Chapter 309: The Fourth Place

Chapter 309: The Fourth Place

"Not yet," Marris said. "Tell me what he has left."

Jin made himself answer without looking at the score.

"The claw. He hasn’t used it. I think he can manage one more short Press, but I don’t want a prolonged cast." He rested his hand on Glitch’s shoulder. "He’s stiff after braking. I don’t want another Rush."

The official examined the foreleg, then asked Glitch to walk and turn. The wound needed attention afterward, but he placed the foot evenly.

"Fatigue is high," the man said. "No disabling injury. He may continue under observation."

Marris looked toward the Ironcrest Boar waiting with Hana Ost.

"She’ll make him turn. When he slows enough, she’ll charge."

"I can offer her that line before he’s too tired to leave it," Jin said. "Keep the last pulse for her weight transfer. If he can step outside the charge, the shoulder seam opens when it tries to turn."

"And if she doesn’t take it?"

"Then I can’t let this drag on." He swallowed. "You call us off."

Corin waited behind her, ready to replace him. Jin was grateful he had not wandered away assuming the tie was finished.

Marris watched Glitch settle his stance.

"One attempt at that opening," she said. "If his movement fails, we withdraw. Listen for me."

Jin nodded and returned to the marks.

Ost did exactly what Marris expected.

Her boar advanced steadily, shoulders plated and head low. It swept its tusks across the space Glitch needed to turn, making him step farther than Jin wanted.

He shortened the commands.

"Left. Hold."

Glitch stopped giving up whole strides. He shifted just enough to keep his forelegs clear of the tusks and met one shoulder shove with Harden.

The impact still moved him half a meter.

Jin felt the ache through the bond and clenched his free hand. There was a useful place for Gravity Press beneath the boar’s next step. He let it go. Another step offered the same temptation, and he refused that too.

Ost was trying to make him spend the skill before committing herself. She had watched the jackal bait it and had no reason to help him now.

The boar pressed again. Glitch’s turn came slower.

Jin glanced at the open floor behind his left shoulder, checking the escape angle he had been preserving. It was still clear. They were close enough to the boundary to suggest trouble, but not trapped against it.

"Turn," he said quietly. "Easy."

Glitch brought his flank around, showing the boar a retreat that looked one step too slow.

Some of that slowness was real. Jin hated knowing how little he had to exaggerate it.

Ost leaned forward.

"Drive!"

The boar lowered its head and launched.

Seven meters disappeared quickly.

Jin waited through the first stride. Glitch was already shifting toward the clear side, though he had not yet committed his weight.

The boar’s outer hind foot came down to drive the next stride.

"Press! Out!"

A brief patch formed beneath that side of its hindquarters. The loaded leg bent under the sudden weight, shortening its push while the rest of the boar kept moving.

Its charge slewed toward the weakened side.

Glitch stepped the other way, clearing the tusks as they tore past. He was slower than he would have been fresh, and a plated shoulder brushed his chest hard enough to rock him.

He kept his feet.

The boar threw out a foreleg to catch its balance. Its shoulder plate lifted from the joint beneath, exposing the seam Jin had been waiting for.

Glitch braced on his left foreleg.

"Claw. Once."

The right struck.

Rending Dragon Claw opened the seam before the boar could draw the limb back. Its foreleg buckled, dropping it onto its chest with its tusks buried in the grit.

"Yield!" Ost shouted. "Yield!"

"Off," Jin ordered.

Glitch backed away at once. He stood until Jin reached him, then lowered his hindquarters heavily and leaned into the hand on his neck.

[Meridian 3 — Cassel Ridge 0]

[Meridian Academy — Revival Final winner]

[Advancing to the Novice Semifinals]

Jin read the first line twice.

Then he was kneeling beside Glitch, both hands behind the horn ridge, trying to say something sensible while his beast pushed against him.

"You were—" He laughed, breathless. "Yeah. I know."

Glitch made a low, satisfied sound.

Jin stayed there until the medic asked him to move.

The examination took forty minutes.

Fourteen cuts across the two earlier bouts, most already drying. The foreleg needed closure. There was bruising beneath the shoulder plating, stiffness from the hard stop, and significant fatigue with residual strain from repeated casting.

"No sign of acute Core injury," the medic said when Jin went quiet. "But he needs rest. Regeneration can help those little cuts. It won’t replace what he’s spent."

"I know." Jin looked through the bay window. Glitch had his eyes half closed, though they opened whenever anyone approached the food trolley.

"We’ll reassess him tomorrow. I’m not giving semifinal clearance today."

"All right."

The answer came more easily than Jin expected. He wanted the next round. Right now, he wanted Glitch asleep with a full stomach even more.

Ost found him outside the bay while he waited for the discharge instructions.

"They’re treating his shoulder," she said. "They think it will recover well."

Jin let out a breath. "I’m glad."

She looked tired and disappointed, and he could hardly blame her.

"I thought you’d use that gravity skill on the first shove," she said.

"I nearly did."

"That would have been convenient." Her mouth shifted into a brief, reluctant smile. "Good match."

"You too."

She returned to her beast. Jin watched her go, then went back to the window.

Glitch was asleep now.

By the time he could walk back to the team area, the broadcast was replaying the final charge.

"Seven days since the Sablecourt defeat," the commentator said. "A newly revealed skill, three consecutive wins against fresh nine-Star, Peak Silver opponents—and Meridian takes the last available place."

An organizer interviewed beside the desk called Jin a semifinal contender worth watching. Beneath the replay, someone had put his name beside the words revival dark horse.

Corin saw him reading it.

"That’s you."

"I noticed."

Corin tried to lift him. Jin caught his shoulder, startled, and Nessa ordered him to stop before they both fell over. Then she hugged Jin herself, carefully avoiding the hand he had scraped in the arena.

Bex began describing all three finishes at once.

Jin could not answer everyone. He kept smiling anyway.

Dray reached him through the little crowd and looked down at Glitch, who had settled on the team-area mat.

"Three fresh opponents," she said.

"Yeah."

"I told you not to make it a debt."

"I didn’t." Jin glanced toward Marris. "We checked each time."

Dray gripped his shoulder, then released it. "Good. Argent’s going to be unbearable when he hears he missed this."

Renn came over without Sledge, who was still resting in the care wing. He crouched beside Glitch long enough to let the lizard sniff his hand.

"How is he?" Renn asked.

"Tired. No serious injury. They’re checking him again tomorrow."

"Good." Renn stood. "You made some difficult decisions out there. Well done."

Jin looked down, suddenly unsure where to put his hands.

"Thanks."

He wanted to say that watching Renn had helped. The words tangled when he tried, so he settled for, "I remembered what you said about checking before staying."

Renn nodded. "I could see that."

A delegation attendant brought Flicker from the care station once the crowd around Glitch had thinned. Jin opened her carrier, and she flew the short distance to his wrist.

She inspected his fingers, then leaned into the scratch he offered beneath her chin.

Glitch lifted his head to check that she was there and put it down again.

The qualification notice arrived while Jin sat beside them.

[Novice Division — Semifinalists]

[Sablecourt Academy]

[Highfen Academy]

[Stonemarch Collegiate]

[Meridian Academy — via Revival Final]

He held the screen out for Dray. She read it, called Renn over, and soon everyone was looking, although their own tablets had received exactly the same notice.

Marris let them enjoy it.

Tomorrow there would be condition reports, another opponent to study, and decisions Jin could leave alone for one evening.

For now, Flicker was warm against his wrist. Glitch slept beside his knee, and his teammates were arguing happily over which frame of the broadcast made Corin look most ridiculous.

Jin saved the notice and joined in.