“They’re numbers,” Jin called. “A different one for each circle. The three closest to us say two, ten, and twenty respectively.”
As he spoke, Kira spotted a Tuann darting toward the circle with the number ten.
He charged the wall, bouncing off it with enough force to send him staggering backward before falling on his ass.
Kira didn’t have time to figure out the reason for his failure as a shift in the air around her announced danger.
Kira reached for the blade at her waist, a split-second’s distraction nearly costing her. Only instinct and training saved her as she spun out of the way, the woman’s sword cleaving the air she’d just vacated.
Putting distance between herself and the woman, Kira frowned down at the blade in her hand. She didn’t know what this blade was, but it didn’t belong to her.
Oh, it looked like hers, certainly. An exact replica of the one Harlow had gifted her after she’d passed the uhva na. Its weight the same. The look and feel. The way it fit her hand.
All a match except for the fact it wasn’t hers.
Kira’s weapons were an extension of her own body. Another limb as familiar to her as her hand or arm.
Which was why she knew it wasn’t hers.
She took a second to examine it closely, reaching out with her senses to find that what she held wasn’t an actual physical object at all.
She’d call the force holding it together ki but the flavor was different. Similar but worlds apart.
The source was the same though, making Kira think that her weapon along with everyone else’s had been replaced when they’d been transported to this arena.
She didn’t have time to ponder further as the woman sliced her blade at Kira’s head.
Kira shied away. “If you wanted to play, you only needed to ask.”
There was a thought running through her head at the reasons her blade might have been replaced. The woman in front of her was as good a person to test her theory out on as any.
Ki built up around the stranger’s blade.
“Behind you,” Jin warned at the same time Kira’s instincts twinged.
She stepped to the side as the woman unleashed a small sheet of ki Kira knew would have caused internal injuries.
The drone that had taken advantage of Kira’s blind spot fired at the same time.
The woman yelped as the drone’s laser hit her chest. At the same time, the sheet of ki sliced the drone in half.
Kira whistled. “One stone; two birds.”
Not bad, if she did say so herself. Though her opponent’s elimination meant she’d have to wait to verify her hypothesis.
By now, the other initiate’s body had shattered into a thousand shards in a manner similar to the way they’d arrived. Kira was guessing there was some type of teleportation happening, and that when an initiate received a mortal blow, they were evicted from the arena.
She was betting that’s why their weapons had been replaced with replica’s. The Tuann had already proven their mastery of sensory feedback loops with their drones. Why not something similar for the adva ka?
It would certainly cut down on unnecessary deaths. Maybe not eliminate them entirely but it would up the survival rate.
She plunged the tip of the blade into the sand beside her, withdrawing it from a destroyed drone in the next second.
Kira stared down at her blade. “This is going to be fun.”
Jin’s sigh gusted in her ears. “I’ve told you before not to smile like that.”
“I can’t help it. The Tuann have handed us the perfect hunting grounds.”
