Chapter 303: Where the Weight Falls

On attempt thirty-three, Jin kept Glitch out of every gravity patch for nearly a minute.

He was leaning forward by the time the ape missed its next cast. Glitch circled beyond the settling stones, unharmed, and Jin began moving Flicker into position for a distraction.

The ape stopped casting.

It walked straight at Glitch, caught him during the retreat, and hit him across the chamber.

"Oh, fuck off."

Jin put the phone down. Real Glitch opened one eye at the noise, decided it wasn’t addressed to him, and went back to sleep.

The next attempts were worse because Jin hurried them. On forty-one he finally reached the ape’s side, struck four times against its stone crust, and lost Glitch before he could get clear.

He opened that recording, looking for something unfair about the turn. There wasn’t anything. He’d kept attacking after the first blow failed to penetrate.

Lunch had already started upstairs. Jin left the phone charging and went to eat before he could try the same thing again.

By afternoon he recognized the two-fisted slam quickly enough to retreat from it. One fist meant gravity. Both rising meant a short shockwave that punished anything still standing close to the ape.

Recognizing it didn’t always help. Sometimes Glitch was already too near, or his escape crossed a gravity patch that hadn’t faded.

A patch stayed where the ape placed it. Jin tested its edge with Glitch’s forefoot, watching the stones pressed down inside, then withdrew before the ape reached him.

He needed the creature to waste a cast somewhere else.

Flicker’s avatar made a low pass at its face. The ape swatted, missed, and lowered its fist toward her line of flight.

"Yes," Jin said, already moving Glitch.

Flicker flew into the field ahead of her. Her wings beat hard once, then she dropped within the ape’s reach.

The forearm caught her before she recovered.

Jin stared at the place she’d fallen. He replayed the cast and saw the target: ahead of her, exactly where he had been sending her.

You saw her coming.

That evening ended at ninety-four failures. He wrote the number beside his notes and wished he hadn’t. It looked worse on paper.

Real Flicker landed on his wrist the next morning while he watched her avatar die again in the recording.

He tilted the screen away without thinking, then felt foolish. She was interested in the loose cuff of his sleeve.

"You’re not getting that one."

He folded the fabric beneath his hand. She stepped onto his thumb instead, warm and light, and he let the recording run without looking at it until she flew to her perch.

Then he watched the ape’s shoulder.

The punch itself was too late. Just before it, the creature shifted its weight and drew one shoulder back. If Flicker turned before that movement, it adjusted the cast. If she waited until the fist dropped, the field caught her.

Jin shortened her route and tried again.

She passed close to the face, held her line through the weight shift, then broke away as the shoulder committed. Loose stones settled behind her. She was still flying.

He managed it twice before excitement made him send Glitch in early.

The ape met him with a hardened forearm and drove him into the slab.

Jin sat back. He’d already had the start of a grin on his face, which somehow made it more annoying.

By attempt one hundred and nineteen, Flicker could draw the cast reliably. Glitch reached the body more often and kept dying there.

The first blood came in a run Jin hadn’t expected to last.

He’d been watching the stone crust renew. In one discarded recording, its surface had dulled and shed fine grains just before Glitch arrived. Now he kept both avatars moving outside reach until the change passed across the forearms again.

"Go."

Glitch struck beneath the elbow. This time the blow opened hide.

Jin leaned so close that he had to pull the phone back to see the ape’s other arm. Too late. It turned and hit Glitch before he could withdraw.

[Attempt failed]

He replayed the strike anyway.

There was blood. It was a small amount for all the time he’d spent, but he watched it three times and found himself smiling.

Do that again. Then get out.

Attempt one hundred and forty-six almost managed it. He caught the renewal, sent Glitch forward, and watched the ape turn a hardened shoulder into the blow. Both fists rose while Glitch was still close.

Jin called the retreat. The shockwave took his feet first.

He began drawing the approaches on paper. The field, the ape’s turn, Glitch’s escape: an untidy set of lines that kept ending somewhere he shouldn’t have gone. He crossed out two routes and left one to test after the team session.

Between sessions, Jin walked Glitch and checked his healing cuts. At team practice he caught himself thinking about the ape while Nessa was speaking. He put his notes away and asked her to repeat the question.

Dray found him later in the yard, watching Flicker fly between the rails.

"Marris put your bird bout in the review notes," she said.

Jin looked up. "The whole thing?"

"The finish. The failed catch too."

He winced. "That bit looks terrible from above."

"It looked fairly bad from my chair." Dray settled against the rail. "Argent took a coil in front of everyone. You’ll survive."

Jin laughed before he could help it. Dray smiled, though she watched the yard for a moment afterward without speaking.

"How is he?" Jin asked.

"Sore. Annoyed he can’t do more."

Glitch pushed his bowl along the stall floor behind them, advertising the same complaint in his own way.

"Mine’s concentrating on dinner," Jin said.

"Good plan." Dray pushed away from the rail. "Come upstairs when you’ve finished. Corin’s trying to order for everyone."

Jin collected Flicker after one last flight and followed her.

After supper, he reached attempt two hundred and seven.

The longer runs hurt more. He could survive several exchanges, then misjudge an approach and lose everything.

Every restart brought back an unhurt enemy. He knew that. Seeing the same clean hide after a run where he’d damaged it still made him want to complain.

On two hundred and thirty-one, he kept attacking one point on the left side. Flicker drew three casts away from Glitch, and each return to that spot opened it further. The crust formed unevenly over the torn patch.

The ape turned to protect it and backed toward the pillar.

Jin saw the retreat. He wanted one more strike before it reached the stone and sent Glitch across too quickly.

The field caught his approach. With the pillar behind it, the ape could face him without leaving Flicker room to pass its far shoulder. Her distraction failed, and the next punch ended the run.

Jin rested the phone on his knee. For several seconds he did nothing.

Then he marked the pillar on the sketch, heavily enough to tear the paper.

All that room, and I let you back into the only corner.

He reached for the screen to restart.

Instead he checked the time, saved the notes, and went upstairs. In bed, he caught himself tracing the next approach against the blanket and shoved that hand under the pillow.