Chapter 132: Academy’s Test: We Will Hunt Their Support First

Chapter 132: Chapter 132: Academy’s Test: We Will Hunt Their Support First

"But there’s a twist."

Rei didn’t even pretend to be surprised.

"Oh, of course there is. The Empress’s daughter is participating. It’s not going to be save-and-regroup."

Her eyes cut to me, bright and unkind.

"There’s going to be blood. Lots of them."

She licked her lips once.

Creepy.

Intentional.

Jenna’s fingers tapped the slate.

The schematic split into two aggressive colors, gold for a core team, crimson for rival applicants, and the hall’s light took on the same cold division.

"The board calls it the Inverse Intake," Jenna said, eyes locked on mine longer than on either Vanguard.

"Students call it the Scramble."

Gianna’s telekinetic markers froze mid-air, hovering an inch off the mat.

"Explain."

"In a standard bracket, you protect your support while clearing the zone." Jenna zoomed the pane toward a central node tagged Anchor-Class Asset.

"This year the academy is running open-field integration for the final phase of the practical. For the last thirty minutes, you share a grid with other teams."

Rei leaned in; the blood-budget strap on her wrist hissed as she tightened it.

"They want us fighting over targets?"

"No," Jenna said.

"They want them fighting over him."

Silence hit the mat harder than any buzzer.

I stared at the gold node.

"Say that again."

"You heard me."

Gianna’s markers snapped down onto the floor in an angry line.

"How."

Jenna did not rush the answer.

She let the question sit, then flicked the first directive into view.

"Open-Tether Clause," she said.

"Your anchor channel is not hard-locked to Gianna and Rei by the exam system for that phase. It runs as an open frequency."

Rei’s head tilted.

"Open means hijackable."

"If an opposing unit suppresses your physical presence, or forces him into an isolation zone with crowd control, gravity wells, displacement, their own support can attempt a force-pair."

Jenna’s voice stayed flat.

"Hold his radius for sixty seconds and the stabilizing feed routes to them."

Gianna’s jaw worked once.

"And us?"

"Your instability meters spike. High-tier skills lock. The team that took him gets an amplified boost from his core."

"So they don’t need to beat us clean," I said.

"They just need to peel me."

"Correct."

Rei laughed under her breath, no humor in it.

"Sixty seconds is not long."

"In a four-team grid with hooks in the air, it is long enough," Jenna said.

"Next question before I move the pane."

Gianna didn’t waste it.

"Win condition. Are they scoring kills or separations?"

Jenna shifted the schematic.

"Extraction Threshold. Higher grades this cycle reward breaking the fulcrum more than pure body count. Opposing teams score on how far they can drag, teleport, or displace the anchor-class asset from his original unit."

My mouth had gone dry.

"How far?"

"Fifty meters triggers an automated gridlock. Temporary capture status. Your linked Vanguards then have to execute a rescue before the phase clock dies, or the score belongs to whoever held the radius."

Rei’s smile thinned.

"So fury isn’t only monsters. It’s people with permission to hunt the battery."

"People with equipment for it," Jenna said, and opened the third line before either of them had to ask.

"Absolute Redirection. His offensive output stays throttled by the test bracelet architecture. Defensive parameters are boosted. He is hard to kill and easy to move."

I exhaled through my nose.

"Hooks."

"Displacement hooks. Kinetic harpoons. Tuned to latch anchor-class frames more cleanly than standard Vanguard armor."

Jenna expanded a wireframe of the field: red vectors converging on the gold node.

"The board’s language is neutral. The student translation is accurate. In the Scramble, you are the objective."

The room went dead quiet again.

I looked at the schematic, the little gold dot, the flashing crimson arrows, the isolation circles drawn like mouths.

"So I’m a chew toy," I muttered.

The leftover coffee taste in my memory turned bitter.

"They aren’t trying to beat Gianna and Rei first. They’re trying to pull me out of the pocket like a loose thread."

Gianna’s voice came low.

"How many teams share the grid?"

"Many others in your assigned Scramble cell, standard load. Numbers can flex if the board wants spectacle for observation blocks."

Jenna glanced at her.

"Yes. Empress-line presence makes spectacle more likely."

Rei folded her arms.

"Can we pre-bind harder? Overlap residual, hard-lock the channel before the phase starts?"

"If the system allowed a hard-lock, it would not be called open-tether."

Jenna did not soften it.

"You can train radius discipline, anti-displace footwork, and immediate re-pair timing. You cannot rewrite the clause."

"What counts as suppression of us?" Gianna asked.

"Downed? Separated? Silenced?"

"Any sustained state that drops your effective presence under the phase’s threshold, unconscious, fully bound, forced outside the active radius long enough for the enemy support to complete the sixty-second hold." Jenna tapped once. "Killing rival applicants is still restricted by academy safety ceilings. Disabling them is not. Expect dirty within the rules."

I dragged a hand down my face.

"And if I refuse the feed? Shut the channel on purpose when someone tries to pluck me?"

Jenna’s eyes sharpened.

"Then your own unit loses fulcrum integrity on a live score, and the board reads it as anchor failure, not clever defiance. The open frequency is the test. Closing it to deny rivals is still a collapse."

Rei whistled softly.

"They really did design this for people like him."

"They designed it for a year when anchor-class assets are scarce, and Empress optics are present," Jenna said.

"Do not flatter yourself into thinking you are the only gold node on the map. You may be the one certain teams will prioritize if residual scouts mark your output as abnormal."

Gianna stepped closer to the projection, red eyes tracking the fifty-meter rings.

"Rescue window after capture?"

"Short. Exact seconds published in the sealed brief. Train like you will not get a generous clock."

"Blood budget in a human grid?"

"Against applicants: non-lethal constructs preferred, lethal thresholds monitored. Against phase threats and objects: standard practical rules."

Jenna held her gaze.

"If you turn the Scramble into a massacre to keep him, you pass the fury axis and fail the board’s tolerance. If you play too soft, someone walks away with your fulcrum."

I laughed once.

"I think it’s time we think it from another direction."

"Hmm?"

"Why do you have to protect me? We will hunt their support first."