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

by Bryce O'Connor

  It was Warren’s turn to pull an impressive feat, this time, falling only after reaching C0, tacking another two to her record. Emble, on the other hand, dropped only seconds after her, not even reaching C1 again.

  The break came and went, and when Bretz called for the final try, Rei fought down his nerves as he stood with purpose, this time.

  The countdown came, ticking by, and he forced himself to breathe.

  “F0!” Bretz’s call came, and the tingling started to take over.

  Even before he was in the Es Rei closed his eyes, shutting out every distraction he could, fighting to block out the moans and cries of the other groups closest to them, all of them a ways further into the third attempt. He welcomed the prickling, crawling sensation as it climbed his arms steadily, then his legs, then his body. He welcomed it as it reached his neck, sliding up his face and scalp under his hair. As the weight of gravity became magnified, he welcomed that too, mindful to keep himself upright with his head held high.

  When the pain started, on the other hand, he did everything he could to simply block it out.

  It was strange to him, not being able—or willing, rather—to crawl away from his own conscience as the discomfort grew more intense. By the time Bretz called D6, Rei’s teeth were clenched and he was only breathing through his nose, eyes screwed tight. The biting became the burn, then the burn became the searing, bone-deep ache, like hot knives digging into his body. Rei found a strange kind of solace in focusing on not curling into himself, the odd battle with instincts born of nearly two decades of endless pain keeping him both grounded and distracted.

  D7, came the call. Then D8. D9. C0. When C1 was announced, Rei heard a cry from his left, and knew Sense had gone down. At C2, it was Gisham, the only indication of her fall being the heavy thud of her knees on the field. Rei didn’t open his eyes, didn’t look to see if Warren or Emble had managed to keep up, by some miracle.

  He was too busy hating himself for his own conviction.

  He understood, now, why Dent had pulled him at this point last time. Long before then he’d wanted to scream, wanted to cry out, and at the start of the quarter the pain could only have been worse for him. Now, facing it, the intensity of the experience was so much that he felt his stomach roiling, agony mixing with nausea all while the endless, Atlantean weight of gravity did everything it could to pull him down.

  “C3!” came the call, and Rei almost—almost—collapsed, a desperate part of himself whispering that beating his record was enough, enough.

  “C5!” a little while later, and Rei’s nausea was complimented with a knifing pain through his abdomen that reminded him of the time Aria had impaled him on her spear in front of the entire first year class.

  “C7!”

  Even with his eyes closed, Rei could tell his vision was going dark.

  “C8!”

  Never again, he told himself, redoubling his effort not to pull away from his physical body, from the torment of the test. Never again.

  “C9!”

  He was definitely blacking out, now, and it was nothing less than pure willpower that had Rei keeping his knees locked as the gravity pressed down on him so hard his jaw started to pull open under the pressure.

  And then, at last…

  “B0!”

  The only plus of the additional gravity, it turned out, was that when Rei fell, he dropped so hard his reactive shielding actually triggered to protect his knees as he struck the field. Lucky for him Bretz was quick on the trigger, because the added weight and agony vanished before his upper body and face slammed down right after his legs. Rei caught himself barely, just managing to keep from smashing his nose against the ground, then let himself drop the rest of the way down a little easier.

  He could feel the eyes on him, and he realized he had yet to open his own as his body shivered and trembled. He tried, made the best attempt of it he could, but found himself unable to do more than blink unsteadily as his limbs spasmed and twitched.

  “Easy, Ward. Easy.”

  Bretz’s voice, followed a moment later by Valera Dent, echoing distantly to him.

  “Medical drone. Now. I want to make sure he didn’t tear himself apart.”

  5 seconds later Rei heard the whir of the bot approaching, and soon the flashing red and blue lights cut through his closed lids.

  It was the push he needed to come back to himself a little.

  “I’m okay,” he managed to grumble, groaning as he worked to get his arms to bend. Barely managing it, he had a lot of trouble pushing himself up, getting back onto his hands and knees only with the assistance of what felt like a lot more than just two people.

