Though the two might only be second years, Rei got the impression they were still about to see a really, really good fight.
“Omara Ejua is a B4, and Heton is a B5.” Catcher, meanwhile, looked to have pulled the cadets’ profiles for them. “If I had to guess, I’d say that’s pretty above average for the class at this point. These two might be in the top tier of the second years.”
Viv made a squealing sound, and Rei had to stop himself from laughing out loud. His best friend had always been enthusiastic about becoming a CAD-fighter herself, but it could be hard to get her excited for any fight she wasn’t taking part in.
Then again, the moment the Arena announced a start to the match, Ejua and Heton proved that Viv’s glee was anything but misplaced.
“Combatants… Fight.”
WOOSH!
Water sprayed in mirrored fins from either side of the field, tracing the flashes of red and orange that were Ejua and Heton. Duelists were generally the fastest of the User Types, of course, but if it could be assumed that the B-Ranked fighters had Strength of any respectable degree, it would have made the obstacle of the rushing water nothing more than a nuisance for the time being. Sure enough they met in the middle with a keen scream of steel cracking against steel, the whine of their blades ringing off each other so loud it could be made out even over the storm. From the crowd another eruption of enthusiasm echoed, and all around them Rei saw people leaning forward, undoubtedly zooming in on the fight themselves. He kept his own focus steady on the pair, watching and studying them as best he could. The spray of the water and the blur of their Devices made visibility minimal, but his decent Cognition spec allowed him to just make out most of the details.
It was an acrobatic dance of death.
Neither Ejua nor Heton ever stopped moving. Not as they struck, not as they blocked, not as they parried and deflected and dodged. Red and orange streaks of light reflected in the water and the spray as their legs stepped and flipped and kicked through the flood, and pretty soon Rei was seeing afterglow until the colors formed a sort of temporary cage about the two Duelists with every engagement. It was—without a doubt—a cut above the rest of the combat they had seen so far. Even Aria’s match against Grant—as enthralling as it had been—suddenly paled in comparison to this incredible performance, this impromptu choreography of sword and light. Rei could only take it all in with bated breath, not realizing the stands had gone silent, not realizing nothing could be heard now but the ringing of weapons, the roar of the storm, and Michael Bretz’s colorful commentary from his and Reese’s place above the fight. For a minute or so that was all to be seen, all to be taken in.
And then the water started to rise.
No. It had always been rising, Rei knew. That was a common theme of the Flood Zone field. By the time he tore away from the fight long enough to take notice, the rush of the current had gained 4 or 5 inches up the length of both combatants’ thighs, and looked only to be climbing quicker.
“It’s rising fast…” Aria commented from his left.
Rei, along with Viv and Catcher, all nodded, but the fact only had them watching more intently. With Endurance likely in the B-Ranks, it would be a long while before Ejua or Heton started to tire, even at the pace they were going.
The field had other plans for them.
By the time the water reached their waists, mobility between the two fighters had become limited, and even as Duelists they were soon almost entirely immobilized for fear of losing their footing in the current. It hardly stopped the pacing of the fight, however, as their blades only started to blur faster and faster in an endless cacophony as the evenly matched pair both tried and failed to sneak in a blow, to apply even some minimal restriction that might just gain them the advantage. Neither managed it, however, and the water kept rising, kept climbing.
It had reached their midriffs before Heton made the first major move to turn the tides in her favor.
WHA-BOOM!
There was a blast of noise, and all the water for about 5 feet in every direction around the girl exploded up and outward in a massive, rippling wave. Ejua appeared to have been caught unawares, because through the spray Rei saw the shape of the dark-skinned boy catapulted backwards, looking to be absent his weapons.
“Oh, and there’s Cadet Heton’s Repulsion Ability!” Bretz shouted out over the storm as the stands exploded into cheers. “Electromagnetic energy from CAD-usage stored up in the Device, and then released in all directions! Looks like Ejua might be in trouble!”
