CHAPTER 18
Rei launched himself from the starting circle, hurling towards his chosen disk. Shido’s claw took it through the middle, and it vanished with a pixilated bzzt of sound. Already moving on, Rei planted a foot on a raised pillar and shoved up as hard as he could into the air, aiming for two higher discs in the process of swinging towards each other as they followed the red lines provided by his NOED. He caught one with his left hand but missed the other, landing and rolling again to come up running. A third he swiped when it flashed by him as he passed, and a fourth that darted low to a ground, almost between his legs. Vaulting over a chest-high wall of the hexagonal prisms and kicking deftly through a fifth as he did, Rei threw himself in the direction of a descending pair he hoped would be his sixth and seventh.
Just as his fingers were about to touch them, though, the disks vanished, and he stumbled to an awkward halt.
“Time!” Bretz bellowed. “Total: 5 discs. Ward, recall and take a seat. Gisham, you’re up next!”
Straightening up, Rei did as he was told, Shido dematerializing to bands as he made for the empty fifth ring outside the perimeter of the field. He caught the eye of the second test-taker—the girl with buzzed, reddish-orange hair—and would have tried to wish her a silent good luck had it not been for her expression. She wasn’t… angry, per se. More so, the cadet looked confused, her attention flicking briefly to his CAD before they passed each other as she took up a starting position. Rei had been expecting it, but he still groaned internally when he saw the wide eyes of the others taking him in too, a mixture of shock and disbelief scattered across their faces.
Reaching his ring, Rei sat down without looking around at anyone, choosing instead to commit himself to watching and learning.
The disks had reappeared, the ones he had touched replaced in identical locations. They moved in the same dizzying pattern, and above the mess of flashing black circles Chief Warrant Officer Bretz still stood on his floating platform, observing carefully.
“Cadet. Call.”
With a word from Gisham, a pair of red-and-green gauntlets encased the girl’s forearms, matching the colors of the jointed-steel boots that shimmered into being around her lower legs and feet. Rei took the Device in with interest as the countdown began to flash, noting the hint of dark blue vysetrium between the plates not unlike his own.
Then the marker hit 0, and Gisham was moving.
She chose an identical starting angle as he had, her neuro-optics likely presenting her with similar variables if the system started the test at the exact same moment in the discs’ patterns each time. With impressive speed she barreled through the first, then leapt into the air for the second and third. From there, however, she changed direction, pounding up a simulated staircase formed by the flat tops of the hexagon before throwing herself off one side, arms and legs flashing. Four-five-six. The girl landed and came up lunging, diving at another grouping, smashing through them before jumping for yet another pair.
“Time!” Bretz shouted, and the discs winked out again, leaving Gisham to pull herself up as she caught her breath. “Total: 11 discs. Not bad, cadet. Recall and exit the field. Emble! On deck!”
It was in such a fashion the next three took their exam, claiming 10, then 13, then 14 discs each. By the time the bald boy Rei knew now to be “Senson” proved himself a particularly quick mover, a lot had been shown and a lot had been learned.
“Ward! Round two!”
Getting to his feet, Rei entered the ring with his NOED already live this time. The others had all ended up taking a slightly different approach to their test, but everyone started the same, which told him he definitely had that part right. Memorizing his plan of attack quickly, he stepped into the ring as Senson exited, catching the boy’s glance at him from the corner of his eye.
No. Focus.
He summoned Shido. The countdown started once more. He waited for the 0, watching the movement of the discs.
Then he launched himself forward again.
“Time!” Bretz announced 15 seconds later. “Total: 8 discs. Good improvement, Ward. Gisham, up you get!”
The Brawlers of 1-A proved themselves a clever lot over the course of the next two rounds, clearly observing and learning from each other’s success and failures. When Bretz called an end to Senson’s last attempt, Rei had managed to up his count to 9 discs, which he might have been proud of had that not been half of the second lowest scorer’s, and almost a full third of Senson’s top count of 24.