  “You’re actually insane.”

  The familiar voice finally had him opening his eyes, and he blinked blearily towards where a blue-eyed face swam across his unclear vision at his left.

  “Oh. Hey.” He tried to smile at Viv, but only managed a grimace. “Did you guys finish? How’d you do?”

  “She did fine,” another voice, this time from the right, spoke up gently, sounding anxious. “We all did. How about you worry about yourself, you incomprehensible moron.”

  Abruptly Rei’s mind cleared a good bit, and he turned to find himself almost nose-to-nose with Aria, who was looking at him with such concern she didn’t seem to notice how close their two faces were. It took several seconds of him staring, in fact, of him registering that she had her hands under and over his right arm and shoulder—Viv holding onto his left—before Aria’s cheeks flushed, and she jerked away a little in realization.

  Catching himself, Rei blinked again, then looked around.

  He was surrounded, it transpired, by a veritable throng of people. Before him Bretz and Dent were both pulling back from where they’d clearly pushed him upright by the chest, and standing behind them Sense and Gisham were taking him in with expressions somewhere between impressed and horrified. Even Warren and Emble lingered not a few feet further back, though Rei couldn’t tell if their frowns were disappointment at the fact that he’d reached the Bs, or that the test hadn’t outright sent him into cardiac arrest in the process.

  It was what he heard behind him, though, that had Rei looking over his shoulder in alarm.

  At his back, the majority of the Lancers, Sabers, and Duelists had apparently gathered to witness the final leg of his Fortitude assessment, keeping just beyond the edge of Field 1. The Phalanxes and Maulers, too, were grouped up past them, with a few who couldn’t see over the heads of their classmates jumping up and down and asking loudly what had happened. Rei wondered why their sub-instructors hadn’t called the various groups back, but with a throb of surprise he realized he could see most of the trainers standing at the front of the gathered crowd, watching him with mixed expressions of astonishment and disbelief. Even Liam Gross—the Duelist instructor who had never been any great fan of his—was taking him in with wide eyes, and Rei almost groaned aloud.

  “So much for minimizing the whispers,” he mumbled instead, slowly feeling Shido assist his body in a rapid recovery from the ordeal of the Fortitude test.

  “What was that, cadet?” Michael Bretz asked, still squatting in front of him opposite the captain.

  “Nothing, sir,” Rei assured him quickly, rolling his shoulders and trying to push himself up to a high kneel, at least. Managing this, Viv and Aria followed him up, and he glanced at the pair of them hopefully. “Would you guys mind helping me—Whoa!”

  He didn’t have to finish before the two girls had him on his feet, lifting him from the ground with no more effort than if he’d been made of straw.

  CADs seriously were an amazing technology.

  “How are you feeling, Ward?” Valera Dent asked after she and Bretz had stood themselves, bending to peer first into one eye, then the other, obviously checking his pupils. “The drone scan has you clear of any soft-tissue or skeletal injury, but you pushed yourself pretty hard.”

  “Don’t know any other w
ay of doing things, ma’am,” Rei joked while the medical bot indeed continued to buzz overhead. His attempt at humor seemed to fall on deaf ears, because the captain just stared at him pointedly until he caved.

  “Fine. I’m fine. Don’t think I would have gotten any further even if—” he caught himself as Dent raised a brow in warning, realizing it probably wasn’t a good idea to let everyone else know he’d had a safety limitation placed on him. “Uh… Even if my body had held out. I was close to passing out at the end, there.”

  “We thought you had,” Viv snorted from his left, slowly letting him go to try and stand on his own. “If you’d hit the ground any harder you would have dented the field.”

  “How long were you guys watching?” Rei muttered, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

  “Since the Ds,” Aria spoke from his right. She seemed much more hesitant to let him go, for which Rei was grateful. The moment Viv had released him, his legs had started shaking under his weight.

  “Great. That’s not at all embarrassing, or anything…”

  “Are you kidding, man?” It was Sense who spoke up enthusiastically. “You hit the Bs. The Bs! What the hell do you have to be embarrassed about?”

