Passing through that mess wouldn’t be easy, but she had no time to waste. Firing her jets, she flew forward at incredible speed, eager to break through the airborne duels and reach the far side alive and flying.
Keryn passed between pairs of cadets deep in combat, appearing as little more than a blur as she shot through the air. She broke cleanly through them, striking surprised cadets with well-placed punches and kicks that sent them pinwheeling away, as she passed. She fired a few shots toward those beyond her reach who she thought might be threats, but those shots were more suppressive fire than laser blasts that connected. Dodging a pair of cadets engaged in hand-to-hand fighting, their wavering knives flashing in the morning air, Keryn drew closer to Iana.
She would’ve loved to spend more time eliminating the rest of the cadets in her way, knowing each one she shot was one less threat for later. Unfortunately, to stand a chance, she needed to keep to her timeline. Breaking past the last of the blocking students, Keryn found herself in open air.
Having moved steadily upward as she flew, Keryn found Iana below, engaged with a darting student who moved so quickly from side-to-side that Keryn had trouble identifying him. His fluid motions in the air left Iana on the defensive and dangerously close to being eliminated. Trying to flee his attacks, Iana launched herself straight back out of his reach.
As the attacker leveled out, Keryn saw the bony protrusions of Zalide’s high brow line. From her vantage point, she saw the haughty smile on his lips she was so eager to remove.
Tilting her body, she dived. The focused Uligart didn’t see her. For the first time, she found herself truly appreciating the aspects of three-dimensional combat, as she fell on him from above. Arching her back, she dropped directly between the fighting pair. Zalide threw himself back, stopping before he crashed into Keryn.
With only the briefest smile, she dropped into a crouch in midair and spun, extending her legs in a sweep. Her heel struck the side of Zalide’s leg, as he struggled to get his bearings. Without the confines of ground combat, the sweep of her leg didn’t drop him to the ground, but it made him spin rapidly in place.
Taking advantage of the opening, Keryn slashed both his shins with her blade, paralyzing both legs. As he stopped, upright once more before her, she saw his haughty smile replaced by a snarl of rage. Extending the blade of his knife, he swung at her in a wide arc.
Keryn quickly countered, bringing her pistol butt down on his wrist. Howling in pain, he dropped the knife into the lake. With a satisfying backhand, she knocked the snarl from his face. His look of disbelief continued moments later when she slashed both his arms with the knife, paralyzing his remaining limbs. Frozen and unable to do more than hover, he watched her place her gun against his stomach.
She leaned close and whispered, “Get comfortable in the water. Don’t worry. I’ll send your girlfriend to you shortly.”
She squeezed the trigger. Zalide grunted in anguish, as his suit tightened around him, and his jet pack failed. Within moments, the Uligart plummeted to the net, his eyes firmly locked on the Wyndgaart waving mockingly, as he fell.
Sensing someone behind her, Keryn spun, her gun raised. A few feet away, Iana stared at her, her own pistol pointed at Keryn. For seconds, they stared at each other, then Keryn raised her gun and both hands.
“I’m not here to fight you,” she said.
“If you aren’t here to fight, what are you doing?” Suspicion shone in Iana’s eyes. She glanced nervously right and left, expecting an ambush.
Keryn smiled disarmingly, keeping her hands wide to allay any thought of hostility. “I’m helping you.”
“I see that, but why?”
It was clear Iana struggled with the idea of someone helping her during a solo competition. It wasn’t surprising. When there could be only one winner, it seemed unlikely that a fellow cadet would help unless he expected to gain something. The truth was, Keryn did have something to gain from her actions.
Knowing it was now or never, she explained her plan. “I’m offering a truce.” Before Iana could protest, she added, “I know that’s not what you’re expecting, but hear me out.”
Iana scanned back and forth, watching the nearby cadets, then nodded for Keryn to continue.
“Yesterday, we fought alone, and both of us were eliminated in the bottom half of the class. It took until last night for me to realize something important about why we lost. Yes, the joust is a competition only one person can win, but alone, neither of us has the skill to come out on top. I’m ready to admit it. More importantly, I’m willing to admit I need help. Specifically, your help.”