“Good effort, all of you.” Bretz’s stern expression didn’t change, but he sounded pleased as his platform came down to sink into the field floor, now returned to black plating. “Next up is Offense & Endurance, but take a five-minute reprieve while I set up the program. You are now free to discuss your Speed & Agility test, if you’d like, but stay here. No disturbing the other instructional groups.”
At once everyone stood from the relatively uncomfortable flooring, the other four converging on each other as the other Type-groups continued their identical testing on their respective fields around them. After a few seconds hesitation, Rei moved to join the Brawlers.
“It evolved,” he heard the dark-skinned girl named Warren whispering as he approached. “I know it has.”
“No way,” the other boy, Emble, breathed, his rows of natural brown hair glistening with sweat from the exertion. “Not possible.”
“Totally possible,” Rei cut in, stepping into the ring of the group and looking around in resignation. “And if you wanted to know about it, why not just ask?”
All four of the others drew back from him, and a few faces flushed at being caught. Eventually, though, Senson cracked what looked like it might have been an actual smile.
“Fair enough,” he conceded, eyes sliding down to Shido’s bands. “Put us out of our misery, then, Ward. Your Device evolved, didn’t it?”
Rei considered a snarky answer, but decided to give the group the benefit of the doubt. Take a breath, he nodded. “Yeah. Happened after the match against Laurent yesterday. You guys really shouldn’t be surprised, though. I’m an E-Ranker, while most of you are probably mid-D’s I’m guessing? All of you already have multiple components to your Devices.” He lifted a hand to shake Shido indicatively. “You all saw my CAD during the fight, right? Pretty bare bones.”
“To put it mildly,” Warren said with a snort, but a glare from Senson shut her up.
“So you’re just… What…? Catching up?” Gisham asked tentatively.
Rei gave a laugh. “I don’t know about ‘catching up’. I’m pretty far behind you guys. I mean, just look at our agility scores. But climbing from low-Es is bound to happen faster than ranking up in the Ds, isn’t it? Especially at a place like Galens.”
It was only half a lie. If he could steadily ensure even a fraction of the kind of improvement he’d seen after duking it out with Laurent, Rei was on a course to catch up and then some. As it stood, however, there was no need for anyone other than him and Viv to know that. CAD-Rank was public knowledge, so it was only a matter of time before someone made the realization. If Rei could settle some of the animosity his enrollment was obviously causing in the meantime, though, things would probably be easier when that time came.
“Makes sense…” the boy named Emble agreed after a brief silence as all of them contemplated. “I was a D0 on assignment. I’m surprised I made it in, honestly. But I’m a D2 now, whereas I bet most of you guys—” he glanced around at the other three “—got maybe a Rank, right?”
“Not even,” Senson admitted with a barely-repressed scowl. “Parents couldn’t afford a trainer, so I’ve been a D5 since passing the exam.”
“Same,” Gisham echoed with a sigh. “D4 since the day I got Feron.” She lifted her own CAD to clarify.
“See? So don’t be surprised. And don’t—” he cut across Warren quickly when the girl opened her mouth as she stared at him suspiciously “—ask me what I’m doing here w
ith all of you. I’ve been grilled on that twice today already, in case you didn’t notice, and I’ve got no more answers now than fifteen minutes ago.”
“One minute, cadets!” Bretz’s voice rang out from the field. “Return to you places.”
With a last curious look at Rei, Gisham, Emble, and Warren all did as they were instructed. Intending to do the same, Rei himself turned to go back, but a hand on his arm held him up for a second.
“Hey, listen man…” Senson seemed a little uncomfortable as Rei looked around again in surprise. “About Leron, this morning… I’m sorry about that. He’s my roommate, and honestly doesn’t seem like a bad guy. I didn’t think he was gonna take things that far when he said he wanted to talk to you…”
Rei searched the boy’s face for a hint of deception, but found nothing. As far as he could tell, the cadet genuinely felt bad.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a shrug. “I get the feeling I’m gonna have to get used to it for a while. At least until I crawl out of the E-Ranks, or they realize there’s been a mistake and finally kick me out of here.” He offered Senson a crooked smile that was only a little rigid. “But I appreciate the apology.”
