He was, he realized, back in the underworks of the Arena, now seated upright on some kind of gurney suspended off the ground with lift technology. At his left the man who’d been tending to him was watching him expectantly over a pair of wide-rimmed glasses, a rare sight indeed when corrective surgery could usually accommodate most any vision issue. He was older, likely in mid to late 60s, with thinning white hair the same color as his heavy beard, and the insignia on his black-and-gold uniform marked him as a lieutenant colonel of the ISCM.
“S-Sir!” Rei started, trying to throw his legs off the side of the gurney and salute at the same time, resulting in an awkward mess of motion. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were—”
“Calm down, cadet,” the officer repeated with a chuckle, putting a hand out to stop Rei’s attempt of sliding off the floating plasteel platform as he finally managed sit himself at its edge. “You’ve just been through what I’m told is likely your first Fatal Damage Accrual, and a prolonged one at that. I will excuse some lack of decorum for the time being.”
Rei swallowed, then nodded, settling back after a moment to sit straighter before the man.
“Better. Now… Hold still, if you please.”
The officer’s NOED came to light in his eyes, and he looked Rei up and down as a vertical line descended over his retinal, obviously scanning for abnormalities.
“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Willem Mayd,” he spoke as he worked, his voice weak and breathy, his gaze moving first along Rei’s torso and head, then over to each of his arms and legs in turn. “I’m the chief medical officer here at the Galens Institute. It had been my intention to summon you to the school hospital sometime in the coming week, but Captain Dent was kind enough to offer me this opportunity to expedite our meeting.” Apparently satisfied with whatever information the examination had provided him with, Mayd gave a sound of approval and closed his frame. “I assume you will understand I am not just referring to your recent skewering when I ask you how you are feeling?”
“Ah. Yes, sir. I-I mean no, sir.” Rei flushed, cleared his throat, and tried again. “I do understand, sir. I’ve had some mild symptoms since my CAD-assignment, but nothing severe. The pain actually seems to have started improving this last week.”
At this the lieutenant colonel exhaled in what could only have been quiet relief. “That is excellent news. I admit that when your condition was brought to my attention I did not know what to expect of your Device’s genetic correction. But if your active symptoms are improving, that’s good. Very good…” His gaze dropped to take in Rei’s arms again, this time eyeing the hint of the scars on his fingers and those peeking out from under his cuffs beneath Shido’s steel. “Any other changes? Anything you can tell me? You’ll understand that I’ll be keeping a careful eye on you until we have a better sense of how your genome adjustments progress.”
“Yes, sir,” Rei said again. “I’ve grown a little more than half an inch in ten weeks. Also gained around seven pounds of weight.”
“More than that in muscle, yes. Your body fat percentage has reduced since your physical examination, and it was already respectable. To be expected, given your history with the combat team.” A roar of sound interrupted Mayd, and the old man glanced up at the ceiling with a flash of consternation. All of a sudden Rei was aware he could make out the distinct clashing of steel on steel, and what sounded like the Arena’s automated voice once again.
The Team Battle, he recalled suddenly.
“I need to be getting back to the Commencement,” the lieutenant colonel said. “You stay here. Recovering from neural interruption should only take a short while, but you pushed your luck back there.”
“S-sir!” Rei started quickly as the officer began to step away. “Can I—I’d like to see the match, if I—?”
“No,” Willem Mayd cut him off kindly, but firmly, offering him a small smile. “You’ve been out of it for a good quarter-hour, so I imagine they’re about to wrap up soon anyway. Consider it disciplinary action for pushing your body further than you should have.” He paused, his gaze shifting past Rei. “And besides… I do believe you will be shortly otherwise preoccupied.”
Then he was leaving, stepping smartly down the corridor with a pace that belied his wheezing, and Rei was turning to see what it was that had drawn the man’s attention over his shoulder.
He nearly jumped off the gurney when he found a tall woman with short-cut hair falling across one side of her head standing not 4 feet from him, watching him with piercing brown eyes.
