Chapter 301: One Pass Too Close

Chapter 301: One Pass Too Close

Arena Two had a cast-grit floor and a low raised boundary around the fighting area. During the permitted inspection, Jin walked the edge with the other entrants, checking how much space lay between the ring and the officials’ line beyond it.

The landing margin was clear. He returned to the team area before the floor was cleared.

Glitch had passed the morning examination. He settled beside Jin’s chair while Nessa took her runner to the gate, and Jin put the arena diagram away. He knew where the edge was now. Looking at it again wouldn’t help her.

Nessa’s opponent used a marsh strider called Mire. Its long forelimbs allowed it to threaten an approach without bringing its body within the runner’s reach.

Nessa tried short arcs first, conserving the movement that had won her bout against Ashfell. When Mire kept turning with her, she changed the rhythm: a quick approach, a withdrawal, then a second entry while one long limb was returning.

Her runner reached its shoulder. Jin heard the impact and started to rise.

Mire stepped diagonally away, dragging the exchange back to its preferred distance. Its tamer had kept the second forelimb close for exactly that retreat.

Nessa tried to draw the same response again. This time the strider checked its withdrawal and caught the runner’s advancing foreleg instead. The runner twisted, nearly freed itself, then lost its footing when Mire pressed across its shoulders.

Nessa yielded before the hold could damage the trapped joint.

She came back angry, wiping one hand against her trousers while the medic followed her beast.

"That second entry worked," Marris told her. "They adjusted to the repeat. We’ll look at it afterward."

Nessa nodded without looking up.

[Meridian 0 — Sablecourt 1]

Jin stood when his name was called.

Milo Tarrant was adjusting the strap beneath his kestrel’s feet when Jin reached the marks. Sickle caught the loose end in her beak.

"Leave it," Tarrant murmured. "You’ve had all morning."

She released it reluctantly. He tucked it away before looking up.

"Good luck. I’ve watched your last two."

Jin wished people would stop saying that as though it were reassuring. "You too."

He immediately regretted the answer. Tarrant only nodded and lowered his gauntlet.

Jin checked Glitch’s position at the mark and waited for the referee.

"Begin."

Sickle lifted clear, circled, and came down from behind Glitch’s left shoulder.

"Turn. Head down."

Glitch moved, but the talons still scraped across his upper back. Sickle climbed before he could bring his foreleg around, leaving two narrow lines between the plates.

The next dive came from the other side.

He kept seeing the folded wings a moment too late, still deciding whether to turn Glitch or brace him when he needed to give the command.

He kept his commands short. Glitch caught one pass on his horns and drove another wider by turning early, but neither exchange put the bird within a clean strike.

Sickle climbed and circled again.

He kept moving between commands. Once he caught himself planted with both feet together and stepped aside, glad Sabel wasn’t here to see it.

By the fourth minute, Glitch had several shallow cuts and was breathing harder. Tarrant stayed well away from him, moving whenever Jin tried to bring his beast toward that side of the floor.

He’s seen that answer too.

On the next approach, Jin had Glitch lift his forequarters for a catch. Sickle flared before entering reach and climbed untouched. Glitch landed heavily enough that Jin abandoned the idea of asking for it again.

For a moment Jin hated the easy way she climbed out of reach. Glitch was bleeding and she hadn’t even had to land.

Come down and do that again.

Then she did, and he hurried Glitch around to meet her.

Jin began watching Tarrant between dives.

The approaches changed, but not without reason. When Glitch set himself to defend one quarter, Tarrant sent Sickle toward the side he had left exposed. If Jin turned too early, the bird widened her circle and found another line.

Jin tried an early turn. Sickle widened her circle. He waited longer on the next pass, and her line stayed true until Glitch moved.

His plan still needed Tarrant to accept the opening. At least he now knew what the boy was watching.

He moved Glitch toward the eastern boundary in stages. A retreat after one pass, a shorter step after the next. Glitch turned his plated shoulder into a strike and kept moving while Sickle climbed.

They reached the edge with enough room left for Jin to change his mind.

He set Glitch almost parallel to the boundary, his right flank facing outward and his head angled slightly toward the open arena. His tail curved inward across the grit, clear of the raised ring.

Along the outer flank, Sickle could rake the seam behind his foreleg and climb straight ahead. The exit looked safe.

Jin needed the tail to reach her before that climb began.

Sickle circled once without descending.

Then again.

Jin kept Glitch moving slowly along the edge rather than freezing him in a prepared pose. He could feel his beast wanting to turn and face the bird.

Just a little longer.

Tarrant shifted his weight and gave a short command.

Sickle banked toward Glitch’s outward side.

The kestrel dropped into the lane between Glitch and the boundary, wings narrowing as she aligned her talons with his ribs.

Jin waited beyond the moment when she’d abandoned the earlier catch. His hand had closed so tightly around his own sleeve that he felt the seam against his fingers.

"Harden."

Glitch braced. The talons struck across the outer plates, scraping through the seam beneath them. Pain flickered through the bond, sharp enough that Jin almost called the turn too soon.

Sickle’s body passed level with Glitch’s rear quarter, still low, her wings beginning to open for the climb.

"Tail!"

Glitch twisted through his hips. The tail swept from the open side of the floor toward the boundary, catching the kestrel before her downstroke could carry her clear.

She tumbled outward and hit the margin beyond the raised ring, one wing folding beneath her as she rolled.

"Ring-out!" The referee raised an arm. "Match!"

"Hold, Glitch."

He kept his feet inside the boundary. His tail settled behind him, and Jin hurried over before the urge to follow the fallen bird could become movement.

Tarrant was already crouching beside Sickle. She struggled against his hands until he spoke to her, then let him hold the injured wing steady for the medic.

Jin waited on his side of the ring. The bird was alert. That helped, though he didn’t relax until the medic finished the first examination.

"Bruising," she told Tarrant. "We’ll check the joint properly in the care wing. Keep her folded for now."

Tarrant looked up at Jin.

"You left the climb open."

"I needed you to think you could get out."

"I thought about that tail." Tarrant looked down as Sickle complained. "Yes, I know. You can tell me about it later."

Jin almost smiled, then stopped himself. Tarrant caught it anyway and gave a tired little shrug.

"She will."

"I believe you," Jin said.

[Meridian 1 — Sablecourt 1]

The team area was loud when he returned. Corin stood to make room for Glitch, and Nessa caught Jin’s sleeve long enough to squeeze his arm.

Then the medic arrived and everyone moved aside.

There were nine shallow cuts across Glitch’s back and flank, including the fresh marks from the final pass. Harden had kept the last strike from biting deeper. It hadn’t spared him the soreness beneath it.

Jin held him still while the seams were cleaned. Glitch leaned against his leg, more interested in the feed pouch now that the bird was gone.

"You’ll get it," Jin murmured.

He sat once the medic was finished and discovered that his legs were tired too. The arena clock showed that the bout had run beyond eight minutes. Almost all of it had felt like waiting for something he couldn’t force.

He was glad he’d won. He wanted to hear Elsa’s reaction when she saw the result, and he wanted to stop looking at the red lines along Glitch’s side.

Dray was already standing at the gate with Argent.

Jin lifted a hand when she glanced back. She returned the gesture and went through.

The score was level. They still needed two more.