“Looks like?” Viv snorted. “Dude lost his blades. He’s done for.”
“Nah,” Catcher disagreed with a shake of his head. “He’ll pull a ditch. Recall and call them back. Heton won’t be able to get to him in time in the water to take advantage of the delay.”
Rei had to agree. He didn’t know if the girl’s plan had been too well thought out. Repulsion was a limited Ability that had to be charged up to be potent. On any other field it would have combined well with her Speed, but restricted as that was…
And then, incomprehensibly, Rei saw Ejua stand up from where he’d been swept by the rush of water to the south edge of the field, still in his called Device, and still sans-weapons.
“What the…?” he and Aria both hissed together, leaning forward in tandem, so bewildered neither even noticed when they brushed shoulders to peer as close as possible at the goings-on below them.
“What is he doing?!” Catcher demanded, watching Ejua lift both hands up, almost like a Brawler, as Heton charged at him through the flood.
Then, from behind the girl, Rei saw two twin shapes lifting out of the water, and he shouted in understanding just in time for Ejua’s matching swords to fling themselves at his opponent’s back with nothing more than a pull of his fingers.
“Invisible Hand!”
Heton, too, seemed to have recognized the danger of the telling motion, because she threw herself sideways only a blink before she might have been impaled through the spine from behind. Rei saw one of the sabers catch her a glancing blow to the shoulder, but it must have been a shallow one because she shoved up out of the water again with both blades held ready, pink-blue hair soaking and plastered to her face and forehead and the white-green Device that covered her neck, cheeks, and shoulders. It was a good thing she did, because immediately she had to defend from an assault by Ejua’s weapons, spinning and whirling in the still-climbing current as the sabers cut and slashed from every direction and angle even though their User stood a good 15 feet away.
“And Ejua pulls out his own stops!” Michael roared to match the crowd’s enthusiasm. “Invisible hand! A rare Ability similar to Magnetic Hunt, but requiring the User’s deliberate focus and attention! It puts a heavy burden on the wielder, but the control you get in exchange looks worth it to me!”
“Whoa!” Viv shouted, sliding to the very edge of her seat. “I’ve never seen anyone below the A-Ranks with Invisible Hand!”
“Me neither!” Catcher squealed in positive delight, fists balled over his knees while Heton fought for her life below them. “That is so cool!”
“And might be the end of the match,” Rei muttered with a slight frown. “If Ejua can keep this up long enough for the water to slow—”
“Oh!” Aria’s exclamation cut him off, however, and for good reason as it was echoed hundreds of times through the stadium, even from the third years.
As one of Ejua’s sabers had descended, Heton had done something both foolish and incredible. The minute the enemy blade had sliced down towards her she’d dropped the parrying dagger in her left hand and—with a well-timed snap and twisting dodge—caught her opponent’s saber by the handle. Ejua wasn’t quick enough to stop the second of his blades, and without having to defend from two sides all of a sudden Heton whirled and slammed both her longsword and the boy’s own stolen weapon into the Ability-controlled Device. There was a pinging sound, and the heavier weight of the two blades together se
nt the saber flying across the field so far it actually hit the opposite wall of the perimeter with a bzzt of pixilated energy.
And then, without pausing even a moment, Heton pulled her feet up from the ground, dropping into the rush that was now nearing her chest, and let herself be swept up by the current.
Swept up, and hurtled by the grace of nature right towards the very place her opponent stood near the curved edge of the south wall.
To his credit, Ejua had begun the process of salvaging the circumstances the moment his second saber had been sent sailing. His Device withdrew in a whirl of metal and red light as he recalled it, then started to take form again when he promptly summoned it once more. The ditch, however, came too late, because even though the CAD reappeared with both weapons back in his hands, it wasn’t in time to stop Heton from triggering what turned out to be a very well-thought-out plan. Rei saw it at last, then, understood the circumstances the girl had set up for herself only as she erupted from the water again, barely feet from Ejua and his recovered sabers. The Repulsion she’d used had seemed a waste, earlier, had seemed a squandering of valuable energy.
