Chapter 147| Sunday Milestone

Chapter 147: Chapter 147| Sunday Milestone

The next day flew by like wind.

Zane woke at seven, ate with Dex at eight, and by noon couldn’t remember a single thing he’d done in between. Saturday had been heavy, Nyx and Maren and Nil all stacked on top of each other. Sunday was supposed to be the opposite. Empty. Quiet.

It was quiet. That was the problem.

He sat on the edge of his bed with his communicator in one hand, thumb hovering over the contacts. Maren’s name sat third from the top.

’Not yet,’ he thought.

"You’re doing the face," Dex said from the other bed, not looking up from his phone.

"What face?"

"The one where you stare at your screen like it owes you money."

"It doesn’t owe me anything."

"Then call whoever it is." Dex flipped onto his back. "Or don’t. But decide. Gerald’s getting tired of watching you."

The vent wheezed in the corner, right on cue.

Zane stood up, grabbed his bag, and left.

_ _

The training grounds were nearly empty on Sundays.

A few second years jogged the outer track. Someone was running drills on the far side of the field. The sun sat high and flat over the dormitory block, and the grass smelled like it had been cut that morning.

Zane picked a corner near the east fence and dropped his bag.

For the first few weeks, this spot had belonged to him and Maren. She’d stand there, he’d stand here, and the middle was a stretch of grass they’d worn flat arguing over form. Now it was just grass.

『 System Note: The host is being sentimental. 』

’I’m stretching.’

『 The host is stretching sentimentally. 』

’Don’t make me regret keeping you.’

『 The system will not comment on that. 』

He rolled his shoulders, set his feet, and ran the daily quest.

『 DAILY QUEST: Overdrive activation window reduction 』

『 Objective: 6 consecutive activations 』

『 Progress: 5 / 6 』

『 Current window: 0.53 seconds 』

One. The window opened. The grass sharpened to individual blades, the far runner slowed to a crawl, and the air thickened around his arms.

Two. Three. Each pulse shorter than the last, each snap closing faster than a blink.

Four.

By five his hands tingled. He’d stopped counting seconds a few days ago and started counting something else, the sense of the window itself, like a door he could now feel closing a half-inch before it moved.

Six.

『 DAILY QUEST COMPLETE 』

『 Overdrive activation window: 0.53 → 0.50 seconds 』

『 Progress: 6 / 6 』

『 MILESTONE REACHED 』

Zane stopped moving.

The notification hung in front of him, gold-edged for the first time in weeks.

『 Milestone reward unlocked: Overdrive — Afterimage 』

’Afterimage?’ he thought."

『 Description: At a window speed of 0.50s or below, the host can leave a residual motion echo for a single moment. Opponents reading the host’s movement might still track the host instead of the echo. This effect only works with Overdrive at B-rank and above. Duration: 0.2 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Duration may increase with system upgrades or bonuses. 』

He read it twice.

’A decoy,’ he thought slowly. ’Every time I move, there’s a copy of where I was.’

『 Correct. It is not a physical clone. It is a perception trap. Opponents with strong sensory output will see through it quickly. Opponents who rely on sight will not. 』

’Nyx reads intent.’

『 Her Sigil does not grant perception. She reads movement through skill alone. A skilled fighter may still track the host over the echo. The system suggests testing. 』

He lifted a hand and pulsed Overdrive once, short and clean.

The air shimmered.

For a half-second there were two of his hands in front of him. One where it should be. One a few inches behind, translucent, drifting like heat haze. Then the echo faded and there was only his own palm again, shaking slightly.

’That’s insane,’ he thought.

『 The system agrees. 』

_ _

He spent the afternoon trying it on everything.

The fence. A fallen branch. A stray football that rolled across the field and bounced off his shin. He learned the echo trailed his motion by about four inches at a sprint and stretched wider the faster he moved. It worked best when he started from a standstill. It fell apart if he turned mid-step.

By four in the afternoon he was drenched and out of breath. He sat in the grass with his back against the fence and stared at the sky. He was lucky he’d only been using Overdrive in short bursts. Anything longer and he’d have been flat on the ground.

His communicator buzzed.

He fished it out.

Maren: Are you at the training grounds?

Zane stared at it. Then at the empty stretch of grass beside him.

He typed: Yeah. East fence.

Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

Maren: Don’t move.

He put the communicator down. Then picked it up again.

’She’s coming here,’ he thought.

『 System Note: Heart rate is elevated. 』

’It’s the training.’

『 The system will log that as a lie. 』

_ _

She arrived fifteen minutes later.

Hair down, grey hoodie, two bottles of water in one hand. She stopped a few steps away and looked at him, then the grass, then the fence.

"You look terrible," Maren said.

"I trained," Zane said.

"On a Sunday," Maren said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Alone."

"Yeah," Zane replied.

She handed him one of the bottles and sat down next to him, a few inches farther than she used to. Not far enough to matter. Not close enough to count.

"Nil’s still in bed," she said. "She woke up an hour ago, asked me if she’d done something awful, and went back to sleep."

"What did you tell her?" Zane asked.

"That she called you warm," Maren said.

"That’s all she needs to know," Zane replied.

"That’s what I said." Maren twisted the cap off her water, then didn’t drink it. "I’m not great at this, Zane."

"At what?"

"Saying things." She stared at the field. "I was going to say something at breakfast yesterday and I said something else. I don’t even remember what. Something about Nyx."

"It was fine."

"It wasn’t." She glanced at him sideways. "I don’t mind the training break. I just didn’t like not knowing why."

Zane turned the bottle in his hands.

There were three different answers he could give. The honest one involved a system, a stolen Sigil, and a girl with a blue ponytail who’d put him on his back in Arena 3. The easy one was I’m fine. The third was somewhere in the middle.

"I’m figuring something out," he said. "It’s not about you. When I understand it, I’ll tell you."

Maren studied him for a long moment.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay?"

"I can wait," Maren said. She nudged his shoulder with hers, once, barely a touch. "But you owe me a spar."

"Deal," Zane said.

They sat there until the sun slid behind the dormitory roof, and neither of them said anything else.

Zane’s communicator buzzed one more time near dusk. He glanced down.

His communicator buzzed again near dusk.

Instructor Vael: Reminder. My office. 8 AM tomorrow.

He looked at it for a while.

’Monday,’ he thought. ’Still no idea what she wants.’