Gem felt rather smug. She could vividly remember Gilasev’s insistence that she wait before learning to fly. How she was too inexperienced and messy to control her trajectory. How it would not only be useless in moving more precisely than increments of ten metres, but would be outright dangerous for her. All the same she’d carried on pestering him, and eventually he’d caved in and taught her what she wanted to know.

It was thanks entirely due to this ability to fly that, when Gem felt the single mystic fighting the stage boss suddenly multiply into four, she was able to hurry up and reach the battle in less than a fifth of the time it would have taken her had she simply ran. Though the speed at which she could propel herself was still far from the pace Gilasev set during his more leisurely journeys, the ability to fly over buildings rather than needing to run around them was a great benefit.

Her destination, a curious looking tomb, was almost painfully obvious to her. Even from afar she could feel the bursts of magic being given off, sustained hums of physical enhancement, mixed with sudden spikes from targeted abilities. As well as a bizarre sensation she’d never encountered before. She’d have been unnerved by that if not for the rather helpful fact that she was Gemini fucking Menza. Still though, it was distracting to say the least. The leftover adrenaline from her last fight, combined with the anticipation of her next, left Gem with a rather annoying tremor. She swore she felt her gauger shake as though it were about to fall off her wrist, several times in fact.

By the time she reached the structure, the tell-tale energies of battle had been stifled immensely. Gem had just started to worry that she’d missed the action and had her kill stolen when there was another spike in power. This gave her the second wind she needed to pick up her pace, and she cleared the remaining few hundred metres in about ten seconds.

She saw a great set of stairs leading up to a main entrance, and decided she’d try and see if there wasn’t somewhere else she could make her way through. Circling around revealed that, in fact, there was, and Gem brought herself down to about five metres from the ground before halting her flight mid-air and allowing herself to drop down. It wasn’t a particularly aesthetically pleasing way to get back on her feet, but Gem had broken one of her legs the last time she’d tried to show off by slowly descending feet-first.

After standing up and dusting herself off, she made her way inside.

The passage Gem had chosen was not a particularly appealing one. In fact it looked like it had been punched in a long time ago, possibly a contestant in one of the previous years’ Sieves. About three metres high, one quarter as wide and thoroughly jagged, it took a bit of effort on Gem’s part to muster up enough nerve to squeeze inside.

She got exactly ten centimetres before deciding to reactivate her physical enhancement, having underestimated how coarse the walls were, as well as how much more scrapes her than bruises.

She wasn’t sure how long she spent walking. Keeping track of time was never one of Gem’s strong suits, she’d always had people to do that for her. It couldn’t have been more than a minute though, else her physical enhancement would have made it feel ludicrously long.

The further into the passage Gem went, the darker it became. After a while she got tired of straining her eyes and raised a palm, channelling magic through it to give it a light glow. Shadows danced in a bizarre pattern, the uneven walls casting a truly unique scope of them. In a way that made things slightly creepy, but the fact that the light was bright enough to extend a full thirty metres in front and back made it hard to remain worried. Karma may have admonished her for wasting her reserves like that, but really the amount of energy necessary to create a light, even one this bright, didn’t even register compared to all but Gem’s most half-assed attacks.

She needn’t have bothered. Within five more steps, a series of torches she’d previously been unable to see lining the walls all ignited at once- casting smokeless, blue light down the entire hall. Slightly put out at having done it for nothing, Gem extinguished her own magical source of illumination. Just as she was starting to become bored enough to start wasting even more of her magic reserves, Gem saw something ahead. A wall, in front of her. It was a dead end.

She panicked for the briefest moment, wondering if she’d wandered into a trap and would find the other end of the passage sealed up as well. Then, as the familiar twitchy energy of desperate fright began to spasm its way through her body, the more rational part of her brain prevailed.

Gem continued walking until she came to the wall, then closed her eyes and extended her senses to the other side. She’d been able to vaguely tell that extremely powerful magic was being unleashed within the building simply by being within a few kilometres, but by sharpening her concentration even more she could pinpoint their position far more closely. As it turned out, that position was within ten metres of her own.

Following her new spur of rationality and logic, Gem steeled herself, took in a long, deep, calm breath and raised both her palms to the wall- forcing a streak of magical energy through them and sending it slamming against the stone. The material proved fragile compared to the full might of a mid-level mystic, shattering under her attack and exploding outwards from her.

The cloud of dust was, thankfully, mostly blown away from the passage in which Gem stood. Nevertheless she needed to wait several moments before she could speak properly without being at risk of coughing and feeling ridiculous. By this time the airborne particulates had diminished for the most part, giving her a clearer look of the people standing in the room she was about to enter.

Standing a few metres from a rather terrifying looking armour-clad undead were a blonde boy and girl, both staring at Gem as though… well, as though she’d just arrived to save the day after making a ridiculously cool entrance.

Gem fought to keep the grin off her face while they gawked, and as she opened her mouth to speak all she could think of was how much she wished they weren’t in a building- it would’ve been so much cooler if they’d seen her fly in.

Realising she was rapidly missing her chance to make a cool opening quip, Gem racked her brains. The best she could come up with was something about the monster being strong. Thankfully she was able to cover up her verbal shortcoming by charging the undead.

Her legs carried her to it in a fraction of a second, apparently before it could even react to her. She leapt as she reached the monster, swinging her right arm around and landing a punch with every ounce of her strength directly on the side of its face. Her blow turned its head slightly and sent a numb sensation running all the way up to her elbow. Gem had just enough time to feel surprised when the creature turned, bringing its left side swinging inwards and slamming an enormous black shield into her side.

Gem blocked it with her shoulder, but the force still reached her bone and shook her teeth. The world became a mess of rushing air and shifting directions, by the time she’d gotten her barings she was lying in a heap with her hair in her face.

