Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions (Death's Handmaiden Book 3) by Niall Teasdale (best summer reads txt) 📕

spell pistol. Taryn was aiming for the one person most likely to take her out of the game. Unfortunately for Taryn, Nava was also pretty good at tactics.

The setting was ‘ruined city,’ which meant walls of various sizes and of random shapes. Unlike a real environment, the ground was level. Otherwise, it was more or less like hiding in the ruins of a battle-torn city. Cover was plentiful and Nava made the most of it. Magic providing concealment was not allowed in battle royal games, otherwise Nava would have used it. As it was, she moved between areas of concealment like a wraith. If necessary, she would have fired to eliminate anyone who became a danger to her, but she never needed to. Taryn and the others were doing a perfectly good job of taking each other down without Nava’s help.

In the end, despite all the careful manoeuvring, it came down to sheer speed. Nava slid out from behind the cover of a wall and spotted Taryn. Taryn spotted Nava at the same time. They both moved to fire their weapons, but Nava fired first and she never missed what she aimed at. With the new suits, the panels over the shoulders which were normally blue went yellow or red depending upon the magnitude of the hit. Nava, as usual over short range, went for a headshot, pulled it off, and turned Taryn’s shoulders red in one hit. Taryn’s finger tightened on her trigger, but her pistol had registered the kill already and nothing happened. She looked almost surprised. Then the horn was sounding for the end of the match and there was a flash of something like anger across Taryn’s face before she got herself under control.

‘You’re fast,’ Taryn said as they walked across the room to the exit.

‘Don’t sell yourself short,’ Nava replied. ‘You’re quick, skilled, and good at using your environment. A worthy opponent.’

‘You still beat me.’

‘Yes. I look forward to facing you when you’ve improved.’

Taryn flashed Nava a grin. ‘I think I’m going to like you, Nava Greyling. I’ve found a worthy opponent too.’

‘Pleased to be of service.’

236/2/4.

Nava watched as Taryn twisted her way through one of the obstacle courses set up by the Flight Club. Taryn was fairly good. She was a little faster than Melissa and had better control. She was nowhere near Nava’s level, however, and Nava had no desire to demonstrate that to her.

Taryn was showing off. That kind of thing was not especially uncommon among combat stream students who frequently had a streak of overconfidence in them. Taryn was almost as good as she thought she was. That possibly made it worse. If she saw someone competing at her level, she seemed to consider it her duty to try to beat them.

There was something else that Taryn’s performance was telling Nava: she could clearly run two active spells at once. She had been in the air for over thirty minutes and that either indicated a huge quintessence reserve or the ability to have Gather Quintessence active in parallel with Flight. Nava was pretty sure it was the latter. It took discipline to operate two complex thought streams at the same time. Mitsuko could do it, but then, Mitsuko was a disciplined sort of woman. Nava could do four spells at once, but she was not entirely human. Taryn did not seem to exhibit much discipline in other aspects of her life, so Nava was a little surprised that she could manage it when doing sorcery.

Nava set off for the tent the Flight Club were using to house their recruiters. Melissa was in there, doing a stint on the desks, and Nava had said she would drop in. Taryn had distracted her. Having seen Taryn in action twice now, Nava had come to one definite conclusion…

~~~

‘She’s competitive,’ Nava said. She was up to her neck in the house’s sento with Mitsuko and Melissa opposite her. Courtney was out handling some SSF business. ‘Very competitive. She doesn’t like losing, but she does cover it well.’

‘Are you suggesting she might play dirty?’ Mitsuko asked. ‘Did she seem like she was cheating in the MagiTag game?’

‘She would probably have been caught, so she did not cheat there. Besides, I suspect she considers combat, even in MagiTag, an honourable competition. Cheating would have negated her win. Politics may be another matter. In fact, I might suggest that dirty tactics in politics are expected to some extent.’

‘I’d have thought you’d think dirty fighting perfectly okay,’ Melissa said.

‘I do, but I don’t expect Taryn Borchardt to think the same way.’ Nava paused, looking up as though considering; both of her companions had, by this point, figured out that it was for show. ‘I’m not positive about that. The Firmins have produced a lot of mercenaries, and mercs are noted for getting it done rather than doing it honourably. Still, they are Clan Worlds mercs…’

‘You’re just saying I should watch out for dirty tricks then?’ Mitsuko asked.

‘Yes,’ Nava replied. She closed her eyes and relaxed into the hot water. ‘None of my sisters may be gunning for you this year, but Taryn may be almost as dangerous.’

236/2/5.

‘As expected,’ Rochester said as he put his tray down on the refectory table, ‘your speech was a good one, Suki.’

‘Thank you, Chess,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘You didn’t see Taryn’s opening speech, did you?’

‘I was busy with the Metaphysics Club. I plan to watch it on the News Club’s feed tonight.’

‘And I wasn’t really paying attention to either of you,’ Courtney said. ‘I was more concerned with watching the audience.’ She shrugged and gave an opinion anyway. ‘It seemed to me that Taryn Borchardt was focused on what could have been done better last year. She seemed kind of negative.’

‘As I suggested yesterday,’ Nava said, ‘she’s competitive. Concentrating on what she would have done differently seems to fit with her personality. I agree that it came over as rather negative.’

‘As a strategy, it could work,’ Mitsuko said.

‘Only if the majority of students believe you