Movement behind the corpse startled him. He brought his light to bear, illuminating the closet a little deeper. His light fell upon a single, bloodstained, clawed arm that scratched eagerly at the carpet. Flipping the flashlight beam higher, light reflected off an open maw of razor-sharp teeth.
Gythrun tried to step back, as the creature emitted a guttural, savage growl. A clawed hand flashed out, catching the Avalon at the base of the abdomen, eviscerating the unsuspecting soldier. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and dropped him unceremoniously atop the canted conference table in a spray of blood and organs.
Roberts, only halfway across the room, stood stupefied, as arterial blood splashed against the near wall. The creature forced its way from the storage closet. It’s enormous size and broad shoulders made it stoop low in its attempt to get free.
The Wyndgaart raised his rifle and fired three times. The rounds slammed into the creature’s gray hide, as it angrily broke free of the doorway, shattering the wooden frame. It didn’t seem to notice the gunshot wounds, as it howled in rage and eyed the soldier across the room.
Turning away, Roberts sprinted toward the window. His bullets ineffective, he knew there was a better chance of survival from a thirty-foot drop to the street than to remain in the conference room. Though he was fast, the beast moved with surprising speed, closing the distance quickly, running on both back feet and knuckles.
Roberts was nearly at the window when the creature caught him, its mouth open wide in a display of foot-long, protruding teeth. It closed its mouth over Roberts’ shoulder with dagger-like teeth, crushing bones and penetrating his heart. Momentum sent his legs flying out before him, while his upper body was held by the monster’s mandibles.
Life faded from the Wyndgaart’s eyes, and he hung limply, suspended in midair. When the beast released the body, it collapsed a few feet from the open window and safety. Reaching out with a clawed hand, it grabbed Roberts’ leg and dragged him away from the window.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Early morning light glistened off the lake on the outskirts of Arcendor. Striking the water’s surface, the sunlight refracted, glinting thousands of sparkles across the glassy plane. Keryn yawned from exhaustion. The water gently lapping against the shore soothed her.
Sleep eluded her for most of the night. Her mind was a whirling mass of thoughts, as she worried about the aerial joust she watched the previous night. The knot in her stomach worsened, leaving her weak and nauseated.
Trying to ignore her queasiness, she stared at the same thing she examined a dozen times since arriving at the lake—the giant, shining, metal pylon dominating the shoreline. Another one stood a few miles away down the shoreline, while a second pair stood like silent guardians on the far shore. Together, they created the four corners of a square around the lake stretching nearly three miles on a side. Concerning their use, she could only wonder.
Despite the black, form-fitting suit she wore, she still shivered against the arctic breeze blowing down from the distant, snow-capped peaks. The other cadets in her class, all similarly dressed, huddled near each other in a meager attempt to warm themselves. The only ones unfazed by the chill were the instructors, who wore heavy coats to block the wind.
Keryn and the others were awakened early that morning by a siren that blasted down the dormitory hall. The sun hadn’t even lit the horizon by the time she dressed in her uniform and hurried outside to join the other bleary-eyed cadets. With little instruction, they were ushered into buses and driven away from town. The shocks on the buses seemed nonexistent, and the constant jostling stole any chance to catch a nap, as they drove down ill-paved roads leading to the lake.
Her black rubber suit was issued once she left the bus. One size fits most, she realized, squeezing into her suit and trying to pull the zipper past the swell of her breasts. It clung uncomfortably tight in the groin and around the chest and seemed an impractical way to fight, especially for someone accustomed to training and fighting in flowing shirts and loose pants. Her only pleasure came in seeing Sasha struggling, as her suit constricted tightly against her wings. Even short Iana picked crudely at the crotch of her own suit, trying to pull it away, as it crept uninvited into areas she preferred it not to visit.