***

Gem hadn’t even looked at her. That had stung Xeno a little bit, she’d remembered getting along quite well with the girl. Then again, considering Xeno was leaning on the same wall Gem was lined up with, she probably hadn’t been in her field of view.

As disheartening as it had been to not even be noticed by her new friend, someone as powerful as the Gemini arriving to help out had filled her with so much hope it was practically revitalising. Xeno had begun getting to her feet to help out, which was fortunate since it meant that she had been in a position to run across the passage and take position with her other teammates as soon as the silver-haired artificial was sent flying.

She needn’t have bothered, the corpse-knight seemed completely uninterested in anyone other than Gem herself. Its head pointed directly at the girl, and though there were no eyes visible through the tiny slit of its helmet Xeno somehow knew it was studying the new arrival. While this was happening Gem groaned, pushed her own hair from her face and stared around- seemingly dazed. Before she could even begin to try and stand, the monster had begun closing in. One metre-long stride after another.

Xeno had always thought that, when push came to shove, she was the sort who’d act quickly and vitally to avert disaster.

That she’d control her emotions, focus her thoughts and decipher exactly what she needed to do to defeat an imminent threat. That was not what happened when the undead had charged at her before, however, and it was not what happened now.

As it loomed closer and closer, all she could think of was how something that strong may well be able to kill or fatally wound her before she was transported to safety. How she was staring down potential death every moment she remained in its presence, and how with her body dead and her brain inactive there would be nothing left of her in the universe- no matter what the Solifates said.

It was entirely thanks to Astra and her brother that the monster was halted before it could reach the temporarily helpless Gem.

They moved without speaking, or even gesturing to one another. And yet their actions appeared perfectly coordinated. Astra leapt forwards first, swinging a kick into one of the monster’s legs and turning its charge into a stumble. She hurriedly backed out of arms’ reach as the undead swung its shield at her once more, then its focus shifted from the fallen Gemini to her- just in time for Crow to land his own kick directly on its back. Xeno was reminded once more of her limited physical prowess as she felt the concussive force of the blows reach her as air, even from fifteen feet away it was sufficient to rustle her hair.

Despite both of these impacts landing squarely, the enemy appeared unhurt. It began turning to Crow, only for the blonde to dart backwards before it could strike at him- then while it was preoccupied Astra struck it once more from behind. Xeno felt a glimmer of hope blossom inside her.

The hope died as she saw Crow’s next punch collide with the thing’s shield. For an agonisingly long second she didn’t process what had happened, and then the undead swung its sword around with the similarly ridiculous speed it had its shield. The blade looked very thick and blunt, as many magical blades needed to be in order to withstand the strength of their users. Unfortunately the power behind it was such that it still bit into the blonde’s side, spraying viscera everywhere while sending him hurtling off his feet and across the room with the excess force.

There was a short, sharp cry from Astra as her brother’s body limply bounced off a wall and rolled before stopping. She shot towards the undead, possibly even faster than she had before. There were many stories of great heroes crushing their enemies after being spurred on by the loss of their loved one, but somehow Xeno wasn’t surprised when the monster handily caught the girl’s barrage of strikes with its guard. Even from where she stood Xeno could hear each blow’s impact reverberating from the dark metal like a gong, it was almost transfixing to watch them come.

And then the monster stepped back. Astra’s right punch overshot with the sudden absence of its target, her momentum carrying her forwards and she stumbled off-balance. She barely leapt back in time to avoid a similarly deep slash as her brother had received.

The sword was a streak of pitch as it chased her away. Astra stepped back time and time again, using the same carefully honed fighting techniques that had let her so easily overpower the contestant she’d saved Xeno from. Yet despite its size the undead knight stopped her from putting any distance between them. She wasn’t retreating, she was running. And she had at most a second before her back hit a wall.

It was quite fortunate, then, that it was less than a second before a section of the stone ceiling in-between the undead and the mystic began to crack and crumble. By the time it had captured both of their attention, they had moved so that the metre-wide chunks of debris which fell out from it were lined up perfectly with the armoured monster. As quick as it was, the undead had placed its shield in-between itself and the falling boulders before they had even dropped halfway down from the fifteen foot ceiling.

Had Astra been smart she’d have used that opportunity to attack. However Astra was very smart, and so instead she seized the black metal rectangle with both of her hands and yanked it back as hard as she could. The undead’s grip was far stronger than hers, even when it was both of her hands against its one. But while she didn’t manage to take the shield from it, she was able to pull it from its position. This gave the enormous rock a perfect path to fall directly onto the creature’s unguarded head.

Stone was a lot more fragile than most magical creatures, and compared to something as durable as the undead knight it may as well have been crystallized sugar. Despite this, there was still a great deal of force behind a three thousand kilogram block of rock splitting in two against something. Enough force, in fact, to drive the undead down onto one knee. Astra dived on the opportunity this presented by hitting it once more, but Xeno knew that she’d have been better off running.

The knight recovered almost immediately and was just in the process of straightening up when something streaked past from behind Xeno and slammed into its right side with the power of a cannonball.

***

Gem didn’t like this monster. She’d fought plenty over the years, most of them were in training exercises but some had been life-threatening. In fact the time Karma had thrown her head-fist into a Theraphosa Gondi nest was still vividly burnt into her memory.

Despite having such an extensive list of horrible creatures to call on, Gem was having a hard time thinking of one she disliked more than the eight-feet of metal and bastard she was rushing towards now. She sprinted past a brown haired girl she hadn’t noticed before, then cleared the remaining five metres between herself and her enemy in under a heartbeat. The blonde girl who was fighting it had just landed yet another ineffective punch when Gem threw herself against the undead from the side, her speed making up for her lack of mass and sending it stumbling away two steps.

She’d been hoping to knock it right over, but after her first punch it wasn’t too much of a surprise that she hadn’t managed it.