Now, though, Rei saw it had been the key to getting Omara Ejua exactly where Heton had needed him.
WHA-BOOM!
The second Repulsion caught the boy as point-blank as the first, but this time there was no empty space behind him to accommodate Ejua’s flying body. Instead he was slammed into the invisible wall of the field at devastating speed, the built-up energy of the released Ability flattening him for the briefest of moments against the gentle curve of the barrier as the water of the flood exploded outward once more. For a blink Rei saw Heton lunging freely forward, having immobilized her opponent and cleared her way to victory of all obstacles for only the briefest of moments.
It was all that was needed, in the end, for her longsword—the only blade left to her, now—to take Ejua cleanly through the heart, impaling him to the wall of the field as the weapon flashed and warped the barrier slightly when it erupted through his back.
“Fatal Damage Accrued. Winner: Harper Heton.”
The fading sounds of the storm and flood were nothing compared to the eruption of cheers from the stands. Even many of the third years were on their feet, and nearly every first- and second year had leapt up the moment the victory was announced. Despite Heton’s win, Rei knew the applause was for both Users, then, and he found himself looking forward to more of Omara Ejua’s matches just as much as his victorious opponent’s.
Michael Bretz seemed to be of a like mind.
“Congratulations to Cadet Heton, and a brilliant fight by both combatants! Let’s all give another cheer as they take their leave of the field!”
The roar came again, even louder this time, as Heton put an arm around Ejua’s waist to help him stagger out of the perimeter. Having already recalled their CADs, they both lifted hands in thanks before disappearing beneath the edge of the walkway, earning another spike in noise.
“That was bad-ass!” Viv’s shout was barely audible despite the cheering finally starting to die. “Forget Break Step! I want Repulsion!”
“It would be even better for you in a more open field!” Rei agreed loudly, trying to make out Bretz’s next announcement. “But yeah! You wouldn’t think it would necessarily be ideal for a Speed-focused Type like Duelist, but it’s what you do with it!”
“Valera Dent has it too,” Catcher added eagerly as everyone finally gained their seats again. “And she’s pretty much as fast as they come! Check out her retirement match against Alex Rightor sometime! It was really useful to her.”
“I saw that fight live!” Rei exclaimed excitedly as Viv looked to be taking a note of the recommendation in her NOED. “Man, that was a great—!”
“Next match—” Bretz’s voice cut across the lingering conversations “—Caleb Asino versus Kirill Viktorovich. Combatants, approach the field.”
The second pairing of the day ended up taking place on a variation of Woodlands, and was both shorter and more brutal than the first when Viktorovich, a Phalanx in near-full Device armor, outmaneuvered Asino’s limited Brawler’s reach with the length of his spear. After that, the third, fourth, fifth, and several more matches passed without too much additional fanfare, none of the pairing being able to hold a candle to that first encounter between Ejua and Heton. They were all enthralling, in their own way, the speed and power of the weakest of the second years seeming still to outmatch the likes of Aria and Grant, but a combination of duller field selections and a lack of grace and fitness as compared to the opening Duelists made most of the fights lack in comparison.
And then, as the twelfth winner strode out of the ring while his defeated opponent limped away in shame, Bretz announced the contenders of the day’s thirteenth pairing.
“Next match: Anatoli Sidorov versus Jasmine Song. Combatants, approach the field.”
Immediately the Arena seemed to gain a new energy to it, an aura of excitement which—while never having fully departed—had lacked some presence following Harper Heton’s win. The change was so palpable that on either side of him Rei saw Aria and Viv both frown and look around, clearly unsure of what to make of the shift in the stadium’s aura.
“I’m guessing one of these guys is good?” Viv asked of Rei and Catcher after a moment.
“Very good.” Catcher was the first to answer with a nod. “Sidorov. We already pointed him out, remember? At the announcement of the Intra-Schools.”