Keryn checked the firearm strapped to her right leg and strange dagger strapped to her left. Pulling the blade from its sheath, she stared at the one-inch nub of blade protruding from the dark rubber hilt. When she pressed a button near the thumb grip, the air around the short blade crackled, as blue light sprang from the hand guard. Nearly one-foot long, the blue blade wavered unsteadily in the air, as if it lacked consistency.
“Is that thing really going to do any damage?” Iana asked, fidgeting with her suit.
“Only one way to find out.” Keryn agilely twisted the knife in her hand. Extending her left arm, she turned her palm upward. The suit reached all the way to her wrist and connected firmly to a pair of lightweight gloves. She lowered the knife until the blade hovered a few inches above her exposed arm.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Iana asked.
“One thing I learned from all my schooling is that you can’t be confident that your weapon will harm an opponent until you know what it’s capable of. Give me a stick, and I can defend myself, but the first time I see the damage it can cause against an unprotected enemy, I’ll finally appreciate it as a weapon.”
She pressed the knife down. The blue blade shimmered, as it passed unhindered through her sleeve. Instantly, the suit contracted, starting at the elbow and all the way down to her fingertips, until it pressed painfully against her skin and constricted blood flow. Her muscles pulled tightly, Keryn’s fingers curled back until her hand was nearly a fist. Groaning with pain and surprise, she was unable to move her arm from the elbow down.
“Congratulations to Cadet Riddell,” Victoria called from the front of the group, watching students experiment with the limits of their suits. “She was the first to learn exactly how your suits operate.”
She waited for conversations to die away and attention be focused on her. “For those of you who aren’t as eager as our young Wyndgaart, let me explain how the suits operate. Within every inch of fabric is sewn hundreds of feet of electrical wiring connected to a series of flexible rods. The rods only minimally limit your movement. Mostly, they just cause discomfort, as I’m sure you’ve already discovered.
“However, when an electrical current is introduced to a specific section of the suit, the rods stiffen and are pulled into alignment. They seize the part of the suit that’s been struck, leaving the individual immobile. You can ask Cadet Riddell just how painful that can be.
“Get struck in a leg, and that leg is useless. Get struck in an arm, and you lose the use of the arm. Get struck in the torso, chest, or neck, and your entire suit seizes up, leaving you immobile until an instructor releases the current coursing through the suit.”
She pressed a button on a remote, and Keryn’s arm relaxed. Pins and needles exploded along her forearm and hand, as blood flow was reestablished.
“Getting used to the suits takes time,” Victoria said.
Many watched Keryn recuperate.
“That’s why you’ll train on the ground for the time being until I feel confident about putting you in the air.”
Instructors on either side cast off their heavy coats, revealing identical black rubber suits. Kicking off from the ground, both launched into the air. Small backpacks fired, launching them higher, as they spun in choreographed maneuvers. The cadets watched in awe and envy.
“Split into groups of four.” Victoria’s voice broke through their enthrallment. “I want to see you sparring against each other until you’re comfortable in your suits and confident with your weapons.”
Slowly, the throng of cadets separated into groups of four. An unfamiliar Oterian and sly Lithid joined Iana and Keryn. The groups spread out from each other, allowing ample space for movement and combat. Keryn shrugged one should
er after the other, as she walked, trying to loosen the constrictive suit. She would’ve preferred to strip it off and fight naked, since the thick rubber hindered her agile movements. Still, she drew her knife again and activated the blade. The other three copied her and loosened the catch on their holsters. Though pistols would be harder to use in a small space, a good fighter was prepared for any eventuality.
As Keryn stood at one corner of their squared fighting space, she heard grunts of pain and surprise, as other groups began combat. She looked at her three competitors, the frustration of the past day’s failure brewing just beneath the surface of her calm demeanor.
She returned to her element. Regardless of the constraints of the suit, her feet were firmly planted on solid ground, and weapons rested comfortably in her hands. That morning, she would wash away her failures and reestablish herself at the top of her class.