Her hand still felt numb from the impact of landing a blow against the creature’s ridiculously solid face, and the physical difference between them was clear. So, as the monster righted itself and began lumbering towards her, Gem took a step back, raised her hand and began building up power for her energy based attacks.

***

Unity’s leg still hurt. Come to think of it, his everything hurt. That little shit cunt skeleton had done a number on him, in fact he was so injured that, in his humble opinion, he had been completely justified in sitting back and watching while Blondie and Crow fought the giant undead without him. Then the disemboweling had happened, which put a damper on things. Heroic as he was, it had taken Unity relatively long to work up the courage to use his magic on the wall and bring that boulder down on the undead. Of course even with his gracious aid Crow’s retarded sister would’ve gotten herself killed if it weren’t for the Gemini running in and, through a leap in logic that mere mortals such as Unity would never understand, concluding that hitting it really hard would totally work out the second time.

While little-miss-perfect and the bimbo were busy being beaten up, Unity spared a glance over at where Crow had landed. He wasn’t sure why, perhaps some of that authentic sentimentality had infected him. For whatever reason it just felt right to take a moment and lament the boy’s dreams being crushed.

It turned out, however, that they had not. Crow hadn’t been transported away and disqualified, he was still fully conscious and was actively attempting to force himself to his feet while gritting his teeth and keeping a hand held firmly to his stomach. On any other day Unity would have found the sight quite amusing, but for some reason its comedic factor was rather lost on him. Perhaps overridden by the pragmatic realisation that he had one more ally than he’d assumed.

Making his way across the passage was painful, and the presence of the two and a half metre abomination of necrotic flesh and rage made it outright dangerous. Nonetheless Unity was able to stumble his way to the opposite wall, then stumble a little bit further to reach his blonde teammate.

Crow, in this time, had mostly been oscillating between attempting to fully stand, falling over and then going back to trying to stand up. As Unity grew closer, he was able to see a distinct lack of the healthy pink hue which had lit up the boy’s face earlier. He had paled, and a nervous glance at the shoulder-wide puddle of still glistening blood at his feet told Unity exactly why. He came to a stop next to his wounded teammate, holding out a hand to steady him- only to find it slapped away. Their eyes met for a moment, and there was a distinct note of hostility behind the ancient symbols etched onto Crow’s irises. Mustering all the persuasion he could, Unity tried to reason with him.

“Come on Crow, don’t be an asshole.”

Crow made a noise which sounded rather similar to a Lusomorph being raped, then staggered again. This time he didn’t smack away Unity’s attempt to aid him, instead mumbling while he leaned.

“I.. need, need to… Astra.”

Unity’s physical enhancement was active, and the meagre weight of a single person was far from difficult for even him to shift. He helped Crow down gently as the boy fell, then found himself grinding his teeth as he thought.

It was a ridiculous stroke of luck that Crow was still conscious with a gut wound like that. Through the gaps in the strain user’s fingers, Unity could quite clearly see entrails barely being kept from spilling out onto the floor. The pressure required to hold them in place was apparently enough to visibly deform them, and part of them were squeezing out in-between the fingers. He’d hardly noticed it at first, but the smell was repugnant. Like shit mixed with blood, then left to simmer for two weeks under harsh sunlight.

He knew what he should have done. Hit Crow, not too hard, across the jaw. Give him that little push needed, a momentary lapse in focus- just long enough for him to let slip of his consciousness and pass out. He’d be transported to safety, where he could receive treatment, and he could live to try again next year.

And yet when Unity went to do so, he locked gazes again. For just a brief moment he stared into Crow’s ancient eyes, and behind them he saw something which shocked him. It was no statistical outlier that had kept the boy from passing out. Something behind that stare was pushing him to stay awake, pushing him to keep going. Pushing him so hard that no matter what Unity did, he would force himself to stand and charge dick-first at an undead three times stronger than him,with one arm and while holding his own guts in with the other.

Unity barely thought about it. He simply raised his hands to Crow’s stomach, carefully pried away his friend’s ever-weakening arm from the foot-long gash across his belly, and began concentrating magic. Unity saw the crooked red lines snake their way up his wrists, palms and fingertips. He waited a few moments for it to reach the necessary level, then he pressed them against Crow’s wound and discharged his magic.

The child of Chronos screamed in agony, and Unity needed to fight through the sound to keep himself from stopping.

***

As much as Astra hated to admit it, she really was glad to receive a helping hand. Had the Gemini not jumped back into the fray when she did, there was little chance the undead wouldn’t have done to Astra what it had to Crow. As things were, its superior speed and strength were off-set by the fact that it was now fighting two Sage-level mystics from different directions.

That didn’t make it an easy battle, however. Just a winnable one.

A sword swing came extremely close to Astra’s head, and she received a nasty cut to the forehead with how close-knit her dodge was. In the instant it took her to right herself after stumbling away off-balance, the creature had stepped forward once more to follow up with another. Before Astra even needed to dodge, however, it was interrupted. There was a flash of silver as Gemini Menza suddenly appeared on its shoulders, her legs wrapped around its neck and both arms firmly holding the sword- which had been raised over the undead’s shoulders- in place.

Astra saw her chance and formed two more portals, one directly in front of herself and the other just behind the monster’s shield. She threw her punches into the foot-high oval and watched her own hands blur as they appeared inside her target’s guard.

She managed to land at least ten attacks before the Gemini’s legs gave way and she was pulled from the undead’s shoulders. Apparently her hold on its arm let up right after, as she was sent flying into a wall mid-swing. She dropped to the ground, surrounded by shards of rock and no small amount of dust.

There wasn’t time to look closer and see if the girl was okay or not, as her attacker shifted focus to Astra once more. With both its arms now free, it went on the offensive.

