Chapter 195: Too Heavy to Dodge
Chapter 195: Too Heavy to Dodge
Ten days after Glitch’s Bronze confirmation, Marr put the examination sheet on the table. Jin read it upside down before Marr had finished turning it around.
[MERIDIAN — SEMESTER EXAMINATION, FOURTH CLASS]
[Commences: today]
[Assessed sections:]
[— Physical enhancement benchmark]
[— Beast command]
[— Controlled combat]
[— Academics, all subjects, current term]
[— Contract stability]
[— Registered beast care: Glitch (Bronze); Flicker (neonatal, supervised)]
[— Field leadership, repeatability assessment]
"Seven sections," Marr said. "You’ve done well in three of them already this term, which counts for exactly nothing, because the examination is the examination."
"Understood."
"Two things I want said out loud. First — Flicker’s on that list. You have a registered hatchling under a discharge care plan and the beast care section will look at your compliance with it in detail. If you cut corners on her because you’re busy with the examination, you’ll lose more points there than you can gain anywhere else."
"I wasn’t going to."
"Students do. They’re not bad people, they’re just tired." Marr tapped the second line. "And the leadership section is a repeatability assessment. One field crisis is an anecdote. They will put you in a situation and see whether you do it again."
The noncombat portions came first. The physical benchmark confirmed the results from Glitch’s first post-awakening tests: Jin’s balance, stability, and impact tolerance remained exceptional, while the increase in raw strength was modest. In the command course, Jin guided Glitch through moving markers, a timed hold, and two interception lanes. Glitch obeyed cleanly, although the wider turns cost them time and put a correction note on the sheet. Their contract reading remained stable throughout.
Academics produced a less dramatic result and a perfectly usable one. Jin scored strongly in field analysis, resource assessment, and beast-development theory. His remaining subjects stayed comfortably above the required line without threatening the top of the class, which suited him.
The beast-care review took the longest. An examiner compared Flicker’s feeding, temperature, airflow, and exercise logs against Verrick’s discharge plan entry by entry, then checked Glitch’s updated Bronze ration and recovery schedule. Jin received no deductions. Leadership repeatability remained deliberately unscored until the final day.
By the time the practical sections began, his record had no holes yet. The word yet did most of the work.
The likely hole had first appeared during Jin’s second day of preparation, and Bram was the one who named it.
They were in the Tier 4 conditioning hall, substantially better than anything Fifth Class received, and had already put Glitch and Bram’s beast through several rounds of contact drills.
"He’s late," said Bram.
"He’s what?"
"Late. Watch his back feet."
Jin watched his back feet.
The next time Glitch turned to follow a movement, Jin saw it clearly and could not unsee it afterward. Glitch started the turn at the same moment he always had, and his front end came around at almost the old speed, and his hindquarters arrived a distinct fraction later, dragging the tail’s new mass through the arc behind them.
The turn finished a fraction late.
Then he tried the small lateral step he used to slip an attack, and his foot landed several centimeters from where he had expected it to.
"Huh," said Jin.
Jin repeated the drill until the pattern was undeniable.
His footwork was built for a lighter body.
Every dodge Glitch knew had been calibrated for the animal he was before the awakening. Each repetition had taught him how much force moved a specific mass over a specific distance, and every one of those numbers was now wrong by ten to fifteen percent.
And the tail’s the worst of it. That thing’s a flywheel now.
"Is he broken?" Bram asked.
"No." Jin watched Glitch brace against a shove from Bram’s beast and not move at all, which he could not have done a week ago. "He’s objectively better. He’s stronger, he’s denser, he’s about three times harder to shift. Every single number is up."
"But he can’t dodge."
"He can’t dodge the way he used to."
The controlled-combat opponent was assigned on the fourth day of the examination, and it was Halvor Cray. Jin had more or less expected it. Cray had voiced the exact objection the instructors would want tested, and instructors read student records.
Cray’s beast was a Windclaw Lynx. Bronze, and a good one — long-limbed, pale, built entirely out of acceleration and lateral movement.
"Controlled combat benchmark," said the supervising instructor. "Non-lethal. Submission, displacement beyond the boundary, or five clean scoring contacts. Neither beast is to be seriously injured, and I’ll stop it if I think that’s a risk."
Cray shook Jin’s hand, which was more courtesy than most Fourth Class students managed.
"Nothing personal in this," he said.
"I know."
"I do think the scan’s right and I do think he’ll struggle." Cray glanced at the Lynx. "Ari doesn’t stand in front of things. That’s her entire method."
The first four minutes were bad.
The Lynx never stayed anywhere. She came in at an angle, touched, and was already leaving before Glitch had committed, and every single time Glitch turned to follow her she was gone by the time his hindquarters caught up.
She scored twice early. Both were glancing, and both counted.
Jin called adjustments and the adjustments made it worse.
"Cut inside her arc—"
Glitch cut inside her arc and arrived a quarter-second late and got raked across the shoulder plating.
"Turn early, anticipate—"
He turned early and she changed direction and he was committed to a rotation that took him further from her than standing still would have.
At four minutes Glitch was breathing hard, had taken four scoring touches, and had not made contact once.
Somewhere behind the barrier, somebody said, "Told you. It’s a rock. Rocks don’t catch cats."
Jin stopped watching the Lynx.
He watched Glitch through the next exchange and forced himself to see what was happening rather than what he wanted. Glitch was not slow; he was committing to rotations his new body could no longer finish. Every command Jin had given for four minutes had told him to follow the Lynx as if he still possessed the old body.
I built him for chasing and then made him too heavy to chase.
The Lynx came around again, and Glitch’s whole frame began another late turn after her.
"Glitch."
His head came round.
"Stop chasing it."