But at what cost?
“You hit C3 after your fight with Catchwick.”
Lennon’s words came as a statement, not a question. Rei—realizing he was too tired to be excited by the fact that the Lasher was keeping tabs on his rank—only nodded.
“And nothing happened.”
Again a statement, and again a nod.
“Is that what’s going on? Is that what you’re doing? Trying to hit C4 before your next match?”
This time, Rei answered aloud, feeling like his voice sounded small as he spoke. “Yeah.”
“And you think it’s going to make a difference?”
Rei hadn’t noticed that, at some point, his gaze had drifted down to rest on the floor between his knees. He blinked and lifted his face to look up at Lennon again. “Yeah,” he repeated. “It will be my fifth rank since my last evolution. If Shido could adapt one more time. If I could develop an Ability like you—”
“Ward, I told you not to bet on that.”
The harshness was back in the third year’s tone, now, and Rei actually winced. He deserved the reprimand, he knew. He was, in a way, grasping at straws.
“I know it’s unlikely,” he said. “But you don’t understand who I’m up against. If I can develop an Ability and gain that kind of edge over him, I might—”
“Rei. You don’t get it. I’m not telling you I don’t think you’re going to develop an Ability.”
A shot of electricity lanced up Rei’s spine, waking him up completely. Christopher Lennon—the very Christopher Lennon who had competed as a second year in the last Collegiate Intersystem Championships—had just addressed him by his first name.
Lennon seemed to mistake his gaping in that moment for incomprehension, because the young man sighed and dropped back to sit opposite him, arms on his knees.
“I do think you’re going to develop an Ability,” he clarified. “It’s common enough for all Types to have one by the middle Cs, A-Types like us in particular. On top of that, you’re not a regular A-Type.” He pursed his lips, scrutinizing Rei for a moment. “What I mean when I say you can’t bet on an Ability is that even if you do get one, it’s not as simple as flipping a switch and being the master of your own destiny. Some are a bit like that—Overclock, for example, or Repulsion—but even those require time and a lot of practice before they can be used with greatest efficiency. Others require all that time and practice before they can be used at all.”
There was a whirling of black steel and red light, and all of sudden Lennon was holding one of his segmented chain-swords in his right hand. Before Rei could get anything more than a close-up glimpse of the weapon, though, the Lasher sent it flying over his shoulder with a flick of his wrist. The limp thing spun a few times in the air, dropping toward the ground again.
Before it clattered to the floor, however, it froze, suspended, to float some 2 or 3 yards above the surface of the field.
“What if you developed Invisible Hand?” Lennon continued. He had two fingers up, and with a twitch of one of them the chain-sword began to swim point-first in graceful arcs towards them, like some black-and-red serpent through water. “Do you think you could just do this overnight? Mirage is the same. Magnetic Hunt is only slightly less complicated. Puppeteer is twice this hard to master.” With a small motion of the other finger, the weapon snapped back into Lennon’s raised hand, then returned to its original form of the ring about his wrist as he recalled it with a thought. “Have you considered that, Ward? Have you considered that you might be chasing something useless?”
Rei licked his lips, registering the words as an echo in a chamber of worry in his own mind. Yes, he had thought of that, but not in such terms. For his part he had been more worried that he would see this grind to the end, work himself ragged until he was a puddle on the floor of the tournament field, and all for nothing. Either he wouldn’t make C4, or he would, and find himself disappointed with the result again.
Now, though… Now he had another fear to add to the weight of those concerns.
Still… It didn’t change anything.
“I have to try.”
He was surprised by the certainty in those words, as he said them. He had thought they would come out quavering, or at least tired, but he was sure in that fact, and managed to make the statement sound as much.
“I have to try,” he said again before the Lasher could respond. “I don’t have a choice, Lennon. You don’t understand. This fight… This fight, I need to win.”
“Why? Why does this fight matter so much? What’s suddenly making you push yourself like this the week after I specifically tell you not to?”
“Do you have plans to sleep tonight?” Rei grumbled. “Cause filling you in would take that long.”
The third year made a face. “Fine. I don’t want to know that bad. Not sure I really want to know the first year drama at all, actually.” Still, he studied Rei a little more carefully, after that. “It’s that important?”
Rei nodded, and there was another few seconds of silence as Lennon looked to consider something.
When he spoke, though, it wasn’t an expected question.
“How many hours?” he asked. “Of training, I mean. Since you hit C3.”
Rei grimaced. “Ten? Maybe eleven?”
Lennon frowned, looking unpleasantly surprised. “Since Tuesday? That’s barely what I thought you were doing before you—”
“A day,” Rei clarified.
It was strange, witnessing the Lasher gawk at him like he’d suddenly grown three heads. It was an altogether different expression than Rei had ever expected to witness from the A-Rank. For the first time—and only for a moment—he saw Lennon for the student he was, a simple cadet of the military, likely only 2 years older than him.
And then the shock was gone, replaced once more by the mask as Lasher got to his feet in a flash.
