Chapter 125: Don’t Plan Around Stupid
Jin called his father during the break.
Arthur had worn the contract, entered real battles, and survived long enough to reach Rank 2 Ironclad. His opinion was worth more than any holographic demonstration.
"Same-rank Stonehorn Ram," Jin said. "Bronze-quality. I’m fighting it this afternoon."
"Don’t assume it’ll charge."
Arthur said it immediately, before Jin had even finished explaining.
"Every kid fighting a Ram for the first time plans around the charge. A trained Ram won’t give you the charge you prepared for. It’ll give you the one you didn’t."
"Meridian demonstrated that today."
"Good. Then here’s the part they might not have shown you."
Arthur’s voice remained even and unhurried, the voice of someone describing a danger he had experienced in his own bones.
"The horns are the obvious threat, so stop staring at them. Watch its rear hooves. Look at how it plants them and whether they’re positioned to hold or spring."
Jin straightened slightly.
"Watch when its weight shifts forward," Arthur continued. "That’s your warning. It comes early if you know where to look. Pay attention to how much room it needs to redirect. A heavy beast can’t turn inside a space smaller than its own body, and that space is information."
Jin was already turning the advice over, fitting it against the demonstration he’d seen earlier.
"And watch what Corven tells it to do," Arthur said. "Whether he sends it after Glitch or keeps it near his marker. Fight his decisions, Jin. Not the horns."
"It isn’t knockout-only," Jin said. "Positioning, command quality, marker protection—I don’t have to put the Ram down. I only need to outscore him."
"Then you don’t need to overpower anything. You need to make better choices than Corven does, more often."
Arthur fell silent for a moment. When he spoke again, something quieter had entered his voice.
"This isn’t another padded exercise. A Stonehorn can still hurt Glitch before the barriers intervene. The instructors are watching?"
"Barriers and instructors," Jin confirmed. "They’ll stop anything lethal."
Jin didn’t mention the quarry or the avatar. If anything, those experiences had made him more aware of the difference between an avatar dying and Glitch’s real body being injured.
Meridian’s barriers would keep Glitch alive.
They would not prevent every bruise, fracture, or moment of pain before intervention became necessary.
"It’s supervised," Jin said. "I’ll be careful."
Arthur allowed the concern to remain for another second before letting it go.
"One more thing. Then I’ll leave you to prepare."
"Go on."
"Don’t make your plan depend on your opponent being stupid."
Jin remained quiet for a beat.
"...Yeah. All right."
That eliminated nearly every strategy Glitch preferred. Most of those plans could be summarized as the enemy will do something stupid, and then I will hit it.
A depressing number of Jin’s first ideas had relied on the same assumption.
A strategy that worked only if Corven made a mistake wasn’t a strategy.
It was a wish.
Jin needed something that would work even if Corven was good.
At two in the afternoon, Jin and Glitch entered the arena.
It had been built for exactly the kind of fight Arthur had described. Two protected tamer zones stood at opposite ends, with one marker assigned to each student, while low barriers and stone blocks were scattered between them. The cover could be used for positioning, or become a trap if someone chose the wrong route.
Marked sections divided the battlefield into different scoring areas.
The instructor repeated the victory conditions.
Knock out the opposing beast.
Force an instructor or barrier intervention.
Seize the opponent’s marker.
Or accumulate a decisive scoring lead through superior control and positioning.
Academy barriers would prevent lethal injuries. Nobody would die here, but points were on the table.
More importantly, so were feed credits.
Corven waited in the opposite zone.
He was calm, which Jin respected. He didn’t mock Glitch, which Jin respected even more.
Corven was lean and serious, with the focused expression of someone who had listened to the same combat lesson and taken every word seriously. Before the barrier activated, he stepped forward and spoke across the marked floor.
"I watched your coordination run. Your lizard had the cleanest stop response in our group."
He wasn’t flattering Jin. He was reporting an observation.
"I’m not going to underestimate you because he’s Iron-quality," Corven continued. "I thought you should know."
