Chapter 684 (1/2)

“Who do you think will win?” Helen asked as she slowly moved through her warm-up routine.

Azriel didn’t even blink as she replied. “Randidly.”

Inwardly, Helen was thankful for Azriel spending time with her over the past few days. Knowing she would need to fight Randidly, and one of them would lose in the tournament… It pissed her the fuck off. Especially given the blatant favoritism shown to Squad One.

Helen’s fingers tightened on the wooden shaft of the spear, but her movements didn’t increase in speed. Balance in all things. The river is movement, but it does not move.

“Your lack of faith is disconcerting,” Helen commented briefly. “I have grown.”

“Not enough,” Azriel replied.

Helen’s eye twitched. It wasn’t much, but the two women were likely the only two who truly understood how much a monstrous change had seized Randidly in the past year. An unlikely bond, but one that was easy to rely on in times of war.

From barely qualifying for the Regional Tournament, he was no in the Inter-School finals. If not for the looming invasion of the Wights, this would be the most talked about event of the year. He had grown at a rate that defied the imagination, and Helen knew that he wasn’t truly giving it his all.

It was infuriating. Doubly infuriating was that Azriel refused to pull her punches and continued to reminder Helen of this disparity. Triply infuriating was that the fucker hadn’t even stopped by to talk to her about it. Was he refusing to acknowledge their impending match? Did he think it a guaranteed thing that he would win?

What do you want him to say? Helen thought sourly as she finished a circuit of her warm-ups. She had no answer for herself and just threw herself into the next series of motions. Her hands guided her spear in elaborate loops.

“As long as he doesn’t take me seriously, I have a chance,” Helen announced to the training grounds.

Azriel shot her a bemused look. “You sound like you are trying to convince yourself. Your chances-”

“Fuck this,” Helen growled, giving up on the progression. “It’s time to spar. Give me your best Randidly Ghosthound impression.”

*****

Buoyed somewhat on the success of his modification of Skarch’s spear, Randidly returned to his room with a smile on his face. Even he hadn’t known how effective it would be as a battery. Now, battery life suddenly became a demanding problem, and Randidly could only guess at that. But no matter what, Randidly was looking forward to seeing how she performed with her newly freed up weapon.

As Randidly went to open the door to his room, Acri slithered up his arm and gave him a sorrowful look. Randidly chuckled. It seemed Acri knew he was thinking about another weapon and was slightly jealous. Well, that was easy to fix.

His hand fell away from the door and Randidly turned and head down to the courtyard below. There were training fields provided by the Hall of Stances for everyone for the duration of their stay, but Randidly could feel his connection of Aether leading to those fields. Both Azriel and Helen were there.

At the moment, Randidly had no desire to face Helen. He was going to have so bad news when he saw her next, and he wasn’t relishing his role as the person who would deliver the news. Of course, he could have someone else do the work, but…

Sighing, Randidly pushed it from his mind and walked into the small courtyard. It was a problem that could wait for later. Now was a time for training.