Astra leapt back time and time again, putting almost all of her concentration on keeping herself away from the vicious-looking black sword blade as it whistled for her neck, stomach and thighs. Seeing it up close revealed a chipped, jagged blade- as though it had been designed from scratch to show just how many lives it had taken. Ordinarily a strategy as aggressive as the undead’s would be difficult to sustain, however even with its enormous weight the sheer magical power it possessed kept its speed close to Astra’s. It also had a shield big enough to cover most of its body, and the strength to swing it around in a split-second. In other words there was simply no realistic way for Astra to counter attack on her own.

She felt a bump from behind as she hit the wall, then hastily dived to one side. The horizontal slash barely missed her as it tore a great chunk out of the stone surface, hurling debris in all directions and continuing its arc even in spite of the obstacle. Astra was on her feet quickly, but the undead was on its attack almost as soon. Before she knew it, she was back on a hopeless defence.

She couldn’t see any kind of face behind the black helmet, it appeared to be nothing but shadow inside. Yet she could still feel the creature’s eyes on her. She felt the hate behind every swing of its weapon, the eagerness it projected each time it drew blood by grazing her. This thing was a monster, pure and simple. And it was only a matter of time before it landed a far deeper hit.

Astra reacted a moment too late to a vertical slash, catching an inch of the blade to her right shoulder and feeling hot pain as a clumsy tear was made in her bicep. There was no immediate numbing of her arm, so she knew the ligament was intact, but the assault of the undead was so ferocious that she couldn’t even spare a glance to see how much blood she was losing.

She was going to die.

***

Gem plucked herself from the ground while groaning and nursing a dazed, splitting headache. She felt a bizarre sense of deja vu for the briefest second, then remembered her circumstances.

The blonde girl was still “fighting” the undead, a look of pure terror on her face and several fresh wounds distributed across her arms and torso. Besides for one on her right shoulder they didn’t look too nasty, but with how close every swing came that could change at any moment. Gem began building antimagic in her arms to prepare an attack when she remembered Xeno Warper’s presence. She shot a glance at the brunette and saw she was still on her knees, staring at the battle and trembling.

There was no time for her to speak with the girl, either to get her help or convince her to retreat. Instead Gem focused on doing something which would actually make a difference, she raised her hands and fired the second blast of antimagic of the battle.

Antimagic was weird. It didn’t exactly have a colour, or at least no colour that anyone but Gem herself recognised. Most mystics couldn’t sense it at all, though many could tell when it was being used- if only by the way it displaced the regular magic around it. Gem doubted such a change could be felt in the heat of battle, but the effects of the attack responsible for it definitely were.

The antimagic bolt hit the undead, then broke apart against its body. At the same time, it began to permeate the body- much like a drop of water simultaneously splashing and being absorbed upon falling on cloth. The antimagic, being completely incompatible with it, forced the regular magic out from the undead’s body. Of course there was a ludicrous amount of magic in there, the thing had twice as much potency as even Gem herself and she was unable to remove anywhere close to all of it, but the difference was still there.

The undead stiffened for a moment, the visible green smoke which enveloped it writhing and thinning slightly, then resumed fighting. However with the sudden reduction in its power. Its movements became slower, its blows became weaker and its body became more fragile.

There would be precious little time to exploit this relatively small difference, and before Gem could even begin to do so she saw something which shocked her.

Unity Eden was rushing in, his face scrunched up in concentration and his hands crackling as arcane power coiling around them.

Beside him was one of the blonde kids she’d seen when she first entered, clothes stained with blood and other rather unsavoury fluids, and skin pale and sickly, but still moving about.

Of course she only dimly acknowledged any of those features next to the unearthly sight of those eyes of his, irises green like crushed emeralds and engraved with ancient symbols which glowed like molten iron.

She’d found the Eye of Chronos user.

***

Crow wasn’t sure what Unity had done, but it wasn’t healing. He’d been healed with magic, it wasn’t a pleasant process but it left a certain feeling of stability. Had he been healed, his stomach wouldn’t still feel as though it were open to display its contents for all the world to see.

On the other hand, he no longer needed to actively hold his own entrails in place. That was a much appreciated change, as he had a feeling he’d need both of his arms to fight whatever it was he was charging towards.

Unity slowed slightly to the left of him, and Crow got the hint- picking up his own pace to rush in and act as the distraction. He didn’t mind, Unity’s body was fragile enough that the only reason the black haired boy wasn’t hanging back to drop chunks of ceiling on the enemy was that they didn’t think that would work.

As he came within ten or so feet of the undead, Crow saw no physical indication that it would turn around and face him. But he didn’t need to. His Eye of Chronos showed him exactly what he needed to see. He saw the monster’s back disappear and be replaced by its front, the faceless horror that it was staring into his soul from behind that mask before impaling him through the chest. It was for this reason that Crow was able to lean to the left and avoid that very impaling.

He deactivated his precognition as he stepped inside its range, knowing that it wouldn’t serve him for attacks the creature didn’t need to wait to locate him before making. The sword was enormous, however. At least six feet in total length, including the massive arm that was gripping it meant that there was still a full step between being within its reach and it being within his. Crow saw quickly that he wouldn’t get the chance to close that distance before its massive shield could slam into him.

But it didn’t.

There was a bright flash, then the unpleasant smell of burning flesh and a disturbing sizzling noise. The undead staggered slightly, steam and smoke rising from a patch on the left side of its body. Crow didn’t wait to find out what had caused the distraction before he took advantage of it.

He reached the monster’s body just as its sword was raised for a downward swing, and with no better offensive options Crow simply swung a punch with all his might and hoped to the Teary Eyed God that he hit harder than the Gemini.

It turned out he did, at least marginally. The creature faltered slightly as he hit it, the way an adult might when struck by a child. Crow followed this infantile blow up with another, this time throwing his right fist upwards in a jab which clanged directly against the monster’s helmet. He felt a deep pain reverberate through the bone of his knuckles and wrist, but his wince was balanced by a grin as he noticed a slight indentation where his fist met helmet.