“You want us to fight together, like teammates?”
“Exactly!”
“I’m hearing you, but why me? There are plenty of cadets who are better.”
Keryn shrugged. Iana was right. “That’s true, but none I trust more than you. Also, none have nearly as much to gain from an alliance as we do.” She laughed at herself. “We suck alone, but together, we could be unstoppable. Think about it, Iana. Forget the base instinct that tells you I’m setting you up and trust me.”
Keryn saw contemplation in the Pilgrim’s eyes, as Iana quickly calculated the chances of success.
“Let’s say we do this,” Iana said, “and, by some miracle, we wind up the last two. What happens then?”
“Are you asking if I’ll let you win? Absolutely not. If we’re the last two flying, I’ll shoot you in the back the first chance I get.”
Iana laughed and lowered her weapon. “At least I know where I stand with you. Let’s say I believe you, which I’m still not sure I do. What do we do first?”
Keryn smiled maliciously. “Ever since I arrived at the Academy, people have been calling me savage. I’ve done my best to disprove them. Right now, I’m looking forward to showing them just how savage I can be.”
Iana’s smile matched Keryn’s. “Now you’re talking a language I understand. Let’s find our first prey.”
The pair fell upon their first unsuspecting victim with unmatched ferocity. No tactics were used. Instead, Keryn dropped to one side of the surprised Oterian, as Iana sank to the other. He swung wildly with his blade, battering at the two dodging women with his pistol as a club instead of using it to shoot.
The pair never stopped moving, flanking and harassing him from all side. Arriving near his feet, Keryn slashed both legs, while Iana cut his knife arm. Paralyzed in three limbs, he turned and fired his jet pack, eager to escape the savage women.
Launching skyward, both of them fell on his back, as he limped away, driving in their daggers. As his jetpack died, he dropped like a rock. Before he was ten feet down, the duo set out for their next target.
Keryn and Iana leaped through the air like felines, pouncing on one cadet after another. Their prey reached slowly to the new paradigm shift, suddenly facing two targets, not one. Many faced Iana, as she flitted past, only to be struck down by Keryn’s brutal attack from behind.
Slowly, the pair picked apart the tradition of the aerial joust, degrading the more-honorable conventions of the Academy’s mainstay. In its stead, they created a barbaric battlefield.
For the first time since she arrived, Keryn began to feel at home. The weaving, serpentine strikes were familiar. The bloodlust of battle burned in her veins, as cadet after cadet dropped to the net, then to the lake. As they fell away, Keryn reveled in the disbelieving looks that remained long after realization of defeat dawned on those souls. The idea of teamwork in the aerial joust was too foreign for them to grasp, even after witnessing it firsthand.
After eliminating another pair of cadets, something strange happened to Keryn and Iana. Someone offered them a truce. Much as Keryn did for her roommate at the start of the joust, a young male Lithid named Malyster holstered his pistol and sheathed his knife as they flew toward him. Raising his hands, he requested amnesty.
“I want in,” he said bluntly. “You’re decimating the other students, which leaves me little doubt which side I
want to be on.”
“What’s stopping us from just shooting you now?” Iana growled, her pistol aimed at the Lithid.
Keryn placed a hand over Iana’s weapon and pushed it down, as the trio hovered in midair. “Because, correct me if I’m wrong, we’ll need the extra help.”
“Everyone knows about your rivalry with Sasha,” Malyster admitted. “If you want to get through her lackeys and have a chance at taking her out, you’ll need my help.”
“Welcome to the team,” Keryn said with an evil smile.
Over a dozen more students were eliminated by the group before the others realized what they were doing. Suddenly, even confident competitors flew away, when Keryn’s team approached. The space around them cleared of potential targets, as the remaining half of the class alternated their attention between current battles and the unexpected group.
Disappointed by the lack of prey, Iana pouted. “Now that they’re on to us, what do we do?”