  At this exclamation Rei heard several whispers of awe start up from those gathered at his back, those who apparently hadn’t caught the results of the test itself.

  “How about the fact that your bald ass is one of thirty people currently still staring at me,” Rei said with a better grin this time. Then he looked to Bretz and Dent again. “Am I the last tester? Could I request a dismissal? I could… uh… sit down, for a while.”

  Bretz snorted. “I’ll bet.” He glanced at the captain. “Permission to dismiss my group, ma’am?”

  “Granted.” Dent finally lifted her gaze from Rei to look over his head to where the rest of the class and their instructors were gathered. “The rest of you, too! Excellent effort today, everyone! Dismissed!”

  The moment she gave the leave the muttering and conversations rippling from the crowd of students redoubled, but Rei still made out the coordinating dispersal of bare feet over the steel plating. Bending his knees a little, he found that his own legs had gathered a bit more strength, and he looked at Aria again with a smile.

  “I’m good, you can let me go.”

  She did so so quickly his bare arm might have suddenly been burning white-hot.

  “Ward.”

  Rei looked around to find Dent watching him again. Bretz had finally turned away to address the Brawlers—congratulating them himself on the day’s successes—allowing for a moment where only Rei, Aria, and Viv could hear the Iron Bishop.

  “You did good,” the woman said quietly. “Keep it up. Got it?”

  Rei smiled, thinking he could probably translate the encouragement for himself.

  You’re on the right path. Keep going.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  *****

  Despite all of Shido’s assistance—and occasionally that of the walls of the hall and locker room—it took Rei at least 20 minutes to wash up and get changed, kept company by Aria and Viv all the while, other than in the showers. By the time he got his uniform back on, his legs were at last starting to feel normal again, and so it was finally at a good pace that the three of them were joined by Sense and Kay as they made for the elevators that would carry them out of the Arena subbasements levels. Even Leron Joy—attached to the other two as always—fell in with them, but for once seemed to have nothing ill to say at Rei’s expense. It was possible Aria’s presence was too intimidating for him to mouth off around, but—judging by the glances he kept shooting in his direction—Rei rather suspected the boy might at last just be giving him at least a little bit of credit as a Galens cadet, after the Fortitude test they’d all witnessed.

  “B5 in under five minutes?!” Kay was half-squeaking, half-shrieking at Aria as they walked, mouth hanging open. “Come on! I thought for sure I’d at least be able to beat you in Offense & Endurance!”

  “Sorry,” Aria answered a little shyly, though she didn’t look displeased with herself. “My Endurance spec is in the high Cs, so I don’t ever really tire out if I pace myself. Add that to Hippolyta’s reach…”

  “Don’t talk to me about reach!” Kay huffed, shaking her head in disappointment. “I’ve got reach! I’m a friggin’ Lancer! I’ve got all the reach!”

  “And she’s the Aria Laurent, Kay!” Sense cut in good-naturally as they finally reached the lobby. “Come on. Give yourself a break. I bet she even beat Rei’s stupid score.” He looked to Aria. “How’d you do in Fortitude?”

  Aria paused before answering.

  “… C7,” she said sheepishly.

  Sense’s grin froze on his face, and he was silent for a second.

  Then, turning on Kay again, he frowned at her. “I was wrong. Do better.”

  “You son of a—!”

  Rei chuckled to himself, summoning a car for them all to take via a pad in the left wall. Viv was laughing as Leron Joy tried to intercede between Sense and Kay’s banter, giving Aria a chance to escape the conversation and join him by the time the elevator doors opened for them.

  “Are you actually all right?” she asked him quietly as they led the way inside together. “Viv’s not wrong. I seriously think you’re insane.”

  “Someone’s jealoooous,” Rei whispered playfully as the others piled in behind them, Sense breaking off from his harassing friend to punch in their top-floor destination.

  As they started to climb, Aria scowled at him. “As if. I’m just not as much of a masochist as you.”

