The Thirteen Knight

Chapter 16- Dead Weight

The waiting room for the Combat Simulation smelled like nervous sweat and burnt sage.

I sat on a metal bench, my leg bouncing with restless energy. It wasn't just nerves; it was the Apostate Drive. The lead-lined casing was heavy in the inner pocket of my jacket, pressing against my ribs like a guilty conscience.

I had debated leaving it in the dorm. It was safer there. But Randar’s warning echoed in my head: The Academy is a target. If a breach happened during the exam, I would be helpless without the core.

So, I brought a weapon of mass destruction to a school test. Just in case.

"Chase?"

I looked up. Sylvia was standing there, looking ready for war. Her blue combat armor was polished to a shine, and her staff glowed faintly with mana. But her eyes were soft. Apologetic.

"I'm sorry," she said, sitting down next to me. "The roster algorithm pairs high-ranking students with... lower-ranking ones. To balance the teams."

"To give the elites a handicap," I corrected, forcing a smile. "I'm the sandbag you have to carry."

Sylvia frowned. "Don't say that. You survived the Wasp. You survived the explosion. You have survival instincts that most of these mages lack."

She leaned in, lowering her voice. "But this is combat, Chase. The simulation safety protocols prevent death, but they don't prevent pain. Broken bones are common."

"I know," I said. "I've been breaking bones all week."

"Stay behind me," she instructed. "Our opponents are Group 7. Heavy hitters. If they get close to you, just surrender. Let me handle the heavy lifting."

The loudspeaker crackled.

"Team Nightshade and Royce. Team Ironclad and Vane. Proceed to Arena 3."

My stomach dropped. Vane.

"Vane?" I whispered. "As in Commander Vane?"

"Her nephew," Sylvia said grimly. "Marcus Vane. He's a Gravity Mage. And his partner is Jax, a Stone-Skin specialist. They are the top defensive team in the year."

Great. We were fighting a tank and a guy who could crush me with his mind.

We walked into the arena. It was a simulated ruin—a maze of broken stone walls and pillars. The stands were packed. Students cheered, eager to see the elite Sylvia Nightshade fight. And eager to see the Null get crushed.

On the other side stood Marcus Vane. He looked like a younger, meaner version of his aunt. Beside him was Jax, a hulking student whose skin looked like grey granite.

"Begin!" the referee shouted.

The air shifted instantly.

Marcus raised his hand. "Gravity Well."

I felt my knees buckle. It wasn't a strong spell, just enough to make my body feel like it weighed three hundred pounds. He was pinning the Zero down so they could focus on Sylvia.

Sylvia slammed her staff into the ground. "Wind Shear!"

A blast of compressed air shot forward, breaking Marcus's concentration. The weight lifted off my shoulders.

"Run, Chase!" Sylvia yelled, dashing to the left.

I ran to the right, diving behind a crumbling stone wall.

I watched the battle unfold. It was spectacular, but Sylvia was losing. Jax, the Stone-Skin user, was ignoring her wind blades; they just bounced off his rocky hide. He was walking toward her like a juggernaut, forcing her into a corner. Meanwhile, Marcus stood back, throwing gravity orbs that distorted the air, making it impossible for her to aim.

She was pinned.

I clenched my fist. The Apostate Bracer was under my sleeve. I had the Drive in my pocket. If I plugged it in, I could shatter Jax's stone skin with one punch.

But the cameras were rolling. If I glowed green, I was dead.

I had to use the other thing Randar taught me. Physics.

I looked at the layout. Jax was heavy. His stone skin made him weigh nearly a ton. That was his strength, but also his weakness.

He was walking across a section of flooring that looked cracked. Beneath it, I knew from my maintenance shifts, ran the water drainage pipes for the arena cleaning system.

I reached into my tool bag and pulled out a high-torque wrench and a small remote-detonator charge I used for clearing pipe clogs.

I couldn't fight them with magic. So I would fight them with plumbing.

I low-crawled through the rubble, flanking Jax. He didn't look at me. To him, I was a non-factor.

I reached the access panel for the drainage system. It was rusted shut. I gritted my teeth. I needed strength.

I reached into my jacket and touched the lead case of the Apostate Drive. I didn't plug it in fully. I just brushed the connector against the socket of my bracer for a micro-second.

