Chapter 90: The Worst Possible Best Partner
Chapter 90: The Worst Possible Best Partner
The bar filled completely.
[Assigned Partner: Lucian Vale]
[Registered Beast: Thunder Falcon]
Jin spent several seconds staring at the result before deciding the random-assignment system had put far too much effort into developing a sense of humour.
Lucian Vale was ranked first overall. He was also the only student Jin had bothered watching closely. His commands were sharp and efficient, with no wasted movements or unnecessary cues. Sometime during the past two days, Lucian had started watching Jin in return.
As a practical pairing, Jin couldn’t have asked for better. If tomorrow required him to rely on another student, relying on someone competent was obviously preferable.
Everything else about it was terrible.
An Iron lizard with a support talent was supposed to make Jin forgettable, someone so unimportant that nobody gave him a second glance. Instead, he would be attached for an entire day to the most closely observed student in the cohort. Any mistake Jin made would happen in front of someone skilled enough to recognise exactly what had gone wrong. Worse, if Glitch did anything beyond what an Iron lizard should manage, Meridian would have every eye pointed directly at them.
Random.
Of course.
Glitch had become completely still beside him. Jin knew that particular stillness. The moment Glitch read Thunder Falcon, he’d decided the name was a personal challenge.
Heat pushed through the bond. There was no fear in it. Glitch simply believed, with complete certainty, that whatever the Falcon could do, he could do with more force.
Then he adjusted his stance.
Pain tugged at the injured shoulder, taking some of the edge off that confidence. Looking tough wasn’t the problem. Using his strength without losing control was.
[Paired Field Coordination—Assembly: 0700, West Staging Yard]
"Wonderful," Jin said under his breath. "Go sleep. If you’re determined to humiliate us in front of the first-ranked student tomorrow, you can at least do it after a full night’s rest."
Glitch sent back the firm belief that he had never humiliated anyone.
Once they returned to the dorm, Jin examined the shoulder before doing anything else.
He pressed two fingers carefully along the injury. Glitch flinched, and Jin checked Appraisal for the details he couldn’t see.
[Shoulder—Deep Contusion]
[Skin: Intact]
[Joint Function: Normal]
[Status: Stable—Tender]
[Participation: Possible—Avoid Direct Reimpact]
The bruising went deep, but the skin hadn’t broken and the joint still moved properly. One night wouldn’t heal it. Jin would have preferred that it did, though normal recovery was less dangerous than another impossible improvement he would need to explain.
He portioned out the feed as carefully as if there were nothing left after it.
A single Sync had consumed two-thirds of the entire month’s allowance. At the current rate, the remaining supply would last around a week. Tomorrow’s assessment would drain Glitch’s stamina, and stamina needed food.
Jin measured enough to help the injury recover.
He didn’t add a gram more.
The seven dungeon signals remained at the top of his phone, still waiting without complaint. Jin had no time for them, no spare stamina, and after yesterday, no reasonable excuse to follow one.
He shut the screen.
"Tomorrow is supposed to be teamwork," he told Glitch. "You aren’t there to prove you can hit harder than the Falcon. We’re practising coordination and control. Those words should sound familiar."
Glitch responded with wounded confidence.
Beneath it, he sent a clear reminder that one of them had a habit of ruining coordinated plans by standing motionless and thinking for too long.
That one wasn’t the lizard.
Jin started to answer, then thought better of it.
Neither of them needed him to admit Glitch had a point.
The next morning, Lucian was already waiting in the staging yard with the Thunder Falcon.
The bird rested on his shoulder without shifting, as though that was where it had been made to sit. Its feathers were dark blue-black, the colour of a storm about to break, and its head moved through short, exact turns.
Lucian changed his footing. Before Jin could spot any command, the Falcon was already lifting from his shoulder.
It moved half a beat ahead because Lucian and the Falcon had repeated the same actions countless times. The bird understood the beginning of its handler’s intent through long practice.
There was no mind-reading involved.
They’d simply trained more than Jin ever had.
Glitch faced the Falcon and made no effort to hide the challenge in his stare.
The Falcon refused to play along. It looked Glitch over with the attention of an intelligent predator trying to understand why something didn’t match its label. The Iron lizard was too heavy, too dense, and stood with more weight than something of his rank had any right to possess.
After one long examination, the Falcon chose to keep its distance.
It wasn’t looking down on Glitch.
It was being careful.
"Is he favouring the shoulder?" Lucian asked.
There was no greeting. He’d already seen the problem.
"It’s bruised, but he’s approved to participate," Jin said, keeping the explanation direct. "Deep contusion. The joint is fine. He advanced quickly, and his strength control hasn’t caught up yet. He uses more force than he intends. Harden is the only skill I’m planning to use."
Lucian absorbed the information and nodded.
He didn’t question how an Iron lizard had advanced so fast. Jin was more grateful for that than he allowed himself to show.
"The Falcon handles high-altitude scouting," Lucian said. He gave Jin the relevant details and left out everything else. "He’s fast, precise, responsive, and good at altitude. He should spot threats before either of us can."
Lucian paused before asking, "How should we split the responsibilities?"
Jin stared at him.
"You aren’t just going to order me to follow your lead?"
"If I wanted to act as one handler with two beasts, I would have entered a different assessment."
Some of the tension in Jin’s chest loosened.
Lucian was the top-ranked student, yet instead of taking control, he’d asked Jin how they should share it.
That was harder to find than a favourable pairing.
"Fine by me," Jin said.
The briefing explained what they would be doing.
[Paired Field Exercise]
[Transport the sealed supply case to extraction.]
[Recover two distress markers on the field.]
[Bring both handlers and both registered beasts to extraction.]
[Protect the case from excessive impact.]
[Individual and team performance will be scored separately.]
The objectives themselves weren’t the real problem.
The information was divided.
Jin’s display contained pieces of the safe-route data. Lucian’s showed rough locations for the distress markers along with hazard warnings. Neither screen provided enough to form a complete route on its own.
So there would be no moving floors today.
This time, the uncertainty came from forcing two people to combine what they knew. If they didn’t trust each other, neither of them would see the full field.
The evaluator’s voice crossed the yard.
"A partner withdrawing does not automatically terminate the remaining handler’s assessment."
That sounded like something they were supposed to remember.
No explanation followed.
Before Jin could decide whether showing his display was a mistake, Lucian turned his own screen towards him.
He offered the information without bargaining or holding anything useful back.
Jin rotated his display in response.
In an actual wasteland, hiding the map from the person protecting your back was a good way to kill both of you. Lucian clearly understood that. His skill didn’t come with the arrogance Jin had expected from someone ranked first. He acted like a person who had given real thought to the work they were training to do.
They compared both sets of information and put together a route that made sense.
"The Falcon stays above us," Lucian said. "He watches for threats and scouts the ground ahead."
"Glitch remains with the case and deals with anything at ground level." Jin ran one finger along the route. "I’ll handle the case path and any ground hazards. You manage our pace and aerial coverage. If one of us notices something the other missed, we say it and revise the plan."
"Agreed."