Chapter 289: Two to Three
Wren took the correction on her next attack.
She hooked down, pulled her shoulder through, and broke to her right. The change worked. Argent’s earlier interception would have found empty floor.
But the lynx needed an extra step to face him again.
Dray saw it. She sent Argent forward as Wren landed, forcing her to retreat before she could settle. The next hook came from a shorter distance, and the right recovery left her crowded once more.
Jin watched Emery adjust. She shortened the approach, then called Wren away to reset. When the lynx returned, she mixed ordinary strikes into the sequence instead of offering the heavy hook every time.
Argent took a cut along his shoulder. Dray braced him through the next contact and held her position rather than chasing.
They were both changing the fight. The file on Jin’s phone couldn’t tell him which of them would make the better next decision.
Dray gave a little ground, enough to let Wren approach without feeling trapped on the right. The lynx feinted an ordinary swipe and committed to the heavy hook instead.
Her hindquarters gathered for the familiar left escape.
Jin saw it at almost the same moment Dray called.
Argent crossed outside the descending claw. Wren broke left, faster and cleaner than she had been moving to the right, and met the spinehound’s shoulder.
This time he stayed with the contact. He drove her onto the grit and pinned her before she could get her forepaws beneath him.
"Yield!" Emery called.
Dray recalled Argent immediately.
[Meridian 2 — Cassel Ridge 2]
Jin was on his feet with the rest of the team. Down on the floor, Emery knelt beside Wren while a medic checked the leg she was favoring. Dray waited nearby until Emery looked up and acknowledged her, then brought Argent off for his own check.
She found Jin near the entrance to the team area.
"Thank you," she said, still breathing hard. "The file gave us those first two catches. Without that, I’d have spent most of the bout trying to reach her."
"You handled the change."
"We practiced for it." Dray glanced toward Marris, who had come over. "Once Sun corrected her, the recovery needed an extra step. Argent could keep her from settling. Eventually she took the old exit again."
Marris nodded. "Good preparation. Good use of it."
An older instructor looked at Jin. "You found that while working down the delegate list?"
"Yes. I checked the other recordings before bringing it to Dray."
"Keep doing that." He made a note beside the bout result. "You don’t need another Star to make yourself useful here."
Jin knew that. Hearing it after an actual win still felt different.
Dray went to Argent, and Jin sat down with warm ears and a smile he couldn’t quite get rid of. Then Renn’s name came over the speakers, and everyone turned back toward the floor.
Tobias Renn’s granite ape, Sledge, and Marisol Quay’s razorleg strider, Pike, were both nine-Star, Silver (Peak).
Sledge was broad and powerful, built to brace and strike through an opponent. Pike stood on long limbs and attacked from changing angles. Jin had read both profiles the night before. Neither looked less formidable in person.
The opening exchanges were close. Renn kept Sledge’s turns short and made Pike retreat twice with blows that scraped its guard. Quay moved along her side of the floor, watching the ape as carefully as her beast did.
When Sledge lifted a foot to drive into another swing, she flicked her hand.
A short gust crossed the grit as the foot came down. It shifted the landing enough to spoil the strike. Pike was already moving toward the exposed flank.
"Shorter step," Marris called. "Renn, watch her timing."
Renn adjusted. Sledge lowered his stance, stopped reaching so far, and caught Pike’s next approach with a hard shoulder blow.
For a moment, Meridian’s corner grew loud again.
Then Quay waited through two opportunities without using her talent at all. On the third, she delayed the gust until Sledge began recovering from his strike. Pike attacked the opening before the ape could bring its guard around.
Jin marked the time. That variation mattered more than the strength of the wind.
Quay used it in brief bursts, with long intervals between them. She wasn’t maintaining a storm or throwing the ape across the floor. She kept spending just enough energy at the moment Pike could use it.
Renn made her work for each one. He changed Sledge’s rhythm and forced the strider to abandon several attacks. But shortening the ape’s movement surrendered reach, and Pike gradually drove the exchanges closer to the boundary.
Jin leaned forward until the tablet pressed into his stomach.
Turn him. There’s still room on the left.
Renn called the turn. Sledge began it, and Quay’s final gust struck as the ape transferred its weight. Pike came in from the other angle, its shoulder catching the guard before Sledge could reset.
One foot crossed the boundary. The second followed as the ape caught its balance.
"Ring-out! Match!"
Renn recalled Sledge, standing still for a moment before going to meet him.
[Cassel Ridge 3 — Meridian 2]
The team area fell quiet.
Jin looked down at his notes. He had the decisive movement marked. It was a miserable comfort.
They waited for the medical checks before leaving the arena wing. Dray’s sleeve had blood on it from Argent’s shoulder. Corin sat beside Arno, speaking quietly while the instructor collected the care reports.
Jin secured Flicker’s carrier and went to bay eleven.
Glitch was standing at the gate. He had felt Jin’s tension through the bond and greeted him with a firm push against the chest.
"We lost," Jin told him, resting his good hand behind the horns. "The team. You haven’t missed anything you were supposed to do."
Glitch kept his head there until Jin stopped trying to hurry.
On the way back to the hotel, nobody had much to say about Tallwalk. Jin noticed the bakery again and thought about stopping, then stayed with the delegation.
Marris held the debrief that evening, after the beasts had been settled and the students had eaten.
She began with Corin’s patience and Dray’s adaptation. Jin’s scouting received a specific mention, brief enough that he didn’t have to sit through everyone looking at him for long.
Then Marris turned to the losses.
"Yun, the bristleback kept taking away the route you needed. We prepared for its pressure, but our answer didn’t give you enough room. We’ll review the reset with you."
Nessa nodded, arms folded tightly.
"Arno, locating the stalker by sound worked. Your command came after the opening. That’s something we can practice."
Arno looked at the recording and asked her to replay the second turn.
Renn’s review took longer. They had recognized Quay’s gusts. Recognizing them hadn’t solved the problem of dealing with her and Pike together. Sledge’s shorter steps had protected his balance at the cost of reach; once Quay varied her timing, that compromise became harder to sustain.
"We need stronger alternatives under that pressure," Marris said. "That includes how we coach you through it."
Jin added the point to his notes. He wanted nine-Star badly. Today had shown him how much work would still remain when he got there.
"Tomorrow is rest and preparation," Marris concluded. "Verdance Hall the day after. We have two group ties left. Tonight, finish your care checks and get some sleep."
Jin sat beside Glitch after the debrief. Flicker preened on the stair rail while the lizard gradually shifted more of his head onto Jin’s leg.
The Engine showed development banked from the runs he had fitted in before dinner. It was substantially more than he had held at Redgate, but the advancement requirement remained unmet.
He could manage another short session before bed. Tomorrow’s practice bookings left other intervals, once the beasts were cared for and his scouting was done.
Dray had thanked him. The team had still lost. Jin let both things sit with him while he opened the route.
Glitch settled more heavily.
"You’re crushing me," Jin murmured.
The lizard didn’t move. Jin scratched beneath his jaw with his good hand and adjusted the phone on his knee.