Xeno’s fingernails dug painfully into her palms as she flitted between each of her teammates, scrutinising every minor noise from every part of their battles.

There was something sickening about being able to hear her friends fight and bleed while simultaneously having the sight of their efforts denied her. Like having a guillotine blade hanging over her neck while blindfolded, unable to even begin to notice when it might drop.

She forced herself to relax, steadying her breathing and working both lungs slowly and carefully.

They would earn two team points for each enemy eliminated, and any who remained after a five minute period- the end of the task- would earn an additional one.

So they had as many as twelve points to gain. A substantial amount. Enough to bring them up to first place, if only until team Triland got the chance to surpass them again in their own task. And yet, it would also motivate team Ra all the harder.

She wondered which side’s drive would prove more vital.

***

Astra grit her teeth as she saw Genro’s foot leave the ground, his leg arching around at the end of his twisting body, swinging his foot like the projectile of a trebuchet. Even braced as she was, his heel rocked her head and sent her stumbling.

A perfectly executed spin kick. So flashy she’d never expected to see it used in actual combat, so heavy it was like her enemy had delivered it with double his actual power.

Had it not been for Genro’s pitiful physical strength, it would have more likely than not knocked her out.

She righted herself, catching the boy’s next movement and stepping back just in time to make his front kick shallow as it thudded into her diaphragm.

It still knocked a breath of air from her, if not an entire lungful.

Another kick swung for her head, and she narrowly evaded by leaning back. The strike for her ankles and knees that followed missed too, striking air in place of joints as she continued her retreat.

She was forced back into range as her back hit the wall, head cracking sharply against the stone and bringing a harsh sting that sank down to the bone.

Her vision dimmed for a moment, leaving the world desaturated and blurred enough that she didn't see her enemy's next move.

Merely felt it.

Too heavy to be anything but another kick, the blow would have driven the wind from her all over again had it not been for the breastplate. Keeping her breath did little to offset the flaying Astra's nerves experienced as staining metal screamed into her ears.

For a second, Astra half expected to find herself whisked away by a wash of magic. Plate broken, place disqualified. Victory lost.

The fear cleared her thoughts, sending strength through her muscles like lightning as she lunged forwards.

Her punch was textbook, as perfect as any she'd thrown.

So perfect that she was sure it had connected even after Genro twisted around it, slick as an eel and fast as a bullet.

He closed in, and her sidestep was far too slow. The back of her ankle was caught by the tip of his boot, and an elbow to the face sent her leaning off balance. A low kick kept her from righting herself, and another jab continued her stumble.

Astra could do nothing but raise her guard and try to straighten up, catching unseen blow after unseen blow. Body, temples, thighs and calves. It seemed Genro intended to pummel her muscles into indolence.

With the sheer volume of viperous strikes they were sustaining, even his petty physical strength may well have succeeded.

And then there was a lul. More of a pause, or perhaps the missing of a single beat. An instant’s reprieve from the unending physical bombardment. So sudden that Astra was almost too stunned to take advantage of it.

Almost.

She lashed out with an open palm, splayed fingers whipping across the boy’s too-close face before he could jerk out of arm’s reach. The tightening of his face painted a smile on hers, not least for the knowledge that his eyes would have filled with tears.

A moment of blindness and disorientation was all she needed to snake a foot behind his leg as he tried to flee, turning the tables by toppling him and leaving him open for a blow with all her strength.

Astra could practically feel the straining of his bone as her knuckles met forearm, sending him tumbling backwards like a leaf in the wind.

***

Crow saw himself struck by the sand, plucked from the ground and hurled through the air to break like a wave against the wall. Stone cracked and fell, joining him in slumping against the ground.

He blinked, and the world resumed as normal. He leapt to one side, feeling the power of the silicates as they tore past him. A foot wide and four paces thick, moving as though every inch of its length were muscle.

The ground was not as smooth as the walls. Crow winced as his hand scraped against it, but continued rolling.