What he did not notice, however, was whatever crunched into his exposed ribs from the right. He felt every breath he’d ever taken shoot out through his mouth, then he stopped weighing anything and the floor took turns being the ceiling until the sudden wind whooshing past his ears suddenly stopped.

***

Gem grimaced in sympathy as she saw the Child of Chronos thrown across the room by the shield slam, though it was hard to feel much that wasn’t relief at seeing that happen to somebody else for a change.

She felt the tell-tale warmth of her hands which let her know a second blast of mana was ready, and she discharged the energy once more. Aimed for the legs this time, the jet of pale blue light slammed into the monster’s right knee just as it turned to focus on the blonde girl once more. There was another pause in its attack, and no small amount of smoke wafting up from the charred point of impact. Both were good.

What was decidedly not good, however, was that the undead then turned to stare at Gem. She had about one tenth of a second to regret everything she’d ever done before it began its stampede towards her. There was too small an opening for her antimagic, so she instead hurled her more conventional attacks at it. Broiling magical light darted from her palm and broke apart against the creature’s shield, but if the concussive force of their impact slowed the thing down then it wasn’t enough for her to notice.

She could’ve sworn it sped up as it reached her, and temporarily turning her magic-vision back on confirmed that the effects of her antimagic had worn off. Though Gem doubted she’d have had a much easier time keeping away from that damned sword even if they hadn’t.

It lunged for her, and she stepped aside. The attempted stab was followed by an outward, horizontal swing- which Gem evaded by leaping back from.

This bought her only a short breath, however, as the undead turned on its heel and continued after her- chasing her down, swinging time and time again. Unity Eden stood perhaps five metres to the left of the enemy, just in the corner of her eye. He wasn’t moving in to help. As much as she hated to admit it, Gem really needed him to. She was faster than the creature, but eventually it would get lucky.

Before a stroke of luck came to the undead, however, a rock did instead. Perhaps the size of a head and flying faster than a hawk from the opposite side of the passage as the artificial, the chunk of debris shattered against the creature’s helmet. Through what was probably surprise, the projectile seemed to make it pause for a moment- its head shifting slightly from the impact and its assault halting. Gem didn’t let this moment pass her by.

***

Xeno had been trying, and failing, to talk herself into helping ever since Astra’s brother had been injured. Him being put down for the second time was the push she needed to, if not join the offensive, at least help the small way she could by assisting him in getting to his feet. She’d skirted across the passage, though needn’t have bothered with how the undead seemed to be focusing exclusively on Astra and Gem, and came up next to him just as he managed to get back onto his knees.

She put an arm on his shoulder and nearly jumped back in surprise with how quickly he turned to stare at her. After a tense moment, he relaxed slightly. It took Xeno a few tries to make her dried mouth form actual words.

“Here, lean on me.”

The boy didn’t hesitate long before doing so, and Xeno held him with one of her arms under his left shoulder before pulling him to his feet. The boy panted slightly, then immediately turned away from her and went to stalk back into the fight with a muttered word of thanks.

“Wait!”

Xeno called back after him, and then before she could stop herself hurried after and placed herself in front of him. After a few seconds of trying and failing to barge past, the boy finally met her gaze. It was at that moment Xeno realised just how incredibly tired and worn he looked.

“Please.” Crow murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. “I need to… to…”

There was an element behind his stare than Xeno didn’t quite recognise, focused on something a thousand miles away. And before she could reply a new voice rang out behind her.

“Oh, the fae finally did something. Did you have a nice nap?”

She turned to see Unity Eden walking over with a slight limp, his hair was disheveled and matted with dust and his usually confident sneer appeared somewhat diminished. Xeno found her voice as he neared.

“What do you want, artificial?”

The black-haired boy raised a dirty hand to his chest and affixed a mock look of shock on his face.

“Oh my, there’s no need to give me such a tongue lashing. I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that, fae!”

Crow Tempora took another step forward and when Xeno went to stop him she found her resistance was far less effective, though he was still as pale and sickly-looking as ever. He stared past her directly at Eden, then spoke in a surprisingly strong voice.

“What did you do, Unity?”

The artificial’s joking demeanour disappeared, apparently even he knew there was a time and a place.

“I saved you, sort of. You’re aware I can wreak havoc on an object by manipulating Atirstam? Well I did that, to you. Only to put your guts back in rather than make you explode. Any questions?”

The look on Tempora’s face was very similar to what Xeno imagined would appear on a man whose wife had just met his eight mistresses for the first time. After a few seconds the blonde finally answered with a shaky tone.

“You could heal people the entire time?”

“No.” Eden snapped back, rather harshly. “And the only reason I even tried on you was because I knew there was zero chance you’d give up, so it was either risk accidentally turning you inside out or watch you go and charge something three times as powerful as you while your entrails were spilling out between your fingers. I figured you were about ten percent more likely to survive the former. Any more dumb questions? No? Good, now we can move onto what’s important.”

He gestured widely to the two girls fighting against the undead behind him. Xeno felt her heart sink in her chest as she realised that, despite both Astra and Gem being some of the most remarkable people she’d ever met, they were both losing.

“What do we do?”

It was Crow who spoke this time, and he sounded equal parts determined and… reluctant? It occurred to Xeno that he didn’t like Unity very much. She couldn’t blame him.

As though he had been addressed with the friendliest tone in the world, however, Eden smiled widely.

“Never fear, I have a cunning plan!”

