The Price of Advancement

The air in Sector Gamma was a metallic tang of ozone and recycled sweat, a taste Kaelen knew better than his own breath. Inside Vagrant's cockpit, the familiar rattle of salvaged plating felt less like a shield and more like a cage of rattling bones, each tremor a reminder of Project Chimera's raw, unstable power. The 72-hour academy deadline, a countdown to his family's ruin, pressed down from the vast, vaulted ceiling of the Trial Arena. Every eye in the spectator stands felt like a drill bit, especially Valerius’s. Kaelen could pick out the rival’s lean silhouette in the...