Chapter 307: What They Paid for It

Chapter 307: What They Paid for It

Nessa won the opener in five minutes, and Jin was standing for the last thirty seconds.

Bellmoor’s scrub-runner kept cutting across the center, trying to draw her beast into a chase. Nessa refused. She held her ground, turned economically, and waited until the third close pass carried it inside her runner’s reach.

A shoulder check spoiled its stride. Her beast followed, driving it over the boundary before it recovered.

Nessa returned with her fists still clenched. ℴℴ𝘮

"I’m not doing that again. It was horrible."

"It was three minutes of you doing nothing," Bex said.

"Yes." She sat down carefully. "Exactly."

[Meridian 1 — Bellmoor 0]

Her runner had taken cuts during the earlier passes. Marris withdrew her before the next opponent entered; the official recorded the decision, ending her participation in the tie.

Corin went out second.

He lasted twelve minutes, frustrating a longer reach by stepping inside after each missed strike. Eventually Bellmoor’s tamer stopped reaching. He crowded Corin toward the boundary instead, and the final exchange ended with Corin’s beast outside it.

"Good opponent," Corin said when he returned.

He kept looking at the replay without starting it.

[Meridian 1 — Bellmoor 1]

Bellmoor withdrew its tired winner too. Both coaches still had fresh entrants, and neither was willing to spend one beast on another uncertain matchup.

Dray’s opponent brought a long-bodied beast with a whipping tail.

Jin remembered the constricted angles of her Sablecourt loss and felt his stomach tighten. Dray apparently remembered them too. She kept Argent moving outside the tail’s first sweep, refusing to let her spinehound be driven straight backward.

For four minutes, he darted in and withdrew. Each approach made the other beast turn farther before its tail could follow.

Then Dray changed the rhythm.

"Inside!"

Argent cut across its front as the tail swept wide. The opponent twisted sharply to bring the weapon back, quicker than Jin expected.

The returning blow struck Argent’s hindquarters with a sound that made Dray flinch.

But he was already under the raised forebody. He drove his shoulder into the planted foreleg, knocked it inward, and sent the longer beast rolling onto its side. His jaws closed on the plating beside its throat before it could straighten.

The Bellmoor tamer yielded.

[Meridian 2 — Bellmoor 1]

Dray called Argent off immediately. He released, took one step, and hitched badly at the rear.

She was across the floor before Jin finished lowering his tablet.

Marris signaled withdrawal and called for the medic. There was no discussion about another bout.

Bex lost the fourth after seven minutes of trying to make a heavier opponent turn. It stopped following his feints, held the center, and caught his beast’s next close approach between a shoulder and the boundary.

He came back flushed, repeating that he should have waited.

Marris put him in a chair and told him to breathe before reviewing anything.

[Meridian 2 — Bellmoor 2]

Bellmoor changed fighters again. Renn went out to meet a compact grappler whose forelimbs could lock around Sledge’s arms.

For six minutes, the two beasts wrestled for room. Sledge could push it back, but every push gave the grappler a chance to work closer to his chest.

Jin stopped checking his notes. He could see nothing useful that Renn had not already noticed.

The opening came when the grappler shifted its grip higher. Sledge trapped the moving wrist and stepped across its stance.

Its free arm clamped onto his shoulder.

"Turn," Renn ordered.

Sledge turned. His opponent held on, wrenching the trapped shoulder as its feet left the floor. The granite ape’s movement faltered, then he completed the throw and followed it down, pinning the grappler’s upper arm beneath his chest.

Bellmoor surrendered.

Jin shouted with everyone else, then saw Sledge trying to rise without using one arm.

Renn was already calling for help.

[Meridian 3 — Bellmoor 2]

[Meridian Academy advances to the Revival Final.]

Jin stood with his hands still raised. Around him, the cheering thinned as the medics crossed the floor.

Renn looked back toward the team area and lifted a hand. Jin could not tell whether he meant that Sledge was all right or simply that they had won. He lowered his tablet and went to collect the kit Marris was already asking for.