  “No one’s as much of a masochist as Rei, Aria,” Viv snorted, overhearing. “Dumbass did combat team for 2 years while his body literally tried to kill him with bone knives from the inside out.”

  “Bone knives?” Leron Joy only muttered his confusion, but in the confines of the elevator everyone overheard him.

  Viv, though, ignored the Saber so firmly he might not even have been there.

  “Don’t try competing with him. Seriously. You’ll end up with a headache at best, and probably missing limbs at worst.”

  “Damn, Viv,” Rei made a face as they reached the Arena underworks, the door opening for them silently again. “The hell do you think I spend my time doing?”

  “Your utmost to kill yourself,” Viv snorted back as they started filing out of the elevator.

  “No one’s competing with anyone,” Aria assured her before Rei could offer any retort. “Well… At least not with who has the harder head.”

  “Ah…” Rei nodded sanctimoniously. “This is what Catcher must feel like, when we gang up on him.”

  The two girls turned on him as one, speaking in unison. “We are not ganging up on you.”

  They froze, glancing sidelong at each other as Sense and Kay both covered laughs from where they walked in front of them.

  Rei put up his hands in surrender. “Sure you’re not. My mistake. Just saying I’m the only one limping here, so maybe I deserve some slack?”

  “You’re limping because you thought it would be a good idea to beat your chest at B0-Ranked Offense damage and muscle load,” Viv told him with narrowed eyes, following with Aria as the others took the first ramp up towards the stands. “You get no sympathy from us.”

  “None,” Aria agreed shortly.

  Rei gave her his best hurt look. “Et tu, Brute?”

  “What?”

  “It’s a quote. The fall of Ceasar on Earth, in Ancient… Never mind. I’m just saying you guys are doing a lot of ganging up for not ganging up on me.”

  The argument, fortunately, came to an end with that, because the six of them cleared the tunnels onto the open walkway, then, stepping into the shadows of the western stands of the Arena. The late-afternoon sun had already dipped down below the edge of the open roof high above them, and it was the first truly crisp day of fall, leaving all glad for their uniforms in the shade. Before the
m, the entirety of the main floor was in use as the second years partook in a Wargames exercise, four teams of six combatants distinguishable via the modified vysetrium glow of their Device collectively lighting up as red, blue, green, or yellow respectively. The field was a Desert variation, a massive, sprawling rise and fall of sandy dunes and powerful winds that buffeted those fool enough not to fight and run in the lower valleys, but then Rei supposed nothing less than a tornado would faze the cadets battling it out on the projected space.

  They all, to a one, bore Devices that were more than half-complete, the colored plating of their armors covering every inch of most every limb, with many of them sporting helms or visors, or else abdominal or chest shielding. Even used to watching A- and S-Ranked Wargame matches, Rei thought it was an impressive sight, hardly convinced otherwise when a Mauler timed the colossal swing of his hammer perfectly to send two opponents flying overtop the crest of the nearest hill in unison.

  “Lucky,” Kay muttered enviously, and Rei realized he was hardly the only one who’d come to a stop to watch the fighting. Indeed, all six of them had paused, with Viv and Joy’s expressions matching the Lancer’s for jealousy.

  He supposed he couldn’t blame them. They’d been doing squad-training for two weeks, now, and not once had there been any mention by Dyrk Reese about expanding out of the Team Battle formats. For once Rei had had no complaints with this decision, mostly because he thought the first years all—including himself—had a lot of work to do before they were ready for the breadth and chaos of a Wargame, but also because he didn’t see his still-lagging Endurance spec doing him any favors on a field that size.

  “We’ll get there,” he told the group bracingly, making the first move to the left, heading for the western Arena entrance. “It’s only been half a month since we started squad-training.”

  “But it looks so fun.” Viv was the one to whine in response even as she and the others started to follow Rei.

  “Become a squad-leader, then,” Aria said over her shoulder, hurrying her pace a little to catch up and walk beside him. “I bet you’ll get all the Wargames practice you want, then.”