Padva readjusted the commands once again, preparing the chamber for the next part of the training.

Basic mission handling.

Normally, a Red Lizard wouldn't need to do this part of training. Even though basic mission handling was an essential part of the Hatchling Phase, it wasn't for work type beasts.

Work type beasts would carry out basic errand handling, not missions.

With those powerful skills Jethro and Scorch unlocked… if Scorch was really now a combat type mechbeast, this was the best way to be sure.

Jethro was carrying Scorch now, the lizard was sprawled on his right arm while he watched Padva prepare the chamber. When the whir came again, he knew it was time.

Jethro carefully approved the platform, watching as it shimmered. Holographic rubble materialized, forming precarious piles and narrow pathways. High above, pixelated chunks of concrete and metal began to materialize and drop in a randomized, accelerating pattern.

A soft chime sounded, and a shimmering blue data crystal appeared, suspended mid-air near the center of the chaotic debris field.

That was Scorch's target.

"Alright, Scorch," Jethro murmured, setting the lizard down on the platform's edge. "Remember the Rift? This is like that. Remember when I had to get Padva and the others so that Darcbeasts wouldn't kill them?"

Padva looked at Jethro as he spoke to his lizard, her eyes dancing softly across his facial details.

"That's what you're going to do now. Padva is the shiny thing. Get it, and avoid the falling rocks."

Scorch chirped in understanding.

Jethro nodded then turned to Padva. "You ready?"

She snapped away her gaze immediately, cheeks burning pink. "Yes, I'm ready," she said plainly, activating the sequence.

Jethro stood straight and activated the Beastlinker's training monitor overlay, syncing with the station.

When the ding came, he read the information on the holographic screen.

[Basic combat training has begun for mechbeast]

[Note: Red Lizards are worktype mechbeasts and therefore can not perform combat training]

[Go back/Skip]

He selected [Skip].

The whirring got louder, announcing that the training sequence was starting. And when it did start, Scorch didn't need encouragement. The moment the crystal appeared, his obsidian scales readjusted on his skin.

The lizard was ready.

His posture shifted from alert to predatory stillness. And in a blink of an eye, he bolted to get the target.

A falling hunk of holographic I-beam crashed where he'd been a millisecond before as he darted forward, not in a straight line, but in a series of short, incredibly precise bursts that seemed to anticipate the debris paths.

His movements were fluid, economical, utterly devoid of the clumsy scrambling expected of a Red Lizard.

Padva noticed that firsthand.

He navigated the narrow gaps between falling rubble with unnerving grace, his body low, his tail acting as a perfect counterbalance.

He reached the crystal with a swift, precise lunge of his neck, snagging it gently in his jaws, then tumbling over, out of the way as a rock shattered right on the earlier ground.

Jethro's eyes widened. "Holy shit, Scorch!"

The crystal was still secure in the mechlizard's mouth. But the debris pattern intensified.

Scorch didn't panic. He bolted again, weaving back through the chaos, not faster, but smarter, using the falling debris itself as momentary cover, timing his movements between impacts.

He deposited the crystal neatly at his former starting point just as the simulation ended.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Congratulatory messages were sung by the AI as the holographic rubble winked out.

Scorch leaped around, still energetic after that exercise. His vents puffed a single, satisfied plume of steam. The stats flashed:

[Evasion Rate: 99.8%]

[Retrieval Time: 4.2 seconds (Record for Species/Level)]

[Hazard Impacts: 0]

[Anomaly Detected: Movement Efficiency +372% Baseline]

Padva was still throughout all of it. She stared at Scorch, then at the stats, then at Jethro as he took the mechbeast out of the chamber.

Her usual reserve was shattered, replaced by pure, analytical disbelief. "That was evasion training for Bronze Ranks, Silver Ranks at most. I didn't want to bother you with questions when you asked us to do this, I figured maybe you were just testing if worktype mechbeasts could do combat type mechbeast training, but…," she took a deep breath.

"He navigated it like it was a stroll. Zero impacts. Sub-five-second retrieval while evading... that's impossible for Red Lizards. Even Mace-tailed Rats, the highest graded Grey Ranks, show hesitation at falling debris."

She turned her piercing silver eyes on Jethro. "It's your turn to tell me now, isn't it? Was it the bloodline he awakened that made him this way? Come on, tell me already."

