Chapter 346: Six Stripes

It started as a trickle, exactly like the practice sessions.

Warmth gathered beneath Jin’s breastbone. He held his attention on it until the current steadied, then let Glitch send more. The second flow was stronger, the third stronger again, but he kept the rhythm they had practiced.

“Conduction steady,” Brand said behind him. “You’re doing well.”

Jin barely heard the second part. He could feel the energy remaining now instead of dispersing when the next flow arrived. It gathered deeper in his chest, somewhere he couldn’t have pointed to with a finger.

His hand tightened against Glitch’s neck. He loosened it deliberately and concentrated on the next wave.

The gathered energy began to turn.

At first, he felt only a gentle inward pull. Then the loose warmth contracted around a center, drawing itself into a sphere. Its edges trembled whenever more energy entered, and Jin found he could steady them if he kept his attention on the whole shape.

That’s it. I’m actually doing it.

The thought almost distracted him. He caught the next uneven ripple before it spread, embarrassed despite being the only person who knew how close he had come to losing concentration because he was pleased with himself.

Under his palm, Glitch’s plates grew hotter.

A deep rumble vibrated through Jin’s back. The beast shifted, muscles tightening beneath his armor, and the next current struck hard enough to make Jin’s teeth clench. The forming sphere bulged to one side.

He wanted to seize the flow and force it into place. The impulse was immediate, as familiar as his first mistake in Brand’s assessment room.

Finish what’s here.

Jin resisted the urge to pull. He settled the energy he already held while sending Glitch a strained request for less. For a moment, the flow remained too strong, and sweat ran down his temple.

Then it eased.

Glitch’s shoulder pressed more firmly against him. Jin matched the slower supply, working around the distorted edge until the sphere rounded again.

“Holding,” Brand said. “Stay with that.”

He did, although his hands had begun to shake. Each adjustment seemed small until he neglected it; then the whole formation tugged at his attention.

With the flow running at this strength, he became aware of something beneath his effort. Energy crossed his side of the bond through a passage far broader than the currents he had practiced receiving. Even when he hesitated, the connection held steady enough for him to recover.

It felt familiar.

Jin had watched the Engine carry development into Glitch’s body many times. Now he could feel the strength of that connection from inside the process.

So that’s what she’s measuring.

Relief nearly made him careless. The sphere wavered, and he corrected it, reminded that a generous margin did not mean he could stop paying attention. Glitch was still supplying the energy. Jin still had to give it somewhere stable to go.

He settled into the work. As the sphere tightened, its edges became easier to distinguish, and the strain of holding it gradually changed into a sense of weight.

The first stripe formed across its surface.

Jin followed the bright band as it closed around the sphere. Another appeared beside it, then a third. Each completed line steadied the formation, making the next surge less difficult to receive.

By the fifth, he was afraid to feel pleased again.

He waited, holding the flow as evenly as he could. A sixth line traced its way around the Core and joined at the far side. The slight wobble ceased.

Energy settled into the finished sphere.

For several breaths, Jin kept trying to support it before realizing he no longer needed to. The Core held its own shape. When Glitch’s supply diminished, a reserve remained inside Jin, warm and distinct.

Behind him, Brand had stopped talking.

Glitch was still changing. Beneath Jin’s hand, old scale loosened in thin curls as broader plates pushed through. He lifted his palm and watched the new armor settle along a neck that had thickened while he was too occupied to notice.

Alcott moved closer to Glitch’s head.

“Keep your hand clear of the shedding plates,” he said. “He’s stable.”

Jin shifted away carefully. Glitch’s shoulders broadened, the muscles beneath them drawing his forelimbs into a wider stance. New plating rose along his spine, overlapping from the back of his skull toward a tail that slowly extended across the mat.

The horns swept farther back, their ridged bases thickening before the tips curved outward. Glitch rumbled through the effort, eyes half closed, and Jin stayed beside him with one hand resting where the new scales had already settled.

He remembered a hatchling that could fit across his lap. Now he had to lean forward to reach the top of Glitch’s head.

When the heat began to fade, Glitch stretched one foreleg. His claws scraped the mat, and he looked down at them as though checking someone else’s work.

Jin laughed under his breath.

“Yeah. Those are yours.”

Brand checked the beast’s readings with Alcott while Jin slipped out his phone. His thumb left a damp mark on the screen.

[Glitch — Armored Ground Drake (Grey Rock lineage, atavistic)]

[Quality: Gold (Low)]

[Combat Rank: 2 — Ironclad]

[Stars: 1]

He stared at the Quality line.

All the grinding, the fruit, the skills Glitch had learned and struggled to bear; Jin had hoped they would amount to this. Seeing Gold written there made him want to show someone the screen.

He locked the phone instead.

Glitch had developed a longer, heavier frame, with powerful shoulders and a low, braced build. Even at rest, the shape of the drake suggested how hard it would be to knock him aside. Jin would have to learn his turning space again.

Before he could think further about it, a new sensation opened across the bond.

He recognized Harden first, a dense resistance that seemed to invite him to brace against it. Tremor Sense followed as a spreading awareness he couldn’t quite grasp. Gravity Press was clearer: a concentrated downward force, waiting for him to reach toward it.

There were other impressions, some faint or awkward. He let them pass. Brand had explained what this moment would offer, but feeling the possibilities made his mouth go dry.

One of them could become his.

He remembered Sera coming for him while Mantle occupied Glitch. He had moved, reacted, tried to keep himself out of danger, but there had been so little he could put between himself and her.

A moment’s interruption might have given him room. It might have let Glitch keep fighting without dividing his attention.

Jin chose Gravity Press.

The impression crossed the bond and settled into him. He felt its connection to his new reserve, then the shape his own version would take: a small, fixed patch of pressure that he could place and briefly sustain.

Trying to imagine using it felt awkward. He understood the action without possessing the practiced control to perform it well. When he checked the phone again, the Engine confirmed what he had received.

[Skill Assimilated: Gravity Press]

[Mastery: Basic]

On the other side of the bond, Glitch’s familiar skill remained. Jin’s version felt smaller and finer, something he would have to aim carefully.

He wanted to try it immediately.

“Jin.”

Brand’s voice brought his attention back to the room. She stood in front of him with her tablet held close, her expression caught between professional concentration and disbelief.

“I’m reading six stripes,” she said.

“I felt six.” His voice was hoarse. “Is the reading wrong?”

“I don’t think so.”

Alcott glanced up from Glitch. Brand checked the screen again before continuing.

“Six is genius class. With your recorded talent and his pre-breakthrough foundation, I would have been pleased with three. Four would have been exceptional.”

Jin looked down at his chest, absurdly expecting to see something through his shirt.

“We’ll repeat the measurement tomorrow, once you’ve settled,” Brand said. “Keep the number private for now.”

He nodded. He had enough trouble imagining telling his mother he was Rank 2 without explaining why the specialist needed to measure him twice.

Glitch raised his new head and swung it toward him. Jin braced for a nudge, but the drake lowered his nose to the pocket where the dried beetles usually lived.

The laugh escaped before Jin could stop it.

He leaned in, wrapped his arms around as much of Glitch’s neck as he could reach, and held him. The fresh armor was warm against his cheek.

“Yeah,” he said. “You did it. We did it.”

Glitch rumbled contentedly and kept sniffing for beetles.