Senson answered with the start of his own grin, but before he could say another word Bretz’s bellow caught across their conversation.
“WARD! SENSON! Do I have to repeat how much I DO NOT LIKE TO REPEAT MYSELF?!”
With mutual looks of horrified realization the pair of them whirled together to face the warrant officer, snapping to attention. “No, sir! Sorry, sir!” they exclaimed together, then split to hurry back to their rings as the others watched.
Bretz glared after them for a long moment, even once they’d both taken a seat, but eventually either gave them the grace of it being their first day or just couldn’t be bothered with chewing them out further. Instead he pointed at the field behind him, which was not a solid surface of projected white.
“As I said, next is your Offense & Endurance test. You will take position in the center of the field.” Behind him, a red circle manifested as indicated. “Alternating in these two points—” two more circles, black this time, appeared about 5 yards each due north and south of the starting position “—an opponent will appear. These projections will imitate an adversary with uniform CAD-specs, starting at F0, and moving up five ranks at a time. You’re task is deal Fatal Damage Accrued as quickly as possible. You will have two opponents at each rank—F0, F5, E0, E5, et cetera—and they will not attack you, nor make any significant attempt to move away from their starting positions unless you force them to. They will, however, defend themselves, and dodge attacks. The test ends when any opponent has lasted more than thirty seconds before FDA.” The warrant officer scanned his Brawlers critically. “This test actually quantifies two areas that can be improved on. Can anyone tell me what they are?”
Unsurprisingly, all five hands went up.
“Emble.” Bretz addressed the boy with rowed brown hair.
“Number of opponents dealt FDA, and how quickly FDA is dealt per rank, sir.”
“Precisely.” The warrant officer nodded shortly. “It goes without saying that no two Users are exactly the same. That means that their skillsets will never be identical either. One of you might be able to overpower an opponent quickly, but be outclassed by more-capable enemies, whereas another might outlast bigger and stronger adversaries, but struggle in actually ending a fight. These are hugely important factors to consider, particularly when deciding on tactics, squad composition, and positioning for Team Battle and Wargame formats. Follow?”
All together the five of them nodded, and Rei studied Bretz in a little bit of a new light. Nothing the man had said would be news to most tournament enthusiasts, but the fact that he was already taking the time to drill them on combat tactics had Rei considering that Valera Dent was probably pretty particular when it came to her sub-instructors.
“Good.” The warrant officer turned his attention on Senson. “Since you apparently have enough free-time to laze around chatting after I’ve given you a directive, you can go first, cadet.”
Senson nodded without a word of argument, pushing himself up to step onto the field and move to take up a position in the red starting ring.
“First opponent will project at the north point. The next will appear to the south immediately after FDA is announced, then back again. Any questions?”
Senson shook his head, shifting around to face the black circle Bretz had indicated.
“Cadet. Call.”
Senson’s Device manifested in a blur, an emerald sheen atop a dark underlay and white vysetrium. His fingers had no individual plating, making dexterous movement difficult, but the heavy steel of his bracers extended over his wrists and knuckles into two lethal punch daggers. Like Gisham, Senson’s CAD had started to extend to his legs, but his boots came higher than the girl’s had, encapsulating his knees as Aria Laurent’s red-and-gold greaves had the day before.
The 5 second countdown initiated, and Rei held his breath as it ticked away. At 3 a shape manifested at the north circle, a modestly rendered figure of a tall woman, entirely monotone grey down to her skin-tight combat suit. At 1 the projection’s hands were up, ready to defend, and Rei noticed that it had the digits “F0” marked in clean black on its back.
Then 0 hit, and Senson rocketed forward with a shout.
