“You should do that anyway. Your hair’s getting out of control again.” Viv eyed him sidelong across Catcher, Rei’s straight white locks having indeed grown out quite a bit since the start of the term. “But as for the SCTs… Sam Dorne is one of those ‘competitive’ first years, Rei, and you held up pretty decently against him.”
“Only because he can’t use a spear half as well as Aria,” he replied as the Arena told the combats to call their Devices.
“Which essentially means that so long as you know your opponent, I’ll get to keep saying it: you’ll be fine.”
Rei, unfortunately, had no answer to give out loud to that. Viv’s words touched on the very mentality he’d been building up since Aria had started training with them. If he was honest with himself, he had never been the ‘stronger’ fighter. Not once in his less-than-illustrious career on the combat team at Grandcrest, nor since he’d been assigned Shido. He’d always had to out-think what opponents he’d managed to beat, which he supposed was exactly what Viv was attempting to argue.
This wasn’t combat team, though. This was CAD-fighting, and he would need more than just his wits to go toe-to-toe with most of the Galens first years. Valera Dent had said as much already, the day Logan Grant had tossed him around the field like a rag doll.
Strategy will only get you so far in this world…
As much as he took Viv’s confidence in him as a sign that he was headed in the right direction, he still needed to get stronger, and—in that respect—Rei knew he was behind. What’s more, his inability to keep his tongue to himself had now earned him two days in the brig, setting him back even further…
Rei frowned, realizing he hadn’t told the others about his upcoming punishment. Before he could open his mouth, however, the Arena’s final announcement distracted him.
“Combatants… Fight.”
“Ha! There she goes!”
Catcher’s laughing exclamation echoed Rei’s studying of the 70-yard Team Battle space as the match began. The combat area looked to be an interesting variation of the Mountainside zone, with two flat-topped cliffs rising 30 feet in the air above the spectators, bisected by a 10-yard canyon at the bottom of which ran a shallow river that appeared to carry a fast current. As with every match that involved visual obstacles or multiple levels, the field was semi-translucent, allowing the onlookers to see each combatant from both teams even when the Users themselves didn’t know their relative positions. For the moment, the fighters had been cleverly divided equally between the two cliffs and the river in three separate two-on-two matchups.
If he had to guess, though, Rei would have bet the Red Team was about to be put at a significant disadvantage.
Outpacing her partner easily—a Mauler Rei didn’t know, who sported a massive hammer of white-and-purple steel—Aria was powering up the flow at the bottom of the canyon like the fighting water was nonexistent. Hippolyta’s red-and-gold greaves gleamed around her legs, and her shield was held at the ready even as she charged towards the two Red Team Users running to meet her from the other end of the field. Her spear was retracted, ready to strike at a moment’s notice, but Rei knew better than to think Aria Laurent would be arrogant enough to throw herself at a pair of opponents without good reason. As she closed the gap quickly, the Mauler some 5 or 6 yards behind her, he could guess what was about to happen, and almost laughed.
Sure enough, just before the Red Team’s fighters—a Saber and Brawler named Clement Easton and Archie Brawn respectively, Rei thought he recalled—hurled themselves into Hippolyta’s reach, Aria’s rush turned into a deep coiling of both legs.
Then, with a powerful thrust upward, she launched herself into the air.
In a graceful, twisting flip Aria arched over Easton and Brawn, keeping her shield between herself and them the entire way over. She landed in the river again with a splash on the other side of the pair, and as could be expected the two cadets whirled to face her, ready for Hippolyta when the spear lanced forward in a blur of blue-adjusted vysetrium almost before Aria had touched down. Easton’s sword knocked the longer weapon upwards and out of the way, and Brawn lunged directly at Aria’s shield, obviously intent to try and overpower her defenses.
Unfortunately for them both, in their moment of distraction the two failed to keep an eye on the other Blue Team member barreling up on their back.
