Chapter 48
With perfect precision, one at a time, drones were exploding all around me from singular, well-placed shots sent through the most volatile point in their cores.
The Artificial Intelligence in these Ghul-based drones was unusually advanced, but having trained against my own comrades enough times in the past, they were still nothing compared to the unpredictable intelligence or folly of a human opponent.
I leveraged both of my swords to take off the arms of another mock-Ghul, before I thrust them through the heart of the beast, then I moved onto the next target. They were good exercise, if nothing else, but the programmers had failed to capture the agility and strength of the real machines.
I didn’t mind the lack of challenge right now though. This felt good. Therapeutic, in a way. I needed this. It was a reminder that I wasn’t as worthless as I’d felt after losing to a first year.
A first year who was a Vessel.
Could Father have been mistaken? Even if he wasn’t, I was a Vessel, too.
It was hard to fathom that a man who had only been training for a few months could best me, purely due to a simple mutation.
But then, a mutation was also the only explanation as to how someone so green could stand a chance against me at all.
I thrust my sword through another Ghul, separating its thigh from its pelvis, when a sudden blast of a sniper cannon sent the drone sideways, exploding the entire machine right in front of me.
The kill was added to Breaker and Vann’s count instead of ours, despite the fact that I’d already disabled the rest of its body.
Considering Elio and I had personally trained him to shoot like that, I couldn’t exactly be mad, but I wanted to prove a point today, and there was no world where their team would be better than mine.
We still had forty-three kills separating us as they moved into the second spot, and unless General Banerjee sent in a second wave, there weren’t enough drones left in proximity to sway the battle.
He was only this close because of Breaker.
I’d happily put them both in their places.
I shook my head at the thought.
Why was I so mad about this, anyway? Vann was an ally and a subordinate.
It was only a positive that he was also a worthwhile pilot.
Bitterness and jealousy and contempt were weak emotions, and I had no use for any of them.
Father would be appalled if I let my feelings affect my better judgment.
I would allow no such poisons in my mind.
My sync faltered to 98%, and I forced a blade through another Ghul out of pure spite, ripping the energy sword from the metal and shoving it in again, over and over, until I was so consumed by the task that my sync was back to 100.
After finishing off one more, I found myself back-to-back with Elio’s Lamassu, and Breaker’s Kishi, while a large swath of drones surrounded us.
“They’re not holding anything back today,” Elio noted through the group COMM link.
“It’s far more than normal, it seems. The attack algorithm has started to improve as well.” I tensed my grip on my swords.
“They’re probably just trying to accelerate our training schedule.
” Breaker’s tone was a verbal shrug. “Did you see the update on the Module this morning? Sounds like the attempts to talk it out with Gehenna’s Emperor aren’t going well at this point, which means things are going to be far worse than this soon.
The programmers and coordinators have gone easy on us to spare our machines from taking damage for too long.
I’d prefer if they started giving us a more realistic challenge, personally. ”
“Agreed.” I readied my blade as the number of Ghuls had slowly multiplied. There should have been plenty of other soldiers engaged in combat. By the numbers, ten more each team should have been enough to clear the field, but there were an easy hundred now surrounding us.
“Just over thirty each should do the trick. Do you think you can handle that, Princess?”” Elio spoke to me through a private line this time, notably excluding Vann as a factor in his calculations.
It seemed as though he was avoiding Vann lately, but I could hardly criticize considering I’d been avoiding him too.
Well, until I saw an opportunity to steal his kill anyway. Maybe neither of us were as professional as we should be.
But that wasn’t the problem right now. The problem was…
“The numbers are wrong,” I said with a scrunch of my nose. The map was showing an unknown number of enemy units now, with the original base number fluctuating up and down.
“I noticed,” Elio’s voice was solemn in a way that put me on edge.
Was that the real exercise today? An unknown, always increasing threat? It was possible this was intentional, but I would have expected an update via the command center, to better emulate how we would have to react in an evolving mission objective.
A loud, gurgling, hair-raising scream shook through the Wide channel shared by all units, followed by a loud ping.
