Chapter 92 Twenty Percent

Day One opened with eighty thousand viewers, a relic suspended above a volcanic trench and Team Sterling carrying a score coefficient nobody would explain.

The competition required each team to retrieve one silver marker from the opposite platform, then return through a relay route scored on time, damage and formation integrity.

’Simple objective, visible bridge, twelve score towers, plus exactly one fifth of our work already missing before the first bell.’

Mina had spent the night filing three objections, each answered through language claiming calibration variance fell within acceptable national tolerance.

"Acceptable means somebody expected complaints and wrote the refusal early, which saves me the trouble of believing this was accidental," she said, tightening the claimant plate beneath her sleeve.

Vivienne watched the bridge through narrowed steel-blue eyes, tracking six support joints where black stone met silver scoring rails.

"The western span carries fresh bolts beneath old dust, though the trial record claims no maintenance this month," she said, touching her relay twice.

"The relic smells like hot copper from here, meaning its containment field has been running since before sunrise," Isolde added, opening one resin vial.

’Fresh bolts, cooked relic and arithmetic wearing a clean coat, damn, Day One could at least pretend it wants us alive separately.’

The starting bell drove eight teams onto parallel bridges, while national commentary filled the Basin through crystals mounted above each lane.

Damien took point without drawing Verdict, feeling Mina’s three relay pulses place every teammate inside his mind as distance rather than thought.

"First joint holds, second one is hollow beneath the left rail, so keep your weight toward me," Vivienne said, cutting one loose cable before it touched Isolde.

"I appreciate the invitation, though your side currently contains a man collecting structural failures as hobbies," Isolde replied, stepping across the center seam.

’She is right, which feels rude while the bridge is deciding whose morning needs a crater.’

Mina dropped two copper anchors behind them, turning the first span into a return route before the neighboring team reached its own halfway mark.

The silver relic came free under Damien’s hand, far too warm for dead metal and carrying one thin black line beneath its scored base.

[Correction residue detected]

[Death Flag: Relic relay collapse]

[Fatality: 87%]

’Of course the damn relic carried a death flag,’ he thought, shoving it into Isolde’s waiting resin cloth before the line finished opening.

"The bridge is about to fail from the scoring side, Mina, give me a route that does not believe these towers," Damien said, drawing Verdict as the western rail bent inward.

"Three steps forward, jump toward my second anchor, then stop treating stone as trustworthy," she replied, slamming both palms against the claimant plate.

The relay changed from copper points into four bright lines, showing one path across empty air where her folding barrier opened beneath the team.

Black-gold pressure burst from the first score tower, folding the bridge downward through the middle rather than breaking either end.

’That thing is not collapsing under us, it is closing around the relic like a damn mouth.’

Vivienne cut the nearest support cable and redirected its fall, buying Isolde enough room to throw neutralizing resin across the relic’s black line.

"The residue is feeding through every scored contact, so stop striking marked surfaces unless you want to strengthen it," Isolde said, catching the wrapped relic against her chest.

Damien branded the tower rather than the bridge, feeling Sinner’s Brand bite into an object the judges still considered equipment.

[Target branded]

[Hostile scoring construct: Level 910]

"Calling that thing equipment should cost somebody a license, though I will settle for cutting it apart," Damien said, taking the first pressure lash across Iron Veil.

[Debt: 0 → 188]

The tower pulled broken stone upward, rebuilding the bridge into a cage while three other teams remained inside neighboring lanes.

’Eight teams started, twenty-eight people still crossing, and the bastard is using every official marker to decide where bodies belong.’

Mina sent one pulse through the relay, marking the only unscored bolts along the underside before her barrier began losing width.

"I can hold seven seconds before this panel cooks my arm, so make your expensive sword justify dinner," she said, teeth pressed tight around the last word.

"Seven seconds sounds generous after you priced my purchases all morning," Damien replied, dropping through the opened floor beside Vivienne.

They landed on the underside as gravity turned toward the tower, boots striking black stone now hanging above the trench.

Vivienne cut three unmarked bolts in one crossing sweep, opening a path while Damien used Flicker through the gap and drove Verdict into the branded housing.

[Debt: 188 → 441]

[Compounding Wrath: 441 → 458]

’Not enough to erase Level 910 cleanly, so I need the machine to keep being stupid for one more exchange.’

The tower answered by firing every trapped scoring line toward Mina’s relay plate, aiming through the system that connected all four positions.

Isolde poured the heated relic resin across her wrist, turning the copper line chemically invisible before contact reached the plate.

"Your machine has lost our scent for perhaps four seconds, which should satisfy even this team’s addiction to narrow margins," she said, pulling Mina behind one remaining barrier.

Damien let the second lash strike his coat lining, holding Stay closed while pain burned across his ribs without a delayed timer.

[Debt: 458 → 812]

[Compounding Wrath: 812 → 844]

’No Stay while Divergence climbs, Mina wrote it above the bench, so this damage gets to hurt honestly.’

Vivienne felt his relay position buckle and changed angle without waiting for command, her two blades crossing behind Verdict’s embedded point.

"Release through my cut before the housing closes, since I refuse to drag you out beneath national commentary," she said, wrenching both hilts apart.

Damien drove Reckoning through the opening while the tally turned silver-white beneath his hand.

[Reckoning: 844 × 2.0 = 1,688]

[Verdict conductance: 2,025]

The tower split from base to crown, dumping black residue into Isolde’s prepared resin while every folded bridge slammed back toward its original shape.

Mina caught the returning span through two anchors, keeping twenty-eight students above the trench long enough for emergency barriers to engage.

’Best time is gone, half the lane is scrap, and somehow the relic still has to cross a finish line for these people to call survival valid.’

They ran the final distance through falling dust, crossing together while Isolde carried the relic and Vivienne guarded Mina’s burned relay arm.

The public clock stopped at two minutes eleven, beating the next surviving team by eighteen seconds after emergency time subtraction.

[Death Flag survived]

[Base reward: 863,800 EXP]

[System Points awarded: 800]

[All rewards ×10]

[Experience gained: 8,638,000]

[System Points gained: 8,000]

[Level: 850 → 860]

[Experience: 555,000 / 860,000]

[System Points: 4,000 → 12,000]

’Ten levels for surviving rigged architecture, which remains cheaper than letting the committee repair anything.’

The national board processed their witnessed time, intact relic and complete formation, then posted Team Sterling beneath six slower teams.

[Raw score: 12,400]

[Calibration coefficient: 0.800]

[Final score: 9,920]

Mina read the result once before turning toward the broken tower, where one fist-sized sensor continued pulsing beneath cooling black residue.

An official reached for it with a sealed evidence bag, then stopped when her copper blade pinned his sleeve against the rail without touching skin.

"Nobody touches my living sensor until independent custody arrives, since your clean machines just tried eating thirty-two students," she said, holding the blade steady.