“Captain!” he wheezed. “I didn’t hear you approach.”
In answer, Valera Dent chuckled. Slung over one arm was the jacket Rei had left on the Dueling field, his cap tucked under the other. Offering them both over for him to take, the woman looked him up and down before speaking.
“That was a hell of a fight, cadet. I think you gave some of your classmates the surprise of their lives.”
Rei grimaced, accepting the articles and pulling the cap back over his white hair before sliding an arm into a jacket sleeve. “Thank you, ma’am, but I doubt it. I can’t imagine I lasted more than a minute out there, not to mention the end hardly left me looking good.”
“I wouldn’t say that. If anything that finish was rather spectacular. Though next time I’d recommend trying to punch something other than her shield.”
She grinned slyly, and after a moment’s hesitation Rei managed a strained smile back. “I didn’t have a chance against her defenses, in the end. It’s not that I had high hopes of winning, but…” He sighed. “Maybe if I could have at least gotten a hit in?”
“Ward, you took on a User almost two full tiers higher than you—one of the most promising cadets this institution has seen in decades, by the way—and made her work for the win.” The captain’s eyes bore into him, clearly intolerant of his self-doubt. “That’s not even mentioning the fact you forced Laurent’s hand. I guarantee you she would have preferred to keep Third Eye quiet for as long as possible, but you gave her no choice with that last trick of yours. Had she not had the ace up her sleeve, I put the odds in your favor that you would have had that bout.”
Hearing Valera Dent—the Iron Bishop herself—praise him after speaking his name was such a bizarre experience that Rei could only blink at the woman for a time. Fortunately his mind caught up to the shock fast, and he could almost see Viv’s nod of approval as he decided then was not the moment to squeal in delight.
Instead, he snatched at the opportunity Dent had offered him.
“I was right, then?” he asked, having to fight not to sound too eager. “She does have Third Eye?”
“Fairly sure Laurent affirmed that for you herself, but yes. She does. Hippolyta—her Device—developed the Ability sometime in her first month here, and she’s been working on the mental command for it consistently since.”
Rei mouthed at the air in disbelief.
Six weeks… Aria Laurent had gained her first Ability within six weeks of being assigned her CAD. That wasn’t unheard of, but it was incredible, nonetheless. What’s more, Third Eye was about as potent as they came, and rare to boot. The Ability tapped into the minute information frequencies of opponents’ Devices, allowing a User’s CAD to bypass cognitive procedures and react separately from the mind’s intake, processing, and response pathways. It “read” any incoming attack—similar to the fashion the NOEDs could warn of the same—but required no visual, auditory, or other cues to act. It was typically used by higher-level SCT combatants lucky enough to possess it to allow one arm to move freely while the other engaged separately, often letting the most-talented Users take on two or three opponents at once so long as their neuroline could manage the load—which, to be fair, was substantial. In Aria Laurent’s case, she had used it to let her Device—Hippolyta, apparently—handle blocking Rei’s punch at the back of her neck, in her blind spot, giving her a chance to regain control of the fight.
In retrospect, it might ha
ve been an unfair matchup from the start, but the C-Ranker’s quick thinking was still mesmerizing.
“Speaking of Devices, cadet… I’d like you to confirm something for me.”
As Rei had been pondering, the captain had stepped to the other side of the corridor and taken to crossing her arms and leaning up against the smart-glass where a recording of Helman Werkers, the “Stone Giant”, was swinging around a massive two-headed axe like it weighed little more than a broomstick.
“I’d heard an interesting rumor regarding your CAD specifications.”
The suggestion sent a tingle up Rei’s spine, but he didn’t respond, watching Dent carefully. When nothing was said between them for almost 10 seconds, the captain’s eyes narrowed.
“Not answering an officer is punishable by time in the school brig, cadet.”
Rei swallowed. “Apologies, ma’am. I just didn’t hear a question in that statement.”
Dent glared at him for a moment.
