Chapter 22| Drills

Chapter 22: Chapter 22| Drills

"Six days," Maren muttered. Not to anyone specifically. Just the thing that had been sitting in the corner of her head all morning without being named.

Kael from the other end picked up his bag without comment and peeled off toward the second year block without breaking stride. No goodbye. Just the natural exit of someone who had somewhere else to be and didn’t need to announce it.

Zane and Maren walked back toward the academic block together.

Halfway across the courtyard Zane fell into step beside Maren.

"How are you holding up," he said.

She considered that for a second. "Good I guess. For now." She glanced at him sideways. "You?"

"Same," Zane replied.

She nodded once and they kept walking.

The academic block entrance came into view. Maren checked her communicator.

"It’s already time for classes," she said.

"Yeah," Zane said.

They pushed through the entrance and split toward their respective sections without another word. Clean. No ceremony. Just two people who had figured out how to exist in the same space without making everything a thing.

Instructor Vael was already standing at the front of the room when the first years filtered in.

She waited until the last student sat down before speaking.

"How are you all holding up," she said. Not warmly exactly. Just directly. The way Vael did everything.

Nobody answered. The room had the specific energy of people who weren’t sure if the question was rhetorical.

"You all have just six days until rank trials," she continued. "I’m aware. Which is exactly why we’re not doing theory today."

A few heads came up.

"Outside," Vael said. "Practical drills. All of you."

The drill was simple in structure and brutal in execution.

Vael set up four stations across the open training ground. Each one targeting a different combat fundamental. Footwork and evasion at station one. Sigil activation speed at station two. Sustained output endurance at station three. Controlled precision at station four.

Students rotated every eight minutes on her signal.

Zane moved through each station methodically.

Station one — footwork. No Sigil required. Just movement patterns under time pressure. He ran the angular approach sequence he’d developed the night before, disguised inside the standard evasion drill. Nobody clocked it as anything other than decent footwork because he was basically slower than most of them.

Station two — activation speed. Students fired their Sigils at a sensor panel that logged response time. Zane stepped up when his turn came and looked at the panel.

Obviously No Sigil to fire. Nothing registered. The panel waited.

He stepped aside after three seconds.

A few students nearby exchanged glances. Nobody said anything. The Sigilless kid standing at an activation speed panel was either brave or clueless and nobody could decide which.

’Both,’ Zane thought.

Station three — Endurance test. Sustained Sigil output for sixty seconds. Most students were visibly taxing their systems by the forty second mark and it mostly applied to those with enhancement type sigil.

Zane stood at his station and did what he always did when a Sigil drill wasn’t designed for someone without one.

He ran footwork patterns instead. Controlled, deliberate movement sequences for sixty seconds straight. No enhancement. Just baseline physical conditioning that looked like he was doing something without confirming what.

By the time Vael’s signal sounded his shirt was damp and his legs were loaded.

Nobody questioned it.

The Sigilless kid working harder in the spaces where he couldn’t compete was becoming background information at this point.

Station four — precision. A series of targets at varying distances. Accuracy under pressure. He moved through it clean. Just moving from target to target hitting them with his bare fists although he could hear loud laughs from behind but he didn’t give it any attention. Because we all know we lose when silly things are given the attention they desire.

By the time Vael called the end of the session the afternoon light had already shifted. Later than he’d realised.

"That’s enough," Vael said from the edge of the grounds. Her eyes moved across the students one last time. "Six days left. Use them wisely."

She turned and walked back up the corridor without waiting for anyone to follow.

Students filtered back toward the main building in clusters. Tired. Some of them quietly recalibrated expectations for what six days actually meant.

Zane picked up his bag and walked back alone, straight to his dorm room.

It was already getting dark by the time he crossed the courtyard.

He arrived at Room 714 at exactly 9:30 PM.

Dex was in his chair watching last year’s rank trial highlights on his screen. He gestured Zane over without looking away from the footage.

The screen showed Arena One. A small fast fighter closing distance on a larger force-output student before he could set his stance. Three hits in two seconds. The bigger student never got his one shot off.

"Speed based Sigil," Zane said.

"Velocity enhancement. B-rank." Dex pointed at the screen. "The big guy had a force output Sigil that should have ended it in one hit. Never got the one hit. She never let him set up." He looked at Zane. "Whoever you’re fighting in six days. If they’re smart they won’t let you set up either."

Zane looked at the screen.

’Never let him set up,’ he thought.

’That’s the problem with an unknown opponent,’ he thought. ’I don’t know what I’m walking into. Whatever N is carrying. If it’s range based or output heavy. Closing the distance is going to cost me. My entire strategy requires contact. They just have to make that cost enough that I can’t get there cleanly.’

’Which is why the angular approach matters regardless of what their Sigil turns out to be,’ he thought. ’Changing the entry angle reduces exposure to almost any forward facing output. It’s not a counter to one specific Sigil. It’s a general principle.’ It all boils down to speed and footwork.

"What did the big guy do wrong," Zane asked.

"He tried to power through," Dex said. "Took damage trying to close distance instead of changing the approach entirely." He shrugged. "Sometimes the answer isn’t push harder. Sometimes it’s to change the angle."