Chapter 282: Answer Me
"Begin."
Maul crossed the opening distance in a low rush and snapped at Glitch’s left foreleg.
Glitch turned his shoulder into the bite. The jaws scraped plating, and he struck the hound across the side of its head as it passed. Maul stumbled, recovered, and swung around for another approach.
"Sequence!" Hask shouted.
Three lunges followed, each aimed lower. Glitch held his ground through the first two. On the third, Maul broke sideways and left its flank open beyond his immediate reach.
Jin felt his beast gather for the burst.
"Hold."
Glitch stayed beside him.
Hask called Maul forward again, sharper this time. Jin watched the hound’s feet. It was still leaving room to escape the straight line it expected Glitch to take.
Keep waiting.
The next lunge came close enough.
"Forward."
Glitch stepped into it. His shoulder caught Maul before its jaws closed, and the collision knocked the hound sideways. Ordinary claws opened three cuts along its ribs as it scrambled away.
Jin kept him close through two more approaches. Maul’s speed still demanded attention, but its bait was becoming costly. Each time it entered Glitch’s reach, it came away bleeding.
Hask’s grin had disappeared.
"Get the leg! Stop circling him!"
Jin began moving toward him, keeping Glitch between himself and the hound. Maul tried to follow. Glitch cut across its approach and drove it back with another shoulder strike.
Hask noticed Jin when he was several steps away.
"What are you doing?"
Jin kept coming.
Hask threw a punch.
It was hard and wide, with his shoulder moving before his fist. Jin stepped diagonally outside it, keeping his feet beneath him the way Sabel had insisted.
His stomach tightened with a brief, startled satisfaction.
It worked.
Then he punched Hask in the stomach.
There was nothing elegant about it. His wrist bent more than it should have, and pain ran into his forearm. Hask’s breath came out in a grunt, but he stayed standing and grabbed for Jin’s shirt.
Jin slapped him across the face. Hask turned with it, swore, and caught another across the opposite cheek as he swung back.
"What did you call them?" Jin asked.
"Maul! Get him!"
The hound broke toward Jin. He saw it coming past Hask’s shoulder and nearly turned his whole body to look.
"Across!"
Glitch intercepted. The impact drove Maul away from the tamers, its paws skidding over the floor. Jin kept moving as Hask lunged for him again.
He wasn’t doing this perfectly. He could hear Sabel correcting the way he reached with his next punch. Against her, he would already have been on the ground.
Hask reached further and missed worse.
Jin hit his stomach again, then caught his collar when he tried to close. Hask struck Jin’s upper arm and shoved at his chest. Jin hauled him off balance and slapped him three times before the grip tore free.
"Were they fools?"
"Yes!" Hask spat. His cheeks were red, his eyes watering. "Look what they raised!"
Jin’s next step was too large. Hask shoved into him and almost made him stumble.
He recovered, angry at himself now too, and kicked Hask’s thigh as the older student tried to follow. Hask dropped onto one knee, grabbed Jin’s sleeve, and pulled himself back up with a furious, choking shout.
The referee had moved closer along their open side.
Maul lunged at Glitch again, trying to force a path toward its tamer. Glitch met it, turned it, and raked the exposed shoulder. Jin saw the blood and kept him from following too far.
"Close."
Hask swung at Jin while he spoke. Jin stepped off the line and slapped him hard enough to split his lip.
"Answer me properly."
"Get off—"
Hask pushed at his face. Jin knocked the hand aside. Three more slaps followed through the clumsy struggle, his own palm burning with each one. Hask’s face was swelling quickly, but he kept coming back at him, crying now and furious about it.
"Bite him, Maul! Bite him!"
Jin caught another glimpse of the hound trying to circle. Glitch shifted with it, keeping his body across the route. Maul feinted toward his foreleg and tried to slip past the other side.
"Left."
Glitch turned it back.
Hask seized Jin’s collar with both hands. Jin drove a fist into his stomach, broke the grip, and struck his cheek twice more. The sound carried into the tiers. Somewhere above them, somebody gasped.
Hask backed away with his hands raised, breathing through his open mouth. Blood ran from his lip. His expression had become difficult to recognize beneath the swelling.
Jin followed, still watching those hands.
"You said it loudly enough before."
Hask tried another punch. Jin slipped outside it and slapped him once more.
"What did my parents do to you?"
Hask shook his head. Tears spilled down his cheeks, and his answer was almost lost beneath Maul’s growling.
"Sorry."
Jin stayed close enough to hear him.
"Say it clearly."
"I’m sorry!" Hask’s voice cracked. "I shouldn’t have said it. About your parents. I’m sorry."
"Then learn to be a better human being."
Jin stepped away from his reach.
Hask wiped his mouth with a shaking hand. Behind him, Maul lowered its head and advanced again, still responding to the order to reach Jin. Its earlier cuts had slowed its turns, but its jaws snapped shut with enough force to carry across the floor.
"Go!" Hask shouted hoarsely, pointing past Glitch.
Jin watched the hound commit to the attempt. Glitch stepped across, caught its approach on his armored shoulder, and turned it away from him. Maul twisted to bite back, exposing the flank its previous lunges had left scored.
"Glitch. Flank. Once."
Rending Dragon Claw struck through the opening.
Maul cried out and fell onto its side, a deep wound opening along its flank.
"Match! Stand down!"
The referee was between the tamers at once, signaling the medics.
"Off," Jin told Glitch.
Glitch backed away. Jin lowered his hands and stayed where the official directed him, his pulse still hammering while the medical team reached Maul.
[Match result: Defender victory.]
[Jin Astor — Third-Class Rank 20]
[Rion Hask — Third-Class Rank 22]
Jin heard the first laugh as a medic guided Hask toward the exit. Someone repeated his earlier boast about exposing the regional representative, and more laughter followed from the upper rows.
He didn’t look up.
His hand hurt. The knuckles were reddening, and his palm throbbed when he flexed it. He could still hear Hask saying his parents were fools.
A medic examining Jin’s wrist asked him to hold still. Across the floor, another finished stabilizing Maul’s wound and called the hound fit to move. Serious, she told Hask, but treatable; its condition was stable, and its life was not in danger.
Jin waited until his own check was finished, then went to Glitch.
The first bite had left tenderness around his foreleg, with no torn plating. Jin checked the shoulder and claws too, working more slowly now. Glitch pressed his head against his chest and held it there.
"Yeah," Jin murmured. "I’m here."
Lesser Regeneration would help with the minor damage, drawing on the reserves his appetite was already demanding they replace. Jin would still have the care wing check the bruising before their next session.
He remained angry. He didn’t regret making Hask apologize, and he had no interest in staying to hear strangers enjoy it.
At the exit, a group of students moved aside before he asked. One opened his mouth, glanced at Jin’s swollen knuckles, and decided against whatever he had intended to say.
Jin kept walking with Glitch beside him.
Departure was in two days. The League began in four. Beating Hask hadn’t put him ahead of the nine-Star representatives or taught him everything Sabel could do with a padded stick.
But he had kept his feet while commanding. Glitch had controlled the hound without taking the bait. Those were things they had worked for, and they would need them again.
He led Glitch toward the care wing, already thinking about the feed counter afterward. His beast had earned a large meal.
Jin could probably use one too.