The news came slowly in the care wing.

Argent had deep muscle damage across his hindquarters. No fracture, no torn tendon, but the medic would not discuss combat clearance for several days.

Sledge’s shoulder was torn. His recovery would take a similar stretch of careful treatment.

Both injuries were treatable. Neither beast could fight in the revival final, two days away.

Nessa’s runner needed three small cuts closed. She might be available after reassessment, though the medic made clear that being able to compete was different from being fresh.

Jin carried equipment because it was something he could do. He made two trips for Dray’s kit; she would not leave Argent’s bay. Later he sat beside Renn, who stared at the corridor display without reading it.

"Do you want water?" Jin asked.

Renn nodded. When Jin brought it, he held the cup for a while before remembering to drink.

The following morning began their full rest day.

Argent lay on his side beneath a light covering when Jin visited. Dray sat beside him with a tablet facedown on her knee.

"He’ll be all right," she said. "He’s mostly annoyed about the dressing."

"Good." Jin stayed by the doorway until she waved him closer.

"Sit down. You’re looming." She waited for him to take the spare stool. "Are you asking Marris for the opener?"

"Yes."

"Then ask properly. She doesn’t respond well to people being noble at her." Dray stroked Argent’s neck. "Tell her what you can beat."

Jin watched the spinehound breathe. "I have something they haven’t seen."

"Good. Use it before they work it out." Her hand stopped. "And don’t go out there thinking you owe us three wins."

"I wasn’t—"

Dray looked at him.

He rubbed his palms together, then let them rest on his knees.

"I’d rather this wasn’t for nothing."

"So would I," she said. "But Argent took that exchange because I ordered it. You didn’t ask him to. Fight the opponent in front of you, not what happened to us yesterday."

Jin nodded slowly.

Before he left, Argent lifted his head far enough to investigate his pocket. Dray laughed when Jin produced the approved treat he had brought, and the room felt easier afterward.

Renn was in the next bay with Sledge’s head resting beside his thigh.

"Heard you’re asking to lead," he said.

Jin glanced back toward Dray’s room. "How?"

"She messaged me." Renn showed him the tablet, then set it aside. "Cassel know who’s injured. Their order may account for that. Remember they’ll be preparing for our whole available team, not just you."

"I’ll check their likely alternatives."

"And if your bout goes badly, come off. There are other names on our roster." Renn scratched Sledge’s brow. "You’re allowed to need them."

Marris heard Jin out that afternoon.

He kept his argument practical: Glitch had passed his morning check; their short adjustment sessions had improved placement; Gravity Press had never appeared in public footage. An opener offered the best chance to use it before Cassel could adjust.

"Nessa would say yes if you asked her," he added. "But her runner was being stitched up yesterday. Mine’s ready."

Marris studied him, then glanced at the latest condition sheet.

"You open."

Jin sat a little straighter.

"If you win, continuation is a separate decision," she said. "An official checks him, you tell me honestly what he has left, and we decide. You don’t promise anything now."

"Understood."

The ordered lineups arrived later, after both academies had submitted them.

[Revival Final — Meridian Academy vs Cassel Ridge Academy]

[Arena 1 — tomorrow, 11:00]

Cassel had beaten Meridian 3–2 in the group. As the highest seed among the three knockout losers, they had received the revival bye. Tomorrow would be their first tie since that defeat; Meridian had already spent two of its strongest beasts reaching them.

Jin opened the first pairing.

[Ree Calloway — Pennant, Crescentwing Kite]

[Rank 1 Novice, 9-Star]

[Quality: Silver (Peak)]

A bird.

He replayed one of Pennant’s attacks, watching the long glide before the talons reached its opponent.

Marris leaned over his shoulder.

"They’ve seen Sablecourt," she said. "They know your recorded weakness."

Jin watched the glide again, this time against the arena’s height markings.

For the first time all day, he smiled.