Chapter 44: First round [3]
"Sylvia," Lucas said, adjusting the hemisphere in his arms and watching the standoff ahead of him with the mild expression of soone observing sothing they have no strong feelings about. "Don’t you think you’re enjoying this a little too much?" He tilted his head slightly. "You could’ve ended this already if you actually wanted to."
"It’s MINE—"
The shout arrived at the sa mont the offensive cadet did.
He was gone from Sylvia’s sightline between one breath and the next — a burst of speed that blurred his figure sideways, reappearing in front of Lucas mid-air, blade already angled down toward the hemisphere, the gap between them closing in a heartbeat.
’Hah.’ The grin was already on his face as he ca down. ’You first-years really think you belong up here with us. Maybe the girl has sothing. But him?’ His eyes locked on the glass sphere in Lucas’s hands. ’All I need is this. One move and it’s done.’
The distance collapsed.
His hand reached forward. Inches away.
And then he registered sothing wrong.
Lucas wasn’t moving.
No flinch. No attempt to pull back or protect the hemisphere. No defensive response at all. He was just standing there watching the blade co down toward him with the specific quality of calm that belongs to people who already know what’s about to happen.
’What—’ Sothing cold brushed the edges of the cadet’s confidence. ’Why isn’t he reacting? No panic, no fear, nothing — he’s just—’
’Doesn’t matter,’ he decided, tightening his grip. ’I’m not here to fight him. I take the hemisphere and I’m gone.’
The final inch closed.
CRACK.
The impact stopped him like he’d swung into a wall.
Sothing solid t his blade mid-air and the force of the collision pushed back hard, sparks scattering violently at the point of contact, the energy snapping between the clash like it was angry about being interrupted.
He stared at what was in front of him.
Sylvia.
Right there. Between him and Lucas. Staff locked against his blade, lightning and yellow energy eting and grinding at the contact point. Her feet were planted. Her expression was calm.
He hadn’t seen her move. He hadn’t heard her move. Between the mont he’d committed to the strike and the mont of impact she had simply — arrived. Like she’d been standing there the whole ti and he’d just failed to notice.
His mouth opened slightly.
’When—’
Sylvia didn’t look at him.
She glanced back over her shoulder at Lucas, staff still pressed against the blade, lightning snapping between them.
"Give
a couple more minutes," she said, conversational, like she was asking him to wait while she finished sothing. "I’ll wrap this up."
The defensive cadet, watching from behind his partner, had gone very still.
His earlier confidence had been replaced by sothing that was working through several stages simultaneously. The grip on his hemisphere had tightened without him deciding to tighten it. His eyes moved between Sylvia and his partner and the distance between them and the trees and then back to Sylvia.
’She’s insane,’ was the only word his brain produced. ’She’s completely insane.’
The offensive cadet clicked his tongue sharply.
He pushed off breaking away from the lock with a hard shove backward, boots hitting the ground and sliding a short distance before finding purchase. He straightened up, jaw set, and looked at his partner.
"We’re done here," he said, and the pride was gone from his voice entirely. What was left was flat and practical. "Let’s find easier targets."
His partner didn’t argue.
They turned and ran.
Leaves scattered under their feet as they broke into the undergrowth, moving fast, not looking back, the forest swallowing them as they put distance between themselves and whatever that was.
For a second it looked like they were going to make it.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
Both cadets stopped. Imdiately.
Sylvia was standing in front of them.
Not to the side. Not erging from sowhere. In the path directly ahead, staff resting against her shoulder, looking at them with the steady unhurried expression of soone who had been waiting for them to arrive at this exact spot.
No sound of movent. No indication of how she’d gotten there.
The offensive cadet’s expression did sothing complicated. The defensive one swallowed once, audibly.
Sylvia looked between them.
"Leave the hemisphere," she said. The slight amusent from earlier was gone. What was left was simpler and more direct, the voice she had when she’d moved past the performance of a thing and arrived at just the thing itself. "Then you’re free to go."
No negotiation in it. No threat beyond the statent of the choice available to them.
Silence.
The defensive cadet’s eyes moved between Sylvia, between Lucas in the distance, between his partner, between the hemisphere in his hands. Sothing was happening behind his expression that wasn’t quite fear and wasn’t quite anger. Sothing smaller and uglier than either of those.
His grip on the hemisphere tightened.
"If we’re not getting through," he said, his voice low and bitten off at the edges—
His hand moved.
"Then neither are you."
CRACK.
The hemisphere shattered between his palms. Fragnts scattered across the forest floor in every direction, the delicate structure coming apart instantly into useless pieces that caught the light as they fell.
Silence.
Sylvia looked at the broken pieces on the ground. Sothing moved through her expression — not anger, just the quiet adjustnt of soone revising what they expected to happen.
The two cadets didn’t wait to see what ca next. They ran — the defensive one grabbing his partner’s sleeve, both of them disappearing between the trees without looking back, footsteps fading fast until the forest swallowed them completely.
Gone.
The clearing settled back into quiet.
Lucas walked up beside Sylvia and looked down at the scattered fragnts, the hemisphere still held carefully in his own arms. He stood there for a mont, taking it in.
"Well," he said.
A beat.
"That’s one way to lose."
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