Zzt.

A tiny jolt of power hit the demon fibers. They didn't transform the arm, but they tightened. My grip strength spiked.

I grabbed the rusted valve wheel with my bare hand.

Creeeeak.

The metal groaned and twisted. I sheared the lock right off. I shoved the small explosive charge into the pressure release valve.

Jax was five steps away from the trap. Sylvia was backed against a wall, her shield flickering under Marcus’s gravity hammer.

"Give up, Nightshade!" Marcus laughed. "Your pet Null can't save you!"

"Now," I whispered.

I hit the detonator.

THUMP.

It wasn't a fiery explosion. It was a pressure burst. The charge blew the valve on the main water line.

A geyser of high-pressure water erupted from the floor directly under Jax’s feet.

If he had been a normal person, he would have been knocked over. But he was Stone-Skin. He was heavy. Instead of flying, the water liquefied the ground beneath him. The dirt turned into mud instantly.

Jax sank.

"What?" he grunted.

His massive weight worked against him. He sank up to his waist in the sudden sinkhole. The suction was too strong. He was trapped.

"Sylvia!" I shouted, popping up from my cover. "He's immobilized!"

Sylvia saw it. She didn't question how the floor suddenly exploded. She seized the opening.

She turned her staff toward Marcus, who was now panicked without his tank.

"Gravity Wall!" he screamed.

Sylvia spun her staff. "Cyclone Cannon!"

She fired a concentrated beam of wind that drilled right through Marcus's hasty shield. It hit him in the chest, blasting him backward into a pillar.

The referee blew the whistle.

"Team Ironclad and Vane are incapacitated. Winners: Team Nightshade and Royce."

The arena went silent. Then, scattered applause broke out.

I stood up, wiping grease off my uniform, quickly retracting the fiber tension in my arm.

Sylvia walked over, panting. She looked at the mud pit where Jax was still struggling.

"Did you..." she pointed at the geyser. "Did you do that?"

"Old pipes," I shrugged, playing innocent. "I saw the ground was unstable. Maintenance intuition."

Sylvia stared at me for a long moment. Then, she smiled. A real, brilliant smile.

"You're crazy," she said. "And brilliant."

She held up her hand. I hesitated, then high-fived her.

"We make a good team," she said.

"Yeah," I said, feeling the heavy lead weight against my ribs. "We do."

We walked out of the arena together. I felt a strange pride. I hadn't used the Apostate Knight. I had won as Chase Royce.

But the feeling died as we entered the locker room tunnel. A shadow detached itself from the wall.

Commander Vane.

She wasn't looking at Sylvia. She was looking at me.

"Mr. Royce," she said, her voice smooth and dangerous. "A word."

Sylvia stepped forward. "Commander, we need to debrief—"

"Alone," Vane cut her off.

Sylvia hesitated, then nodded at me and walked away.

Vane walked closer, stopping just a foot away. She reached out and tapped the breast pocket of my jacket. Right where the Apostate Drive was hidden.

"You carry a lot of heavy tools, Mr. Royce," she whispered.

I froze. "Just wrenches, Ma'am," I lied, my throat dry.

Vane smiled. It was the smile of a cat that had found a mouse.

"That explosion in the arena," she said. "Very creative. Very... kinetic."

She leaned in close.

"My nephew said he felt a strange vibration right before the pipe burst. A mechanical vibration. Not magic."

She pulled back, her eyes boring into mine.

"You are a very interesting Zero, Chase Royce. I think I'm going to keep a very close eye on you."

She patted my chest again—hard—right over the hidden core.

"Dismissed."

She turned and walked away, her boots clicking on the stone.

I stood there, trembling. She suspected. She didn't have proof yet, but she knew something was wrong. She had touched the core. She had felt the weight.

I needed to disappear.

But as I walked out of the tunnel, the alarms started blaring.

Not the class bell. The Emergency Siren.

BREACH DETECTED. SECTOR 7. MASS INCURSION.

Sector 7. That was the dorms. My dorm.

"Tal," I whispered.

I didn't think. I ran.

I forgot about Vane. I forgot about the secret. My roommate was in there.

The Apostate Knight was going to have to work overtime.