Easton went down in a single blow the instant the Mauler reached him, the massive hammer taking him in the side of the head so hard it sent his limp body crashing into the canyon wall. While the Saber’s FDA was announced to the spectators, the Users on the field were mostly too preoccupied to take account of their notifications, and so Brawn didn’t so much as glance around as his partner was killed off. The Brawler was already committed, intently focused on his own rush, and with thick, piston-like punch daggers of black-and-blue steel he struck at Aria in a series of gatling blows that came so fast she actually took a step back, then two as her shield accepted the majority of the punishment. Pressing his advantage, Brawn lunged, putting a full shoulder into the red-and-gold steel, obviously expecting Aria to stagger.
He found himself mistaken, however, when she didn’t so much as budge.
Rei almost thought he saw a smile on her face as Aria closed the trap she’d set for the Brawler, the snare of confidence she’d offered by feigning the knockbacks. As Brawn bounced off her shield like he might have a solid stone wall, Hippolyta’s spear lanced out in a blurred trio of thrusts, taking him in the thigh and abdomen before he managed to smash away the blow that would have skewered him through the throat. Undeterred, Aria turned the deflection in a spinning over-cut, the spear coming arcing around her head once before slashing horizontally at the Brawler’s left side in another blur of blue. Despite his injuries, Brawn managed to turn and bring both arms up, ready to block the heavy blow, but at the last second Aria retracted the spear.
Instead, with a blast of strength she powered forward, shield leading the way.
The steel took Brawn just below the shoulder, and he went flying head-over-heels. The Brawler landed in a heavy spray of water, floundering for a second as he sunk under the weight of the current. He managed to find his bearings impressively quickly, getting his feet under himself to start to stand again.
Amusingly, that was the point the boy seemed to register he had landed in the shadow of a tall form wielding a massive hammer, and many of the spectators laughed as the Brawler’s yell of surprise reached them even in the stand when the Mauler brought his white-and-purple Device down on his opponent’s head with all of the force of a falling boulder.
“Poor guy,” Catcher snorted. “Both of them, really. Aria was pulling their strings from the start.”
“Maybe, but what’s she doing now?” Viv asked, bringing up her NOED to zoom in on Aria and the Mauler as they convened and started pointing up the sides of the cliff.
Doing the same, Rei found himself missing the live commentary of a professional SCT match. Spectators didn’t have access to the combatants’ coms, but the announcers did, and would often clue viewers in as to what was going on. Dyrk Reese was arbitrating as usual, floating above and slightly behind the field on the same white projection disk Michael Bretz used to observe training sessions, but Rei had a hard time imagining the unpleasant old man going out of his way to explain what was happening even if it was requested of him.
Still, in this case, Rei thought he could guess what Aria and her teammate were about.
“They’re trying to figure out how to get out of the canyon,” he explained, focusing in on the pair just in time to see the Mauler—his wavy black hair streaked with blue—shake his head in disappointment as Aria continued to indicate the cliffside with her spear. “Looks like her teammate doesn’t think he can make it, though.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Catcher muttered, his own eye blazing, now. “Oh, that’s Casey Foreman. He’s in 1-C with me. Nice guy.”
“Nice guy who’s about t
o get abandoned in the river,” Viv said with a smirk. “If Aria can make it up, Blue Team will be fine. The others are holding their own for now. She’ll be all they need.”
It was true enough. Lifting his attention to the flat half-circle plateaus that topped the cliffs, Rei saw that all the other combatants were still kicking, having matched off into four pairs of one-on-one fights. If Aria could get out of the canyon herself, Blue Team would certainly have the advantage.
On the other hand…
“She’s gonna figure out how to get them both up,” Rei said.
To his left, Viv blinked and looked around at him. “Seriously? Why?”
“Because she might not know the situation right now,” Catcher was the one to explain, once more showing off an understanding of CAD-fighting that often matched Rei’s own. “I doubt anyone is yelling into their coms at the moment given they’re all engaged, so for all she knows her whole team is down and she’d be jumping into a four-on-one fight. Aria’s badass, but those are odds even she wouldn’t have a prayer of handling.”