***

Gem cried out as the chipped metal dragged across her forearm, tearing as much as cutting and casting a crimson spray at her feet. The weight of the blow sent her back several steps, and she barely avoided the follow-up. Blocking had saved her from a slashed throat, but the acidic pain in her newly-cut arm was more than enough to convince her evading was the better option. The sword reached up, and before it could come back down she rushed in. The undead attempted to repel her with its shield, however Gem lowered her centre of gravity and met the metal wall with her entire body’s weight. She pushed the shield, and the arm that held it, back as she continued forwards to grab hold of the thing’s armour.

Up close, within the reach of a normal-sized arm, Gem was immediately assailed by the smell of the creature. Its necrotic flesh assaulted her senses with its reek just as its blade had assaulted her body. The scent was such that it brought tears to her eyes, but Gem persevered nonetheless.

She dug her fingertips into the dark metal of the undead’s chestplate, hearing a screech as it gave way beneath her grip. Karma had once told her that materials had many different kinds of strength, that resisting an impact was not the same as resisting sustained pressure. She was lucky to have remembered it when she had, for this last-ditch hail-mary proved to succeed where her many blows had failed. Taking her feet off the ground and planting them against the undead’s torso, Gem straightened her bent knees and felt a great strain on her fingers. It vanished after a moment, however, and she was sent flying away as the breastplate suddenly gave way and broke apart into a spray of fragments.

Gem grinned as she saw the blonde girl gripping the monster’s sword, apparently she was the reason it hadn’t been brought down on her back while she tried to tear away the armour. Then her back hit the ground and she rolled with her landing, coming up into a crouch. She looked up to see Blondie cry out as the monster swung her into the ceiling, then let her fall amidst a cascade of rubble. Before she could run over to give aid, however, a deep blue sphere collided with the undead’s head.

The projectile was evidently a fragile thing, as it split apart on impact, but it served to gain the creature’s attention at the very least. It turned its head to the one responsible just as Gem did, and both were surprised to see it was Xeno. Though Xeno herself looked the most surprised of all, she practically trembled while she began to form another sphere- then promptly yelped and let it collapse into a fine mist as the undead began to barrel towards her.

As she turned to break into a run of her own and beat the monster there, Gem was forced to halt as her path was blocked by Blondie’s equally blonde and shockingly alive brother. This shock did not last long, however, as it was quickly pushed from her body by a much greater degree of anger.

“Get out of my way idiot!”

Her voice came out as a frustrated shout, and despite his own being far more placid it somehow felt as though it were holding her in place.

“Calm down.” The boy began, just a shade too gently. “We don’t have long, but there’s a plan.”

***

Unity really, really wished he’d been standing in front of Warper rather than behind her. As enjoyably tight as her ass was, it really didn’t compare to the face she must have been pulling as she saw the undead closing in. In fact just thinking about it amused him so much, he almost forgot to do his part.

Touching his palm to the wall, he let the magic he’d been building flow through his flesh and into the stone- where it crawled about eleven feet upwards to reach the ceiling, then snaked another twenty feet closer to the centre of the passage before destroying the bonds holding a piece of stone in place and letting it drop.

The sudden feeling of tiredness at using so much power so quickly aside, seeing the monster get pelted by a boulder even bigger than its own body was well worth it. After all magic reserves were temporary, but the noise the dumb creature made when its face was slammed into the floor? That was a memory Unity could treasure forever.

Of course he’d have to begin treasuring it later, as even a hit that hard would have done little more than buy him some time. Noticing the dumb bitch had frozen up, he called out to the fae.

“It’s down, now keep it that way you fucking idiot!”

Warper jumped slightly as he yelled, then raised her arms and began projecting a barrier on top of the creature. It was just as fragile as her other constructs, lacking the potency behind it to stop even a single one of the undead’s blows. Thankfully what little resistance it provided would be enough to hold if all it had to constrain was something attempting to sit up, rather than swinging a sword into it.

With the threat temporarily delayed, all that was left was to consolidate their forces and put the plan into motion. He glanced over at Crow and frowned as he saw the vacant expression on the Gemini’s face.

He hoped the rest of their forces weren’t too retarded.

***

Gem hurried over to where Xeno and Unity were standing, eying the still-struggling undead as she did so and giving it a wide berth just in case. When she reached the black-haired artificial, he greeted her with the same momentary look of utter hostility that she’d assumed had been in her head the last time they met. There was no denying it was there this time.

“Gemini!” He chirped, far too happy and loud given the situation. “I trust my good friend and, dare I say, brother Crow has filled you in on my ingenious plan?”

Gem rolled her eyes before answering.

“Yes, Eden. I’ve got to say I expected it to be better.”

For some reason Xeno seemed to shrink down slightly at this. Unity just giggled.

“Well, one works with what they have. And in this case what I have is four teammates who, frankly, would barely be able to figure out not to eat chalk if they all put their heads together.”

“Wait, teammates?”

Eden looked at Gem like she’d just asked where babies came from. Very slowly, and too condescendingly to possibly be anything but deliberate, he answered.

“Yes, Gemini. Teammates. Unless I’m wrong, and the organisers actually aren’t grouping us together based on compatibility. In which case all of us being dumb enough to charge the most dangerous thing in the stage for one reason or another is incidental. Eclipse, I really hope my planning is enough to compensate for… this”

Not really in the mood to argue, Gem just sighed and muttered a low “whatever” in response. Eden seemed to take this as an invitation to elaborate further, as he leaned in and changed his voice to a comically high, easily audible “whisper”.

“In case you couldn’t catch my meaning, if this doesn’t work it’ll almost certainly be all of your faults.”

Gem’s immensely witty verbal-takedown was interrupted by the arrival of the two blondes. Both looked the worse for wear, with the girl wincing at every step she took and the boy looking paler than a vampire. Unity turned his back to Gem in order to look at them, and she could hear the amusement in his voice.

“Astra! My star-crossed-”

He was interrupted when the blonde girl, who Gem supposed was Astra, kicked him quite hard in the shin.

