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

by Bryce O'Connor

  “Fatal Damage Accrued.”

  The F5 appeared, and Rei sprinted back again, steeling himself. He opened with a forward kick, leading with all of his momentum, but the move was apparently telegraphed because the woman side-stepped. He managed to catch himself barely, stopping from careening by, and he turned on the projection with a vengeance, punching at its torso, head, and sides. The F5 dodged a few of his blows, even deflecting one or two others, but it slipped up by dropping its hands to stave off a second frontal kick. The moment its guard was down, Rei’s left fist clocked it in the side of the head, sending it staggering sideways. With a yell he lunged, razored metal going for the woman’s throat.

  “Time!”

  The projection vanished, and with a choking sound Rei dove through nothing, managing to tuck himself into a roll before bouncing to his feet.

  “First F5 reached. Total time: 0:52.34. Step off the field, Ward. Warren!”

  Feeling distinctly let down by his own performance, Rei recalled Shido and walked out of the ring. Reaching his designated circle, he sat down heavily, trying to force himself to pay attention as Warren began her fight. Both F0s were down in 15 seconds, and the F5s took her only a little longer than Senson’s attempt. The girl slowed down a lot at the D0s, but passed, only to also get completely locked out by the first D5.

  “Time! First D5 reached. Total time: 3:37.62. Emble! On deck!

  Emble reached the second D0 before his Endurance seemed to end him, but Gisham ended up with the fastest time reaching the D5s, breaking the 3-minute mark. Senson stood up again when called, but Rei tuned out of the fight, contemplating his own next attempt.

  What could he do differently…? That had actually been a fairly good showing for himself, though he’d remember not to open with all his impetus behind a kick if he wasn’t absolutely sure it would land. Aside from that mistake, his fighting had been fairly clean, so he wasn’t clear on what adjustments he could make in order to clock a better performance this time around, much less during his third shot at the test. He considered, eyes only distantly on the battle before him.

  He did have one chance, but he was loath to attempt such a major change in his style without having been able to so much as put Shido’s new form through a test run…

  “Time! Second D5 reached. Total time: 3:19.09. Good improvement, Senson. Ward! Second attempt!”

  Making his choice, Rei took to his feet once more. By the time he was in the starting circle, he’d planned out his assaults, hoping he wasn’t overestimating the value of his CAD’s evolution.

  Shido formed in his hands, and the countdown hit 0.

  His first two opponents, Rei took as before, feeling the hits come a little cleaner now. When the F5 that had bested him materialized, he sprinted at the woman again, making a firm fist of his right hand to cut diagonally down at the projection, hoping he’d judged the distance accurately. His opponent brought an arm out to block the blow, but instead of wrist it caught sharped steel, and with a thrill Rei felt the claws cleave through the F5’s defense. The woman’s hand went lip, but the swing carried through, carving into one side of her chest. FDA wasn’t announced, but the projection sagged and fell to one knee, looking up at him with colorless eyes in time to catch a large amount of black-and-white metal in the face.

  “Fatal Damage Accrued.”

  YES! Rei celebrated internally, but he otherwise kept his focus as he whirled. He had a little more trouble with the man—the projection’s thicker arms kept most of the damage away from its torso following the same opening slash—but he managed it all the same. The second F5 fell, and Rei turned again to take on the E0 with her arms already at the ready. Shido worked its cruel magic much the same, and it was the E5 woman, this time, than bested him.

  30 seconds into the blitz of a fight with the projection, Bretz’s shout cut the match off.

  “Time! First E5 reached. Total time: 2:31:14. Excellent adjustment, Ward. Next!”

  Panting, Rei took to his spot, rather pleased with himself. He didn’t think he had a shot in a hundred for beating the E5 in only 30 seconds in a straight on fight—not yet, at least—but even Bretz’s simple praise was enough to tell him he was thinking in the right direction.

