Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

by Bryce O'Connor

  That was when Rei finally found himself. In the moment before the storm, in the instant before the drop of the blade. Abruptly his head and heart calmed, and a steadying breath later he was taking in Aria Laurent not as a wonder of archon technology and human potential, but as an enemy.

  This was what he had been waiting for.

  “Combatants…” the Arena’s voice rang out again. “Fight.”

  Despite being built for defense, in that moment Laurent proved her Speed spec was nothing to be scoffed at. With a crunch of scraping cement as her steel boots tore into the ground as she flashed forward, hurtling at Rei, closing the 20-yard gap between them with terrifying quickness. Rei watched her come, knowing better than to try to match a C-Ranked User for head-on dexterity, doing his best instead to count the time. His neuro-optic proved itself invaluable, displaying a shrinking number of inches between himself and the coming Phalanx, and when he judged the moment right he, too, lanced forward, his empty left hand lifting to his head.

  His cap, thrown with as much precision as could be mustered when facing down a charging force of spear and steel, caught Laurent squarely in the face.

  The girl gave a sound of surprise, her focus broken. The reactive shielding of her Device was unlikely to have triggered under the minute pressure of the odd attack, meaning she’d probably take the hat in the nose, but Rei hadn’t been going for damage. All he’d needed was the moment, the instant of possibility. Laurent had still kept her defenses up, but her charge had faltered, her eyes breaking from his for the span of a heartbeat.

  It was all he needed to slam himself bodily against her shield.

  Despite her Strength value no doubt being several times his own, the girl’s feet had not been braced for an impact. She staggered a step, finding her balance again quickly, but not before Rei took advantage of the opening to power a swing with Shido at her face. She ducked, the strike clearing her hair, and with him too close to bring the spear to bear she instead kicked forward as she straightened again, catching Rei in the chest with an armored boot and sending him clear off his feet. He flew through the air, slamming into a stacked pile of supplies several yards back, the boxes tumbling off one another. His own energy shield had taken most of the impact, but he didn’t miss the notifications flashing across his frame.

  Posterior torso contusion registered.

  Fracturing of anterior ribs registered.

  Applying appropriate physiological restrictions.

  Pain to compliment that of the original kick flared in Rei’s chest, and he felt a sudden difficulty breathing. Pain, though, he could deal with, and so ignoring it all he scrambled to get back on his feet, managing to free himself of the tangle of boxes just in time to leap away, narrowly avoiding a sweeping cut from the spear that would have gutted him. Laurent had closed the distance between them in a blink and was pressing the assault, using her regained reach to strike even as she kept him at bay.

  The attacks came in arcing blurs, but what edge the girl’s range gave her meant Rei had an instant to react before each descended, his NOED flaring in warning time and time again. He kept dodging—only occasionally completely successfully—half-stumbling, half-dancing backwards. His frame registering several small wounds across his chest and thighs that fortunately didn’t restrain him any further, Rei quickly ran out of room, running up against another pile of supplies. With a shout Laurent lunged, shield held before her like a battering ram. Rei threw himself out of the way, rolling free of the blow that would have crushed him against the metal as the girl collided with the heavy boxes, sending them scattering. Coming up on his feet, he watched the Phalanx working quickly to extricate herself from the mess, and saw his opportunity.

  Turning tail, he ran.

  The projection blocked out all external sounds, but just the same he could almost hear the laughter of his fellow first years as he sprinted away, making for a third pile of supplies very close to the east wall of the Depot. He didn’t care. He couldn’t. All he could do was fight—was survive—and to do that he had to use every chance he could give himself. With all the speed he could pour into his legs he dodged behind the boxes, hearing Laurent thundering up on him from behind.

  *****

  When her uncle had informed her a few days prior she’d be taking part in a combat demonstration during the Commencement Ceremony, Aria hadn’t been much bothered. She wasn’t concerned she would lose—not even the fearsome strength of Logan Grant or reach of Kastro Vademe had been able to best her all summer—and she supposed it was probably a good thing that the other first years see what she was capable of. If she could make it clear she wasn’t a User to be trifled with, she’d likely have the other students less keen on pestering her for sparring matches in an attempt to prove their own abilities. She’d agreed without much fanfare, and—despite Uncle Ram’s concerns otherwise—had spent the last half-week preparing diligently for every kind of opponent she thought she might encounter.

  For that reason, Aria couldn’t decide what was more confusing about the situation she’d found herself in.

  For one thing, Valera Dent—the famed “Iron Bishop”—had allowed an E-Ranked Cadet to volunteer as her opponent. What such a low-level User was even doing at Galens Aria would have to take up with her uncle later, but she’d regardless felt somewhat cheated of the hope at a half-decent match as the short, thin boy had walked onto the Dueling field.

  For another, within 5 seconds of the fight starting, Aria had been hit in the face by what she was pretty sure was her opponent’s uniform cap, then put briefly on the defensive when the Atypical had thrown himself bodily in her direction.

  Lastly—and perhaps most confusing of all—Aria was having fun.