“But how?” Viv asked, frowning once more down at the Arena. “If the Mauler can’t make the jump…”
Rei, though, was watching Aria heft Hippolyta’s spear as she pointed with her shield, now, at a place about midway up the north cliff.
When it clicked, he laughed.
“She’s gonna ditch.”
On his left, it was Catcher’s turn to look surprised. “You think? Why would she—Ooooh…” He seemed to catch on, peering down at the pair as the Mauler—Foreman—nodded enthusiastically. “That could work…”
“What? What could work?” Viv appeared distinctly confused. “What’s a ‘ditch’?”
Rei shot her a feigned glare. “Viv, if you’re gonna make us explain every fight we watch, I’m actually gonna strap you to the couch with your eyes taped open the next time there’s a System SCT on the feeds.”
Viv made a face. “If someone is gonna strap me to a couch, Rei, I’d prefer it be anyone but you. But seriously—” she looked between him and Catcher as Rei rolled his eyes “—what’s a ‘ditch’?”
Catcher, in answer, nodded towards the field. “Pretty sure you’re about to find out.”
Sure enough, Aria and Foreman seemed to have agreed on a plan. Rei watched with anticipation as Aria crouched again, looking like she was eyeing the uneven cliffside carefully.
Then she jumped.
With a spray of water she shot straight up into the air, barely a foot from the wall, clearing more than half the distance to the top canyon with relative ease. Viv started to groan when she didn’t make it all the way up, but stopped abruptly as—in the moment gravity began to pull her back down again—Aria thrust Hippolyta out in midair with a ripping twist of her body. The spear pierced the stone of cliff with a crack of breaking earth, the carbonized steel coupling with her Strength spec to drive the weapon what must have been nearly 2 feet into the projected rock. Instead of falling, Aria ended up hanging from one hand, then two, from Hippolyta’s haft.
Then, with a grimace and a strain, she pulled up with such force that she launched herself the last 10 feet to clear the top of the canyon completely, landing in a roll on the north side of the clifftop.
“Oh!” Viv exclaimed in astonishment, jumping up from her seat as all around them several other people did the same. “OH!”
But the spectacle wasn’t done. From the river, it was Foreman’s turn to crouch, then spring upward. While his Strength likely matched or outstripped Aria’s, his Speed clearly did not, nor was he helped by the weight of the hammer. Indeed, there was no way he would have been able to make the top of the wall on his own, but his free hand did just reach Hippolyta’s haft, still sticking perpendicular out of the stone. It was less graceful than Aria’s clearance, but with a few swings of his legs Foreman managed to pull himself up to straddle the spear, then stand on its narrow length by stabilizing himself with one hand on the wall.
Then, at last, he leaped again, and this time the last 10 feet to the top were manageable even for a Mauler.
“What?!” Viv demanded, and her shout of confused amazement wasn’t the only one to be heard echoing about the Arena. “WHAT?!”
“Now watch Aria,” Rei told her, turning his own attention away from Foreman as the Mauler picked himself up to charge immediately at the closest of the Red Team combatants. It took a second, but as expected…
Hippolyta vanished off Aria’s body, the shield and greaves whirling out of existence back into the form of her CAD bands.
“Wait, what?!” Viv hissed, stepping so close to the edge of the seats before them that Catcher actually reached out to grab her by the wrist, stopping her from falling on her face in her amazement. Viv’s astonishment was so extreme that she didn’t even noticed. “She recalled her Device? Why?”
Neither Rei nor Catcher answered, waiting for the reasoning to present itself. In nothing but her combat suit and bands, now, Aria turned to the canyon, took two steps back and—with a spray of projected dust—took a running leap over the fissure. Rei could see her face as she flew, arms wind-milling while she arced over the 10-yard expanse, and he thought he caught her lips moving even in midair.
Sure enough, there was another whirling and twisting of steel, and by the time she landed and rolled onto the south clifftop to join the other half of the fight, Hippolyta was live in her hands again, greaves, shield, and spear in all.