Another tendril was waiting for him when he came to a stand, having sneaked around while he dodged the first. It grabbed his ankle and yanked him upwards, then brought him back down into the ground below.

When Crow left the clutch of his future sight, however, he realised there was precious little he could do to escape the trap.

His heart leapt into his throat as the sand closed around him, stomach dropped to his balls as it dragged him upwards. He twisted and thrashed, and when the sand released him he thought for a second he’d escaped.

The wind in his ears warned him of the impact just before it came.

Crow cried out as his shoulders hit the ground, vision fading and body jerking as his hips and legs followed an instant later.

For a moment he felt entirely weightless, as though he were suspended by a great wire. Gravity reclaimed him once more, throwing him down. He didn’t bounce the second time.

The world was blue, pale and endless, blurred and unintelligible. It wasn’t until Crow had spent five heartbeats lying on his back, each breath coming as a great effort, that the cyan sea began to sharpen. Unblurring into the sky he was familiar with.

“Up” a voice came, replacing the ringing in his ears even as it faded.

“This isn’t like last time.” Ra said. “I can’t afford to hold back, definitely not to help you. You’re powerful- amazingly powerful- but I’m a full year older and more experienced. This was never going to end any other way.”

What was never going to end any other way? What was the boy talking about?

Crow found himself frowning, confusion furrowing his brow. That slightest expression seemed to open the floodgates, leaving pain to wash over him like a tidal wave.

Had he been standing, it may well have swept him from his feet.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Ra’s face. A mask of anguish, concerned frown marring his brow, lips moving yet making no sound Crow could hear.

A noise filled Crow’s ears, unrelenting and as loud as an orchestra. It took burning lungs and charring throat for him to realise that it was his own scream, and even then it continued for heartbeats more.

“I’m sorry.” Ra said, hands held out in front of him as though to calm the pain from Crow’s body. “I didn’t mean to throw you so hard, are you okay?”

Crow couldn’t speak, could barely even breathe. It was like the fall had bypassed his muscles and skeleton, leaving his lungs, throat and stomach to withstand his entire body weight as it struck the ground.

Yet stronger than the pain, far stronger, was the memory of Galad’s face. Agonised and broken by what he was forced to do with his own hand.

Concentrating, Crow diverted his remaining potency and activated his time dilation- silently cursing himself for ever hesitating to use every scrap of his power against someone as strong as Ra.

The world slowed, and Crow didn’t hesitate an instant before leaping into action.

Ignoring the protests of his upper body, the screaming of joints or twisting of viscera, he swung his torso around and brought his left hand to the ground at the right of him. As he pushed off, his momentum arced to send him upwards rather than sideways.

Ra was far more powerful than him, but Crow had learned in their first bout that the boy was far from a physical specialist. His speed was not insurmountably superior to his own, and paired with the surprise he surely felt at the move, he was downright sluggish to respond.

Before Ra could raise his hands or sand to defend himself, Crow’s fist crunched into his jaw.

The boy’s head snapped back, his legs shaking before moving in a blur to keep him from dropping to the ground. He reeled from the blow like a drunkard, and Crow didn’t intend to let him recover.

Even as every organ in his chest and guts screamed its protests, he lurched after Ra.

A vision of sand casting him against the wall came to his eyes, and he ducked low just in time to keep it from coming to pass. Scrambling to his feet, Crow hissed as he saw Ra had doubled the space between them, then dived forwards to pull himself from the path two more pillars of sand.

They clashed in his absence, coming together like hammer and anvil, sending granules flying in all directions.

He rolled and leapt back to his feet, throwing a jab and almost grinning at the satisfying jolt his fist made upon thumping into the base of Ra’s nose. The boy’s head jerked back again, though he didn’t lose his footing.

Crow went to rectify that with a low kick to the boy’s knee, but Ra turned his leg at the last moment and the strike met it front-on. As his leg bounced back, Crow found his role reversed with the boy.

Arms flailed and stomach churned as his balance was lost, and before he could regain it a fist of sand drove the wind from him.

