Chapter 9 Heath #2
A collective gasp sounded as a fucking Giant materialized on the floor.
We never trained single individuals against an L4 Giant unless that person volunteered, usually in a desperate bid for points on the leaderboard, which almost always backfired and ended with the person’s “death” and the loss of those points.
Even my quad had only ever gone up against a Giant in at least a pair, and certainly not without a shifted Prime beast.
Cash was a sadistic asshole.
The remaining Ripper had recovered from Avery’s impaling it through the gut and was lumbering her way. Now she also had a ten-foot-tall serpent-shaped thing with six legs and a crocodile mouth full of six-inch needle teeth to contend with.
Avery slashed at the mutant bear, keeping it at bay while the serpent crawled along the edge of the arena, stalking her.
“Ian!” Avery shouted.
Without hesitation, Avery’s brother vaulted the railing and landed in a crouch at the arena’s edge. He unsheathed his katana from his back and sprinted straight for Avery and the bear.
Wyatt whistled. “Shit, he’s fast.”
Ian ran at the bear head-on, ducking a swipe of its claws before slashing his blade across its chest. It roared, too distracted by trying to maul Ian again to notice Avery until she’d jumped straight onto its back, the magical construct holding her weight as if it was a real, corporeal thing.
She raised both of her blades and stabbed the bear right through the back, severing its spine.
She dove from its back as it collapsed. Ian took its head off with one swing of his katana, and then they turned to face the Giant together.
“This has backfired spectacularly on Cash,” Wyatt mused, chuckling.
I blew out a breath. “It’s going to make her a target.”
He sighed. “Maybe.”
Across the way, Wyatt’s father watched all of this without a hint of emotion.
He’d stayed silent as Cash tossed a criminally overpowered SWIM sequence at a brand-new, unknown female with no experience in feeling the blows or the “deaths” that the magic could deliver.
I suspected Ward’s presence was the only reason Cash hadn’t pulled the plug and accused Avery of cheating the second her brother dropped in to help her.
Because we all knew it didn’t fucking matter. It would have hardly been a fair fight against an L4 if I’d jumped in there with her, much less her brother, the fox shifter.
The serpent screeched a terrible noise and attacked.
Ian began to run circles around the arena, using his impressive speed to try to draw the wraith’s attention.
It struck at him, its mouthful of teeth nearly sinking into Ian’s leg.
Avery shouted in alarm. As Ian rolled away, Avery hurdled him and landed in front of the wraith in time to catch its next strike.
It lunged for her, mouth gaping, the rows of needles in its jaws aimed straight at Avery’s face. It would be an excruciating hit and probably an instant “death.” I tensed, my knuckles turning white where I gripped the railing.
Avery rammed one of her blades right up into the wraith’s mouth, impaling it through its skull.
The wraith shrieked and flailed, wrenching its head away from Avery and taking her sword with it. She swore, cradling her arm with her free hand. The teeth must’ve still gotten her.
Ian bolted for the wraith. He tossed his sword to Avery as he ran by her, shifting mid-stride into a hardy silver fox.
“The fuck?” Wyatt said. “That fox can’t do shit against an L4.”
As the serpent thrashed, Avery’s blade still stuck in its mouth, Ian’s fox scurried up its back until he was on top of the flailing head. The fox snarled and sank its claws into the wraith’s void eyes, blinding it while he held on tight.
Avery shook out her arm and charged, holding Ian’s katana in her dominant hand and using her remaining wakizashi blade as a companion sword.
The magic would allow the wraith to sense her location despite it not having the use of its eyes, just like real Giants were supposedly able to do.
It spun, shaking its head violently as it lunged, and its serpentine neck caught Avery in the torso, knocking her across the floor.
Ian’s fox clawed and bit at its head.
Avery climbed to her feet, wincing, and then she squared up again.
“Ian! Now!”
The fox shifted instantly into a nude Ian.
As the extra weight tipped the serpent’s head back, he reached into the monster’s mouth and ripped out Avery’s blade.
He launched himself down onto its back, using the momentum of his fall to stab the wraith through its spine just as Avery approached to deliver the final killing blows.
She buried her shorter blade in its chest before grasping Ian’s katana with both hands and swinging the blade straight through the wraith’s thick neck like she was knocking a baseball out of the park.
“Holy fuck,” Wyatt exclaimed.
The wraith flickered and disappeared.
The arena was dead silent.
Jared, assistant trainer and the quietest of Cash’s quad of douches, logged the points on his tablet, and the jumbotron populated new scores.
Ten thousand each to both Avery and Ian Baxter.
Avery had been here for a single day, and she was now at the top of the Support Squadron leaderboard.
Ian’s points for just the one Ripper kill and the Giant had him solidly in the upper middle of the pack.
Cash didn’t have shit to say.
Frankly, neither did I.
Finally, Ward Gale stood up from his lone perch in the bleachers.
“Well, I’d say we can make room for both these new trainees in our program.
I think perhaps our trainers should take a moment to reflect on our teaching methods, as I’m certain not a single pair of students in this room could do what those two just did without the aid of a Prime beast. Welcome to the Support Squadron, both of you. ”
Ian had pulled his pants back on, and he gave Ward a jaunty little salute and then a shallow bow.
Avery cleared her throat. “Thank you, sir, but I’m actually here to be a Guardian.”
I blinked.
The room burst into grumbles, gasps, and annoyed protests.
Cash finally found his voice. “Absolutely the fuck not.”
Ward just shrugged. “Earn it, then, Miss Baxter.”
“Ward! You can’t be serious.”
Wyatt’s chuckle was humorless for once. “My dad, always the shit-stirrer.”
Avery smiled at Ward. She had a gorgeous fucking smile, and that old bastard was a goner. Wyatt had four little sisters, and the man adored every one of them. “Thank you, sir, I will,” she said brightly.
Cash threw his hands into the air and then growled into the mic. “Class dismissed. Everyone better have their shit together at Wednesday’s training or there will be hell to pay.”
Wyatt and I didn’t move as the class filed out around us, opting to linger and watch Avery and her brother as they gathered up their swords and Ian’s clothes, amicably chatting as if they’d just finished a fucking pilates class together and instead of singlehandedly destroying the order of the entire Guardian training program.
Brody Dara joined them, staring at Ian like he wanted to eat him for dinner.
Fortunately, it was dark up here in the stands, so Avery couldn’t see Wyatt looking at her the same way.
“Cut that out,” I told him. “This is going to be a shitstorm.”
“I think our quad leader doth protest too much. Who knew skill with a blade could get me so hot?”
I didn’t want to think about how much blood had rushed to my dick through that whole display, so I growled at Wyatt. “It doesn’t matter how skilled she is. Or how many real wraiths she’s supposedly killed. Here, within these walls, she is only going to cause trouble.”
And trouble was something my quad had in abundance. We didn’t need any more.