Five days later..

  "Those guards just let us enter the city with no resistance." Kaiguya said.

  "They know whatever we're here is important enough for two Flames to come." I responded.

  The smell of salt and mildew hung low in the air where the city met the sea. Our shoes thudded on compacted dirt and the occasional broken tile as we moved through the crowd toward the fenced entrance. This team wasn't a parade. it was a narrow spear of people meant to cut to a purpose. Alexander, Odina, Kaiguya, and myself. Small, but one of heavy hitters.

  Above the iron gate, sunlight slanted in through a web of cranes and ropes. I looked ahead. I saw one of our contacts above this fenced in hole. A blonde hair pretty boy. Well, hole is a loose term. It's a tunnel.

  He leaned over the railing and gave us a quick nod. The practiced, brief acknowledgment that didn't waste breath. He had the pallor of someone who spent too much time arguing with city guards and officials. Still, he'd cleared the crowds. His hands were dusty and his smile was tight with relief.

  We walked over and I shook his hand, "Good work clearing the place out."

  He shook it back, "Thank you."

  He smiled, "It was tough displacing so many people at once. They only did so after we promised to fix the gas issue."

  The blonde shrugged in a way that tried to make the truth smaller. Below us the beach looked like a ragged edge. A mass of makeshift tents and lean-tos strewn with tarps and rusted cooking pots. At least a thousand lined the entire coastline. They wore decent clothing, but they were dirty. Some carried children, some stared at the sea with hollow faces. The sight made the inside of my chest pinch.

  Alexander rubbed his nose, "Disgusting."

  I asked, "What can I expect from the gas there?"

  He checked out his fingernails, "There was this rumor the gas makes you weaker. The effects should be minimal on a transcended, but hey, you haven't made it this far by being reckless."

  It's very rare for something to weaken transcended. Caleb was weakened by that assassin, and his poison was top notch rarity. This would be middle of the line.

  I laughed, the sound short and hollow, "We'll be heading in now."

  We began to walk down the tunnel. It swallowed sound. The entrance was wide, arched in rough stone, and the first step down breathed cooler air. It felt like stepping into a mouth. The tunnel was wide and spacious, but the possibility of it collapsing could not be ignored. Loose stones crunched underfoot. Torchlight painted the walls orange and deepened every shadow.

  I don't want Ryuha to escape. He needs to die.

  I asked, "Hey, Kaiguya. What even is your fighting style?"

  He sighed, "You ask this now?"

  The tunnel constricted slightly and our voices bounced between stone.

  I nodded, "Well, some like to keep it a secret. Since there's a chance you could die, might as well ask."

  His jaw worked. He spat in front of my foot, "You so called civilized people are so rude."

  The spittle hit my shoe and I felt the cool splash on leather. He doesn't mean that.

  I pointed at myself, "I don't think that's the fault of us civilized people. I lived in the woods for almost my entire life."

  It was true. I was quite similar to Kaiguya. Odina shoulder checked me, "I did too, and look how I turned out."

  Her laugh was short, a hiccup beneath the tension. She adjusted the scabbard at her hip, fingers brushing the lightsteel arrow quiver with a casual familiarity.

  Kaiguya looked at some rocks on the ceiling, "You don't count."

  His dismissal was affectionate, more like a brother ribbing than an insult.

  I asked, "Am I even civilized? I've only seen the real world for like eight months now."

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The question hung there, but there was no time for long answers. The tunnel narrowed, the air grew denser, and a slight metallic taste gathered behind my teeth. I heard something inside the wall on our right.

  The sound was a small, mechanical whisper, like someone working a bell or a loop of string drawing tight. It didn't fit the natural echo of the tunnel.

  Alexander unsheathed his sword, and sliced the part of the wall. He moved like a man who expected surprises. The blade sang once through mortar and old plaster; dust cascaded down like a rain. When the cut revealed the cavity, a thin, pale teenager peered out, eyes wide, clutching a length of rope. The clear note rolled through the tunnel like a thrown pebble. It rang sharp and true and the echo bounced, waking other ears. The kid’s face collapsed into terror at what he'd done.

  Alexander held the teenager at his sword's edge, and yelled, "You brat. You alerted them!"

  The teenager's pupils blew wide. He wet his pants, falling to his knees.

  The reaction was immediate and ugly. The kid’s apology sputtered out against the cold stone, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

  I think Alexander's right.

  Odina pushed the sword down, "Hey! He's just a kid!"

  Her voice cracked with sympathy. A soft human sound in a place that had been harsh to innocence.

  Alexander sheathed his sword, "A kid that just put our lives in even more danger."

