Chapter 156 - 154 — The Way Out I

**POV: Jace**

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The instructor looked at my medical clearance, then at the gauntlets hanging from my hand.

"An extraction exercise?"

"Yes."

"You finished Floor Two yesterday."

"I remember."

"And the medical staff have cleared you for controlled training, not another expedition."

"That’s why I came to a training ground."

He lowered the document and gave me a look I recognized. I had seen it on several Myrmidon instructors over the years, usually shortly before somebody decided that being Christopher Nolan’s son did not excuse me from doing something unpleasant.

I was beginning to think there was a course they all attended.

"What exactly do you want to practice?" he asked.

"Getting someone out of a hostile area."

"We have evacuation drills."

"I want opponents trying to prevent it. An injured teammate who can still move, a route I have to secure, and people across from me who know what they’re doing."

He glanced at my left wrist.

"How much output?"

"Enough to make them work. Not enough to put anyone through a wall."

"That’s an unusually sensible distinction coming from you."

"I’ve been making an effort."

He did not look convinced, but he took the clearance back to his desk and opened the training schedule.

I waited while he checked which rooms were free.

I had spent most of the previous evening studying two failed Floor Three expeditions and trying to understand what their survivors had known when they decided to withdraw. The more I read, the more I kept coming back to something my father had told me before he left.

Twelve was what he believed he could extract if things went wrong.

He had not said twelve was what he needed to defeat whatever waited on Floor Three. He had not told me that twelve was the ideal number for completing its objective.

He had chosen a number he believed he could bring home.

I wanted to know what I could bring home.

The instructor finished checking the schedule.

"I can give you three active Players and the eastern training court. One will act as your injured teammate, and two will oppose the extraction. You’ll be given a marked route and a designated exit."

"That works."

"The opposing Players will use controlled strikes. You will do the same. I want the exercise completed without anybody needing the medical clearance they arrived with."

"I’ll keep that in mind."

"You’ll do more than keep it in mind."

He stood and handed my clearance back.

"Come on."

The eastern training court was longer than it was wide, with a stretch of open ground at one end and a row of reinforced stone partitions farther down. The partitions formed a narrow passage that opened into another section of the court, where a doorway had been marked as the extraction point.

It was a simple layout.

I could see the exit from where I stood.

That was useful, because I had no intention of spending the exercise discovering where I was supposed to be going.

The instructor walked me through the route while the three Players prepared their equipment.

One of them would be the person I had to evacuate. He was a lean man wearing the clan’s standard training armour, with a padded brace fitted around his left knee to restrict how quickly he could move. The brace was part of the exercise rather than a real injury, but it made running awkward enough that he had to shorten his stride when he tested it.

He noticed me watching.

"I can walk," he said.

"I was hoping."

"I can even hit someone if they come close enough."

"That would be useful too."

He adjusted the brace and gave me a brief, approving nod.

I liked him already.

The other two Players wore protective equipment and carried training weapons. One had a sword and a small forearm shield. The second carried a longer weapon with a padded striking head, giving him enough reach to threaten somebody I could not stand directly beside.

Both were older than me, and neither looked particularly interested in finding out how impressive an SSS-rank awakening was.

The instructor pointed toward the marked exit.

"Your teammate starts beside you. He must cross the court and reach that doorway under his own power or with your assistance. The other two will attempt to stop him."

"What counts as stopping him?"

"A clean disabling strike, a successful restraint, or forcing him outside the marked route."

"And if I defeat both of them?"

"They’re out of the exercise. You can take as long as you like getting him to the exit afterward."

That was the straightforward answer.

I looked at the open ground between us and the partitions. If I could put both opponents down before they reached my teammate, the rest would be a short walk.

The instructor followed my gaze.

"You may begin when you’re ready."

I put on my gauntlets and tightened the wrist straps.

The Adamantine reinforcement still felt heavier than my old equipment, particularly along the back of the hands, but I had grown accustomed to the balance during Floor Two. The damaged wrist underneath was another matter. It moved well enough, although I could still feel yesterday’s fighting whenever I closed my fist completely.

I flexed it once, then lowered my hand.

My teammate was checking the brace.

"How fast can you move in that?" I asked.

"Fast enough to get out of your way if you warn me."

"And without a warning?"

"Then I’m probably going to swear at you."

"That seems fair."

I pointed toward the partitions.

"We’ll use the right side. Stay close enough that you can reach the wall if you need support, but don’t press yourself against it. I’ll deal with anything coming through the centre."

He looked down the court.

"What if they come from behind?"

"Tell me."

"And if you’re busy?"

"Use that impressive ability to hit someone."

He smiled and adjusted his grip on the short training weapon he had been given.

I looked toward the instructor.

"Ready."

He raised one hand.

The exercise began.

The swordsman moved first.

He came across the open ground with his shield covering the centre of his body, while the man with the longer weapon stayed several metres behind him and shifted toward the left side of the court.

I recognized the arrangement immediately.

One person to occupy me. One person to reach the teammate I was supposed to protect.

The obvious solution was to remove the man in front before his partner could become a problem.

> **[Ability Activated: Talaria.]**

I drove off my planted foot and crossed the space between us.

The swordsman had been watching my hips. He brought his shield across before I arrived, which was the correct response to someone coming directly at him.

I changed my striking angle instead of trying to go through it.

My right gauntlet caught the outside of his shield, and I turned the impact across his body while stepping past his leading foot. He recovered well enough to prevent me from reaching his back, but the movement opened the side of his torso.

I put a controlled strike into the exposed section of his armour.

He gave ground.

I followed him, intending to finish the exchange before his partner reached the passage.

A shout came from behind me.

"Nolan! Left!"