His feet left the ground, and the wind reappeared in his ears. Crow felt acidic bile gurgle up at the back of his throat, his convulsing gullet apparently having grown fed up with the abuse.

A moment later his back struck the wall again, the air filling with a crack even as Crow rebound from the stone and fell to his hands and knees. Through tear-filled eyes he stared down at the armour covering his chest, but could find no cracks or chips.

The damage he’d heard must have been on the back, out of sight and impossible to gauge. That worried Crow, but as he saw Ra striding towards him- desert tendrils coiling around him like worms through the dirt- the toll on his armour vanished from his thoughts.

He had far more to worry about.

“Last chance, Crow.” Ra said.

There was a drop of anger in his voice, likely born from the sucker-punch, though it was drowned in the sea of… uncertainty? Reluctance? Surely not fear. What could he have to fear from Crow?

Save for hurting me by mistake. He realised.

Struggling to his feet, Crow shook his head.

“Can’t...” He began, then folded over once more to paint the ground at his feet with vomit. The stench and taste burned his nostrils as his stomach emptied, and he struggled to straighten once more.

Inhaling slowly and deeply, Crow gathered himself before attempting to speak again.

“Can’t do that.” He managed at last. “I have… obligations.”

Ra looked at him evenly, the reluctance melting away from his face.

“I should’ve figured.” He murmured, so softly Crow barely heard from the give yards between them. “Charged an enemy with your entrails hanging out, eh? That’s not something you do without one pit of a motivator.”

“Will people ever stop thinking of me as the boy who did that?” Crow asked, more to buy time than receive an answer.

Xeno had told him Gem was on her way, but he’d heard nothing more since then. He thought it best to fight as though it was on him alone to win, but getting some extra seconds for her to swoop in and save the day wouldn’t hurt either.

“I’m afraid that that’s the sort of deed that sticks in memories.” Ra answered, a smile shifting across his face but falling short of his eyes. He stepped forwards.

“Yeah… I’d thought it might be.”

Crow straightened up once more, not surprised to notice that he felt better- he always did after vomiting.

His eyes warned him of Ra’s attack before it came. A hail of sand, clumped by the thousand and forming projectiles the sound of marbles. Crow could do nothing but cover his face and throat, wincing with pain as the tiny beads broke against his body and left dozens of miniature cuts across it.

A tendril of sand whipped at his right ankle while the left came down on his head, and as Crow left the vision he realised there was only one direction he could dive to avoid both.

His dodge brought him closer to Ra, and the ram of sand that caught him as he stood was near and fast enough that he didn’t receive so much as a glimpse of its impact before he suffered it.

There was something different about the sand this time, it was darker, stiffer. Yielding no more than a stone column as it smashed into him, where the previous tendrils had sent bucketfuls of themselves leaping through the air with every collision.

Crow heard the cracking of his armour the moment he was struck, and while his feet remained planted, his body did not.

He slid backwards, friction and gravity neutralising his momentum only after it had carried him half a dozen paces. One of the tendrils he’d dived away from whipped around to meet him as he stopped, clearly visible in Crow’s future sight.

In the time it took him to realise his only hope of dodging was on allowing himself to topple, the mass of earth had already reached him.

Weightless once more, Crow’s world became one of streaking greys. He felt his empty stomach writhe once more as his body spun, seeming to hang in the air for an age- as though he were sliding along a line rather than dropping from a throw.

His legs struck the stone floor first, sending him bouncing upwards as they ricocheted and bringing a new wave of nausea to his guts.

***

Unity kept himself compact, shoulders and elbows bent, centre of gravity lowered and head tucked safely behind his outheld fists. His jabs were textbook, and each landed as if on a training dummy.

But Sia was no training dummy.

Though the boy didn’t dodge, it was not for an inability. A metal sheen had crawled across his face as Unity began his assault, and it was that coat of steel that his fists racked against.

