Chapter 171: The Red Comet

The training hall inside Villa 1 smelled of heated steel and ozone.

Vane stood in the center of the reinforced dueling ring. He held his spear in a low and loose grip. His breathing was shallow. He cycled the mana through his legs and prepared the Argent Horizon.

Across from him stood Ashe Razar.

She was smiling.

It was not a friendly smile. It was the baring of teeth. Her obsidian horns hummed with a deep crimson light. The red markings on her skin pulsed in time with her heartbeat. She held a weighted training odachi. The blade was long and heavy. It was a weapon designed for war and she held it like it was a part of her arm.

“Rank 4,” Ashe said. Her voice vibrated with excitement. “It feels different Vane. The mana is thicker. It feels like water instead of air.”

“Do not drown,” Vane warned.

“I am the shark,” Ashe replied.

She moved.

There was no buildup. One millisecond she was standing still and the next she was a blur of white and red.

[Flash Arts: Phantom Step]

The air where she had been standing detonated. A sonic cone erupted in the enclosed space. She crossed the twenty meters instantly.

Vane did not rely on his eyes. His eyes were too slow for this. He relied on the [Usurper]. He felt the spike of hostile intent before her muscles even fired.

He brought the spear up.

Argent Horizon: Lunar Deflection.

The odachi slammed into the spear shaft.

CLANG.

The impact was heavy. It was not just kinetic force. It was the weight of her [Warlord] Authority. She projected the concept of Conflict into the metal. The sword felt like it weighed tons.

Vane gritted his teeth. His new durability held. His wrist did not click. He used the frictionless sleeve of the [Silver Fang] to slide her blade to the side. He redirected her momentum into the floor.

The stone exploded.

Ashe did not stumble. She flowed.

She released the handle with her left hand and twisted her hips. She turned the missed strike into a rotational slash. This was not a standard Academy form. This was the Razar Family combat art.

[Razar Style: Asura’s Dance – First Form]

The blade came back around faster than it had gone down. It aimed for his neck.

Vane ducked. The wind of the blade cut a few strands of his hair.

He stepped inside her guard.

He drove the butt of his spear toward her solar plexus.

Ashe twisted. Her spine bent at an impossible angle. She was not made of bone. She was made of war. She caught the spear shaft with her free hand.

Her grip was iron.

“Mine,” she hissed.

[Grade S Skill: Weapon Communion – Resonance Lock]

She locked his weapon. She synced her mana with his spear trying to wrestle control of it from him.

Vane felt the spear vibrate. It was fighting him. Her Authority was trying to turn his own weapon against him.

He did not pull back. He pushed forward.

He activated [Internal Pulse].

He vibrated his own mana through the spear. He disrupted her frequency. The lock broke.

Vane spun the spear. He transitioned instantly into offense.

Argent Horizon: Quicksilver Thrust.

He launched three strikes in a single second. One to the shoulder. One to the hip. One to the neck.

Ashe parried the first. She dodged the second.

The third one grazed her cheek. A thin line of red appeared.

Ashe laughed.

The sound was pure joy.

“Good,” she roared. “Better!”

Her mana flared. It turned from crimson to a blinding white-red. The air pressure in the room dropped.

[New Grade S Skill: War God’s Avatar]

A spectral image of a four-armed demon superimposed itself over her body for a fraction of a second. Her physical stats skyrocketed. She was no longer moving at supersonic speeds. She was moving at hypersonic speeds.

She disappeared.

Vane’s danger sense screamed.

She was above him.

She brought the odachi down.

[Razar Style: Heaven Fall]

It was a vertical slash that carried the weight of a meteor.

Vane knew he could not block it. Even with Lunar Deflection the kinetic transfer would shatter his arms. The [Silver Fang] could cut the sword but the momentum would still crush him.

He had to gamble.

He channeled the [Silver Fang] to its limit. The spear tip turned into a void of liquid silver.

He did not block. He thrust.

He aimed for the center of her attack vector.

Argent Horizon: Falling Star (Inverted).

He drove the spear up.

The silver tip met the steel of the training blade.

SCREEEEEEEE.

The sound was agonizing.

