That eleventh fight took a lot out of Balder, though, and he got smashed against nine. They reordered, and with Balder now at eleventh, Kip was moved down to thirteenth place.
Then Barrel was up. He fought as Kip had expected, too, skipping Aram and taking on fighters who were already out, and then skipping Kip, who spat at his feet. Barrel made it to twelfth, and lost to ninth.
Kip shuffled down to fourteenth. Aram challenged three up from himself, fifteenth, which was Erato. She was already out no matter what, so she conceded without fighting.
All Aram had to do was win one more fight, and if he did, Kip was out. He came up to the bar and looked over the prospects, standing almost directly in front of Kip.
“You coward,” Kip said. “You’re not smart enough to figure this out. Who did it? How much did they pay you to do this?”
A flash of fury came over Aram’s face, quickly smoothed away.
“You cheater,” Kip said. “What did you think, that you’re some modern-day Ayrad? Ayrad didn’t take money for what he did. He didn’t use a team. You’re shit compared to him. You’re going to skip me. Me. The one you were hired to block. You think you’re the best in the class, you think you’re better than Cruxer, but you’re afraid to take me on.”
“I’ve got a lot of fights to win today, Kip. I don’t need to tire myself on unnecessary—”
“So fighting me will tire you out? Thought you were amazing. Didn’t Ayrad fight everyone in the class on his way up? And you won’t even fight one fatty at fourteenth place. You’re a legend all right, Aram. Aram the Unready, we’ll call you. Aram the A-rammed.” Kip had no idea what the latter meant, he just made it up. “Aram the—”
Aram slammed down his token in front of Kip. “I’m going to kill you,” he said. He strode off into the middle of the circle.
Cruxer was at Kip’s side an instant later. “Brilliant, now, Kip, after the back kick, Aram likes to throw a roundhouse punch, either stomach or face. He gets a lot of power into that thing, but if you can sidestep and come in, he’ll be wide open.”
“I’ve seen it,” Kip said. “I’m just not fast enough to take advantage of it.”
“Time!” Trainer Fisk announced. “Come forward.”
“Anything else?” Kip asked Cruxer. “Please.”
“He’s a fast drafter, too,” Cruxer said weakly. “Watch out for that… You’re lucky, though, right, Breaker?”
“Very.”
“Breaker, forward or out!” the trainer shouted.
“That’s something then,” Cruxer said.
“I didn’t say it was good luck.”
Kip turned to walk into the center of the circle. Then he saw the worst thing in the world. A ripple of recognition passed through the assembled Blackguards and trainees as someone came to the front rows to watch. Gavin. Gavin was here. Prism Gavin Guile himself had come to see his son test.
And Kip was about to fail.
Of course he’d come now. Of course he couldn’t have come early enough to see Kip win the earlier fights. To see Kip do clever things. No, he came now, when Kip was out of ideas and out of luck. Just in time for Kip to shame him.
“Are you ill, Breaker?” Trainer Fisk asked.
Oh, and of course the Prism sat next to Commander Ironfist. Might as well let everyone down at once. Beautiful.
“I’m envisioning a great victory,” Kip said.
“You arrogant little shit,” Aram said, sneering.
“I didn’t say it was mine,” Kip said.
“Huh?”
“Not my… victory. Look, jokes don’t work when you have to explain the—Forget it.”
“Are you calling me stupid?” Aram asked.
Um, no, but shoe fits.
“I am going to punish you, Kip.” Aram said it in such a way that he clearly intended using Kip’s birth name to be offensive. Which it wasn’t.
“I think we really don’t understand each other at all,” Kip said.
“Enough!” Trainer Fisk said. “Colors?”
“Green and yellow,” Aram said.
“All colors,” Kip said. No reason to hold back now.
“You’re claiming to be a full-spectrum polychrome, Breaker?” Trainer Fisk asked.
There was a right answer here. “Um. Yes?” Kip asked.
“Bad time to announce that,” Trainer Fisk said.
“What?” Kip asked. He’d thought it was the perfect time to announce it.
“Full-spectrum polychromes have such advantages over normal drafters that the Blackguards long ago established that to test their actual ability to be a Blackguard, they must be limited to share whatever colors their opponent chooses, plus one.”