Chapter 308: Still on the Floor

Chapter 308: Still on the Floor

Jin could hear Arena 1 before the delegation reached the entrance.

One semifinal place remained. Meridian had survived Bellmoor to challenge Cassel Ridge for it, and people from academies Jin had never faced filled the tiers above both team areas.

He checked Glitch’s shoulder for the third time. Nothing trembled beneath his palm.

Across the floor, Emery Sun raised a hand. Jin returned the greeting, glad of one familiar face on the other side.

Ree Calloway waited at the marks beside a broad-winged kite. She nodded to him, then turned her attention to Pennant as the referee called the start.

The bird climbed.

Jin made himself watch her instead of the crowd.

Pennant circled three or four meters above the floor, beyond the height Jin had tested. To strike, she descended into a shallow glide, flattened her wings, and brought her hooked talons across Glitch’s back.

She climbed again before he could turn.

The first pass scratched a plating seam. Glitch ducked beneath the second, then took two more shallow rakes on the third.

Jin wanted to cast. He kept waiting.

Unlike Sablecourt’s kestrel, Pennant did not commit to a steep dive. Her vulnerable moment came later, when the glide dropped her within reach of Glitch’s shoulders.

That was low enough. The problem was catching her there without covering Glitch in the same field.

"Center," Jin called. "Low."

Glitch moved inward and crouched, head down. Jin left open floor beyond his right side, where the kite had been passing after each strike.

Calloway sent Pennant around again. She watched Glitch’s tail, keeping her beast clear of the blow that had beaten the kestrel.

Jin watched the wings.

They flattened. The talons lowered. Pennant committed to the glide, barely two meters above the grit.

"Press. Ahead."

Dust settled in a small patch along her approach.

Pennant entered it and dipped. Her wings hammered, trying to regain lift, but the added weight spoiled the glide before she could climb. When the pulse ended, she was already too low.

Her feet struck the floor in a scrambling landing several meters beyond Glitch.

"Close!"

He was moving before she folded one wing out of the way. Jin kept him outside the patch’s edge until it faded; then Glitch cut inward and placed a foreleg across the near wing and shoulder.

Pennant heaved. He lowered his chest enough to hold her without putting his full weight on the wing.

"Yield," Calloway called.

"Off." Jin’s voice cracked on the word.

Glitch released at once.

[Meridian 1 — Cassel Ridge 0]

Jin swallowed and tried to look as though that was how he had intended to sound.

The commentator was calling for a replay of the gravity effect. In the tiers, people leaned toward screens while Calloway checked Pennant’s wing.

Jin went to the inspection mark inside the boundary. Marris met him from the other side of the rail.

"Condition?" she asked.

"One cast. Three shallow cuts. Breathing’s settling." He stroked Glitch’s neck. "I’d like to continue."

The official scanned the wounds and watched Glitch take several steps. Lesser Regeneration was already slowing the small lines of blood along his back.

"Minor lacerations. No movement impairment. Fit to continue."

The inspection was not a treatment break. Nobody brought salve, food, or a recovery drink, and Jin stayed on the competition floor while Marris considered him.

"One more," she said. "If I signal withdrawal, you obey."

"Yes, Coach."

He felt suddenly, fiercely pleased that he did not have to leave.

Then Cassel’s second entrant arrived with a Shardspine Jackal, and Jin remembered there was a reason most winners did.

The profile above the entrance showed the same development as Pennant: Rank 1, nine-Star, Peak Silver. Jin had read it last night. It felt different seeing it now, with one fight already in Glitch’s legs. Across the floor, Merrin spoke briefly to Calloway before taking his mark.

The first opponent had been surprised. This one would have seen the patch form and the bird fall.

Dov Merrin waited for the start signal before sending the jackal forward.

It fired four hardened quills, shifted sideways, and fired again. Glitch’s Harden turned the first volley aside, but one point caught a seam behind his shoulder during the next approach.

Jin angled him left.

The jackal dropped its hindquarters, spines lifting into a firing stance.

"Press!"

It sprang sideways before the patch formed.

Empty grit flattened. Through the bond, Jin felt the effort of the wasted cast.

Of course he watched the first bout.

Merrin tried the same invitation twice more. Jin refused both, although standing through the second feint cost Glitch another volley across the forequarters.

Blood marked the pale grit. The wounds were shallow, but each flinch interrupted his approach.

Jin shifted his gaze from the jackal to the floor around it.

He had been trying to catch the firing stance wherever it appeared. That let Merrin choose every exchange.

"East. Slow."

Glitch advanced diagonally instead, keeping his shoulder toward the quills and cutting off the jackal’s easiest retreat. Each time it moved sideways, he took a little more space toward the eastern boundary.

The jackal remained quick enough to escape. It could not escape, turn, and fire all at once.

Merrin saw the change. He sent his beast farther around Glitch’s front, then came at Jin himself.

The movement caught Jin late. A hardened quill was in the older boy’s hand, held low as he crossed the remaining distance.

Jin stepped sideways before the thrust reached him.

"East!" he shouted while moving.

Merrin turned after him. Jin kept retreating at an angle, watching the weapon now, heart thumping with the knowledge that he had almost forgotten the second opponent on the floor.

Glitch continued the approach. The jackal had to move again before it could cover its tamer.

Merrin glanced toward it and broke pursuit, backing into a position from which he could protect both himself and his beast.

Jin did not follow.

His footwork had bought him room. He intended to keep it.

They reached the eastern side gradually, with quills snapping against Harden and Glitch’s breathing growing louder between exchanges.

The jackal still had a route along the boundary. To use it, though, it would have to pass Glitch without firing.

Merrin chose to force him back first.

This stance was deeper. The rear feet dug into the grit, the body steadied, and the lifted spines held instead of flicking back down.

Jin had already checked the line. Eleven meters to the jackal, another four beyond it to the painted boundary. Enough space to strike and brake if Glitch did not chase through the contact.

"Press. Under."

The pulse caught the planted hind legs. They bent sharply under the extra load, dropping the jackal’s aim. Quills struck the floor short of Glitch.

As the dust lifted again, Jin gave the next command.

"Rush!"

Glitch launched along the chosen line. The field had faded before he reached it. His shoulder struck the jackal while it was still recovering its stance, knocking the lighter beast toward the boundary.

Jin called the brake at contact.

Glitch dug in, hindquarters low and tail dragging. The jackal rolled beyond the painted line while he stopped inside it, claws scoring the floor.

"Out! Match!"

[Meridian 2 — Cassel Ridge 0]

For a moment, Jin heard Nessa clearly through everything else.

Then he reached Glitch and stopped listening.

Eleven quill wounds marked his forequarters and flank. Most were scratches. The cut on the left foreleg showed a little fresh blood when he stepped, though it had not altered his gait.

Lesser Regeneration reduced the bleeding as Jin watched. It did nothing about the stiffness after the Rush or the faint tremor returning through the right shoulder.

Three casts since the first start signal. One wasted. Two opponents, no rest, and a movement skill that had demanded a hard stop.

Glitch nudged Jin’s wrist.

"I know," Jin murmured.

Across the arena, Cassel Ridge brought out an Ironcrest Boar. It walked with its plated shoulders rolling above a low, tusked head. Its tamer watched Glitch rather than the scoreboard.

Jin knew what she was seeing.

He looked toward Meridian’s rail. Corin was ready behind Marris; there were still teammates who could take over. Staying would be a choice, not a rescue nobody else could attempt.

Glitch pressed against his hand again, eager despite the fatigue.

Jin checked the foreleg once more, then raised his eyes to the coach.

"One more," he said.