Jethro watched as her curiosity ate her up. He scooped Scorch up, the lizard curling contentedly around his forearm. Padva was still waiting.

What now? He had made a deal to tell her what it was and she did keep her end of it.

Even more, he couldn't deflect with lies anymore; she was too sharp. So, he pivoted, leveraging the fragile trust and the unanswered question hanging between them. "Scorch is... changing," he said carefully, avoiding specifics.

Padva blinked rapidly. "Changing? Do you mean like evolving? A Grey Rank? Evolve?"

Jethro stared at her. He never even thought about the possibility of her even believing him. Everyone in this world was rooted to the already established rules of magic. It would be difficult to break her out of it.

She might call him crazy.

So Jethro deflected. "Speaking of bloodlines..." He nodded towards Shadow, who was observing Scorch with detached feline interest. "Shouldn't we see how Shadow's handling his Omniborian heritage? The spatial flickers need refining so he can jump through dimensions even easier? If he levels up through Grades, and grows bigger, the bloodline would be even stronger."

Padva froze. The color drained slightly from her face again. "You... you said you didn't know the bloodline earlier," she accused, her voice tight.

Jethro cursed his big mouth in his mind while playing a smile on his lips for Padva. "I also said reading glyphs for me is like pouring water into an ocean." He winked at her. "There's nothing I don't know, princess."

He walked past her. "What does that even mean?" she asked after him. "That you know everything about mechbeasts and magic?"

Jethro turned back to her. "Tada!" he said with a gesture of waving hands.

Her eyes narrowed, unsure if he was only joking again. "What?" she mumbled.

Jethro walked towards an open Spatial Acclimation Pod. "Come on. Truth for truth, remember? You train Shadow. I'll observe. Maybe I can offer... perspective." He activated the pod controls. "Setting: Low-Gravity Nebula. Minor spatial fluctuations. Good for testing short-range displacement."

Padva hesitated, warring between demanding answers about Scorch and the terrifying implication that Jethro did know about the Omniborian Bloodline.

Who actually was this guy?

First, he was just the random, weak and strange tamer, who somehow decided that hatching a Grey Rank Egg was somehow a good idea.

He became her courier in a Rift Clearing training mission and was the only one to survive the Conqueror apart from her who'd ran away.

He defeated a Silver Rank in a Beast and Tamer Battle, he punched a Black Rank tamer on the face, his Red Lizard was almost as powerful as Bronze Ranks, and he seemed to know a lot about everything.

How?

Who was he?

And has he always been this way? Has he been pretending?

She looked at Jethro with pleading brows raised. "I really just want to know what you know about the bloodline."

Jethro folded his arms. "But then you'd ask me how I know it."

Padva gulped, standing still. "I might."

"And I might refuse."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Jethro said with a nonchalant shrug. "I guess I'm a secretive guy."

Padva stared at him, her heart beating, Shadow curled around her leg. "Then just tell me why your mechlizard is bigger and stronger. Why it looks different. You owe me that from our deal earlier."

Jethro took a deep breath. She was right. He did owe her the secret of how he'd managed to change Jethro's form. And how he was going to continue to do that until his lizard arrived at its final form.

An Infernal Dragon.

And truthfully, he wanted to tell her. But doing it was more difficult than he had anticipated. Now, all he felt was uncertainty.

Padva tightened her lips. "Why don't you just tell me?"

Before Jethro could formulate any kind of answer– deflection, half-truth, or dangerous admission –[Deep Sense] screamed a warning. Not danger, but presence. A focused, intense attention.

He turned sharply.

Leaning against the reinforced frame of a nearby heavy-gravity treadmill, arms crossed over his broad chest, was Kaden Steelmark.

His expression was cool, but his sharp, predator's eyes were fixed directly on Jethro.

Jethro wondered how long he'd been watching, seeing how silent and unmoving he was. A handsome statue carved from discipline and latent power.

Jethro met Kaden's stare, forcing his expression into neutrality, even as his mind raced.

'Combat training,' he thought. This must be the sign he was talking about.

Kaden stepped down, turned around and headed out of the facility.

Jethro's gaze slowly returned to Padva, his expression apologetic though he wasn't exactly saddened. He had something more important to do

"I have to go," he said to her.

Padva didn't say anything as she watched him pick Scorch, place him around his neck, and walk out of the facility.

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