Chapter Three: Class Zero Takes the First Floor

The resolve never to arrive late became muscle memory. New echo: Blinkstep, 10:00. Lin's first jump drove him into a wall. He lacked six years of bodily adaptation, but he escaped the fire. The Vector fighter waited at his landing point. Lin's wind blade rebounded and opened his shoulder. Blood struck the floor, giving Burnline a path toward him. “One copy and you think you know it?” Qi Jin emerged through the smoke. “A counterfeit thinks seeing is the same as mastering.” He ignited the corridor. Lin lifted himself on Windspine, then deliberately thrust one hand through the deflection field. Pain cracked through his bones, but his fingers reached the fighter's palm.