“We’re done for the night,” he said, looking down at Rei. “You’re to go home and sleep. I also want you taking tomorrow off, aside from your regular course training.”
“What?” Rei demanded, taken completely aback by this sudden command as he, too, scrambled to his feet. “No! I’m halfway there already! I can do it, I know I can—!”
“Sunday morning.” Lennon interrupted him, turning his back to walk away. “0600. You’ll meet me here. Pack your meals beforehand.”
Rei stuttered to a stop, gaping after his instructor, who obviously had no intention of fighting anymore that night.
“W-What?” he eventually stammered out. “What… What do you mean?”
“I mean meet me here at 0600 on Sunday.” Lennon stopped, half-turning to look at Rey again. “I mean bring food because we won’t be leaving this room until you either hit C4, or we hit curfew.” Again he appeared to be examining Rei, but there was something new there once more. Maybe… Pride? “You’re going to do this. I get that, now. I can’t brig you, so unless I pin you to the floor for the next three days I have no way of stopping you. So… If you’re going to do it anyway, you’re going to do it right, and you’re going to do it with someone who will challenge that scary-ass CAD of yours in a way that will compress all the hours you still need into the fifteen I’m going to give you.”
“Wait…” Rei breathed. “You’re not…? Does that mean you’re going to—?”
“Bed, Ward,” Lennon said, interrupting him as he turned around and made for the door again. “And tomorrow off. I will ask Dent if you followed my instructions, and if she tells me you came within a hundred feet of either training center, you and I will be done for good.”
And then, with that final promising threat, Lennon was gone.
Rei stood there alone, staring out the open door of the training chamber the young man had just departed through, uncomprehending. With the Lasher’s departure, the field reset, fading to nothing and dropping Rei down the 2 feet as the solid white light gave to black projection plating.
He was aw
oken from his daze almost at once, however, when he found himself immediately accosted by three figures who surrounded him in a heartbeat.
“Rei. Rei! What the hell happened?!” Viv demanded, bending down slightly to look him in the face.
“Where’s Lennon going?” Catcher followed this up with, face pale. “Is he pissed? What did you say?”
It was Aria’s voice, though, that managed to best cut through the fog.
“Rei…” she said quietly, and he felt several of her fingers coming up to touch his shoulder lightly. “Are you okay?”
Taking in a shaking breath—a breath that might have been his first since watching the Lasher leave, he realized—Rei looked around at them each in turn, settling on Aria.
“I need to get back to Kanes,” he said weakly. His heart felt like it was hammering out a thousand beats a minute, and he couldn’t help but doubt he would get any sleep no matter how tired he was. “I need to get to bed.”
This, clearly, was an odd answer to his friends’ concerns, because they exchanged a worried look amongst themselves, like they feared the stress of the last few days had finally knocked a screw loose.
It was Viv—Viv, who knew him best—who put his desires above whatever consequences she thought he might be suffering.
“But, Rei… What about training? You’ve been working so hard…”
Rei turned to her unsteadily, not sure if he could believe the words he was about to say.
“I think that’s taken care of…”
“What?” Catcher asked, clearly not understanding. “How?”
Rei shook his head in slow, uneven disbelief.
“I think… I think a potential Intersystem Champion just set aside his entire Sunday to put me through boot camp…”
CHAPTER 53
As it turned out, Rei had no trouble sleeping that night, his excitement—and that of the others—not holding a candle to his exhaustion in the end. He had the sense, fortunately, to turn off even his regular morning alarm, and for the first time since arriving at Galens was very nearly late for their starting classes the next day, getting up only when Viv and Catcher came pounding on his door. After a rushed breakfast Aria had cobbled together for all of them, they made it to lecture by the skin of their teeth, where Rei found out that a single decent night’s rest wasn’t about to make up for the abuse he’d put himself through since Tuesday. Making it to lunch proved a difficult affair, and Rei just barely managed to keep himself awake by studying up on more of the other Users left in the losers bracket with him.
Arriving at combat training after the mid-day meal, Rei discovered that Valera Dent was only willing to pull so many strings for him, because there was no reprieve in the afternoon’s conditioning. Cross-training with the Lancers, Bretz and Allison Lake soon had Rei—and the rest of their two groups—building up such a sweat in the sparring matches that he wondered if Lennon wouldn’t find cause to cut him off even if he kept his promise otherwise. Still, Rei got through the day, and—with no small amount of willpower—avoided East Center before and after dinner in favor of studying with Aria, Viv, and Catcher in 304, the three of them as much there to make sure he didn’t give in to the itch to train as they were to help each other understand the complexities of quantum theory as related to carbon steel compression in CAD bands.
At around 2000, Rei’s eyes started to droop, his body demanding more rest from him than he’d granted it the previous evening. Giving up not even 15 minutes later, he put away his pad and bid the others all a good night, saying he was going to catch a little extra sleep before his early morning. Changing out of his regulars at last, he slipped into bed, set his alarm for 0530, and turned out the light.
That night, however, despite his fatigue, Rei barely slept, tossing and turning with anticipation.
*****
“You’re late.”
