Chapter 293: The Ground Gives Way

Chapter 293: The Ground Gives Way

The arena looked much wider from inside it.

Jin stopped at his mark, aware of Glitch’s shoulder beside his thigh and the team area somewhere behind him. Across the level grit, Deane checked Bulwark’s position and looked toward the referee.

"Tamers ready?"

Jin raised his hand.

"Begin."

Bulwark advanced several paces and planted her feet. Her shell settled, and a low stone ridge pushed through the grit ahead of her.

Jin sent Glitch obliquely across the open floor. He wanted a better angle before she made another, but Bulwark shifted to face him and planted again. A second ridge rose beside the first, leaving a gap that pointed directly toward her front.

He held Glitch short of it.

Deane waited behind her beast, slightly off to one side. When Jin moved the lizard toward the outer edge, she called another adjustment. Bulwark turned, stopped, and extended the obstruction.

Each change took time. Jin could see that. He couldn’t yet find a route that would still be open when Glitch arrived.

He tried the practice feint first.

Glitch approached the gap, then slowed before entering. Bulwark stayed planted. Deane had no reason to spend energy on an animal that wasn’t close enough to threaten her.

Jin brought him farther forward.

The tortoise’s head followed him, but her feet remained still. Behind her, Deane took a small step that preserved her view of both Jin and Glitch.

You’re waiting for me to mean it.

He broke away and tested the opposite side. This time the shell dipped. The grit ahead of Glitch loosened, and he stopped before putting a forefoot into it.

The change was small. A body-length of bad footing, enough to spoil his approach without wasting energy on the whole lane.

Jin checked the room between the ridge and the boundary. It would take a wide circle to get around, with Bulwark turning through a much smaller angle inside it.

Deane knew that too.

He needed her to commit to something, but the harmless approaches from practice weren’t forcing her hand. Jin brought Glitch back toward the central gap and let him continue at a low, steady advance.

He kept Faultline Rush unused. If the ground changed, Glitch needed the option to stop or turn.

For several paces, nothing happened.

Then Bulwark settled lower.

"Harden."

The patch beneath Glitch’s hind feet loosened.

His rear stance slid apart. He tried to brace, but one forefoot caught against the ridge and he fell onto his left side.

Bulwark struck before he could rise.

The shell hit his hardened shoulder with a sound that carried across the floor. Jin flinched and stepped back, dragging his eyes away from the point of impact to find solid ground beside it.

"Left. Get your feet left!"

Glitch drove his foreclaws into the firm edge and hauled himself across it. Bulwark pressed him again, scraping the seam behind his ribs as he scrambled clear.

He came out standing. Jin could see blood along the plating and grit stuck to his side.

"Back," he said, more sharply than he intended.

Glitch retreated until the tortoise stopped following. Jin kept moving with him, making room without backing straight toward the boundary.

He wanted to call him closer and inspect every mark. Instead, he watched his gait. Four feet carrying weight. Head level. Anger through the bond, strong enough that Jin almost welcomed it.

All right. You’re still with me.

Bulwark returned behind the ridges.

She had knocked down part of one during the attack. As Glitch withdrew, Deane called her into position to repair it, leaving a gap at the outer end that had not existed before.

Jin watched where her feet went.

The trap had worked because he’d watched the ground ahead of Glitch. Deane had waited until his hind feet were inside the lane and taken away the stance he’d need to leave it.

He’d known it was a trap. Knowing hadn’t told him exactly how she would spring it.

Behind him, someone from Meridian called encouragement. He couldn’t make out the words.

Jin wiped his damp palm against his trousers and checked Glitch again. The cut was shallow enough that the bleeding had slowed. The lizard wanted to go forward; Jin felt him gather whenever Bulwark shifted.

"Wait. We’re changing the approach."

This was the same problem they’d practiced, but Deane was better at judging an empty threat than Varra’s exercise had required. Jin couldn’t simply run the drill faster. He needed an approach she could not comfortably ignore.

The broken outer gap gave him one.

He sent Glitch toward it, keeping the lizard just beyond striking distance. If Bulwark stayed still, he could reach the shoulder through that opening.

Deane called a turn.

The tortoise moved to cover the gap, then planted to loosen the ground beyond it. Jin had already called Glitch away. He circled back across firm grit, forcing Bulwark to turn again if she wanted to keep facing him.

This time the feint had bought something.

Jin tried from the other angle. Deane answered with a smaller change and a shorter turn, conserving movement. She was learning how far he needed her to commit.

On the next pass, she refused the bait altogether and brought Bulwark forward instead.

The tortoise’s shell clipped Glitch’s guard. He gave ground, and Jin called him clear before another patch could loosen beneath him.

Deane wasn’t going to let him repeat this until she exhausted herself.

Bulwark was breathing more deeply now, but her next turn remained steady. Jin had made her spend energy without making her helpless. He watched Deane leave one damaged section alone rather than repair it. She was preserving enough to answer a real attack.

Glitch’s claws scratched against the grit. He wanted to advance again.

Jin almost gave the command, then stopped. Another identical approach would let her hit him while he withdrew. He brought Glitch a little farther out and moved with him, keeping the lizard between himself and the tortoise while he checked the remaining space.

Jin looked past Bulwark toward her tamer.

Deane had moved closer to keep the partly broken ridge from blocking her view. It put her within reach of the open strip along the arena’s edge, the same strip Jin had been using to stay away from the altered ground.

She noticed him looking and shifted her stance.

Of course she did. She had watched him fight Hask. There would be no surprise in the idea of Jin approaching her.

But she still had to answer it.

He checked the distance, then the retreating angle behind his own feet. He wasn’t going to reach her through a tortoise. He needed Glitch to hold its attention while he moved.

"Gap," he told Glitch.

The lizard lowered his head and advanced toward the repaired ridge’s outer end. Bulwark began turning to face him. Deane waited until Glitch came close enough to make the approach credible, then called for the ground beyond the opening to loosen.

Her beast planted.

Jin saw the shell settle and the first shiver move through the grit. He called Glitch across toward the other end of the ridge, where the surface remained firm, and stepped diagonally into the open strip himself.

Deane’s eyes came to him immediately.

Jin kept moving. This time, while she watched him, Glitch was already on his way around.