The Oterian was the first to move, rumbling forward with a cry. Rolling left, Keryn dodged his clumsy swing. Iana, dropping to one knee beside the off-balance Oterian, slashed his knee. The suit seized up, and he hobbled forward two steps more before Iana drove her knife into his back. A ripple went up his back, and the entire suit from neck to toes seized up until it was a solid-rubber sarcophagus. Unable to move, he pitched forward and fell painfully on the end of his snout.
Meanwhile, Keryn faced the lither Lithid female. They circled each other, swinging halfheartedly, testing each other’s defenses. Like a blur, the Lithid drove forward, slashing downward with her transparent knife, her blade glowing bright yellow. Keryn brought her knife up to block and shifted her weight, preparing for a counterstrike.
To her surprise, the Lithid’s knife passed unhindered through hers and struck Keryn painfully on the upper arm. The entire limb dropped stiffly to her side. Sliding backward, she cursed herself for her clumsiness. Having seen the blade pass through her arm, she shouldn’t have been so naïve as to assume it would parry an attack.
Pressing her advantage, the Lithid female slid forward with a basic forward thrust. Though her arm was growing painful at her side, Keryn spun gracefully out of the way and moved toward her opponent. Her hip knocked the Lithid’s outstretched arm wide, and, finishing the spin, she stopped behind her surprised enemy. Without turning to face her, Keryn shifted the knife in her hand and drove the blade behind her, striking the Lithid between the shoulderblades. Like the Oterian, she fell helplessly to the ground.
Keryn turned to face Iana. The Pilgrim’s eyes grew wide at facing such a confident opponent. She shifted the knife back and forth in her hand, and Keryn easily identified the numerous weaknesses in her defense. Smiling, she stalked toward Iana. Within moments, Iana joined the other two, lying on her back and glowering at her Wyndgaart roommate.
“Well done, Cadet Riddell,” Victoria said, perusing the battlefield. She activated the remote, and Keryn’s arm relaxed, as did the suits of the three on the ground. Catching their breaths, all three remained where they were, as blood flowed back through their bodies.
Victoria led Keryn to one side, as the others struggled to stand. “You show incredible potential on the ground, Keryn.”
Keryn was surprised at the use of her first name, something she wasn’t sure Victoria knew until that moment.
“Being in the air is a different world,” Victoria continued. “You need to shed your preconceived notions about aerial combat and lose yourself in the moment. Whatever drives you when fighting on the ground can be used up there, as well.”
Keryn looked skyward at the cloudless blue above. Only tall pylons broke the otherwise seamless vision.
“I still see fear in your eyes when you look up there,” Victoria said. “That fear will be your downfall. Until you overcome your lack of confidence, you’ll never succeed in the Academy.”
Keryn tested the weight of the small pack strapped to her back. With short bursts of power, she lifted gently off the ground. The exhaust from the small, combustion-free jetpack blew warm air across the backs of her legs.
Tilting left, then overcompensating and tilting right, she struggled to stay upright while hovering only a few feet off the ground. Frowning, she knew Victoria was right. Teetering, she had little confidence in her ability to maneuver once fully in the air.
Other cadets struggled as she did. One top-heavy Oterian flipped completely upside down before the jetpack drove him straight into the ground. He showed much greater hesitation on his second attempt.
Across the field, Sasha, her Uligart boyfriend, and the rest of her clique flew comfortably in circles. With her wings outstretched, Sasha was the epitome of grace, as she glided across the practice field.
Though the students rehearsed their aerial acrobatics close to the ground, Keryn remembered the footage from the video she saw. Those cadets flew high above the ground and plummeted off the screen whenever struck by an opponent. Dreading what was to come, she could think of only one place where they’d have so much open area to joust, and her eyes went to the lake and the strange pylons framing its shores.
The ground underfoot shook, as power coursed through the large pylon. Light yellow lines traced intricate patterns up its exterior, as energy moved toward the pinnacle, where light danced within a transparent crystal. The energy continued to build until the crystal glowed so brightly, she was forced to look away.
