Chapter 59| Exceptional Dex

Chapter 59: Chapter 59| Exceptional Dex

Zane looked at the scoreboard on the facility wall.

Team Six — 80 points.

Team Three — 0 points.

He muttered under his breath.

’Nice,’ Zane muttered. ’Leaving the real roles for proficient people.’

He glanced at the walkway below.

Cole Mercer was still holding the center walkway access. The last remaining Team Three member outside the platform. Blocking Wren and Marsh from climbing up and giving Dex backup.

’He won’t hold forever,’ Zane thought. ’Two B-ranks against one C-rank. The math isn’t kind.’

’When Cole goes down it’s just me and Maren up here against Dex plus whoever makes it up the walkway.’

He looked at Maren.

She’d already clocked it.

"We need to end this before Cole drops," she said quietly.

"Agreed," Zane said.

’On second thoughts,Wren and Marsh can’t both climb,’ Zane thought. ’One of them has to stay on their zone to keep the points accumulating. So only one is coming up when Cole drops.’

He looked at the walkway.

Cole Mercer was still holding. Two B-ranks taking turns pushing him back. Buying time on pure determination against a significant output gap.

’He’s doing better than expected,’ Zane thought. ’But the math is still the math.’

"One of them will break off and climb when Cole goes down," Maren said beside him. "Probably Wren. He had higher output for platform combat."

"Which gives us one more B-rank up here against Dex," Zane said.

"We end it before Cole drops," Maren said. Final. Clean.

"Agreed," Zane said.

Dex straightened up from the railing.

Looked at Zane.

"Good hit," he said. Genuinely.

"You were sandbagging," Zane said.

"I was conserving," Dex said.

"That’s the same thing," Zane said.

Dex picked up his bag from where he’d set it at the platform edge.

"Not the same thing," Dex said. "One is deceptive. The other is tactical." He looked at Zane with the expression of someone who had filed something away and was comfortable leaving it there. "Lucky hit by the way. My suit has shock nullification built in. It absorbed most of the impact."

Zane looked at him.

’Shock nullification,’ Zane thought. ’That’s why he didn’t go over the railing.’

’What a cheater,’ he thought.

Dex almost smiled like he could tell exactly what Zane was thinking.

’Or he’s covering,’ Zane thought. ’One of the two.’

"Sure," Zane said.

Dex almost smiled.

Zane just stared at him.

"Tactical," Dex said again. Pointed at himself. Then at Zane. "Tactical."

Maren and Zane stared at each other for exactly one second.

No words. Just the specific eye contact of two people who had been training together every morning for six weeks and had stopped needing words for certain things.

She nodded once.

He nodded back.

Maren activated Overdrive.

The surge hit her visibly. Faster, lighter, the chain activation running clean the way it always did when she meant it. She moved toward Dex immediately. Not one strike. A barrage, controlled, precise, each punch landing in sequence before the previous one finished registering. Short bursts. Cut before the fatigue window. Re-engage. The combat style she’d been building since before Zane arrived at this academy running at full output.

Dex blocked the first two. Redirected the third. Took the fourth across the shoulder.

’She’s pushing him toward the edge,’ Zane thought.

He activated Overdrive at 60%.

The surge hit. Legs lighter. Hands faster.

’Might as well,’ he thought.

He moved in from the opposite side.

Dex registered the second threat half a second too late.

Both of them barraging simultaneously. Maren from the front, Zane cutting the angular approach from the side. Dex’s shock nullification suit absorbing what it could but the volume of contact points overwhelming the single direction coverage.

He was moving backward.

One step. Two.

The railing edge getting closer.

Dex looked at the railing. Looked at both of them.

Then did something Zane hadn’t predicted.

He pressed both palms flat against the platform surface beneath his feet and activated Impact Breaker at full output downward.

The platform shook violently.

Both Zane and Maren lost footing simultaneously.

Dex stepped sideways out of the backward trajectory and caught the railing himself. Using it for support rather than being pushed over it.

Smart,’ Zane thought from the platform floor where he’d landed on one knee. ’Genuinely smart.’

Zane and Maren lost footing simultaneously and landed on each other.

He registered several things in quick succession.

The platform floor. His knee. Maren beside him. His hand which had landed somewhere it had absolutely no business landing in the middle of a drill.

He didn’t register what it was immediately.

Then he pressed down instinctively to push himself up.

Something soft.

He froze.

A sound came from beside him. Brief. Involuntary.

"Uhmmm"

He turned his head.

Maren’s face was fully red. The specific red that had appeared in the infirmary and on the training grounds and every time Reed had said lovebirds. Except more so.

She stood up in one movement.

"Dumbass," she said flatly. "We are in the middle of a drill."

Zane stood up. ℯℯ𝑙.

"That was.." he started." Didn’t mean to touch your butt".

"Focus on the drill," she said. Already turning back toward Dex.

The system surfaced.

『 Familiarity +2% 』

『 System Note: Knew you had it in you. Keep up the good work. 』

’That was an accident,’ Zane thought.

『 The familiarity accumulation was not. 』

Dex was watching them from across the platform with the expression of someone who had seen everything and had decided this was not the right moment to comment on it.

He was correct.

"Okay lets focus," Zane said to himself.

"Let’s go," Maren confirmed without looking at him.

They turned back to Dex simultaneously.

Then Cole Mercer’s voice came up from the walkway below.

Strained. Tired.

"I can’t hold them much longer."

Zane looked at Maren.

Maren looked at Zane.

The drill timer on the facility wall read:

08:44 remaining.

Team Six — 120 points.

Team Three — 0 points.

’We need to finish this now,’ Zane thought.’Or else it won’t be funny’.