Chapter 315: Not Like This

Chapter 315: Not Like This

The light beneath Sera’s heel flared, and Jin stepped toward the shoulder that had saved him last time.

She came for that space instead.

"Glitch, right!"

Glitch swung across her approach. Sera checked her burst before his jaws reached her, leaving a sharp electrical smell behind—and Mantle struck the side Glitch had uncovered.

The tiger’s claws caught beneath two overlapping plates. Glitch slid sideways, dragging a dark line through the grit.

Jin had seen both attacks. He had even called the right direction. His beast was bleeding anyway.

What am I supposed to do with that?

He moved with Glitch, keeping his shoulder between himself and Sera. Across the floor, she waited for Mantle to recover before advancing again.

They weren’t taking unnecessary risks. That made it worse.

Mantle came low on the next approach. Glitch lowered his horns and caught the tiger solidly enough to force it back a step. Jin almost called for him to follow.

Light flashed on the other side.

He stepped across Sera’s line, but she adjusted faster than he could. Her fingers brushed his sleeve. The shock cramped his arm from wrist to shoulder, and his next command came out as a gasp.

Glitch abandoned the opening to cover him. Mantle followed and raked his shoulder before withdrawing beneath Sera’s guard.

Jin shook feeling back into his fingers.

She doesn’t even have to catch me. He just has to think she might.

He knew this problem from games. Split the defender’s attention, punish whichever target it protected, repeat until something broke. Usually he could send Flicker around the other side or lose an avatar learning the answer.

Here, his answer was already breathing hard.

He backed with Glitch through another exchange, searching for a position that made both opponents approach from the same direction. Sera kept moving. The tiger needed only to threaten the near side for her to find the far one again.

Then Glitch asked him for something.

It came through the bond as a familiar sensation: warmth beneath plating, a deep settling breath, legs that felt stronger afterward. Glitch turned one gold eye toward him, and Jin understood.

"No."

The refusal came out louder than he intended.

Glitch held his gaze.

"Not here," Jin said. "You’re hurt."

The Syncs Jin trusted happened after checks, with food ready and somewhere quiet to recover. Even when he’d been desperate for another Star, he had waited for Glitch’s body to settle.

He wasn’t going to pour growth into him because two thousand people wanted a good match.

We can lose. I’ll be miserable about it tomorrow. That’s fine.

The request came again, stronger, accompanied by a rush of impressions Jin hadn’t expected.

His own hand, much larger beside a small muzzle. Food offered without being snatched away. A sore leg resting across his lap while he talked and rubbed the scales around it. The familiar relief after a change Glitch couldn’t understand but had learned to trust.

Jin swallowed. For Glitch, it seemed so simple. His tamer had helped him become strong before. He could do it again, and then neither of the things across the floor would be allowed near him.

Mantle advanced. Glitch faced it, and beneath that fierce protectiveness Jin felt something harder to answer.

He hated being driven back.

"Stay close," Jin said.

Glitch roared and charged.

"Back!" Jin shouted.

The lizard kept going. His horns forced Mantle to give ground, but the tiger turned with him, struck across the injured shoulder, and sprang clear before Glitch could catch its foreleg.

Jin’s stomach dropped. The distance between them had opened in two strides.

Somebody in Sablecourt’s section laughed.

"Can’t even call it back!"

Another voice snapped at the heckler to shut up. Jin barely heard either. Marris had reached the rail, her hand rising, and Sera was shifting toward the route Glitch had left unguarded.

Elsa gripped the edge of the terminal table.

"Dad, why isn’t he listening?"

Arthur stood behind her chair. On-screen, Jin called again, and the camera cut briefly to his coach.

"She’s watching," Arthur said. "She can stop it."

He wished the camera would return to the floor. His son was somewhere beyond that frame with a beast that had stopped answering, and he could do nothing from here.

Elena moved beside Elsa and put an arm around her. Elsa hadn’t noticed she was crying until her mother wiped her cheek.

Jin moved diagonally toward Glitch’s rear, keeping the lizard between himself and Sera as Mantle withdrew from the exchange.

"Glitch. Look at me."

The head came around. Jin reached the shelter of his flank and pressed a hand against the warm plating.

"I’m here. Come back with me."

Glitch’s chest heaved beneath his palm. For a moment, the anger through the bond was so strong that Jin thought he would have to surrender anyway.

"Together," Jin said. "Or we’re done."

Glitch took a step back.

Jin moved with him. Mantle approached, and this time Glitch waited for the command before turning to meet it. Sera checked her advance when the opening closed.

Jin raised his free hand toward Marris, then pointed Glitch through a controlled retreat. The lizard followed, guarding instead of chasing.

Marris watched the next exchange before lowering her hand. She stayed at the rail.

Jin was glad she did.

"You scared the hell out of me," he muttered against Glitch’s flank.

The response held no apology, exactly, but the frantic edge had eased. Glitch still wanted the change. He also understood that Jin would end this if he stopped listening again.

As Mantle closed, Draconic Dread rolled outward. The tiger hesitated for half a stride, enough for Glitch to recover his stance. Jin had felt several such emissions already, each buying less time and costing effort they could scarcely spare.

He couldn’t build a whole defense from frightening something that was learning to push through it.

Yet Glitch’s determination remained fierce. Protecting Jin was part of it. So was the refusal to bow his head before the stronger beast.

Jin had watched that pride in harmless things: a stolen seat, a bowl claimed before Flicker could inspect it, the stubborn insistence on carrying something too large. Now he could feel how deep it went.

He opened Data Appraisal while Glitch held a guarded stance.

The wounds were as bad as they looked. Fatigue marked the shoulders and hindquarters. The earlier Gravity Press strain remained, with fresh stress from the repeated Dread emissions.

Underneath those readings, the circulation around the Astral Core had become unusually coherent.

Jin checked again during their next retreat. Energy that had been uneven a moment earlier now moved in a stable pattern, even under pressure. The alignment through their bond was stronger than he’d felt during several carefully prepared transfers.

A private assessment appeared.

[Sync Assessment — Glitch]

[Bond alignment: exceptionally stable]

[Internal circulation: coherent under acute physical strain]

[Accumulated development: sufficient to reach the peak of Rank 1, 9-Star]

[Growth transfer: viable]

[Warning: existing injuries and exhaustion remain.]

Jin read the warning twice.

It wasn’t permission to pretend Glitch was healthy. The wounds would stay. So would the strength he’d already spent. But the part of him that had to receive the growth was holding better than Jin had believed possible.

Across the floor, Sera drew Mantle back from another brief Dread emission. She was watching Glitch closely now. Jin had a few protected breaths, no more.

He checked the lizard’s footing and breathing against the panel. Both remained coordinated. When he asked for another backward step, Glitch gave it immediately.

If that changes, we’re finished.

Jin pressed the condition through the bond along with his fear. There would be no charging off alone, no ignoring him when he called a stop. Glitch had to let him help.

The answering intent came firmly enough that Jin’s hand tightened against the plating.

He still wanted to take him somewhere quiet. He wanted a stall, a feed bowl, and a problem he could solve without blood drying on his fingers.

Instead, he watched Glitch turn at his command, putting his armored shoulder between Sera and himself.

"Stay with me," Jin whispered.

Then he accepted the transfer.

[Sync initiated.]

Glitch threw back his head and roared. Pain tore through the bond, sharp enough to make Jin flinch—but underneath it came such fierce relief that he nearly cried out himself.

The change had started, and Glitch was glad.