The [Silver Fang] (Absolute Severance) bit into the high-grade steel. It sheared through the metal. It cut the odachi in half.

But Ashe was already moving.

She let go of the broken sword hilt. She used her momentum to spin in the air. She lashed out with a kick wreathed in red mana.

It connected with Vane’s shoulder.

CRACK.

Vane was thrown sideways. He skidded across the arena floor. He slammed his spear into the ground to arrest his slide.

He looked up.

Ashe had landed in a crouch. She held the broken half of her blade like a dagger. She was ready to pounce.

But the tip of Vane’s spear was already leveled at her throat.

He had recovered a fraction of a second faster than she had landed.

Ashe froze.

She looked at the silver mana hovering inches from her jugular. She looked at her broken sword.

She exhaled. The crimson glow faded from her horns.

“My sword broke,” Ashe complained. She stood up and tossed the hilt away. “That is cheating. Your spear is unfair.”

“War is unfair,” Vane said.

He stood up. He winced. His left shoulder was throbbing. It wasn’t broken but it was deeply bruised.

He looked at Ashe.

She was panting but she wasn’t exhausted. Five months ago a clash like that would have drained her reserves. Now she looked like she was just warming up.

“You are fast,” Vane said quietly. “Mid-terms you were fast. Now you are instant.”

“I have been practicing,” Ashe grinned. She walked over and poked his bruised shoulder. “I almost had you. If the sword hadn’t snapped my kick would have taken your head off.”

“Almost,” Vane agreed.

He didn’t say it aloud but he knew it was true. The gap was closing. The “Comet” was catching up to him. If he stopped running for even a moment she would run him over.

__________

The evening settled over Villa 1.

The violence of the afternoon faded into the domestic warmth of the living room. The fireplace crackled. The smell of roasted root vegetables and seared meat filled the air.

Vane stood at the kitchen island. He was chopping herbs.

He moved with the same precision he used in the arena. Knife up. Knife down. Perfect cuts.

Mara was sitting on the rug near the fire.

She was twelve years old and small for her age. She was surrounded by crayons and scattered pieces of paper. She wasn’t drawing supply lines or calculating rations. She was drawing a very lopsided dragon with too many teeth.

“Is the food done yet?” Mara asked without looking up.

“Five minutes,” Vane said. “Go wash your hands. You have charcoal on your fingers.”

Mara huffed. It was a dramatic sound.

“It is artistic shading,” she muttered. But she stood up and padded toward the bathroom.

Vane watched her go.

She was the only thing in this villa that wasn’t a weapon. He had pulled her out of Oakhaven to save her but sometimes he wondered if he was just dragging her into a different kind of danger.

He turned back to the pot.

He tasted the stew. It was simple peasant food. Thick broth. Venison. Potatoes. It was the kind of meal that sat heavy in the stomach and kept the cold out.

There was a knock at the door.

It wasn’t a polite knock. It was a rhythmic pounding.

Vane wiped his hands on a towel.

He walked to the door. He opened it.

A gust of wind blew snow into the hallway.

Ashe stood there. She had changed out of her training gear into casual robes that still looked too tight on her shoulders. Behind her was Isaac looking miserable in the cold and Lyra who was ignoring the weather to read her tablet.

“Food!” Ashe shouted. She pushed past Vane before he could even say hello. “I smell meat!”

“Shoes off,” Vane ordered. “I just cleaned the floor.”

“Dictator,” Ashe yelled back from the living room.

Valerica and Isole walked up the path a moment later.

Valerica held a bottle of wine. Isole held a small box of expensive tea.

“We brought offerings,” Valerica said. She stepped inside shaking the snow from her cloak. “To bribe the chef.”

“Bribe accepted,” Vane said.

He closed the door against the winter night.

The villa filled with noise. Ashe was arguing with Isaac about who got the biggest cushion. Mara ran back into the room to show Isole her drawing. Valerica was opening the wine.

Vane stood by the kitchen island.

He watched them.

Tomorrow the Academy would announce the Practical Evaluation. Tomorrow the war would start again.

But for tonight the fire was warm.

“Soup is on,” Vane said.

He picked up the ladle. The night had just begun.

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