Chapter 61| After The Drill

Chapter 61: Chapter 61| After The Drill

The earth locks crumbled.

Zane straightened up on the platform and dusted composite material off his training gear. Below him on the facility floor Maren was already back on her feet. She was done in two seconds with the efficient precision she brought to everything extending to recovering from earth locks. Dex stood a few meters away from her with the complete unbothered energy of someone who had won and was being gracious about it in the most unhelpful way possible.

The facility settled into post-drill quiet. Students from both teams catching breath. Cole Mercer being helped to his feet by Jade Ross. He was conscious again, embarrassed in the specific way of someone who had fainted in front of their teammates and was processing it. The medical team was already moving toward him from the facility entrance.

Maren looked at Vael at the observation point.

"Was he eliminated?." she asked. "He jumped. The rule was dropping off the platform. He dropped momentarily."

"Correct," Vael said. Arms crossed. The expression of someone who had been waiting for that specific objection with considerable patience. "Which is why Team Six retained an active dummy member on the ground floor. Your decision to follow him down was entirely your own."

Maren opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Processed.

’She went down because she thought the fight on the ground was still part of the drill,’ Zane thought. ’And technically it wasn’t. But Vael’s point is that leaving the platform was a foolish mistake on her path because he was already eliminated, although maybe because she didn’t brief us maren thought he was still in the game.’

Vael looked at Dex as he approached the facility floor.

"There was entirely no need to go down to someone already on the ground," she said. "He was below the platform. You held the high ground. Even if he wasn’t eliminated, going down to him removed your positional advantage voluntarily and gained you nothing the scoreboard could recognise and you miss the bonus points from holding the top area."

"So he was eliminated, damn," Maren said again. Firm. She wasn’t letting it go.

"Yes and he was no longer a threat to your zone," Vael said. "You’re the one who decided to chase."

Maren looked at Zane.

Zane looked at Maren.

She knew Vael was right. He could see it in the expression. Not the calculating stillness, just the specific look of someone who had made a call in the moment that made sense in the moment and was now being shown the gap between sense and optimal.

From the facility floor Dex’s voice carried up with the specific ease of someone who had no business being this relaxed after a fifteen minute drill.

"You need a chill pill Maren," he said.

Maren looked down at him.

"You jumped off the rail too," she said.

"Tactically," Dex said.

She stared at him for a long moment.

Zane watched her decide whether to say anything else.

She decided not to.

Smart.

Vael looked between the two of them. Her expression shifted. Less assessment, something underneath it that wasn’t quite warmth but was in the same direction.

"Losing aside," she said. "You gave quite a performance today. Both of you." She held Zane’s gaze for one second specifically. "Team Three held the most strategically valuable zone for the entire round against a second year field operative and two B-rank students. The score reflects the points. It doesn’t reflect the quality of what I watched."

She turned to address the full group.

Zane stood on the platform and thought about what a one second look from Instructor Vael meant after watching him use both Sigils openly in a team drill context for the first time.

’She filed it,’ he thought. ’Same as everyone else.’

Maren appeared beside him.

"We held the platform," she said.

"We scored zero points," Zane said.

"We held the platform," she said again. Same delivery. Same firmness. Like that was simply the fact worth keeping from the day and everything else was administrative detail.

He looked at her.

’She’s going to say that every time someone brings up the score,’ he thought. ’For the foreseeable future.’

He almost smiled.

"Okay," he said. "I think we’re done here. Let’s start moving."

"Finally," Maren said.

They walked toward the walkway together.

The corridor back to the academic block was quieter than the facility had been. Students dispersing. The specific post-drill energy of a group that had been running at high output for fifteen minutes and was now running at whatever came after that.

Cole Mercer had been cleared by the medical team quickly. He had minor concussion from the earth launch impact, nothing Stacy Reed couldn’t handle, back on his feet before they’d fully cleared the facility. He caught Zane’s eye in the corridor and gave him a brief nod. The nod of someone who had held a walkway against two B-rank students for eleven minutes and was choosing to feel good about that rather than bad about the faint.

Zane nodded back.

Dex fell into step beside him as they cleared the facility exit.

"That propulsion," Dex said. "Magnificent by the way. How did you even think of that."

Zane kept walking.

"Observation," Zane said.

Dex looked at him sideways.

"You observed it," Dex said. "I wonder who you observed it from."

Zane kept walking.

"Just born with good observation skills," Zane said.

Then the system surfaced.

『 I am genuinely impressed at your progress. You are growing both in combat application and in other areas I have been tracking. 』

’Don’t finish that sentence,’ Zane thought.

『 I was going to say socially. 』

’Sure you were,’ Zane thought.

Dex walked beside him in silence for a moment.

"Tactical," he said finally.

"You threw yourself over the railing though," Dex added.

"That part was less tactical," Zane admitted.

Dex laughed. Short. Genuine.

"Fair enough," he said.

Zane kept walking.

They walked the rest of the corridor in the comfortable silence that had developed between them over six weeks of shared mornings and squad dinners and east wing perimeter disasters.

『 Familiarity with DEX: 38% 』

’Still acquaintance tier,’ Zane thought. ’But climbing.’

Maren was walking ahead of both of them. With three steps, same direction, not waiting but not leaving either. The specific pace of someone who was done with the conversation around her and was processing something internally.

Zane watched her from behind.

The training gear doing what it always did. Her hips moved naturally with each step, the curve of her figure shifting in rhythm with her footwork.

His eyes lingered a moment longer than they should have.

Damn. He really needed to get his attention under control.

He looked at the corridor ceiling.

The system surfaced.

『 BOUND TARGET QUEST — Time Remaining: 9 days 16 hours 44 minutes 』

’I know,’ he thought.

’One thing at a time,’ he thought.

Gerald wheezed somewhere ahead of them Zane could picture it mentally. The dormitory building was visible through the corridor window as they turned the corner back toward the main academic block.

’Almost lunch,’ Zane thought.

’Almost,’ he thought.