The artificial’s smug greeting turned into a string of curses as he took his leg in hand and crouched down. While he was busy doing so, she turned from Gem to Xeno and began talking over him.

“Everyone here knows the plan, right?”

Gem nodded, though it was hard to pay full attention to her. She felt like she’d met this girl somewhere before… oh well, it probably wasn’t important.

Astra cleared her throat rather obnoxiously before speaking, as though she were addressing a crowd. Gem found it quite amusing when her imminent speech was interrupted by a sharp yelp from Xeno, causing all heads to turn to the now-standing undead.

“It’s up!” Gem called out, not feeling the need to make a display for attention beforehand. “Everyone knows what you’re doing, so do it. Go!”

She had to admit it wasn’t the most eloquent of speeches, but it got her point across rather quickly if nothing else. Astra stopped her posturing and broke out into a run, one which Gem noticed was quite a bit slower than her own. Though her back was to her, she knew Xeno Warper would be following from behind and ready to provide aid. The blonde boy, was his name Crow?, was hot on his sister’s heels. For a long moment Gem felt a bubbling sense of confidence at their coordination. She’d fought the undead with nothing but Astra to give her slight aid, how much easier would it be as a group of five?

And then they closed the last few metres, and the fight began.

Once again Gem was the initial target for the undead’s attack, it raised its sword high and swung it with the tremendous force she’d come to expect- sending a shower of sparks and dust where the tip ground against the ceiling. She leapt to one side, almost knocking over Astra in her efforts to avoid the strike. She heard a faint whoosh as the metal cut through the air where she’d been, and struggled to right herself in time to evade its follow-up.

While Gem did this, however, the others continued their attack. Astra closed in first, leaping into the air and catching the full-brunt of the undead’s shield as it was thrust into her. Rather than being sent flying, however, she managed to grab hold- keeping herself from being thrown clear of the battle and weighing down the end of the enemy’s weapon with the same force which kept all mystics anchored in place while their strength was enhanced.

Blondie number two was next up, he darted in-between Astra and Gem before focusing on the undead’s right side- the side that was now unprotected due to the opening left by its initial attack. He ducked under its arm and threw a punch which thudded into its torso, barely making the thing flinch but drawing its attention fully onto himself. Gem wasted no time in taking advantage of this, she brought her hands together and began to gather her magic- then leapt into the air.

Her jump took her high enough that her head almost touched the ceiling, giving her a clear line of sight to the monster’s head. The blast of magic she threw landed dead-centre in its face.

The energy was two parts heat and only one part force, but the perfect placement and surprise behind its impact meant it rocked the monster all the same. The undead took a lumbering step back as it tried to straighten itself, while Crow and Astra went to work on its sword. Gem landed and began backing away as Crow wrapped both his arms around the handle of the weapon, dragging it down with all his weight. Despite his entire body being behind the effort, the undead’s grip remained steadfast right up until Astra leapt from the shield like a spring-board and landed a kick on the back of the creature’s hand. Its fingers sprang open and the sword was wrenched free, then sent flying across the room.

With a silent rage it turned and swung its shield-wielding left hand towards the twins, however a patch of blue light shot through the air and stopped in-between them and the makeshift club. Xeno’s shield was as fragile as ever, but it lessened the impact from near-fatality to merely disorienting. Both Astra and Crow were sent to the ground, then carried some metres away by their leftover momentum. Just in time for Gem to let loose the second blast she’d been charging.

This one struck the same leg she’d targeted earlier, worsening the damage. The undead turned its focus on her and began stamping forwards, however she couldn’t help but notice its right leg dragging slightly below the knee. This bought precious moments for Gem to enact her part of the plan. She dived to her right, rolling back to her feet and raising her arms to block a punch from the creature just as it reached her. Even without a sword its strength made the blow a heavy one, and Gem skidded back almost a metre from it. The spot on her arms where she’d caught it had gone numb and she just knew there would be an ugly bruise there later, but she had no time to worry about that as the monster followed up by swinging its shield like a club.

***

Xeno hurried towards Astra, but by the time she reached her the blonde had already started to get to her feet. It may have been because she was more resilient, because he was more wounded already or a combination of the two, but her brother was still struggling to get himself off his back. She watched as Astra pulled the boy to a stand, suddenly feeling no small amount of doubt in their plan.

“Uh, Astra…. Are you sure he-”

The blonde boy cut Xeno off before she could finish, staring her in the eye as he spoke.

“I can do it.”

His voice carried all the pain his body showed, but there was iron behind it too. While Xeno tried to consider whether those two traits would balance one another, Unity Eden spoke from behind her.

“You heard the man, hurry up and do your thing. My whole plan hinges on you after all!”

Xeno wanted very much to point out that he hadn’t actually known about her “thing” and that incorporating it into a plan had been more down to her than him. Instead she decided her energy was best used doing her part. While she concentrated her magic on the blonde and black-haired boys, Astra glanced to and from Gem.

“I… I should go and help her.” She sounded uncertain, but when her eyes flickered to Crow he smiled and nodded.

“Yes you should, don’t worry about me Astra. You have a far harder job than I do.”

The girl seemed to waver for a few more moments, then she took off towards the fighting. Xeno wanted to wish her luck, but she decided that making a wish that big would be unbecoming of her.

***

The Gemini was being maneuvered. It was hard to spot, even harder given the preconceptions one might have about a giant, silent undead, but there was no doubting it. Every dodge the silver haired girl made to one side, every block which shunted her across the ground. They were all designed to move her closer to the undead’s discarded sword. It seemed Unity had been right, the new creature’s silence didn’t mean it was any less intelligent than the others. Whoever was controlling it was still capable of rational thought.

This rationality, bolstered by the undead’s enormous power advantage, meant that it was perhaps inevitable that it was working. Astra caught a few glances of the Gemini’s face as she was slowly but surely forced closer to the fallen weapon, it was a mask of irritation and rage. She’d seen it on herself a few times, the look of someone being reminded that they couldn’t do everything.

