Chapter 421: The Beat After

Iselle Dray waited on the rectangular duel ground with her Stonecrest Basilisk. She was tall, with cropped dark hair, and held her long practice glaive lightly across her body.

Ashdown inspected them both.

"Stone shots and Ember Shots at beasts or clear ground only. No shots at or past either tamer, and no person behind the target. Ember Lance is prohibited. Dray, the extended thrust stays controlled. Stop when called."

Both students acknowledged her. Jin looked over the three barrier blocks: one central, two nearer the eastern and western boundaries. He wanted enough room to move without leaving Flicker an unsafe firing line.

The whistle sounded.

Iselle took the central block. Her basilisk settled in front, its stone crest raised. Glitch approached at an angle, Harden spreading over his shoulder as the first shot struck it.

He kept moving, but the impact checked his stride. The basilisk shifted to keep him in its sights. When Glitch tried to pass its head, a low tail sweep forced him to turn back.

Jin moved toward the western block. Iselle followed along her beast’s flank, keeping its body between herself and Flicker’s approach. Another shot struck Glitch’s plates, and Jin felt the drake’s irritation through the bond.

I know. We can’t just keep taking those.

He edged clear of the western block. The white boundary was only a few paces behind him now. Iselle was close enough to intercept an approach, but the basilisk had turned toward Glitch.

It fired. The shot crossed the space between the beasts, well clear of Jin.

Jin moved around the spent firing lane, counted the familiar beat and started toward Iselle. He watched her hands, expecting the quick thrust from the recordings.

She waited until his weight came forward.

The glaive shot out. Pale energy lengthened its reach along the same straight line, catching his spear guard before he could bring it fully across.

He stumbled backward, fell and rolled onto one knee. White paint lay just beyond his hand.

Iselle advanced, the energy already gone from her weapon. The basilisk moved to close the gap beside the block.

Jin couldn’t retreat again.

"Glitch, across!"

A short Faultline Rush carried the drake into the basilisk’s approach. He checked it shoulder to shoulder, rather than pursuing Iselle, and the two beasts shoved against each other beside the block.

Jin scrambled through the space that left, keeping the block between himself and the glaive until he was safely inward.

His hip stung where he’d landed. He could stand and move normally, but that had been far too close.

Lucian told you. You still counted.

Knowing she could delay the thrust hadn’t stopped him trusting the pattern when everything happened quickly. He needed to make her spend it, or move before she could arrange the same answer.

He sent Glitch toward the basilisk’s outer shoulder. The drake crowded its head, disrupting a clean firing line, and Jin followed several paces behind, outside the sweep of his tail.

The basilisk shoved back. Glitch lost a step and had to Harden against another shot. Close range made the impact no kinder. He grunted, reset his feet and angled his horns across its next turn.

Flicker approached from the clear side. Her Ember Shot struck the exposed fold above a foreleg. The basilisk drew that limb back and turned its crest toward her next pass.

Jin used the movement to approach Iselle from the other side.

She kept the glaive between them and withdrew one measured step. She hadn’t spent the extension. He stopped outside her reach rather than guessing again.

They had gained ground, but Glitch was breathing hard already. Jin brought him back behind the central block before the basilisk could line up another shot. Flicker circled while he caught his breath.

Iselle followed. This time she sent the basilisk around the opposite end, trying to separate Glitch from Jin.

Jin had to move first. He gave up his approach and crossed behind his drake, calling Flicker away from a pass that would now put Iselle behind her target. The fourth seed reclaimed the ground they had just gained.

It was going to take more than repeating the same arrangement.

On the next exchange, Jin let Flicker approach without firing. The basilisk watched her, then checked back toward Glitch. He stepped in during that change, forcing it to meet his shoulder instead of completing its turn.

Jin advanced only then. Iselle withdrew toward the eastern block, where she could shorten the angle he was threatening.

He followed without rushing. When she thrust, he caught the ordinary reach on his spear and stepped away. The extension flashed after him, missing his chest by less than he liked.

His heart kicked. He had made her use it, but his escape hadn’t been clean enough.

Glitch took a tail strike across his flank while Jin recovered. The pain came through the bond, sharp enough to make him look. Iselle immediately stepped inward, and Jin had to retreat to cover the gap.

"Sorry," he breathed to the drake. "I saw."

He shortened the next exchange. A brief Gravity Press checked the basilisk’s committed sidestep; he released it before Glitch moved across that patch. Flicker’s controlled pass threatened the exposed foreleg again. Jin approached while both beasts were engaged, then broke away before Iselle could turn the same pressure back on him.

Gradually, their resets carried the fight east. The eastern block was behind Iselle now. She glanced toward the boundary and moved sideways, refusing to retreat straight toward it.

Jin went with her. His legs burned, but he could still feel where he intended to finish.

The basilisk tried to follow its tamer. Glitch caught its outer shoulder and held for a breath, claws sliding in the sand. Flicker curved toward its flank, keeping Iselle well outside her firing line.

Jin ran directly at the glaive.

Iselle gave him the thrust he had been trying to draw. Pale reach flashed toward his advancing chest. This time he waited for her hands to commit, then used Crosswind Turn to redirect his run around the weapon’s outside.

He finished beside her forward shoulder, feet under him. The energy extension faded. The physical shaft still pointed along the line he had left.

Iselle began recovering it at once. Jin pressed his spear across her guard, denying the space she needed to swing its full length between them.

She was stronger. When she drove back against his shaft, he let the pressure turn him a little rather than trying to stop it dead. He stayed beside her, keeping the longer weapon crowded as they moved.

Two short retreating steps brought her close to the line. She tried to pivot inward around him.

Jin moved to meet the turn. Behind her, the basilisk shoved Glitch aside and started toward them, but Flicker’s next approach made it check its exposed flank. Glitch regained contact before it could supply the support Iselle needed.

Jin kept his pressure low and controlled across her guard. She took another step to avoid being turned off balance, found the red band beneath her heel and tried to recover.

He followed that recovery instead of lunging. With the inward route still denied, she stepped fully outside to keep her feet.

"Dray, out. Astor wins."

Jin withdrew the spear immediately. Iselle lowered her glaive and looked back at the ground they had crossed.

"You stopped guessing the interval," she said.

"Eventually."

She nodded once, still breathing hard, and went to her basilisk.