  She hadn’t expected it. Not before her opponent had been selected, and certainly not after. What an E-Ranker had been supposed to do against her she wasn’t sure, and even going a little easy on the guy she’d anticipated the fight likely ending with her first charge. The boy, though, had proven quick-thinking and thick-skinned, brushing off what had to have been at least a few cracked ribs to roughly dance his way out of her slashes and thrusts by keeping at the very edge of her range, where his Speed and Cognition skills were apparently just enough to survive by paying with only a few scrapes. His open uniform flapping about himself, he hadn’t even bothered trying to block with the odd, one-handed punching weapon his Device had manifested as, likely anticipating that the blue-on-white over black plating wouldn’t hold up to Aria’s Strength. Eventually, though, the boy had found himself drawn up against some of the supply boxes projected as elements in the field, and Aria saw her chance, powering forward with a shout as she shouldered her shield, intending to crush him under a pinning strike. With a martial artist’s grace, though, her opponent had once more dodged defeat by a hair, flinging himself sideways and rolling to his feet a couple yards to her left.

  Then, unexpectedly, the short cadet had turned on his heel and bolted for another pile of crates, stacked up near the closest field wall.

  Oh no you don’t! Aria thought with a rush, wrenching herself free of the mess her failed attack had made. She dashed after him, only 20 feet between her and the E-Ranker as he dodged behind the supplies. Careening after him, she came around the same corner only a few seconds after, shield held up in case of a surprise attack. Instead, Aria’s NOED picked up the flap of black and the glint of gold facing away from her, and with a shout of victory she lunged, spear leading the way, driving deep.

  And catching nothing but empty air.

  Despite her D9 Cognition, it took Aria a moment to make sense of the lack of impact, to parse out the blade of her phantom-call sinking into the black fabric of the uniform only to pass through the cloth without resistance. The unexpected lack of resistance carried her forward, pulling her off-balance, and it was in the moment of catching herself that she saw the truth, that she gaped at the trick.

  The jacket hung empty from a rusted edge in the wall. Clear
ly tossed in passing, it still hadn’t settled completely, giving it the illusion of motion.

  A trap.

  Too late Aria made the connection, heard the scraping of sound overhead. Too late she saw the shadow of a body vaulting over the top of the boxes to her left, dropping down towards her with its right fist drawn for a devastating blow. Her back was to her opponent, her shield at her knees. Even with her decent Speed Aria had no way of turning in time to get her defenses up.

  Had she had the chance, she would have smiled, then, realizing she was enjoying herself more in that moment than any time during the months of rigid training with the pompous grouping of the other top sixteen rankers.

  Instead, Aria focused, drawing on the single mental command she’d managed to master, the only silent order she could yet give Hippolyta.

  Third Eye!

  *****

  Rei leapt with everything he had.

  Having pulled around the other side of the piled boxes as soon as he’d freed himself of his jacket and tossed it at a promising bend of rusted metal in the east wall, he put every ounce of his will into the jump, hoping against hope he had timed his ploy right. He launched into the air, dragging himself up and over the steel crates with his left hand, Shido rising high in his right. With a jolt he saw Laurent retracting her spear from the back of his empty uniform, saw the rigidity of her body as she realized she’d been tricked. Her shield was at her thighs, her back to him. For the instant that he started to fall, started to plunge down on his defenseless opponent, Rei wondered if he might pull off a miracle. Shido drove down, aiming for the nape of Laurent’s neck. She would fall. She would fall, and Rei would hear the Arena shout his name as the match winner.

  And then, in a blink, the red and gold shield stood between him and his one shot at victory.

  Shido’s strike-plate smashed into the layered steel. With all Rei’s weight and strength behind the blow, it brought Laurent to one knee, bearing her down as the force of the impact rammed through her back.

  Wait… Her back?

  Rei himself slammed into the shield an instant later, rolling off the metal to land on his feet and leap away, wanting to avoid a blind slash of the spear. Sure enough, with stunned disbelief he watched Aria pick herself up, standing straight to face him, pulling her left arm and the shield attached to it from over her head, where she’d just managed to get it in time to defend herself from the fatal blow.

  No… No. That wasn’t possible. Even for a C-Ranker. The level of Speed and Cognition required for that kind of quick-thinking…

  And then it hit him.

  “You have Third Eye?!” he half-screamed, half-squealed, not sure if he was more intensely jealous, annoyed, or fascinated at the prospect.

  Laurent, for her part, stared at him in surprise. After a second she opened her mouth to speak, then thought better of it.

  In the end, she just nodded.

  Rei simultaneously wanted to jump for joy and stamp his foot in exasperation.

  “That’s so cool!” he groaned. “I mean it’s bull, too, but so cool!”

  Then he blinked, remembering himself.

  “Oh, right. We’re fighting.”

  And so, with no other tricks up his sleeve, he lunged.

