Chapter 313: The Way Around

Glitch had crossed half the width of the starting area before Redoubt took its second step.

The scorpion only needed a small turn to keep its pincers between them. Jin had expected that. Seeing how little ground it surrendered was considerably more irritating than watching the recording.

"Easy," he told Glitch. "Show him the left."

Glitch angled inward. Redoubt opened its nearer pincer, leaving a narrow approach toward the armored front. Its tail drew back above the shell.

Jin called Glitch away before he entered reach.

Across the arena, Vesna Dahl moved a few steps to keep both beasts in view. She hadn’t chased the retreat, but she had advanced Redoubt just enough to reclaim the space Glitch had left.

All right. You want me doing the traveling.

He could afford some movement. He couldn’t afford to spend the whole bout circling a beast that turned comfortably in place.

His first serious attempt came down Redoubt’s right side.

Glitch feinted toward the open pincer and cut outward, forcing the scorpion to pivot. Dahl called a short command. Redoubt folded the pincer in, using the armored joint to block the route while the tail struck over its back.

"Out!" Jin called.

Glitch withdrew his head. The sting hit the grit close enough to throw dust across his muzzle.

Dahl followed that retreat with a forward snap. Glitch had to hurry another two strides before he could settle, and the scorpion recovered its guard while he was still turning.

She wasn’t simply waiting. Every time Jin tried to shorten the approach, she gave him something else to avoid.

He brought Glitch closer to his side of the arena and checked the distance behind them. The boundary was comfortably clear. He intended to keep it that way. Dahl had seen his boundary finishes too. If she could trap Glitch against the line, he would lose the room he needed to approach from the side.

Dahl glanced toward Sablecourt’s team area during the reset.

Jin didn’t need to know what their coach had said. Against this style, impatience would get him caught; caution would keep Glitch moving until his legs grew heavy. Either suited the opponent waiting after her.

She can win this herself if I start thinking about the tiger.

He put Sablecourt’s gate out of his mind.

During the next exchange, Redoubt appeared late turning left.

Jin almost called for Gravity Press. Then he saw the tail poised over the gap and kept quiet.

Glitch tested the opening with an ordinary claw swipe instead. It scraped the flank plate without biting through. Redoubt leaned into the contact, and its pincer slammed across Glitch’s near side as he pulled away.

"Harden!"

The plating stiffened beneath the blow. Glitch grunted, staggered one step, and came back to Jin’s voice.

Dahl didn’t pursue far. She recovered the middle and made him start again.

Jin rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone without opening it. He wanted a shortcut badly enough to recognize the feeling. The scorpion was braced, its legs spread, and a pulse now would spend energy without giving him an entry.

He had already used Harden. He wanted the claw available for the next bout, if there was one. Dread might make Redoubt hesitate, but with the pincers already covering the route, hesitation alone wouldn’t get Glitch past them.

"Right again," he said. "Slow."

This time he watched the feet.

Redoubt could reach behind itself, just as Renn had warned. It needed to adjust its body to do it well.

Jin found that adjustment during a wide approach toward the rear quarter. The scorpion planted its rear legs, raised the tail higher, and sent the sting down beyond its own flank. Glitch stopped short of the strike, then had to retreat when Dahl turned the pincers toward him.

The tail’s recovery pulled Redoubt’s weight backward for a moment.

There was an opportunity there. Jin had seen it on a screen, but now he knew how far Glitch would have to travel and how quickly the pincer would arrive.

He spent the next exchanges checking the route. Once, Dahl reversed the turn early and forced Glitch away with both pincers. Another time, she advanced while he circled, making him change his angle to stay out of the sting’s reach.

By the eighth minute, Glitch was breathing hard. Short accelerations, abrupt stops, and bracing against counters had cost more than the distance suggested. He was still responding cleanly, but Jin could feel his growing irritation through the bond.

I know. I’m getting sick of this too.

He brought Glitch back toward Redoubt’s front and waited for the scorpion to settle.

"Closer," he said. "Then left."

Glitch advanced far enough that retreat would no longer clear the whole tail strike.

Dahl called it.

Redoubt’s rear legs planted, its body lowered, and the tail whipped overhead.

"Press. Rear legs!"

The first pulse caught the supporting stance under the scorpion’s hindquarters. Its legs buckled unevenly beneath the sudden downward pull. The sting kept moving, but the dropping body spoiled its line.

Glitch stepped outside the strike as it tore through the grit beside him.

"Go!"

He ran around the near flank while Redoubt hauled its weight off the sinking legs. He had started close enough to need only a short arc, but even that nearly wasn’t enough.

"Turn! Catch him!" Dahl ordered.

The scorpion planted a rear foot and drove into the pivot. Its near pincer swept backward across Glitch’s route.

Jin had been watching for that step.

"Press!"

The second patch formed beneath the loaded leg. Redoubt’s turn faltered as its weight dropped onto that side.

The pincer still came.

Glitch lowered his head and drove beneath its inner edge. One tip scraped over his shoulder, peeling a narrow strip of plating and opening a shallow cut. The jaws closed behind his foreleg without catching it.

He reached the rear quarter with the tail already rising again.

"Over. Hold the base!"

Glitch climbed across the lowered side of the shell and brought his chest down where the tail joined the body. He braced his hind feet in the grit and hooked a foreleg over the shell’s forward edge.

Redoubt tried to turn underneath him. Glitch shifted with it, keeping his weight low and pressing its forebody toward the ground. A pincer scraped along his outer plating but couldn’t fold far enough to close around him.

The tail lifted a little. Glitch tightened his hold, and it fell back.

Dahl moved sideways, searching for an angle from which Redoubt could roll free. Jin moved too, keeping his beast between them and denying her an easy personal approach.

"Hold," she told the scorpion, then watched its legs slip beneath the uneven load.

Glitch was having to work for every second of the pin. Jin could feel the strain through his planted forelimb. He kept his command steady rather than asking for more force.

After another unsuccessful turn, Dahl raised her hand.

"Yield."

"Match!" the referee called.

"Off," Jin said immediately.

Glitch released the shell and backed clear.

[Meridian 2 — Sablecourt 2]

Jin heard the cheers properly only after he reached Glitch.

He crouched beside the shoulder cut. Blood had tracked between two plates, but the flow was already slowing under Lesser Regeneration. There was no puncture from the sting, and Glitch let him check the foreleg without pulling away.

The near flank was tender where the pincer had struck through Harden. That bruise would stay with him into the next fight.

So would the effort.

Glitch’s sides moved heavily. A fine tremor passed through his shoulder as he shifted his stance, and Jin waited until he had all four feet settled before taking his hand away.

Two Gravity Press pulses. One brief use of Harden. Repeated approaches, and a pin against a beast that had fought to get loose.

He had saved Rending Dragon Claw and Faultline Rush. He wished he had saved more of Glitch’s strength with them.

Dahl led Redoubt past the opposite gate. She caught Jin’s eye and nodded once. Her scorpion was walking out under its own power, and Jin was glad of that even while he resented how thoroughly they had made him work.

Then the cheers began somewhere behind her.

Jin looked up. Sablecourt’s supporters were on their feet, calling a name he already knew.

Glitch nudged his hand, still breathing hard.

The next opponent wasn’t going to give them time to catch their breath.