Then, to his surprise, she gave a dry laugh and relaxed. “Fair enough… Word around the staffroom is you have a particularly potent specification among your numbers. I’d like to see it.”
Rei frowned. “Are my live stats not accessible to Institute staff? I would have assumed they would be.”
“To some,” the captain offered him a half-shrug. “Myself included. But I think there’s much to be said to witnessing something like that with your own two eyes, don’t you?”
Rei nodded slowly, but hesitated. He wasn’t sure why he was apprehensive—the woman had just affirmed that she could pull his specification up anytime she wanted—but sharing them directly still felt… poignant. He was reminded, not for the first time, of Major Connelly’s words at the end of the exam.
Be careful.
In that moment, however, there was nothing to be lost. Pulling up his NOED, Rei made a Specifications Request, and an instant later the list of stats was scripting across his frame. He granted viewing privileges and lifted a hand, about to send it to the captain, when he froze.
“What the…?” he muttered, confused as he read.
Specifications Request acknowledged.
…
Combat Assistance Device: Shido. User identification… Accepted.
Type: A-TYPE
Rank: E4
…
User Attributes:
- Strength: F5
- Endurance: F4
- Speed: F7
- Cognition: F6
…
CAD Specifications:
- Offense: F7
- Defense: F7
- Growth: S
Were these… Were these his numbers? It wasn’t possible. It seemed so unlikely, in fact, that Rei went to the top of the list to read the identification information, double checking. Confirming that he was looking at the right Device’s specs, he read over the list again, then again, then finally a third time, not understanding any better each time.
E4? 4? How was that possible? In ten weeks of training Rei had managed to jump five ranks total, breaking out of the Fs all the way to E3. But now, suddenly, Shido was reading as an E4 not four days after his last jump?
And what in the MIND’s name was up with his specs?! Everything was up at least a rank from when he’d checked on the tram that morning—even his stubbornly lagging Endurance—and his Offense and Defense values had somehow made an insane 3-point leap each from F4 to F7! They were matched with his Speed, now! What the hell was going on?
No matter how long he stared, however, Rei could make no sense of it. He had quite forgotten Valera Dent was standing in front of him, right up until she spoke in light, almost-amused tone.
“What’s the holdup, cadet?”
Rei—even then unable to look away from the list—started and tried to speak once, then again. Finally, on the third attempt, he managed to form a few distinct words.
“My… My specs… I think somethings wrong with the Request I just made…”
“Oh? Let me see.”
After another blank moment, Rei finally gathered the wherewithal to send the numbers across the corridor, seeing them pop into being on the captain’s eyes.
“Oh-ho… Well that’s interesting.” Dent scanned the list a couple times, then pulled up another window. After a few moments she shook her head. “Nope. No problem that I can detect. These are the same numbers I have access to in the directory. The ISCM has you officially registered as an E4 User.”
“B-but how?” Rei hissed, not believing his ears. “You announced it yourself! At the start of the match! I was an E3 before the Duel, so how—?”
He stopped himself, his words catching in his throat. Across from him, Dent had something of a knowing smile pulling at the synthetic skin of her face.
“The Duel…” Rei repeated slowly. “Could that…? No. No way. I’ve had dozens of fights, and even when I first started my specs didn’t jump this fast.”
“Sure,” Dent shrugged again, pulling up a hand to study her fingernails as though what he was saying was hardly of any interest to her. “Of course I’m certain all those dozens of fights were against a fellow CAD-User, and obviously one several times stronger then you.”
Rei stared at her in silence. Despite the sarcasm, it struck him that the captain was onto something. Definitely onto something. Hadn’t he just been thinking that morning about how the military’s basic simulations had run dry on him? About how he’d hoped to start seeing faster improvement again once with proper combat training and instruction? Of course he had.
But still…
S-Rank. The words—the realization—rang across his thoughts.
“I told you that those who seek advantage will find them.”
Valera Dent was looking at him again—intensely, this time—like she could tell he had understood something.
