Chapter 417: The Elbow

The boar had forced the lizard away from the Elbow. Its tamer backed toward the outer boundary, trying to get beside his beast. With only a pace left before the white line, he turned his back on the centre.

Jin could see the opportunity. He would have to leave cover, sprint across the open ground and approach from an angle the boy wasn’t watching. Crosswind Turn might help him redirect around the lizard, if the footing stayed clear.

His fingers tightened on the spear.

By then, the opening might be gone. He would still be beside the boundary, with a boar nearby and his cover abandoned.

I’ve got a place I can use. Keep it.

He stayed. A few exchanges later, the girl closed with her practice blade. The fourth-year retreated beyond the line before managing to bring his lizard between them.

A flag went up. Twenty-three tamers remained.

The girl glanced toward Jin, then took her boar into the western lane. He kept her in view until Flicker called sharply.

Through her eyes, he saw a tall boy approaching from the north with a plated, broad-shouldered beast and a dark hawk.

[Shellhorn Ox]

[Combat Rank: 2 — 4-Star]

The ox came straight at the gap in the blocks. Its tamer ran along the outside of the eastern wall, moving out of Jin’s direct view.

"Glitch, north. Meet it at the gap."

Glitch turned, planted his feet and Hardened as the ox struck. The impact jarred through the sand. He held, but the northern exit was gone.

The hawk dropped toward Flicker. She left the wall beneath its approach, then curved low around the blocks. When it climbed to come again, Jin saw the pressure it was applying. If she kept gaining height to evade it, she would run out of permitted airspace.

Stay low. Come back across Glitch’s rear.

She followed the sheltered line, making the hawk circle for another angle.

Jin moved toward the southern end of the timber wall. The boy came round it with his blade ready, having used the cover to reach him while the ox occupied Glitch.

Jin caught the first blow on his spear shaft. The jolt stung his hands. He gave ground toward the north blocks, keeping enough distance from the eastern wall to move sideways.

The boy followed, pressing the blade against the shaft and trying to drive it into Jin’s chest.

A Gravity Press beneath his next committed step might disrupt him. But Glitch’s hindfeet were close behind the boy; Jin couldn’t place the patch there cleanly without risking his own beast.

Movement caught his eye to the west. The boar girl had returned. Her beast turned toward Glitch’s exposed side, beyond the blocks.

Jin’s reserve still felt steady. His arms did not, and he couldn’t afford to remain pinned against this blade while she joined in.

He retreated a short step. The boy advanced to maintain contact, weight coming forward.

At the western opening, the boar lowered its head and started in.

Jin placed a brief pressure patch beneath its committed forestep, well away from Glitch. Its stride checked. The girl called sharply, and the boar gathered itself rather than stumbling onward.

That hesitation gave Jin room for his own move.

He stopped resisting the blade, turned the spear shaft aside and took two quick steps backward. Then Crosswind Turn redirected him sharply east, into the clear strip beside the timber wall.

He finished with his feet under him and released the pressure patch.

The boy followed through a pace before checking himself. He hadn’t fallen, but Jin was no longer directly in front of him. Turning to face Jin put his side toward the approaching boar.

The girl slowed. Her easy approach to Glitch now passed close to another tamer with a ready blade.

Jin brought his spear round. The turn had cost him a breath, but he could see all three opponents again. South was still open if he could disengage; north remained blocked by the struggling beasts.

Flicker swept low behind Glitch as the hawk circled. The ox shoved, and the drake’s claws scraped against the sand.

The boy glanced toward the boar, then back at Jin. He shifted his blade without committing.

Jin kept moving along the wall, refusing to let himself be fixed in place again. Somewhere across the arena, another whistle sounded. He couldn’t spare a look to count who had fallen.

Somewhere behind Jin, a whistle went. He didn’t look.

Jin kept moving beside the eastern timber wall, spear raised. Three metres away, the tall third-year had checked his advance to watch the Hornback Boar approaching his open side.

Its tamer looked from the swordsman to Jin. At the northern gap, Glitch’s hindfeet dug furrows in the sand as he braced against the Shellhorn Ox. Flicker kept low behind his shoulder, where the circling hawk couldn’t reach her without diving close to the drake.

Everybody’s looking at somebody else, Jin thought. For about three seconds.

He could see what happened next if he stayed. The boar girl and the third-year would sort out whose problem was whose, and whoever came out ahead would look round and see Jin, pressed against a wall, with the ox still pinning the north gap.

The south side was open. Broad lane, low mounds further down, nobody in it right now.

He didn’t like leaving. The Elbow had been the whole plan.

"Glitch," he said through the bond. "Push once. Then come back to me."

Glitch gathered himself under the pressure of the ox.

Draconic Dread came off the drake for a single breath, short and heavy, like a stove door opening. The ox was too big and too stubborn to run, but its head jerked back half a step.

Glitch Hardened and shoved, hard, sideways, turning the ox’s head toward the eastern block. Then he let go and stepped back out of the gap.

The ox came after him. Of course it did.

As the ox followed, Jin placed Gravity Press beneath its committed forestep, keeping the patch clear of Glitch’s retreating feet. The beast’s stride checked. Jin released the pulse before asking Glitch to turn.

The ox recovered almost at once, but Glitch was already swinging away. Jin backed along the wall to leave him room.

The Elbow was just big enough for that. Glitch swung round inside it, tail scraping the timber wall, and went for the south opening at a heavy trot. Jin went with him, along the wall, keeping the drake’s body between himself and the boar.

"Flicker. Low. With us."

She lifted from cover behind Glitch’s shoulder and followed him out, skimming along his flank. The hawk saw her move and dropped.

It came down steep and fast, and pulled out a metre above the sand, because Glitch was right there under it. It went up again empty, screaming.

They were out.

Jin glanced back once, because he couldn’t help it.

The ox had shouldered through the north gap into the empty Elbow, looking for Glitch. The third-year had turned to face the boar. The boar girl had decided. She was going in.

In two seconds, the place where Jin had been standing was full of horns and tusks and practice blades, as the two tamers contested the space he had abandoned.

That would have been me, he thought. In the middle.

He didn’t feel clever. He felt like someone who had walked out of a room just before the ceiling came down.

He took them south, to the first of the low earth mounds, and stopped behind it to breathe.