Keryn shrugged. There were aspects of her plan she never took into account. She hadn’t foreseen other cadets joining them, nor had she planned on others realizing her strategy and avoiding her team altogether. They were at an impasse until they could figure out their next move.
To Keryn, only one person existed who they needed to hunt, a prey who wouldn’t run if attacked by her team. In the distance, hovering at an altitude just below, Keryn spotted the cadet she wanted. Her eyes narrowed with unbridled hatred, as she pointed at the distant figure.
“There’s our next target.”
Iana and Malyster saw the female Avalon and her cohorts attacking a smaller group of cadets.
“Sasha?” Iana asked. “You think you’re ready for this?”
“I've been waiting for this chance a long time,” Keryn said. “I’m not about to miss it. “
“All right. What’s the plan? How should we play this?”
Keryn turned toward their Lithid teammate. “It’s time we put Malyster to work.”
Sasha smiled, as yet another cadet dropped into the net. The four friends flying around her assured her a victory, just as they had the previous day. Their strength in numbers left her with little concern about opponents, knowing no one could withstand five attackers simultaneously.
A disturbance on the far side of the field had been catching her attention for some time. Though she found it hard to believe, there was another group working together, eliminating students at nearly the same pace she was. There was marked fear and worry among the single cadets, whenever that trio came closer.
Before attacking the most-recent pair of cadets, Sasha lost sight of the trio. The commotion they caused faded. Disappointment replaced her curiosity, as she realized she wouldn’t have a chance to meet the other group and prove her superiority in the air. Instead, she relegated herself to searching for her next prey, as her four friends hovered protectively nearby.
A laser blast cut through the late-morning air, catching the female Avalon above Sasha just below the chin. She jerked, as her suit constricted, leaving her paralyzed. She fell with pleading eyes, lost to the net and the lake.
Spinning with hatred in her eyes, Sasha searched for the arrogant cadet who dared attack her. To her right and a little below, she saw the perpetrator moments before she fired again. Dodging quickly to the left, she watched the laser blast slide harmlessly past and strike the leg of one of her friends. Growling with anger, Sasha watched, as Keryn turned and flew quickly away like a thief in the night.
Sasha dropped into a dive, and her friends struggled to keep up with the determined Avalon. Though Keryn was the victim of Sasha’s ridicule, it was Sasha who felt most insulted. The thought of a Wyndgaart, a savage, living and flying side-by-side with her, nauseated the Avalon. To be able to embarrass Keryn in front of the class seemed a fitting finale to the derision since arriving at the Academy.
Quickly outpacing the three remaining members of her entourage, Sasha grew closer to the fleeing Wyndgaart. She wouldn’t require her friends’ help. She never had. Their friendship hinged on their establishment as a status symbol.
For Sasha, the more people around her, the more important she was to those upon whom she looked down. They were unnecessary, however, when it came to dealing with a savage. Sasha looked forward to reveling in the kill. Frowning softly, she realized how much she wished the knife would do more than just stun Keryn.
Keryn led her on a wild chase, weaving in and around several battling cadets. Her wings spread wide, Sasha glided easily past the obstacles, as she narrowed the savage’s lead. By the time she reached a comfortable distance to try shooting her with the pistol, there was a considerable gap between Sasha and her friends.
When it was wide enough, Keryn spun and flew backward without looking where she went. To Sasha’s surprise, Keryn raised empty hands, closing them into fists before extending the middle finger on each.
As the Avalon watched, her pistol momentarily forgotten, the tanned skin and colorful tattoos on Keryn’s skin began to run. Flesh hung loosely on her skull before being slowly absorbed like water into the oily, black skin beneath. Keryn’s features disappeared, replaced by a Lithid’s blank, oval face.
Even without a face, Sasha could tell the Lithid was smiling and mocking her. She howled in rage at being tricked, as she raised her pistol.
