Chapter 420: The Long Way Round

Lucian’s duel was first on Sunday afternoon. He and Kite passed their morning recheck, though Jin noticed how carefully his friend warmed up before taking his place.

Jin watched from the stands with Flicker on his good arm. Glitch had been left in the stall to sleep off the ox, which he’d been very willing to do.

The duel ground measured roughly forty metres by thirty, with a continuous boundary and a few barrier blocks for cover.

Seed 18 was Tessa Rourke, a slim fourth-year listed at Rank 2, 3-Star. Her Needlewing Swift was a beast Jin had never seen up close.

The sharp-tailed, dark-blue bird darted between the blocks, scarcely seeming to settle anywhere.

[Needlewing Swift — Quality: Gold (Low). Combat Rank: 2 — 3-Star.]

Same as Kite, he thought. Different shape.

The first five minutes were hard to watch.

The swift kept cutting across Kite’s approach, threatening her wings with quick passes before she could settle into a stoop. When she turned to meet it, it curved away instead of contesting her stronger strike.

And every time Kite broke off and came back toward Lucian, to reset, the swift chased her home.

Then Tessa moved.

She’d been waiting. When Kite came back to Lucian, Lucian always shifted to cover her landing, a step or two toward the open side.

The second time, Tessa’s practice blade was waiting where he stepped. He spent Stormstep escaping the interception.

She did it twice more. The third time, Lucian slipped, and the crowd gasped, and Jin’s hand closed on the rail.

She’s fighting the return, he thought. Not the bird. The bit where the bird comes home.

Lucian saw it too. Jin could tell by the way he stood after the third time, very still, breathing hard, watching Tessa instead of Kite.

He started moving them.

He gave ground toward two barrier blocks near the eastern boundary.

Tessa followed, keeping her distance, waiting for the next return. The swift kept harrying Kite above them.

Then Kite came back toward Lucian, as she had every time, with the swift on her tail. Tessa started moving toward the landing.

Kite didn’t land.

She passed Lucian’s shoulder and rounded the nearer barrier block, tight to the stone.

The swift followed her around the block, briefly losing a direct line back to its tamer.

Tessa was already in motion. She’d moved to where Lucian always stepped. She was standing there, blade up, side-on to the line, two metres from it.

And Lucian hadn’t stepped there.

He’d stayed where he was, on her open side, with the whole width of her body between him and the boundary.

Jin saw her realise it.

Stormstep carried Lucian to Tessa’s open side. He checked his speed and caught her hurried blade recovery with the middle of his stave, directing it away from his body.

Tessa turned with the pressure rather than fighting it. She got her weapon free and stepped back to restore its reach. Lucian followed, keeping the stave between her blade and the route inward.

She still had space along the line. She tried to pivot into it, but Kite emerged around the block and made a controlled approach toward that shoulder. Tessa raised her guard; Lucian used the opening below it to press her upper arm with the padded end of his stave.

It turned her attempted pivot into another backward step. She tried to recover inward, found his stave already covering that line, and retreated once more to keep her balance. This time her whole body passed beyond the boundary.

Lucian stopped immediately. Kite broke away above them, leaving the swift room to return to Tessa.

The referee’s flag went up.

The crowd sounded surprised. Jin sat down, realising he’d been standing.

Lucian walked off the duel ground with Kite on his arm and his face blank, the way it went when he was trying not to show anything. Jin met him at the rail.

"You let her take the long way," Jin said.

Lucian nodded, watching Kite settle her feathers. "We’d practised it. I kept moving too soon and bringing everything back together." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Nearly did it again."

"I couldn’t tell."

"Good." Lucian laughed softly.

He leaned on the rail for a long moment. Then he said, "I’m in the eight," as if he’d only just heard it.

Seed 11 beat seed 14 later that afternoon, a long, grinding match between two heavy ground beasts that ended when 14’s tamer was pushed out at the corner. Seed 11 would meet seed 1 on Wednesday.

Jin spent Monday trying not to turn rest into another job. He lasted until breakfast before checking the week’s schedule again.

Verrick examined both beasts that morning and watched Glitch walk up the incline ramp.

"Healing normally," he said. "He’s stiff in the left shoulder. That’s the bruise under the plate. It’ll ease. Light work tomorrow, nothing heavy. She’s fine. She’s just tired."

The medic checked Jin’s arm and watched him walk, crouch and turn. The bruises remained tender, but his hip moved freely now. She allowed light practice on Tuesday, provided it stayed comfortable. He did a short maintenance session with the partly used stone, slept, then watched footage.

Her name was Iselle Dray, a fourth-year from the other practical group, Rank 2, 4-Star. She fought with a long practice glaive.

Her partner was a Stonecrest Basilisk, a low, heavy reptile with a crest of grey stone plates down its back and a thick, armoured tail.

[Stonecrest Basilisk — Quality: Gold (Middle). Combat Rank: 2 — 4-Star.]

He replayed the approaches that troubled her opponents most.

The basilisk spat stone. They were compact, hard shots, fired low across the ground, and they were used to shut lanes down. Opponents who tried to approach Iselle had to dodge them, forcing choices about where to move next.

Iselle’s talent briefly extended a committed thrust with a pale length of energy. It added reach along the weapon’s line, then vanished as she recovered.

It didn’t bend, and it didn’t follow anyone. But it was there, and it was fast.

In the exchanges Jin replayed, the opposing beast drew a shot, its tamer moved around the firing lane, and Iselle intercepted the approach. The thrust usually followed the shot closely.

Shot, then thrust, he thought, and wrote it down. Dodge the shot, wait a beat, and the thrust is gone. Go after it.

He drew a question mark beside the timing. It looked worth testing.

On Tuesday, they worked through short, slow sets with rests between them. Kite had passed her post-duel checks; neither friend wanted to waste the recovery days by turning practice into another fight.

Lucian tossed a soft practice bag across an empty lane to represent the shot, then used his stave to test Jin’s approach around it.

Jin waited for the bag to cross, counted a beat and moved. The timing worked twice, then Lucian caught his guard on the third attempt by delaying his thrust.

"Don’t count for her," Lucian warned.

Jin circled the question mark in his notes afterward. He knew there would be more to it in the arena. He just couldn’t feel the difference yet.

Jin’s quarterfinal was second on Wednesday, after seed 1 defeated seed 11.

He heard the result from the waiting bay. The morning checks had cleared him and both beasts, though the medic had warned that his forearm would remain tender. He flexed his fingers around the practice spear while Glitch rested his chin against his knee.

"You need that head out there," Jin told him. "Don’t leave it with me."

Glitch lifted it reluctantly when the attendant called.