The poor projection didn’t have a hope in the world. The Cadet’s right first broke through its guard—no stronger that the average human’s—and Rei doubted the head of the punch dagger plowing into the F0’s chest had been necessary. Indeed, 4 seconds after the start of the match the automated voice of the Arena rang out.
“Fatal Damage Accrued.”
On the field Senson whirled. A second opponent had appeared—this one taking the shape of a man colored in identical grey. A similar “F0” labeled its chest, however, and so it lasted no longer than the first, collapsing in the same fashion the moment the cadet crossed the 10 yards to reach it.
“Fatal Damage Accrued.”
The woman reappeared, on this occasion marked with “F5.” It took only momentarily longer to down, managing to deflect Senson’s right fist only to take a follow-up blow from his left squarely in the face. The man manifested, and this time the Brawler was even quicker, anticipating the initial deflection to bring an end the projection a full second faster with a similar one-two combo. The E0s appeared after that, followed by the E5, all four projected opponents proving only moderately more difficult to handle.
Finally, when the first D0 presented itself, there came the barest semblances of a real fight.
Senson’s opening strike was deflected, as was his follow-up, then his third. The cadet tried for a heavy side kick, which his opponent promptly ducked under, but Senson managed to halt the momentum of his leg to bring the steel heel of his boot straight down on the crown of the woman’s head. She fell to all fours, and a ripping punch to its temple announced FDA again.
The second D0 manifested, and this time Senson was a little faster. He feigned a thrust with his right, the projection adjusting to block his left when it came around, but leaving itself open for two quick jabs to the side. Before it could recover, Senson swept the feet out from under his opponent, following the falling body down to stab a punch dagger deep into its chest.
Unfortunately, it was the first D5 that finally bested the boy’s time limit.
The woman’s projection moved nearly as fast as he did, deftly blocking, redirecting, and dodging the heavy blows as they came in. A kick caught her crossed arms, sending her staggering back over the white floor three full paces, but she kept her balance well enough to drop under a following windmill punch at her head. For a few more exchanges they battled it out like that, Senson trying to break her guard, the projection managing just to keep it.
“Time!” Chief Warrant Officer Bretz called. He hadn’t taken to the air for this test, instead watching the fight
from a safe distance across the field floor. “First D5 reached. Total time: 3:06.34. Excellent start, Senson. Off you get.”
The cadet only nodded his thanks, too winded to get a word in, and it was as he left the center of the ring that Rei really understood the second measure being tested with this assessment: Endurance.
He was already cursing his misfortune when the warrant officer’s eyes fell on him.
“Ordinarily I would have had you go last, Ward, but maybe next time you and Senson will be quicker on the draw when it comes to following orders. You’re up.”
Rei had seen it coming, but still felt a weight of anxiety plummet from his throat into his gut as he got to his feet. Stepping onto the field, he approached the red starting ring at its center with no small measure of apprehension. He forced himself to take a calming breath, forced himself to focus. Senson was several times faster and stronger, but his fighting was heavier. If Rei could beat even one of the D0s, too, maybe he could earn himself a little credit with the class, or even just the Brawlers…
Reaching the starting ring, he turned to face north.
“Cadet. Call.”
Shido slipped over Rei’s hands, and the countdown began. He watched it tick by, bringing his arms up and planting his feet. The grey woman shimmered into being on the other side of the numbers.
Then the clock ran out.
Rei was slower than the others by far, but his speed was still one of his greatest assets. He was across the 5 yards in a heartbeat, punching just as Senson had. He hadn’t had an opportunity to spend any time testing out Shido’s evolution, so he stuck to his form, trusting the claws of his right hand could only make even his basic abilities more lethal. Indeed, his punch caught against the woman’s blocking arms, but the razored steel ripped through, skewering a wrist before burying multiple inches of metal into the projection’s skull.
“Fata Damage Accrued.”
Wrenching Shido free, Rei spun and launched himself across the white floor of the Arena. The F0 man was ready and waiting for him, and Rei decided to try a feint with his left. His opponent turned reflexively, opening up the side of its head for a clean blow from the claws.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 27