“Dude. That was six weeks ago. The only reason I can remember what I had for lunch this morning is my Cognition spec!”
“He won the first years bracket at Sectionals last year,” Rei repeated for her, watching the tall, somewhat-lanky form of Anatoli Sidorov make his calm way from the southeast wall towards the Dueling field, long bronze locks tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck. Across from him a shorter, stockier girl with short-cropped reddish hair—not unlike how Emily Gisham kept hers—was moving to stand on the opposite side. “Pretty handily, too, if I’ve heard correctly.”
“Ah, I thought I knew his name from somewhere,” Aria said with a nod before glancing at Rei in surprise. “You didn’t watch the tournament? I would have expected you too, given Galens’ presence in this Sector…”
“It was on the feeds at the same time as a couple of Earth’s Sectionals were underway.” Catcher said, watching Sidorov and Jasmine Song being told to take their positions in the ring. “I’m guessing he had to prioritize.”
Rei, grateful he hadn’t needed to explain himself, only nodded.
“Lucky,” Aria grunted, sounding a little irritated as she leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “My mother gave me no choice. And I wasn’t even home.”
Rei grimaced. “Well she never gave you an option as to where you were going after preparatory school, so I can’t say I’m surprised she wanted you as familiar with Galens as possible.”
“Maybe,” Aria grumbled over Reese’s asking the combatants if they condoned to the rules of the Duel.
“If it makes you feel better, Sidorov is expected to be a shoo-in for the Systems this season,” Catcher offered in a clear attempt to cheer her up. “Maybe even the Intersystems, like Lennon did last year. If you got to see his fight, then you didn’t miss much by skipping the Sol Sectionals.”
The Saber’s assurances seemed to help a bit, because Aria looked a little less disappointed. Shortly after, though, her irritation with her family was likely forgotten, because the Arena began to glow.
Anatoli Sidorov, it transpired, was expected to climb high in the collegiate SCTs that year for very, very good reason. A Lancer-Type, his silver-grey CAD encased every inch of his body except the outer parts of his chest, with the tower-like helm that shielded his head bisected by a horizontal line of the same yellow vysetrium that edged the narrow blade of his simple spear. What the Device’s weapon lacked in ornamentation, however, its owner more than made up for in fluid skill and ability,
taking on his opponent with a careful, crafted approach to the Duel the likes of which Rei had yet seen. The fight did last nearly 2 minutes, but it was obvious from the go who would come out the victor. Sidorov didn’t toy with Song, didn’t play or mock her in that time. Rather, it was more like he would bare nothing but perfection in his engagements, like he could suffer all patience as he waited for the exact right moment to strike, the exact right moment to pounce. Song, a Brawler, was no common fighter herself, but the disadvantages of her CAD—a brilliant yellow Device interspersed over a black under-layer with green vysetrium—played right into the Lancer’s strengths. Sidorov kept her nearly constantly at bay with superior reach, alternating between calmly fending off a barrage of pressing blows and pushing Song back himself with his own volley of flawless patterns and combinations. Even though not a single hit landed over the course of their exchanges, the Duel had the entire Arena holding its breath in the silence of the Neutral Zone the combatants had risen upon.
And then Song attempted to trigger what must have been Overclock, and the moment Sidorov had been so meticulously waiting for came in a blink.
The Brawler had kept him on his toes for nearly 20 seconds in a row, proving an incredible Endurance spec with a seemingly-endless gatling of punches and kicks against which the Lancer calmly stood his ground. The combination of strikes ended with a front-kick from Song that Sidorov caught—almost-casually—on the haft of his spear, but the block had clearly been read by the Brawler. Without hesitation she used her opponent’s steadfast stance to plant and shove off of, soaring back more than 10 yards. Song landed lightly after an arching backflip, and there was a rippling of brightening green light.
Before Michael Bretz could so much as announce the trigger of the girl’s Overclock, however, the Arena’s voice rang clear over the silence of the stands.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 71