“Oh,” Viv said weakly, much of the tension leaving her as she watched Aria lance into the fighting as Foreman did the same on the other side of the canyon from her. “Oh… I get it.” She stepped back, not looking away from the field, or at least the zoomed-in projection of it on her NOED. Catcher let go of her as she sat down slowly. “So that’s a ditch.”
“That’s a ditch,” Rei and Catcher confirmed together, but Rei let the Saber continue the explanation.
“It’s not common, but it can be useful in the right circumstances. Some top-level Users use it in combo with certain Abilities, like Magnetic Hunt or the like. ‘Ditch’ part of your Device for some reason or another, then recall and call it again. See—” he pointed towards the canyon “—the spear’s gone from the wall, obviously.”
Indeed, where Aria’s weapon had been protruding from the rock only moments before, nothing but a cracked hole in the stone remained.
“It pretty risky,” Catcher continued, “especially against opponents who can react in a blink to your recall if they catch you doing it. It takes a second to get the Device back, and even longer if its far away, then you have to call it again. Against a User with A- or S-Ranked Speed and Cognition, that’s like voluntarily dropping your weapons, stripping, and waltzing around naked for them with a target painted across your ass.”
“But if you do it right, it can come in handy,” Rei added as Viv nodded along on Catcher’s other side. “There was no way Foreman was getting out of that river on his own, but they managed it together. And in the case of Magnetic Hunt: imagine if you were under the impression your opponent had thrown their weapon to have it chase after you, only for them to cut you off as you’re running and cleave you in two.”
“You guys are making me feel like I should study chess just to get through my Duels,” Viv muttered darkly.
Catcher chuckled. “Wouldn’t hurt. In your case I’d start with checkers, though. Or maybe tic-tac-toe?”
“Son of a—!”
As Viv and Catcher started to go at each other in their usual fashion, Rei watched the Team Battle wrap up in the Arena. Aria’s appearance on the south cliff had proved a rapid end to the two Red fighters there, and Foreman’s support on the north side was in the process of doing the same. Indeed, even as Aria turned, looking like she was ready to jump the canyon again, the last of the Red User’s fell to a spear between the eyes, and the Arena voice chimed in mechanically.
“All Red Team combatants eliminated. Winner: Blue Team.”
Wherea
s there hadn’t been much celebration following most of the other matches that day, this flawless victory—with all six of the Blue Team members left standing—earned a resounding cheer from the gathered first years. From the shouts and comments thrown out by the cadets, Aria in particular appeared to have garnered a significant amount of praise, and who could blame her? Rei was sure someone like Reese would have found some comment to make to the contrary, but in Rei’s opinion the execution of the match as a whole had been brilliant, and he looked forward to telling Aria as much.
The crowd quieted as the field dissolved, carrying the remains combatants down to the Arena floor slowly. Aria and the others took their leave of the Team Battle area, allowing for yet another group to gain starting positions while the major himself descended to offer criticism. After a little while Rei realized that he was still focused in on Aria—and had been for a good while now—and with a cough to cover his jolt of realization he blinked his NOED away and looked around, hoping the other two hadn’t noticed. Almost predictable Catcher was doing nothing more than muttering to himself, apparently taking in the newest first years to step onto the field and trying to discern what tactical approach their team makeup would allow for.
And Viv, of course, was grinning around the Saber at Rei, very obviously not having missed him staring.
Rei shot her a glare, and she raised both hands as if to say “I saw nothing” before settling back in preparation of watching the new fight. Satisfied with not being teased, Rei shook his head, and decided he, too, should probably get his thoughts out of the clouds and focus.
It was 2 or 3 minutes later that Aria appeared out of the same tunnel entrance Rei had taken into the stands, expectedly trailing a little behind the other cadets who’d made up her combat group. She found them easily enough when Rei, Viv, and Catcher all waved together to draw her attention, and it wasn’t long before she was climbing the stairs to join them.
“That was awesome!” Viv said excitedly as Aria started up the row in their direction.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 54