Chapter 393: A Reach of His Own

Chapter 393: A Reach of His Own

Crowe’s Thursday group met in Yard Two, which had a high wall, a sand floor and nobody watching.

There were six of them. Lucian was there already, stretching against the wall, and he lifted a hand when Jin came in, as if this were nothing unusual. Jin hadn’t known Lucian was in it.

"A few sessions," Lucian said. "Crowe asked after he saw my stopping drill. I thought he’d already spoken to you."

The other four were further along in Rank Two. Jin knew two of them by sight. One was a tall, sharp-faced girl with a hound-like beast called a Ridgerunner, which never stopped moving.

The other was a heavyset boy named Bram Teller, who had a slate-grey bear and a wooden practice blade hanging from his belt.

The others nodded, waiting to see what he could do.

Crowe gave Jin the names he didn’t know, then pointed toward the equipment at the far end.

"Coordination first. Astor, you’re up."

A padded sled ran on ropes through low guide rings, controlled by a handler behind the barrier. Jin had to strike its marked panel with Flicker, then stop it with Glitch before it crossed the end line. The handler could change its speed or reverse it.

Jin took a moment to check the ropes and point out Flicker’s exit. Her shot hit the panel as the sled rounded a guide. When the handler reversed it, she was already climbing clear; Jin held Glitch back until the rope settled, then sent him across the new line.

Glitch braced against the pad and stopped it short of the chalk. Jin called him clear of the rope before looking at Crowe.

Nobody said anything, but the sharp-faced girl’s eyebrows went up a little. When Jin walked back to the wall, Bram Teller moved over a step to make room for him.

"You didn’t send the drake until she was clear," Bram said.

"She’s quick enough. I used to watch where the shot landed and forget to move her."

Bram nodded. "Good stop, too."

Then Crowe took the beasts away.

"Tamers only," he said. "Practice weapons. Teller, you’re with Astor."

Bram took the wooden blade off his belt. It was short, about the length of his forearm, and padded along one edge. Crowe handed Jin a padded stave.

"First touch," Crowe said. "Go."

Bram approached with the blade low and loose. Jin kept his weight balanced and watched Bram’s front foot, as he’d practised.

When Bram lunged, Jin stepped out sideways, clean and light, exactly the step Lucian had beaten into him.

Bram’s blade went through the air where Jin’s chest had been.

Jin felt a flash of pure satisfaction.

Then Bram simply turned and came after him.

He didn’t lunge again. He walked forward, one step, two, closing the distance Jin had just made. Jin stepped again. Bram followed. Jin stepped back. Bram came forward.

Jin raised the stave, and Bram knocked it aside with his free forearm, almost lazily. He came another step closer, and the padded edge of the blade tapped Jin on the ribs.

"Touch," Crowe said.

Jin stared at the stave. He’d made the step correctly. How had Bram caught him so easily?

"Again," Crowe said.

It happened again. This time, Jin got off two sidesteps before Bram’s blade found him, and the second one put his back against the wall.

The third time, Jin tried Gravity Press. He set the patch where Bram’s foot was going, the way he’d done to the badger in Yard Four. But Bram hadn’t committed his weight.

Bram checked his step as Jin cast, taking his weight back before committing. He circled the small patch and tapped Jin on the shoulder.

"Stop," Crowe said, walking over.

"You’re getting off the first line," Crowe said. "Then you keep giving ground until there’s none left."

He asked Bram to approach again, slowly, and stopped him a pace from Jin.

"Your stave can make him work to get this close. At the moment you’re carrying it behind the movement. Try putting the point between you as you step."

Jin tried. Bram knocked it aside, but this time he had to do that before following.

"Better," Crowe said. "Your beast work was well timed. You need a useful second action of your own, too."

He thought about it all the way back to the stables.

In the equipment store the next afternoon, he took down every training weapon he could find and tried it in the corridor outside, with Glitch lying along the wall, watching.

The short blades felt wrong. He had to get close to use them, and getting close was exactly the problem.

The long staves were better, but they were clumsy, and when he swung one round, it caught on Glitch’s horn and made both of them jump.

A training spear in the back rack was a little taller than him, with a padded wooden head and a plain grip. He stepped back with its point extended. An attacker would have to get past that first, and when he turned carefully beside Glitch, it cleared the drake’s horns.

He tried the sidestep with it, the back-foot step Lucian had taught him. When he came out of the step, the spear tip came round with him and pointed back at where an attacker would be.

Oh, he thought. That’s the follow-up.

He was terrible with it, of course. He knew that after five minutes. His hands didn’t know where to go, and he kept looking at the tip instead of the space. But it felt like the right kind of terrible.

He signed it out to practise with.

That weekend, he went back to the Engine.

He spent Friday and Saturday nights on the edges of the grotto, running Glitch and Flicker against the smaller things that lived there: the hoofed climbers and the pale-winged sleepers when they woke and swarmed.

They were easy fights, and they built development a little at a time.

[Upper Grotto — encounter cleared]

[Reward: 10,000 Coins]

He did it twice, once each night.

After Saturday’s encounter, he left Glitch below the chamber and sent Flicker through the high slot to watch the ibex for an hour.

They had habits. They spent most of their time on the middle tier, near the nodules, grazing on something that grew in the cracks.

When a smaller climber ventured onto the lower floor, two ibex descended while the third took the eastern shelf, just as before. That long, narrow approach took time.

If the fight happened far enough from the ramp, toward the middle of the lower floor and away from the east wall, the third ibex would have to come down onto the floor to join it. It couldn’t drop on anyone from above.

He drew it on the back of the receipt.

Before closing the Engine, he added Glitch’s condition to the recovery record he’d kept since the scrape on the ramp.

His recovery notes now covered several weeks. He compared similar injuries rather than simply choosing the biggest increase. The steadier periods matched the days he’d kept up regular meals, his usual blood-support supplements and decent sleep. Skipped dinners and late nights appeared beside slower recoveries more often than he liked.

The connection fitted what he’d learned about his blood reserve. Keeping it replenished supported a living avatar’s normal recovery; this wasn’t another payment being drawn from him. Actual Engine charges still used Lives automatically, including charges unrelated to death. His reserve of five had not changed.

A meal just before a fight couldn’t undo days of neglect. He crossed out the late session he’d pencilled in for Sunday and moved it earlier.

Apparently I have to feed myself as well, he thought. Glitch would have found that obvious.

He thought about the Imitation Draconic Heart.

At Highmarch he’d watched the real Glitch break himself with it. An avatar gave him room to use that strength without putting the living beast through the same aftermath. The strain would still leave the avatar vulnerable until it recovered.

He brought the chamber sketch closer and marked the sheltered strip behind the quarry blocks. If he could isolate one ibex near that retreat, a short burst might finish it before the others intervened. He needed the way out ready before he activated anything.

On Monday, Verrick completed the beasts’ course checks. He was pleased with Glitch’s joints and the settled seams of his plates, and with Flicker’s flight endurance. Jin listened to the maintenance instructions, then tucked the report away. It was good to finish a course with both beasts impatient to get back outside.

That evening he reviewed the unused development in the Engine. There was more to earn before a transfer. He could wait.