  The second attempts wrapped, then the third. Rei focused only on shaving time off his completions, managing to reach the first E5 again a full 4.5 seconds faster. Trading places with Warren—seriously winded this time—a pleasant surprise greeted him not long after he half-sat, half-collapsed into his ring, arriving in the form of text scrawling across his NOED.

  ...

  Processing combat information.

  ...

  Calculating.

  …

  Results:

  Strength: Lacking

  Endurance: Severely Lacking

  Speed: Lacking

  Cognition: Lacking

  Offense: Lacking

  Defense: Lacking

  Growth: Not Applicable

  …

  Checking combat data acquisition.

  …

  Adequate data acquirement met.

  Device initiating adjustments to:

  Endurance.

  …

  Adjustment complete.

  Endurance has been upgraded from Rank F4 to F5.

  Hiding his delight, Rei accepted a bottle of chilled water from one of several buzzing service drones who had appeared from the hall sometime in the last 10 minutes. Covering his grin by chugging half the drink’s contents down immediately, he realized he shouldn’t have been so surprised. He was participating in training, and one of a fashion not unlike the simulated instruction he’d been following all summer. If anything, he was a bit disappointed fighting projections brought him so little despite his S-Ranked Growth. Abruptly, Rei recalled the itch he’d experienced when he’d taken in Aria Laurent for the first time, when he’d seen past her attractive features and form to the C-Ranked beast that lay beneath.

  All of a sudden, Rei realized he wanted to fight again.

  Not Laurent specifically, he deduced after a moment’s more ponder, sipping on the rest of his water. Anyone. Anyone who could challenge him. He itched to see what would happen after his next match, itched to see what would happen in the match. His specs might be abysmal, but they had all made a significant jump just from the Commencement Ceremony.

  He wanted to see what he could do, and continue to get a sense of where he and Shido could go together…

  “Time! Second D5 reached. Total time: 3:12.41. Good wrap, Gisham.” With a wave of his hand, Bretz dismissed the field, the projection vanishing to leave short-haired cadet on all fours, gasping for breath atop the cleared plating. The chief warrant officer waited for her to recover, and once she’d staggered back out of the Dueling perimeter he addressed them all again.

  “Excellent work, all. Some of you have a ways more to go than others, but everyone saw improvement across all three attempts. I commend you for that. Take another five while I set up the final assessment.”

  This time Rei and the other Brawlers made no move to gather. Even Senson, who’d completed the test first some 10 minutes ago, was still sweating, though he’d looked to have caught his breath fairly quickly. In a contented silence the five of them kept to their rings this time, chugging each from their own waters and distracting themselves by finally turning to watch the activities around them.

  Fields 2, 3, and 4 penned them in to the east, north, and north-east respectively, and only the Duelists in the lattermost had finished the second test quicker than Rei’s group. He caught sight of Viv among them, but she now sat with her back to the Brawlers, breathing hard after what must have been a recent attempt. At 2 the Sabers looked to be wrapping up, while at 3 the Lancers clearly had several rounds to go. It was fascinating watching the different Types’ approach to the unarmed opponents, and Rei noticed that both group’s delay appeared to be because they were getting further in the test than the B
rawlers had.

  “Must be nice to have a sword.”

  There was a thump, and Rei looked around to find that Senson had ended up getting to his feet after all, for some reason electing to join him in observing the other groups.

  Not one to ignore an olive branch, Rei nodded. “The other Types will have an advantage in the earlier ranks when it comes to Offense, since their Devices give them more reach than Brawler weaponry. But look—” he lifted a scarred finger to point out the Lancer group, where a girl with a vibrant green-blue and black spear was trying to break through the guard of a C0 “—I don’t see anyone other than Aria Laurent showing any lower extremity armor, apart from you guys.”

  “Yeah I noticed that too.” The bald boy looked at Rei sidelong. “Is that normal?”

  Rei shrugged. “Not sure, but I would assume so. If Brawlers lack in Offense initially, it would make sense there would be a compensation in Speed or the like. If they post the results of the exams, I’ll bet you four are in the top for the first test, maybe only behind the Duelists, and at the bottom for the second.”