  Taken aback by the sudden shift, her Ability was likely all that got Laurent’s shield up in time to stop Shido catching her in the throat. Steel met steel again with a grinding clang, but before Rei could retreat the girl answered his momentum with a shove forward, closing the gap between them in a flash. He slammed into the curved surface of the defense’s plating—anything but deliberately this time—then was lifted off his feet with a yell as the C-Ranker bent down suddenly, then up again, rolling him up and over the shield like he weighed nothing more than a rag doll. He fell, slamming onto his back on the cement, his NOED greeting him with more notifications of further contusions, but he shoved himself up to whirl and face Laurent.

  Face her, and promptly cough in surprise as the Phalanx’s spear impaled him through the gut.

  Schlunk!

  Immediately Rei’s NOAD blazed red, but he hardly needed a notification to tell him that the simulation had registered his spine as having been severed. Losing all feeling in his legs, the limbs collapsed beneath him, bringing him down to an awkward half-kneeling sprawl, his weight still supported by the haft of Laurent’s weapon. Pain bloomed in his abdomen, and if Shido’s neuroline hadn’t negated the response, Rei knew he would have vomited. Still, the CAD couldn’t stop him from retching, his abdominal muscles spasming to bring him forward, his free hand taking hold of the spear haft reflexively for balance.

  He clung to the weapon, though, when he started to feel it being pulled away.

  Tightening his grip about the steel with all the strength he had left, Rei forced himself to look up, forced himself to set aside the pain. He’d had worse. He’d had much worse. He met his opponent’s green eyes unsteadily, watched her try again to retract her Device with a tug, only to have him hold more tightly to it.

  Then, shaking, Rei lifted Shido, drew the CAD back, and struck.

  It was no use, of course. Even had she not had the reflexes for it, Laurent’s Third Eye protected her, snapping her shield into position without need of conscious thought. Shido met the plated metal with another clang, then another, then another. Over and over again Rei punched at the girl’s defenses, trying to break through, trying to overcome. Steadily, little by little, his blows came weaker, the strength draining from his arms as the pain in his gut continued to build. Finally he found himself unable to pull Shido back from a punch, the Device scraping down off the shield to hang limply at his side.

  Once more he saw Laurent’s eyes, and had he been in any sort of right mind to tell, Rei might have thought there was a different sort of look about them than there’d been at the start of their fight.

  Instead, however, the world started to go black, and he felt himself falling forward as somewhere a mechanical voice announced “Fatal Damage Accrued. Winner: Aria Laurent.”

  As the world dimmed, Rei could have sworn someone caught him, sworn he felt slender, warm hands take him by the shoulders, and a presence kneeling in front of him. In the end, though, he couldn’t be sure, and as he slipped away all he could make out were soft words spoken as though from a long, long distance away.

  “Thanks for the fight… I had fun.”

  CHAPTER 14

  ...

  Processing combat information.

  ...

  Calculating.

  …

  Results:

  Strength: Lacking

  Endurance: Lacking

  Speed: Lacking

  Cognition: Lacking

  Offense: Severely Lacking

  Defense: Severely Lacking

  Growth: Not Applicable

  …

  Checking combat data acquisition.

  …

  Adequate data acquirement met.

  Device initiating adjustments to:

  Strength. Endurance. Speed. Cognition. Offense. Defense.

  …

  Adjustment complete.

  Strength has been upgraded from Rank F5 to F6.

  Endurance has been upgraded from Rank F3 to F4.

  Speed has been upgraded from Rank F6 to F7.

  Cognition has been upgraded from Rank F5 to F6.

  Offense has been upgraded from Rank F4 to F7.

  Defense has been upgraded from Rank F4 to F7.

  …

  Calculating.

  …

  CAD “Shido” has been upgraded from Rank E3 to E4.

  …

  Checking combat data acquisition.

  …

  Adequate data acquirement met.

  Prioritizing reasonable evolution parameters.

  …

  Selected Prioritization:

  Defense. Offense.

  …

  Recategor
izing for future parameters.

  …

  Processing.

  …

  Evolving.

  …

  Evolution complete.

  ******

  “Up you get, cadet. Come on now.”

  Someone was tapping Rei on the cheek, gently but firmly. It took him a moment, but slowly he came to with a groan, rising from a fitful state of unconsciousness riddled with words and numbers he couldn’t recall clearly. Trying to open his eyes, he had to squint against the brightness of a strip light set in the ceiling overhead.

  “Up you come,” a wheezing voice spoke to him again. “Up now.”

  In a blur, the world came back into focus.

  “Wah!” Rei yelped, sitting bolt upright and nearly slamming his forehead into the face of the bespectacled man who’d been bent over him, patting his cheek. “Wha…? What? How…?”

  His recollection returned, and he reflexively reached for his stomach with both hands, padding at his shirt and abdomen. Logically he knew he would find nothing amiss, but all modern science and CAD technology had never quite been able to separate the mind from its survival instincts.

  “Calm down, Ward. You’re fine. You just took a good bit more sensory input than you should have, after Cadet Laurent ran you through.”

  Finally registering that he was, indeed, whole and well, Rei’s pulse settled a little, and lifted his face to look around.