Chapter 99: The Quarry Had Teeth
At the quarry rim, Jin waited while three teams went down ahead of him.
Glitch hated every second of it. His body leaned toward the pit as though the pause itself were holding him back, and pressure built through the bond with each team that disappeared below. Jin kept one hand on his good shoulder, ignored the demand to move, and studied the terrain.
The quarry descended in broad stone steps, each level joined by cramped ramps and edged with loose gravel. Rusting equipment cluttered the middle terraces. Conveyor frames cut across the paths, while a collapsed hopper blocked enough of the view to hide anything waiting behind it.
The relay sat at the bottom, a low grey box locked into a mounting frame with a handle meant for carrying. Constructs patrolled around it in overlapping circles.
There were too many for Glitch to fight without burning through everything he had.
Jin followed their routes, tracked the students already filling two terraces, and marked the eastern scree where any creature trying to turn at speed would lose its footing. What he could not see mattered more. A construct could be dormant behind any of the machinery, removing the relay might trigger another response, and some of the conveyor systems might still work. Once six teams disturbed the same patrol pattern, there was no telling how the constructs would adapt.
Appraisal could tell Jin exactly how Glitch’s body was holding up.
It could not explain the quarry.
Glitch sent his preferred plan through the bond without hesitation: the main ramp, straight through the centre.
"No," Jin told him. "We came for food. We’re not here so you can prove you’re capable of fighting the whole pit."
The teams below began making their moves. On the north side, two students drew one patrol away while their teammates slipped down behind it. The timing was neat and obviously practised. Another group entered through the old machinery, disappearing behind the hopper whenever the constructs turned their way, while over on the west ramp, a heavy Bronze quadruped occupied the choke point and simply refused to give ground as its handler forced a route past.
Each plan worked.
That made everything worse.
Six different teams were making smart choices, and together they destroyed the order of the quarry. Patrols stopped following their loops. Constructs pulled toward the disturbances, backed one another up, and closed the spaces the baiting had created. Students crowded the direct route, and although none of them were attacking each other, they still blocked one another at every turn.
In less than two minutes, the centre of the quarry had tied itself into a knot.
They could still force their way through, but it would cost too much, and avoiding that cost was the entire reason Jin had come. He was adjusting the plan again when gravel shifted behind him.
Milo reached the rim breathing hard, with Bristle panting at his side.
"That’s a lot of constructs."
"Yeah."
"Like, a lot of them."
Jin’s attention moved to the Bronze Ridgeback. Bristle was broad, squat, and built like moving him should require a vehicle. Then Jin looked back to the bottom of the eastern route, where the final ramp narrowed enough that only two constructs could engage at once.
"Give me ten minutes," Jin said. "Work with me."
Milo straightened, but he did not immediately agree.
"Who gets the relay?"
That was the sensible question.
"The assessment tracks contributions separately. It records what each person does." Jin indicated the pit. "Being the first one to touch the relay doesn’t matter. Carrying it outside the boundary does, and I can’t get it out by myself."
Milo looked down into the quarry and worked through the numbers in silence. Jin did not rush him. A moment later, Milo adjusted his pack and gave a short nod.
"Okay. What’s the plan?"
"Bristle blocks the bottom of the east ramp. He doesn’t need to defeat anything. He only needs to stand there, which is already one of his strengths." Jin pointed toward the relay. "Glitch opens a single gap in the inner ring. One gap, not the whole formation. I remove the relay and carry it. You stay above us where you can see the exit, and the moment that route starts to close, you shout."
Milo glanced between the beasts. "What if it goes bad?"
"We leave. If either beast starts to struggle, we’re done. It won’t matter where the relay is."
Milo let out a breath. "Okay. Yeah. Okay."
They entered from the east.
That route took longer, which was exactly why Jin chose it. He crossed the scree at an angle, letting himself slide under control instead of heading straight down the slope. Glitch followed in short bursts: three strides, stop, then another three before braking again.
A beast that rushed over loose gravel would reach the bottom quickly.
It just would not get to choose how.
Two constructs reached the mouth of the ramp first, as Jin had expected. Bristle stepped into the choke and settled his weight.
He did nothing else.
There was no attack. He simply became a Bronze-quality obstacle too wide and solid to pass. The only route around him required going through him, and both constructs immediately tried.
From the terrace above, Milo yelled something that sounded supportive and almost tactical.
One construct squeezed beyond Bristle.
Glitch met it.
His hardened claws bit into the stone as he dropped low. Rather than crashing into its guard, he slipped beneath it and struck with his good shoulder. The hit was short and controlled, letting weight and angle do the work. Loose gravel shifted under the construct’s feet, and it toppled down the incline.
Glitch let it go.
"Good," Jin said as he passed him. "Do it that way."
They handled the inner ring with the same approach.
This was not a fight to finish. They were opening a door.
Glitch stayed among the narrow spaces between the machines, where constructs could not surround him. His tail swept low, taking legs and footing instead of trying to break bodies. Once something hit the ground, he moved on.
Twice, Glitch started to turn toward constructs he had already disabled.
Twice, Jin called him away.
Both times, Glitch obeyed.
The third target tested him more. A construct with a dent across its sensor housing stumbled away from the ring, slow, damaged, and completely exposed in the open centre. Glitch’s attention snapped after it. His body shifted before the rest of him did, every line of him pulled toward finishing the chase.
Following would take him out of the protected route and put his bruised side forward.
Jin pushed one hard command through the bond: back.
Glitch paused.
It lasted less than a second, but Jin felt the pull through the bond. The construct was still moving, leaving the fight unfinished and the opening there to take.
Then Glitch returned.
"You already won," Jin said. "The route is open."
Glitch’s frustration struck the bond without the slightest attempt to hide it. He was furious, but he still came back after one command.
Because he did, the formation behind them never closed. Jin fixed that moment in his memory. The day before, Glitch would have chased the construct and lost them their exit.
The relay did not come free on the first pull.