“I told you that I would make you all chase the strongest among you, that I would make you seek out the opportunities those top rankers are already receiving. Every one of the cadets seated in those stands right now is special, Ward. Every one of them is talented. Able. But you…” Her arms still crossed, she stepped closer again, leaning down to peer into one of his eyes, then the other, as though trying to discern what might be hiding behind their grey hue. “You are something else, aren’t you? Something entirely different. Do you know there’s never—never—been an assigned CAD with an S-Rank in any area, and certainly not Growth? There have been a handful of As over the course of history—pretty carefully guarded secrets even you won’t find out about digging around in the feeds—but never an S. And then, out of nowhere—” she brought her synthetic lips together to make a popping sound “—you show up. Any idea what we’re supposed to make of that, cadet?”
Rei’s whole body had gone stiff. The Iron Bishop—one of the most acclaimed Users in the history of the Astra System—was staring him in the face, asking him what she was supposed to think of him.
“Fail to answer me again, Ward, and I will have you brigged.”
Rei started, realizing he’d been sitting tense and silent, eyes wide as he listened.
“N-no, ma’am,” he spluttered. Then he gathered himself, a memory of a white, featureless face flashing across his thoughts. “I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing for you. I have no more idea than anyone else how things turned out like this.” He brought up one hand, letting Shido’s blue on black-and-white glimmer between their two faces. “I’ve wanted this. For as long as I can remember. Not this specifically—if you think you’re confused by my specs, consider how I feel—but a CAD. A Device. I’ve wanted it more than anything. I think that might have been a part of all this, in the end.”
It pained him not to tell her of how sure of that fact he was.
Valera watched him a moment more, as though trying to read a lie in his words.
Then, apparently satisfied, she stood straight again. “Out of curiosity… Have you checked your call, yet?”
Rei
frowned, not understanding.
“Your Device,” the woman clarified. “Have you checked its manifestation since getting these spec upgrades?”
“Oh. N-no. The lieutenant colonel was here when I came to, and then you were—”
“Do it.”
Rei blinked. “Ma’am?”
“Do it,” Valera Dent repeated, stepping back further, like someone opening the cage as she released some wild animal. “I’m curious. Call your CAD.”
Still confused, Rei paused, then brought both arms up.
“Call.”
Even in the moment before the manifestation was complete, he knew something was different. At his word, not only did Shido’s right band shift out of being, but so did the left. Rei’s breath caught in his chest, seeing the blurred twist of steel and glowing vysetrium, but before he could voice his confusion the call was done.
And Rei could only mouth at the air in astonishment.
Instead of a simple steel grip and flat strike-point, around his right hand the Device had manifested as a sort of plated glove, black steel forming multiple distinct joints about each of his fingers, linking atop a skin-tight underlay of white, flexible fabric. It extended to just above his wrist, overlapping itself like scales, but the most significant change had happened to the white metal over his knuckles, where three lines of ice-blue vysetrium had originally dissected the steel into even sections. The splits were still present, but had shifted slightly, coming to rest atop the knuckles of his index and pinky finger, and between those of his middle and ring. From the vysetrium, three wide, subtly curved claws of carbonized black steel now extended, tapering to wicked points, the outside two some 4 inches long while the middle was half again that length. Even at a glance Rei could tell the weapons were horrifically sharp, and would probably punch through most armor with relative ease once his Strength spec was up to the task.
Shido, though, was hardly done with the surprises.
Around Rei’s entire left forearm and hand, from just below his elbow to his fingertips, the same white underlay encased his skin. Black studs capped his knuckles, but the larger change came in the form of the four dark plates, lapping over one another starting at the rear of his hand, then moving upward to cover the back half of the forelimb. Lifting the arm in wonder, Rei made a fist, then released it, flexing and twisting his wrist this way and that way. Despite a lack of vysetrium jointing, he still had free movement, and he could already imagine the value of the heavy steel when it came to defending himself in the future.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 20