  The sentence ended like a verdict. There was no mercy in his voice tonight. The kind of hardness grown when too many have died because of little mistakes.

  The teenager continued to cry out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

  It was an apology that tasted of fear. His knees scraped as he tried to scramble away from the blade-edge of consequence.

  Kaiguya kicked the kid in the mouth. The kid clutched his cheek. The act was quick. The sound of teeth and a small wet gasp made the tunnel feel colder.

  Kaiguya tilted his head, "There's your punishment. Leave."

  The teenager picked himself up, hands shaking, and ran toward the light of the tunnel mouth, his sneakers flapping against broken stone. That's that.

  Impact thundered, dust spitting from the seams; the world answered with a chorus of falling grit. The shockwave rattled teeth and made torches gutter.

  Alexander began the motion to unsheathe his blade. His hand moved like a metronome. I held his shoulder, and in that split second, we talked. The hold was brief. There was no need for words, the look between us was a compact of prudence and trust. The slice would only make sparks; the boulder’s momentum would continue. The understanding settled in both our minds.

  The thought was small and dangerous. If Ryuha had set this, he’d assumed we'd be slower. He’d gamed a delay into his trap. Hubris could be a weapon too. We're faster than a slow boulder.

  We all began to sprint as fast as we could down the tunnel.

  The run was a blur of breath and pounding feet. The air pushed at our faces, hot and urgent.

  The glow ahead was like the throat of a beast, light spilling from openings and making shadows long and thin. Something hung above us.

  A trapdoor with darksteel spears.

  The mechanism clicked with the sick certainty of a mouth closing. Spears whistled like angry birds. With our speed, we'd crash into it and impale ourselves.

  This was his plan all along!

  I made a decision.

  Alexander made one a bit faster.

  He cut the trapdoor and the spears, rendering them useless. We slid into Coryn, saved by a hair's breadth. Alexander's breath came ragged but steady, the movement of his blade had been clean and precise, and sweat darkened his collar where the effort had taken him. We all fell over.

  Alexander was the first to stand up.

  Then, Alexander was hit by an explosive punch. The strike landed with a very loud roar. He flew to the left, crashing into some boxes.

  A large bruise began to form on his cheek. He bled from the mouth. His eyes were closed. He didn't die. Was he knocked out? The world tipped as we watched. My stomach dropped and the boxes crumpled where his shoulder hit them. He moved like a thing that had been remade and was eager for battle. The presence of him— bigger, louder, crueler—made the air thick. He had to have taken Surge to do that much damage.

  Kaiguya roared in anger, and so did Odina. Their voices combined into a single animal sound that rose and cut through all other sound.

  Odina drew her bow, and shot an arrow.

  The arrow shattered in a clean snap. Lucas’s grin was a slash of victory as broken wood fell to the ground. "You'd need to bring out that lightsteel arrow again to hurt me."

  Lucas launched a deadly hook to Kaiguya's face. The fist came like a falling tree. Kaiguya turned his head and braced.

  Kaiguya caught the blow cleanly, his palm slamming against Lucas’ wrist with a sharp smack before his elbow drove down onto the forearm. I heard a small crack.

  The impact sent a tremor through both men, Kaiguya’s shoulders tensing, Lucas’s face twitching with the pain. The small crack was bone.

  I darted forward, blood hot in my chest. I launched Mangled Flesh at Lucas, focusing purely on speed, not grace. My arm shot out like a piston, air screaming around the strike. He retreated a split-second before my spear could land—his instincts or luck, I couldn’t tell which—and I found myself kneeling in the dust, my balance thrown off by the momentum. My footing was wrong, and Lucas’ reaction was faster than luck had any right to be.

  He leapt backward, boots scuffing against broken tiles as he landed atop a dilapidated one-story building. The roof creaked beneath his weight, dust falling in lazy spirals. From up there, under the half-collapsed signage, he looked down with arrogance. He squatted, elbows resting on his knees. “This is a two-on-two now.”

  Two?

  A gust howled suddenly from my right. Somebody had launched wind at me. The force rippled across the dirt, picking up stones and debris like bullets. I twisted my torso and slashed outward with Severed Soul.

  The blade of air tore through the current, cutting the gust in two. The wind folded away, dissipating into harmless wisps.

  Kanglim.

  He stood above us, balanced effortlessly on a sagging clothesline strung between two walls. His arms were crossed, posture casual, as if the chaos below didn’t concern him.

  He stood there like a dark statue.

  I rose to my feet, brushing dust from my knee. My breath steadied. “Can’t you count?”

  I called up. “It’s a three-on-two. Don’t count Odina out just because she hasn’t transcended.”

  Let's get started, you bastards.