Rei froze upon entering the training chamber, looking at a stern-faced Christopher Lennon standing inside the edge of the field closest to the door. After a moment he finished the bite of the bagel he’d already been in the process of shoving into his mouth, checking the time while he chewed and swallowed.
“I still have five minutes!” he protested as soon as he could.
“You’re still in uniform,” Lennon countered without hesitation. “We also haven’t warmed up. 0600 means we should be fighting by 0600. Not getting ready to.”
Rei thought about muttering something in opposition of this as he pulled his bag over his head to hang it off one of the hooks by the door, carefully to do so gently so as not to squash the sandwiches he’d put together for himself in a hurry from what he’d had access to at breakfast. Thinking better of testing the third year who would likely be throwing him around like a doll all day, though, he instead stuffed the bagel between his teeth before retrieving his combat suit from where it was tucked among the meals.
Making use of the other hanging hooks for his uniform, he was dressed and ready with 2 minutes to spare when he stepped into the ring with Lennon.
“Made it,” he said with a grin at Lennon, rolling his shoulders to start to loosen his arms up.
WHAM!
The hit took him in the gut, his reactive shielding doing shit-all against his attacker’s superior Strength and Offensive specs, even bare-handed as the Lasher was. Rei felt himself lifted clear off his feet by the force of the impact, and he fell heavily out of the air to nearly slam his face against the steel of the floor. He gagged, coughing and hacking, and it was an absolute miracle he didn’t vomit up his very recent breakfast as his stomach throbbed with pain and nausea.
“Get up, Ward.”
Lennon’s voice wasn’t cold. It wasn’t malicious. It was merely firm, without pity for the position Rei found himself in, nor remorse from the surprise assault.
Fighting being sick every inch of the way, Rei did as he was told, trembling to get first onto one knee, then up on his feet. From there, it was several seconds before Shido got ahold of the pain enough for him to stand straight.
“I’m going to hit you again. Try blocking, this time.”
“W-What—?” Rei started, still reeling from the first blow.
He didn’t finish before the third year’s fist indeed hit him again, a little higher now.
This time, Rei did vomit, sick splattering the floor of the field as he struggled to breath, lungs paralyzed by the strike to his solar plexus.
“That’s twice I landed a blow.” Rei couldn’t look up, but knew Lennon was standing over him to the side while he spoke. There was a whirring sound from outside the chamber, marking the approach of a service drone summoned for clean-up. “I even warned you the second time. So why is your CAD still not called?”
Gut throbbing and head a struggling mess of incomprehension, it took Rei longer than he would have liked to register the suggestion for what it was.
“C-Call,” he fought to get out between labored breaths, bringing one hand up to clutch at his abdomen.
Nothing.
Fear—a suddenly, terrible fear—clutched at Rei, and he felt every muscle in his body tense up. What had happened? What had happened? Why wasn’t Shido—?!
“Breathe, Ward.” Lennon interrupted his panic, his voice a little gentler now that his charge was taking the right steps. “Breathe. You’re forgetting to focus. You’re letting what I’ve done distract you. Remember the basics.”
The basics. Right.
As he heard the door of the room open automatically for the incoming drone, Rei turned his thoughts from his pain to his CAD.
“C-Call,” he said again, no less unsteadily.
But this time, Shido answered.
The moment his Device was in place, Rei felt his head start to clear, his neuroline engaged with the CAD’s summoning. He shoved himself to his feet and leapt away from Lennon, hands up and at the ready, waiting for a third descending blow.
It didn’t come.
“Good,” the Las
her said in approval, stepping aside as the service bot went about its duty. In 30 seconds or so the field floor would be shiny as new. “Good. That’s the response I wanted to see. Maybe next time you’ll be faster about it.”
“What the hell, Lennon?!” Rei demanded, not for a moment considering dropping his guard. “What was that for?!”
The Lasher frowned. “I’m sorry, did you think today was going to be an average day for you?”
“I thought I could at least get my bearings before you put me on my ass!”
“Why?”
Rei paused, then. The way Lennon had asked the question, it seemed that this was the place he had been meant to get to.
“Because it’s considerate?” he said after a moment, not sure where the third year was going.
“And when has your opponent on the field ever been considerate, Ward?”
In a flash Lennon was gone from his place some yards away, appearing before Rei so fast he might have teleported were it not for the rippling blast of air that accompanied the Break Step. The A-Ranker didn’t hit him, this time, but he did take hold of Rei’s two arms and pull them apart with such ease they might have been stalks of wheat.
Then he put a foot into Rei’s chest with deft agility, and shoved.
There was only enough force to send him stumbling back several feet, but Rei still couldn’t keep up his defense while his arms wind-milled to try to keep his balance. Lennon followed him like a shadow, pushing and prodding every second or so to stop him from finding his footing.
“When has your opponent ever been considerate?” he asked again even as he continued to press Rei. “Do you think the combatants you’ve watched on the feeds pause when they see an opening? Do you think pros are kind enough to wait until a fight is on even ground again?”
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 93