My numbers updated:
Allies: 999
Allies: 998
Allies: 987
What?
Another anonymous ping chimed, one, two, ten, twenty.
“Seba, Elio, Vann.” Breaker shook me from a daze, as his massive scythe sliced through a Ghul who had been headed straight for my core. “These aren’t drones anymore.”
“All Units be advised. Gehenna units have infiltrated the sphere.” The voice of Command finally came through, as our allied units dipped to 946.
Whether those were high ranking or low ranking soldiers vanishing from the map, I didn’t know, but that was real death for all of them.
“All soldiers ranked above five-hundred, retreat immediately. Elite units, engage only as needed to secure a safe withdrawal. Weapons have been restored to full power. This is not a drill. Fall back immediately.”
“I’m not retreating until all of these fucks are dead,” Elio growled, taking down three with a hard horizontal swing of his massive, and now full-powered, wedge sword.
“Besides, I needed this.” A note of amusement came through his voice as he turned another machine into violent spheres of blue explosions.
Only Elio would find joy in a situation like this.
Without hesitation, I destroyed two Ghuls myself using quick and practiced swordsmanship, sweeping my blades in an arc of destruction, slicing through whatever inferior material made up the advancing units.
“This isn’t a joke.” I chastised my companion, who was always entirely too ready for violence.
“I wasn’t joking.” He used brute force to rip apart another enemy Ghul, then sent an array of projectiles from his wings, creating an explosion of sparks in the large group that surrounded us, like a line of archers raining down death on the cavalry.
I engaged with two, then three, then four at once, until there were so many, all I had time to worry about was dodging and staying alive.
We were quickly getting overwhelmed, as the numbers never seemed to drop, no matter how many we killed.
Though command had disabled them, our own dummy drones were still mixed among the real Ghuls, and it was near impossible to discern the difference until we were actively in combat.
I skewered one Ghul through the core, as another struck my side, shooting a sharp and vicious jolt of pain through my gut.
I spun on the attacker to retaliate, only to see one of the Ghuls explode under the pressure of Sniper fire.
“Your orders were to retreat, Snow.” I didn’t bother to make sure I was on a private line. I had too much else to focus on to worry about who heard my transmissions.
“And let you all get taken out? I’ll retreat when you do.” Vann yelled back through the channel, frustrated but resolute. “You know I’m an asset. I can help.”
Breaker’s laugh was punctuation to the message.
“Normally, I’d agree with Seba, but I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to hold these guys back on our own.
” He chopped through another machine, dragging his scythe through its torso while kicking it back with the thrusters in his heel.
“Let’s try to get all of us out of here in one piece.
If the Pipsqueak can help with that, let him stay. ”
I shook my head, three new Ghuls taking up too much of my attention to argue.
“Stay on your guard, and hit your Emergency Beacon if even one of these things gets close to you.” Elio, however, didn’t sound amused at all anymore.
Likely because he knew as well as I did that, as skilled as Vann may be, he wasn’t experienced.
His presence was a burden, and we would have to keep him safe.
Though that was my job, wasn’t it? Protecting others was always the burden of the leader.
I’d done everything I could to keep the students and civilians alive in Protectorate 005.
I’d slaughtered the Gehennan soldiers, unapologetically, just as I would now.
I had to be strong enough to handle that mental burden, and I couldn’t let my resolve waiver in the face of a real battle.
This was what all of my training was for.
They’d designated me as a Captain, and I had to be the leader I was expected to be.
I felt the tremble in the hand of my Shinka, entirely too well synced to my own nervous system, then I clamped down my grip around my hilt, and I put my everything into the next thrust.
“Vann, provide cover as we head toward the escape transport. Elio, Breaker—retreat with every kill. We’ll buy time and defend the rest of the trainees until the active military arrives. There’s no point in fighting to the death today.”
“Sir, yes sir,” Breaker responded.
“I’ve got your back,” Vann confirmed.
Elio said nothing, but he didn’t need to. He braced his weapon and stood by my side, and we both tore into the fray.