STORMWEAVER II: Chapter 38 Sneak Peek (Patreon)

Gonna TRY to get this out tomorrow, but there's a lot left in this chapter I wasn't expecting!

Enjoy!

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There was no blood. That was good. In the moment utter chaos of the moment Salista—like many of the other spectators around her, she was sure—had been half-convinced Ward had actually been skewered half-a-hundred times before their very eyes. Still, the knowledge that the projected figures had been as holographic as the field didn’t change the fact that Salista had distinctly seen the “S1” symbols in black on their backs. On top of that, gravity and physics had been against the Iron Bishop after she’d managed to finally shatter the zone barrier, and as quick as the Knight-Class was she didn’t looked to have managed to reach Ward before he hit the ground. He lay in a crumpled heap on the black projection plating, his Device recalled from around his body in unconsciousness, while Valera Dent crouched over him still in her own distinct CAD and screamed for “MEDICS! MEDICS!”. Her calls were unnecessary, of course, with the floor of the Arena already abuzz with movement. Officers—CAD-assisted and unassigned alike—were rushing towards the pair from every direction. More than one medical drone was already ripping out of the tunnels towards the field, and Salista saw Sara Takeshi bolting from the Galens’ seating section for the underwork stairs.

Worst of all, Aria was scrambling forward from where she’d landed, trying to get to the still shape of Ward, mouth still open in a scream of fear that her mother couldn’t hear now.

Salista watched the proceedings as though in a dream, a sensation she—a woman very much used to having control of her surroundings at all times—was neither familiar with nor enjoyed. It took a minute for the swarm of medics and drones to assess Ward, but then a lift-stretcher was called for and he was carefully lifted onto it before being guided quickly towards the underworks. Dent went with him, having recalled Kestrel at some point in the rush, but Takeshi stayed behind to hold Aria back, who seemed to want to follow the boy. Salista was shocked to see her daughter like that—wild-eyed and screaming in turn after Ward and the Captain who was restraining her—but the events of the moment were such that she couldn’t process Aria’s state enough to be disappointed or alarmed or whatever emotion might have been appropriate for the situation. She could only stand and stare, one of tens of thousands to do so all around her, at a loss as any of them.

“What happened?”

It was just as Ward and his entourage vanished into the tunnels that the first of the distinct questions became to be heard. At first it was just those most curious and most concerned, but as a minute passed with no answer the tone of the crowd changed. Confusion started to shift to concern.

And concern rapidly began to turn to anger.

“WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT’S GOING ON!”

“SOMEONE TELL US WHAT’S GOING ON!”

“Hello?! HELLO?!”

The throng began to get agitated, and Salista found herself finally looking away from the Arena floor to eye the stands a little nervously. All around her people were shouting or discussing worriedly amongst themselves. A few seemed even looked to be tempting to contact the local authorities, a vane action given the ISCM had sole jurisdiction over its sanctioned academies. She could understand the frustration, of course. 50,000 spectators had gone from watching a tremendous match between two intersystem-level first years to witnessing one of those fighters utterly brutalized by some obvious glitch or hack in the SCT-systems. It didn’t matter that the figures in grey had been holograms. It didn’t matter that they’d been no more “real” than a phantom call. It didn’t matter that Reidon Ward hadn’t actually been skewered half-a-hundred times.

What mattered was terror of the witnessed event and the confusion it bore with it.

Fortunately, though, the tournament organizers seemed to have caught wind of the rising ire of the crowds, because just as the shouting from the stands reached a new level a single figure in military black and golds all-but-ran back out onto the Arena floor. Pulling up her frame to zoom in on them, Salista realized it was the arbiter who’d been overseeing the morning Duels, and that he was making a b-line for the middle of the Dueling area. In one hand he held a strange black device, a sort of metal stick that seemed to have foam on one end, and Salista couldn’t identify it even after the officer turned and lifted the thing to his mouth.

Then he spoke, and she realized instantly that the problem was probably much greater than any of them had realized.

“Ladies and gentleman, if I could have your attention.” The arbiter’s voice was as loud as it had been all morning, but also tinny and uneven. “It is my duty first to assure you that Cadet Reidon Ward is being assessed as we speak, though all early indications from our field medics and drones are that he is in no critical danger. Cadet Laurent is also being assessed, though only as a precaution.”