Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 4 of 51

Zeph slept an hour on the sand before the doors rattled. Keji was already standing, head tilted, listening. Boots on stone. More than one pair. Zeph counted three, then a fourth farther back. "They followed the line from the station," Keji said. He crossed to the bench and did not pick up a weapon. "Take the gauntlet off." Zeph stared at him. The seams on his right hand glowed steady. "You heard me." "They'll kill me." "Then they'll kill you." Keji's voice was flat. "If you swing that thing today, we stop. I will not train a man who leans on a tool every time the door shakes. Take it off, or find another teacher." Zeph's throat went dry. He worked the gauntlet loose and set it on the bench. His hand felt light and stupid without it. The seams dimmed to nothing. The doors burst inward. Four hunters came through the sand, blades drawn, the Saiyan crest stitched at their collars. Keji stepped back against the wall and folded his arms. The first one came fast. Zeph moved on the calm he had found in the night — the loose feeling in his chest, the warm sand under him. He ducked the blade and drove his elbow into the man's ribs. The hunter folded. Zeph took the knife off him and threw it into the sand behind them. The second and third came together. He caught the second's wrist, turned inside the swing, and used the man's weight to spill him into the third. They tangled. Zeph kicked the second in the jaw on the way down. The fourth was bigger. He did not rush. He circled, blade low, and cut for Zeph's throat. Zeph saw it coming and knew he was slow. He could not reach the arm. He could not step back fast enough. In the half-second before the edge touched him, something in his chest closed like a fist. Not rage. A decision. He would not fall here. His body moved before he chose it. He slid under the blade at an angle he had not planned. His palm came up open and struck the hunter's sternum. The man flew back six feet and did not get up. Zeph stood in the sand, breathing hard, hair still black. His hand tingled where he had struck. He had moved faster than he could think. Keji walked over and looked down at the last hunter. Then at Zeph. "Refusal," Keji said. "That's your door." Zeph looked at his empty hand. "For one second." "One second is where it starts." Keji picked the gauntlet off the bench and locked it into the case. "You won't need this anymore. From tomorrow, you train without it. And they know where we are now. We move at first light." Zeph nodded. His hand still tingled.