the third year grunted. “There was another guy at my exam who got assigned an A-Type. Apparently it eventually developed into a sword that was half-again as tall as he was, but about two fingers thick. Totally useless. You gotta wonder about that…”
Variables, Rei thought, though he was careful not to say it out loud. If the MIND was willing to give him Shido, why wouldn’t it distribute other extremes to see what happened?
“Regardless, the failures aren’t what I’m talking about. A-Types like us—the successful assignments—tend to start to deviate in the Cs. When was the last time you evolved, Ward? After your fight with that Saber in Intra-Schools, first week?”
Rei was about to be impressed with the boy’s information, right up until the moment he recalled that Lennon had no doubt been present—just like the rest of the school—at the match in question, where Lena Jiang had tricked him into eating lava.
He couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed at the thought.
“Yes, sir,” he answered at last, correcting himself when Lennon gave him a sidelong look. “I mean… Yeah. After the fight with Jiang.”
“And that was when your CAD upgraded to D9, wasn’t it?”
Rei thought about it a moment, then nodded.
“Did you notice anything odd, with that change?”
Rei frowned. “Like what?”
The Lasher shrugged as the pair of them took a bend in the path. “Anything means anything, Ward. You’re lucky you’ve got Dent to guide you. I’d even say you’re lucky to have me, if I didn’t think it made me sound like a pompous ass. There weren’t any other high-ranking A-Types on the Institute staff roster when I arrived, so I had to do all the research myself. You can probably guess what group I train with, in my class-block.”
“Duelist,” Rei answered at once.
“Yup,” came the confirmation. “Before my Device started changing, I wasn’t anything special. Just your standard Duelist, though my weapons were always a bit broader than what you’d expect. Made wielding them a hassle when you’re trying to be the fastest on the field.” Lennon grimaced and tilted his head to look up at the crossing sky-lanes high above them, like he was recalling an unpleasant memory. “My D-Rank evolution was only my second, but it was the first hint. A dozen angular vysetrium markings on the sword blades, which would eventually break up into the chains I have now. After they showed up—definitely not a typical development for a Duelist—I started digging into Atypicals, and learned I could expect the real changes to start soon after.” He looked around at Rei. “So what about you? You evolved at D9, and if the rumors are true you’re not far from another, right?”
Rei hesitated this time before nodding, wondering if they weren’t getting a little too close to Shido’s secret for his complete comfort.
Fortunately, Lennon brought them back on track at once, repeating his earlier question.
“So did you notice anything odd?”
Rei considered it more carefully this time, thinking back on the changes his Device had gone through following his loss that first week, more than a month ago, now. It had been the greatest adaptation Shido had yet demonstrated, the mirroring of its upper limb design combining with an overall polishing of the armor that had lent him a boost in Speed on top of improving both his Offensive and Defensive capabilities. It had been a big change, to be sure, but Rei had f
ollowed the careers of dozens of Users over the years, witnessing hundreds of evolutions of every Type of CAD as a result.
It had been a big change, but he wasn’t comfortable calling it an abnormal one.
After a while, he shook his head. “No. Nothing like that. It was a pretty involved evolution—I don’t know if you remember what my Device looked like during the fight against Jiang—but I can’t say its outside any standard parameters I’m aware of…”
“Nothing? No markings? No hints at a direction?”
Again, Rei had to shake his head. “Sorry, but no. It was a jump, but Shido—my CAD—is still following the Brawler-path pretty tightly as far as I can tell…”
He had expected the Lasher to frown, or maybe even look disappointed.
What he hadn’t expected was for the boy to grant him what might have been the first true smile he had seen part the third year’s usually stoic face.
“I get the feeling you’re in for a ride, Ward.”
Rei didn’t follow. “How so?”
“You’ll figure that out on your own, if I’m right. If I’m not, I don’t want to misguide your training direction.” Still, the Lasher was yet smiling, which made Rei think he was rather confident in what assessment he was cryptically hinting at. “Let’s just say I know of a few examples of the variation of A-Type you sound like you might be, and they all had a rare advantage even without your particularly… uh… interesting circumstances.”
“What advantage?” Rei pressed, his curiosity piqued. In all honesty it had been some time since he’d really dwelled on the fact that Shido wasn’t, actually, a Brawler-Type CAD. He’d become so accustomed to its design, so used to training under Michael Bretz with the rest of his sub-group, that it more often slipped his mind than not. He couldn’t complain about the path he was walking, now that he’d finally largely caught up to the rest of the first years.
But here the Lasher was implying there was more to—
And then it clicked. The one advantage being an A-Type gave him a rare upper hand in attaining.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 86