Jin felt a small flicker of respect, accompanied by a much larger flicker of concern. The two emotions came from the same realization.
Corven had already identified their greatest public asset.
Glitch’s discipline was a weapon, and Corven knew it. He would have prepared around it rather than walking blindly into it.
"Appreciated," Jin said.
He meant it.
He also filed it as a problem.
The Stonehorn Ram lowered its heavy horns and scraped one broad forehoof across the arena floor. Its low body settled behind its plated skull, heavy shoulders tightening until the beast resembled a section of wall preparing to become a landslide.
Glitch stood at Jin’s heel and lit up with pure, uncomplicated joy. After two nights of enemies hiding beneath the floor and stabbing from the dark, he finally had an opponent considerate enough to stand above ground, in the open, where he could reach it.
He couldn’t have been more pleased.
Jin studied the Ram’s stance.
There.
Its weight settled forward, precisely as Arthur had warned him to watch for.
Then Jin noticed something worse.
Corven was watching him just as closely.
Not Glitch.
Jin.
His attention stayed fixed on Jin’s face, searching for the moment he recognized the Ram’s movement. Across the marked battlefield, both students were trying to read the other before either beast committed.
The arena barrier rose with a low hum.
The instructor lifted one hand.
"Begin."
The Stonehorn Ram did not charge.
It moved sideways.
The beast pivoted from its planted hooves and crossed laterally before settling between Glitch and Corven’s marker. It wasn’t attacking or committing to an exchange.
It was guarding.
From the first second, Corven refused to provide the predictable, forward-rushing target Jin had spent the day preparing to punish.
"Left," Jin ordered. "Slowly."
Glitch’s disappointment surged through the bond. He wanted to fight the wall, not walk politely around it.
Nevertheless, he obeyed.
Glitch moved toward the left side of the arena, and the Stonehorn mirrored him. Not perfectly; it didn’t need to. It shifted only far enough to keep its plated body between Glitch and the marker.
"Stop."
Glitch froze instantly.
The Ram took another half-step.
"Hold," Corven ordered.
It stopped as well.
That half-step mattered. Corven was matching Glitch’s position rather than setting the pace himself, staying near the marker and leaving Jin to decide when the distance finally closed.
"Right. Use the block."
Glitch changed direction and moved behind one of the low stone barriers. For several seconds, the obstacle broke the direct line between him and Corven’s marker, forcing the Ram to adjust toward the centre.
Jin watched its rear legs.
One hoof remained flat.
The other rotated outward.
Not holding.
Preparing to spring.
"Back!"
Corven spoke at the same moment.
"Now."
The Stonehorn exploded forward.
It didn’t need a long run. Three heavy steps were enough to transform its body into a battering ram, the distance vanishing before Glitch could build much speed in retreat.
Glitch pushed backward, but a Grey Rock Lizard wasn’t built to retreat quickly. The Stonehorn altered its angle, horns sweeping toward his exposed side.
"Right! Harden!"
Glitch twisted.
His hide darkened and compressed a fraction of a second before the Ram’s plated shoulder struck him.
The impact knocked Glitch sideways. His claws scraped across the arena floor before finding purchase, and pain flashed through the bond—sharp but manageable—as the scoring panel above Corven’s zone lit up.
First contact.
First points.
Glitch immediately tried to launch himself back at the Ram.
"Stop!"
He froze after one step.
The Stonehorn was already turning toward him. If Glitch had continued, he would have run directly in front of its horns.
Corven’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He had expected the counterattack.
Glitch’s discipline had denied him the second hit.
The Ram retreated toward its marker, but Jin watched the movement rather than the horns. Its first turn required two heavy steps, and its right rear hoof skidded slightly when it tried to recover its defensive position too quickly.
Corven had earned the first points.
He had also revealed something.
The Stonehorn could shorten its charge. It could redirect during the attack.
But it couldn’t strike, turn, and return to its marker without briefly leaving a gap.
Jin looked at that narrow opening and fixed its timing in his head.
Now he had information.