Keryn and Iana dived behind Sasha’s friends, as they lagged behind. In their eagerness to catch up to the Avalon, they failed to pay attention to threats around them. Before they knew there was danger, Keryn body-slammed the back of an Uligart female, driving her knife deep into her. Over her shoulder, Iana placed two well-aimed shots at another Avalon and froze her in place. Before the third friend could react, Keryn leaped from her perch on the paralyzed Uligart, spun in midair, and fired down, as the last of Sasha’s friends tried to track the Wyndgaart’s movements. The laser blasts struck the girl’s shoulders simultaneously, while Iana’s shots hit her fully in the chest. Stunned, her suit seized, as her two companions plummeted to the net.
Beyond Keryn and Iana, they heard laser fire and looked away from the three they just defeated in time to see Malyster fall toward the gossamer webbing after being shot and eliminated by a vengeful Sasha.
Keryn knew she should’ve felt remorse over having him eliminated after he served as bait, yet she didn’t. Malyster was useful and put her in a position to exact her revenge against the Avalon. She would feel guilty only if she fell to the net, not Sasha, and there was no way she’d let that happen.
Turning in the air, Sasha saw the two hovering nearby. Even from a great distance, the hatred on her face was apparent. Screaming obscenities that were barely audible over the gulf separating them, Sasha launched herself toward Keryn and Iana.
Iana dropped into a fighting stance, but Keryn placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
“Watch if you want,” Keryn said, “but Sasha’s mine.”
Dejected, Iana sheathed her knife and flew a safe distance away to observe. If necessary, she would intercede before Keryn was eliminated.
Once Iana was clear, Keryn launched herself at the charging Avalon, eager to meet her halfway. Her breath was quick and rough in her throat, as adrenalin coursed through her system. With their jetpacks at full throttle, the pair quickly closed the distance.
When they met in the middle, their blades flashed. In the span of one breath, each expertly sliced and parried before separating.
Behind Keryn, Sasha moaned softly, as her left leg seized from a well-placed strike. Keryn’s celebration was cut short, though, when she felt tightness in her knife arm. Her suit constricted across her bicep. Rolling pain washed over her elbow and forearm before finally paralyzing her hand. Her arm disabled, the limb was squeezed tightly against her side.
“You aren’t good enough to beat me, Savage!” Sasha masked the pain in her stiff leg.
Keryn turned toward her, her sore arm quickly going numb from lack of blood. Already, Sasha came at her. Snarling, Keryn turned and fled with Sasha in p
ursuit. Barrel rolling to one side, Keryn narrowly dodged red laser fire. Unrelenting, Sasha fired volley after volley, each barely missing Keryn, as she used fellow cadets as shields and obstacles. Keryn felt frustration building in her chest, as she fled.
Not yet, the Voice whispered. Give it a second longer.
For once, she was glad for at least one reassuring voice amid the sea of cynics. Behind her, she heard a break in the laser attacks, as Sasha adjusted for a better shot.
She didn't need the Voice to tell her it was time. Tucking her good arm to her side, she tipped her body and dropped into a steep dive. As she cut fluidly through the air, Keryn opened a sizeable lead on Sasha before the Avalon realized what happened.
Tucking her wings to her sides, she dropped from the sky, following Keryn toward the quickly rising net. More adept at flight, the Avalon sliced easily through the air and gained on Keryn.
At the last moment, Keryn arched her back and pulled her body upward, barely avoiding the grasping web. Still above her, Sasha had more reaction time, as Keryn shot past her in a steady climb. Extending her wings, Sasha halted her momentum and launched herself skyward to chase the Wyndgaart.
“Did you honestly think it would be that easy, Savage?” Sasha shouted, her words stolen by the wind rushing past her face. “Did you think an Avalon would be stupid enough to be caught in the web? Give it up, Savage! You’ll never beat me!”
Keryn’s ears popped from the rapid climb. Though seemingly far away, she heard Sasha’s mocking calls. Desire for revenge burned strongly in her chest, threatening to consume.
Confident she was high enough, Keryn smiled softly and whispered, “You haven’t seen me be savage yet.”
Cutting off her pack in midflight, momentum carried her upward a few more feet before gravity took hold. Arching in the air, she flipped at the pinnacle of her climb before plummeting right toward the unsuspecting Avalon.
Burden of Sisyphus Page 22