Chapter 50: The Gumiho (1)

Marcellus was not watching the floor like other were.

He sat angled toward the side display built into his chair arm. His eyes moved through restricted bout data on the screen. Magnar, rank 39, heir tag, weapon registration: nunchaku, Force classification lines that were locked.

He scrolled once, and Brody noticed.

He had been halfway through another piece of fruit. His attention split between the floor to ceiling glass and Marcellus’s lack of proper spectating. He leaned over the empty chair between them.

"You’re seriously reading that right now?" he asked in a low voice.

Marcellus did not look up, through the main glass, Brody could witness the bull-headed shape tearing out of nothing again and losing its line by a fraction when coming in contact with Kate.

Each exchange looked like a close call, but it was deliberate.

"Curious," Marcellus replied with one word.

"I can see that," Brody commented.

Brody chewed slowly, then pointed toward Kate with the half-eaten piece of apple.

"You’re looking at the wrong weapon," he said.

Marcellus finally glanced away from the display.

"The nunchaku?" he asked.

Brody lifted his chin toward Kate’s wrists.

"Her bracelets are what anyone should watch out for, and they’re the reason why Maeve covered herself," he said.

Marcellus followed his gaze, and looked at the bracelets made of chrome sphere that were still locked tightly around Kate’s wrists.

"They’re magnetic," Brody said.

"I assumed that," Marcellus replied.

"They...are also anchors," Brody added.

Another King appeared. It came from Kate’s side, the bull headed body was already turning into a full swinged fist.

Kate did not step back, just casually raised her hand, the air shifted around her, and King’s shoulder turned farther than it should have for the punch. It’s punch missed her jaw by inches, and cut through the empty space.

Kate’s nunchaku struck the underside of its forearm, and it vanished again.

"She’s not even trying to move," Marcellus was impressed.

"She can manipulate the magnetic field around herself," Brody said.

"The beads," he tapped two fingers against the armrest, "They let her set those fields wherever she wants, she can pull herself toward them, throw herself away, accelerate at tremendous speed, brake them, and even change their directions and of subjects around her, with ease. She’s a close combat prodigy," he said.

"But, the big mystery...is not how she controls her powers...it’s how she can even manipulate things that’re not even metal," Brody pointed at the rank at Marcellus’s display.

"There’s a reason she’s among top fifty without having any flashy force control," he said.

However, Brody wasn’t just explaining Kate’s force to Marcellus. He was noticing something...odd.

His eyes would shift on the floor when King appears. It did, and this time it did not swing immediately, it stepped in with left side forward.

The heavy body shifted with a short angle, the shoulder turning inward before the fist came across.

Brody knew someone who fought like that.

He was sure of it.

Southpaw boxing, and subtle wing chun for speed and agility, it was a combination that looked interesting to him.

"Wait," Brody stopped chewing, and whispered.

King’s fist missed Kate again, but not by much, it was getting stronger, and adapting rigorously.

King did not stop, it’s other hand came forward in a short punch.

It was followed by another.

Then another.

And consecutive punches and diversions with open palms that tackled Kate’s nunchakus at the same time.

The movements were rough, oversized, and carried far more resemblance to the style he had seen.

"That’s..."

Brody furrowed his brows.

"That is your style," Brody looked sideways at Marcellus.

"I’m certain of it," he added.

King attacked again, the beast did fought like a trained martial artist.

The moment Kate forced it off angle, it would not recover, but redirect its attacks, and they were turning faster and faster each passing moment.

The audience had gone dead silent, they were completely invested in Kate and King’s side, rather than Maeve who was still hidden inside the canopy of wings.

Marcellus knew of it before Brody pointed it out.

Maeve’s shadows act as creatures, rather than mere manifestation of shadows that she commands. Each shadow is manifestation of her imagination, and she stores those imagery in her diary.

But she does not...command them to move left and right, instead, her intent is enough for them to execute.

The whole process works like a muscle memory. She can understand any movement, remember it clearly because of her sharp memory, she can even reproduce it through the mapped constructs of her force, but her own body isn’t trained for close combat.

’The raw physical power she displays at moments is because her core falls under combat grade classification four, but she never trained her body to fight,’ Marcellus thought, and looked at his hand.

He closed his fist and relaxed it once, as if remembering something.

"That explains why she feels so soft," he murmured.

"Huh?" Brody looked at Marcellus.

Marcellus did not acknowledge Brody’s confusion and Kaji’s voice arrived from the next chair over.

"Why is no one asking how know so much about Magnar?" he whispered, but his question was directed to Brody.

"What?" Brody blinked, holding another piece of apple.

"Rank, methods, bracelets, non-metal interference, you’re narrating her like a kit, and if I remember correctly, you’ve mentioned her at numerous times before," Kaji said, looking through the glass.

"Just basic knowledge. If you watch ranked circuits and pay attention," Brody shrugged, a little too fast.

"Oh really?" Kaji turned his head, and looked at Brody.

"You also know that she’s a lesbian," he added.

Brody choked on the apple’s bite.

"I did not say it like that," he replied.

"No, you did, I remember clearly." Kaji shook his head calmly.

"Well I can’t blame you. You’re good at remembering useless information. But no, she’s bisexual," Brody corrected at once.

He pointed with the fruit at arena.

"Important difference, and that wasn’t from the combat files," he said.

Marcellus was now interested in their conversation.

"...Socials, public tags, old festival clips, a Magnar side account that wasn’t as private as she thought, she even has multiple IDs." Then...Brody began his explanation.

"She had a story archive in which she had tagged a male pilot and captioned ’One of my favorite bad decisions,’ but she broke up with him, also deleted that highlight a year later. And as for her being a lesbian...would be misjudging her. She even had girlfriends, and her assistant is also one of those women. So all in all, no. She’s not a lesbian, but she’s bisexual. She is interested in men, too."

"..."

"..."

Both Marcellus and Kaji looked at him for a while when he finished speaking.

"Thorough," Marcellus nodded.

"More like a weird stalker. Idiot’s been collecting information for years and hasn’t actually done anything," Kaji added, and got back to spectating the duel.

"..." Brody spread his arms, and looked at both of them simultaneously.

"This is basic stuff, guys!"

"Sure," Kaji replied. "Whatever you say."