  “Huh.” Senson watched him a moment longer. “You actually scored a ninety-nine percent on the written exam, didn’t you?”

  “Almost,” Rei corrected him with a laugh. “98.7, if you want to be specific.”

  “Damn…” the boy muttered, obviously impressed. “Then what about the third test? Where are we gonna be there?”

  “No idea,” Rei admitted. “Depends on what exactly they’re testing us on.”

  “Didn’t Dent say fortitude?”

  “Yeah, she did…” Rei frowned. “That’s kinda what bothers me, though…”

  “Because Defense can’t be a fun thing to have tested.”

  Rei looked around, and it was his turned to be impressed. “You read my mind.”

  “I told you this morning when Loren was being a dick, I scored a ninety-five on the written myself.” Senson chuckled. “We’re fortunate enough to be in a school where no one’s going to be an idiot.”

  “Depends on your definition…” Rei grumbled, conjuring up—unbidden—the face a certain black-haired behemoth.

  “Fair,” the boy grinned, then grew serious again. “But yeah, I was thinking the same thing myself. If we break down the specs we’ve already been tested on, leaving out Growth we can count Speed and Cognition in the first test, then Strength, Endurance, and Offense in the second. Which leaves us with…”

  “Defense,” Rei finished with a sigh. “Yeah. Exactly.”

  There was another silence as both of them took in this understanding.

  “This last one is probably gonna suck, isn’t it?” Senson grumbled finally.

  Rei smirked. “For sure.”

  The bald cadet nodded. Then, with a deep, tight breath like he was steeling himself to jump off a cliff, he shoved himself up. “Should get back to my spot before Bretz has an excuse to skin us.” He looked down at Rei, looking like he were considering something.

  Then, tentatively, he held out a hand.

  “You tried introducing yourself this morning. I’m sorry again that Leron was an ass about it. I can’t say I know what the hell you’re doing here, man, but you seem okay, so I’ll believe you if you say you don’t know.” Senson smirked good-naturedly. “Or at least I’ll believe you’ve got a decent reason not to explain yourself.”

  Rei managed a tight laugh, but reached up to accept the hand. “I appreciate that. Rei Ward. But you already knew that.”

  “Bandt Senson,” the boy answered, shaking. Even controlling himself, his grip indeed hinted at an impressive Strength spec. “Everyone calls me ‘Sense’, though.” They let go. “Good luck on the third test, man.”

  “You too, Sense.” Rei replied with a nod, which the cadet returned before heading back towards his spot. As he left, Rei felt a little of the tension leave his shoulders, the anxiety of the constant eyes and whispers of the others all day had placed upon him.

  Catcher first. Now Sense.

  Maybe—just maybe—he actually had a shot of carving out some small place for himself in the first year class, and possibly even make himself and Viv a few friends along the way.

  “Eyes forward, cadets.”

  At once Rei spun himself back around to face Field 1. Chief Warrant Officer Bretz had approached their end of the ring again, having obviously finished his setup. Under his feet, the Dueling space was a brilliant white once again, but this time the projected pattern upon it couldn’t have been more different. It was flat, just like during their second test, but instead of a single ring in the center of the space, a balanced arrangement of five large red circles contoured the outer field, each about 5 yards across, with a smaller 1-yard ring in the middle of each.

  Despite the benign design, Rei felt his stomach clench as he took in the simulation.