As the crystal reached its maximum capacity, the energy was released in a violent shockwave. Keryn staggered back a few steps with the wind knocked from her lungs. Above her, the crystal’s light dimmed. From her vantage point, she watched the energy-infused shockwave roll across the open air among the four pylons, the others having already released a similar wave. The four waves rolled toward each other like tsunamis.
Keryn heard the thunderclap of raw power, as the shockwaves struck, intermixing their energy and rolling onward. The waves overlapped, creating a crossed web of polarized energy stretching from one shore of the lake to the other among the four pylons. After the energy waves expended themselves on the far shores, all that remained was a gossamer net forty feet above the water.
“Today’s combat will be held high in the air above Lake Arcendor,” Victoria shouted to the crowd, confirming Keryn’s sinking suspicion. “You won’t be split into groups today. Instead, your entire class will fight each other, striving for the right to be the sole survivor of today’s exercises. Win, and you automatically become the top student in your class. Fail, and you’ll plummet to the safety net, where you’ll remain paralyzed until an instructor sees fit to grace you with release from your suit’s prison.”
She walked through the crowd, carrying the suit controls in her hand. “This is only the first of many competitions to be held above the lake. Failure today won’t remove you from the program. However, the inability to learn from your mistakes will. If you find yourself caught in the net, staring up at the more-successful cadets performing their combat ballet, think about what you did wrong and how to improve in the future. If you can’t seem to learn from your own mistakes, remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Watch and learn from someone else, because that will be the last chance you have of not being evicted from the Academy.”
The instructors, igniting their jetpacks, hovered off the ground. Confident that they were in position, Victoria called to the cadets, “Everyone, take your position! On my signal, combat begins!”
The cadets set off as one, though they broke tight ranks once they cleared the energy net. Keryn lost sight of Iana amid the other black-suited students. Finding a comfortable corner far from the others, she scanned the field. It was hard to discern individual cadets over such a distance, though white Avalon wings were easy to spot. Keryn wished she knew which one was Sasha. Nothing would please her more than putting a laser shot into that arrogant girl’s back.
Though she wanted revenge for the incessant teasing that school year, Keryn calmed her desire to hunt Sasha solely and observed the rest of the field. Many students flew in lazy circles at their start
ing positions, but an equal number struggled in place. Judging distances between them and herself, Keryn laid out a mental map of the field, choosing weaker targets nearby to eliminate first.
Though she wasn’t nearly as concerned with poor fliers on the field, she knew even the weakest opponent could get lucky and eliminate her. Once her initial plan was done, and she reached the far side of the field, she’d have to improvise. Feeling confident again, she fidgeted with her pistol and knife, eager to begin.
The starting klaxon came without warning, roaring loudly across the expanse. Eager to begin, Keryn initially floundered weakly. She reached back with her legs to kick off a wall only to realize nothing was available. It was precious seconds later that she regained control and pressed the accelerator on her jetpack. Readjusting, she cursed her carelessness. Many of her targets had shifted or were already eliminated by stronger opponents. Some were still near their starting positions, hanging in place as if waiting for others to come to them.
As she flew at breakneck speeds across the course, Keryn aimed at the first of the hangers and fired her pistol, then frowned as the streak of blue light petered out some distance from her target. She could’ve sworn her opponent was closer, but distances in the air were deceiving. Thankfully, her target hadn’t noticed her.
Continuing her forward flight, she scanned for other cadets who might be a threat. The immediate airway seemed clear, though many students plummeted to the net. She heard the sounds of battle all around, including above and below. The assault of spherical sound was disorienting, and she struggled to identify individual sounds nearby. Blocking out the distractions, she again focused on her target.
As she came closer, she saw the frightened features of a female Uligart hanging in the air. The Uligart fired warning shots at those who passed nearby, but she never came close to eliminating anyone. Keryn closed in rapidly, not bothering to decelerate, lowering her head with reckless abandon.
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