Astra reached them a moment before they got to the blade, and it brought her a strange amount of glee to see the monster stiffen up as she kicked it away. The punch which, even when guarded, sent her flying almost vertically downwards into the floor was a lot less amusing.

She rolled to her hands and knees with a groan, then strained to get to her feet just in time to duck another swing- this one coming at her head from the side. She turned her duck into a roll to dodge a right kick, spinning under the creature’s legs and coming into a crouch behind it. She replied with a kick of her own, her left leg slamming into the creature’s right knee.

She hadn’t really expected the blow to do much, but much to her surprise several chunks of black metal fell from the point of impact. She felt the shock reverberate up her leg with how solid her enemy’s body was, but as the undead tried to simultaneously turn on her while warding off Gem with its shield, she saw the limb she’d attacked was moving more slowly.

There was a bright light, and a blast of energy struck the undead’s left foot- exploding against it and filling the air with the smell of ozone. Astra circled around the left, moving faster than her enemy could turn and successfully coming up beside its left ribs. She threw a punch with everything she had, a sharp pain twinging in her wrist as her knuckles dented the metal armour, and then leapt back to avoid the shield being swung at her once more. It was a near dodge, and she felt the air it dragged along with it as it passed centimetres from her nose.

A punch would have followed, and it would have landed, but the undead was forced back a step to avoid the Gemini’s foot from slamming into its already damaged right-knee. Astra moved in, raising her guard and blocking a predictable shield-bash. The blow forced her back inches rather than feet, and she grinned as there was another blast of light before the metal wall began to fall. She grabbed it and hurled it away with the sword for good measure.

Astra saw the form of Unity out the corner of her eye, and her heart leapt to her throat. She snapped her focus back onto the fight, however. Bringing her elbow slamming into the undead’s ribs and then barging into it with her shoulder to force it away.

***

Gem blocked a hammer-fist, then grabbed the undead’s arm as it tried to pull it away. Resisting the urge to let go of the disgusting, rancid flesh she pulled with all of her might- dragging the creature off-balance and bringing it a step towards her. She stepped in to meet it, throwing one punch after another into its torso. She doubted they were doing anything, but her magic reserves were beginning to run on empty- it wouldn’t be long before she was unable to fight at all.

Her vision darkened slightly as a knee sank into her stomach, and before she knew it the undead was five paces away- still fighting Astra, who was now on the defensive. Then, from the corner, the familiar face of Unity Eden came. Crow’s form rushed forwards likewise from the opposite direction, though far slower. The black-haired boy sprinted towards the undead, showing not even a scrap of fear. He should have.

Perhaps he’d been relying on the element of surprise, perhaps he was simply willing to give everything he had for the plan. Whatever the cause, he didn’t even hesitate before closing into melee range with his hands extended. The undead’s fist collided with his stomach hard enough to crack Unity’s ribs.

***

Unity felt his pulse pounding in his ears as he saw the undead grow nearer with every step. He grimaced in what felt strangely close to sympathy as he saw the giant creature stop Crow’s own charge with a single blow. He wondered why the sight disturbed him so much. Perhaps it had something to do with the Child of Chronos wearing Unity’s face?

While the undead was busy prioritising what it thought was Unity, he slipped in towards it from behind.

He had to fight to stop himself from giggling as the energy built up in his fingers, red lines producing and intensifying the familiar entropic power that was responsible for their plan working at all. It was easily the most destructive attack their team had at their disposal, and thanks to Warper’s illusory abilities just the fear of it made one hell of a diversion.

Just as his features melted from Crow’s face, revealing the blonde, green-eyed boy beneath, Unity was upon the undead. He leapt as he came within two meters of it, sailing through the air and landing on its back. Before it could do anything to dislodge him he reached down and stuck his fingers inside its filthy helmet.

There was a disgusting oozing, followed by a squelch as what he imagined were long-rotten eyeballs gave way under his fingertips. The smell of the creature went from strong to nearly vomit-inducing, to the extent that it alone almost made Unity fall off. But then he concentrated his power and sent it inside the nice, squishy target.

Generally speaking, overclocking magic was not advised. It caused efficiency to plummet, and it was often said that even a skilled mystic could only double an ability’s effectiveness at the cost of using ten times the magic reserves. Unity was not a skilled mystic, not yet, but he used a lot more than only ten times the usual cost for his entropic manipulation. In fact he used every scrap of magic reserve he had left. He poured all of it inside the undead’s revolting helmet, his jaw clenched reflexively at the sensation of so much energy moving through his body so quickly- and he could practically feel most of it spilling out uselessly into the air.

It didn’t matter. Even with all the waste, the destructive effects of his magic were multiplied. The undead barely had time to spasm before its brain was turned to steam and it fell limp. He heard a great shrieking, somehow all around him. The green cloud which had been around and within the undead began to writhe, then thin and disperse just as it had with the skeletons, and the giant shoulders on which Unity was perched crumpled along with the rest of the monster’s body. The ground came up to meet Unity as he fell, and he wasn’t at all surprised when nobody bothered to catch him.

***

Crow was vaguely aware that Unity had landed on his face. As much as he was worried- after all an eight foot fall was actually a problem for a mystic with no potency- he simply had more important matters.

Blinking the dark spots from his vision, and forcing his trembling hands to remain still, he brought his gauger close enough to see what it displayed. He almost couldn’t believe it when he saw the numbers.

Credits: 2147

Team Credits: 9750

Team Position: 1st

Time left: 8 seconds

He grinned, then he giggled. And by the time the familiar pull of a transportation spell had washed over him, Crow was outright laughing in his hysterical disbelief. All that trouble, all that effort, all that pain, and he’d gotten a thousand credits.

The crowd drowned out his curses.