  “Your final exam, Fortitude, will test your physical and mental mettle,” Bretz began, meeting the five student’s eyes one after the other. “As a couple of you may have already figured out, however, this assessment tests a different kind of perseverance than how many jumping jacks you can do before breaking a sweat. It is the nature of your chosen paths as Users to deliver violence, but it also therefore your curse to bear it. There is no person in the world—not even among the Kings and Queens and Rooks of the last 200 years—who can claim to have emerged unscathed from every match they have ever taken part in. There are, however, more Device wielders than I can count who have turned the tides of a fight on nothing more than willpower and focus.” The instructor indicated the field behind him. “This assessment is one you will all be taking together, and I encourage you to compete, to draw strength from each other’s hardiness, and seek to chase after those who prove themselves stronger, here. As Cadet Ward demonstrated yesterday at the Commencement—” Rei blinked in surprise at his name “—pain and injury do not necessarily amount to defeat, at least not immediately. Just because you are hurt does not mean you are done. Just because you are at a disadvantage does not mean you have to lose. Challenge yourself to conquer that which might otherwise end you on the field, and push yourselves to stand up a little longer against it.” Bretz paused for a moment, leaving the words to settle across the group before continuing more deliberately. “This third test will assess your ability to overcome injury and fatigue. It will test your fortitude in the face of pain, exhaustion, and overwhelming pressure. You will each take your place in the center of one of the rings behind me. Once the exam begins, you will find yourself in some… discomfort. This will increase steadily over the course of several minutes, and your CAD’s reactive fielding will not help you. You will hear me announce rankings as the pressure increases. These will mark the point at which the average Galens cadet of that Device-Rank usually tolerates the test until. I encourage you strive for your own level at the least, and do your utmost to push yourself further. As time goes on, the changes your CADs will have on your bodies will improve your ability to outlast pain, to outlast injury, but physical ability is only a portion of grit.” He looked around at them individually again. “Are there any questions?”

  At Rei’s left, Warren raised a tentative hand, and Bretz nodded in her direction.

  “How do… How do we end the test, sir…?”

  She had done her best to hide the apprehension in her voice, but to little avail.

  In front of them, Bretz’s expression didn’t so much as flinch as he answered.

  “Most people scream.”

  CHAPTER 19

  They took their positions at the chief warrant officer’s command, spreading out around the edge of the Dueling field to each claim the middle of their own set of two circles in quick succession. When they were ready, Bretz took to the center of the space, where he could keep an eye on them all equally. Making sure they were each prepared, facing him like the tips of a five-pointed star, his NOED lit up.

  There was no shout to “Call” this time. No warning to prepare. Their De
vices would do them no good in this test, it was clear, and anticipation could only ready them for so much.

  Indeed, before Rei could really start to gather himself, the countdown appeared before him, mirrored four more times in front of the faces of his groupmates.

  5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

  0.

  A prickling sensation washed in a skyward wave up Rei’s bare feet, shins, and hips. Then it was at his finger, traveling along his arms at the same time as it climbed his abdomen and chest. Reaching his neck, he felt every hair on his body stand on end as the tingling spread across his face, over his ears, then atop his head. It lingered there for a bit, uncomfortable, but hardly painful.

  Then it began to intensify.

  “F0!” Chief Warrant Officer Bretz shouted, and Rei was surprised. This was the pressure the average person caved under? Indeed, he looked around, and was interested to see Emble and Gisham—the two cadets closest to him—looking distinctly uncomfortable.

  The tingling grew more insistent.

  “F1!”

  There wasn’t pain, yet, per se. Rei knew pain, knew it intimately well. There was, however, a heaviness that started to bear down on him the slightest bit, as though gravity itself were steadily increasing.

  Which it might just have been, he considered…

  “F2!”

  Again a jump in discomfort. The same happened again and again, until some 2 or 3 minutes later Bretz passed from F9 to E0. Still not a soul among their five had made a sound, but also still had Rei not yet found himself struggling under more than intense irritation and the ever-climbing pressure of what he was now sure was a steadily-escalating gravity quotient.

  Then Bretz yelled “E4!”

  It started, then. Barely anything at first, but whereas a breath before Rei felt like he’d been in the process of getting buried under a growing mount of living, crawling insects, abruptly several of those insects started to bite. He winced, not having been able to anticipate the minor jolts of pain, but settled after a moment as he grew accustomed to them.