He could bring himself to land no more than three strikes before the pain in his knuckles and wrists left his arms clenching into uselessness.

It wasn’t even a second after his assault relented that the boy retaliated with one of his own, metal flashing in the light as his arms shot out. Unity stumbled away and covered himself up as best he could, but every blow fell behind a block of steel.

The armour was turned to a weapon as it struck him, pushing waves of agony deep beneath his skin and seeming to rock his very bones. It was almost a relief when Unity tripped, finding himself thrown away by the next blow.

He slid a full fathom, clothes scraping against the ground and dragging him to a stop as he stared back up at his enemy.

To Unity’s surprise, the boy seemed content to remain steadfast. Perhaps he suspected a trap, that the fall was planned or staged. He was a fool, if so.

Slowly, and keeping his eyes fixed carefully on Sia all the while, Unity climbed to his feet. The boy seemed no more eager to attack while he was in the process of standing than while he was falling, and Unity realised why.

Sia was winning. He had every advantage in a physical contest, and Unity had little to no chance of turning the tables- save a surprise attack.

It wasn’t a matter of suspecting trickery or feints, there was simply no need for the boy to take so much as a one in a million chance of defeat. Not when he could guarantee himself victory by simply waiting.

“You know,” Unity muttered, “I’m actually quite impressed you’re resisting the urge to beat me to death. I can tell you want to.”

“Not doing things just because you want to is actually quite normal, for people who aren’t you.” The boy shot back.

“Funny.” Unity grunted. He straightened up, retaking his stance and washing his gaze over the boy, trying to find some hint of a weakness in his defence.

As far as he could see, there was none.

He took a step forwards, and fought to avoid retreating as Sia adjusted his footing in response. Another step brought him just a hair from arm’s reach, and Unity could hear his own heart pounding away in his ears as he fought to take another.

Before he could, Sia moved.

The boy’s arm darted out like an uncoiling spring, metal sheen glinting as it lunged for Unity’s face. He caught it on his own, crying out as the blow landed and stumbling back once more.

Sia followed, eyes glazed with hate just as his arms were with metal. He threw strike after strike, oscillating between directions and targets, leaving no discernible pattern to how the hurricane of attacks would next shift.

Unity folded over as his body was struck, found his legs shaking and head spinning after blows to the temples. His eyes streamed tears and nose streamed blood after steel knuckles flattened it onto his face, and a blow to the mouth left it filled with chipped teeth floating in pooling blood as his lips burst.

In seconds he’d been rendered as helpless as a kitten. Sight claimed by tears, hearing blocked by the pounding of his heart, even his smell and taste smothered by the iron tang of his own blood.

He blinked his eyes clear- or at least clearer- and glimpsed Sia twisting around to strike at his body. Stepping inwards, Unity cut the blow off at its midpoint and brought his own arm back.

The boy retreated, seeing Unity prepare to strike, and that brought him far enough that Unity could fully extend his arm as he punched. His fist connected solidly with the centre of Sia’s nose, a spot untouched by metal, and unprotected.

There was a slight pop, inaudible to Unity, though felt through his arm, and his enemy’s lips and chin were suddenly washed red. Now it was Sia’s turn to try and peer through drowning eyes, and Unity aimed to make full use of it.

***

“Tell me, how have you been sleeping?” The vampire asked, strolling towards Gem just as she had in their first task. Each step taken thoughtlessly, carelessly. Like a cat on a carpet.

Or a tiger on a detritus.

Gem didn’t answer her. She couldn’t have, even if a suitable retort had made itself available. Just looking at the girl’s face, twisted with glee and sharpened with malice, reached into her lungs and pulled the air right out of them.

“Going for strong and silent? Can’t say I blame you. You made lots of noise last time, and I doubt you’ve ever seemed so weak.”

Despite herself, Gem took a step forward. She touched her magic, more to check it was still there than anything else, and kept her focus on the girl.

“Ooh.” The vampire grinned. “I’m getting goosebumps just looking at that face. Let’s see how long you can keep it.”

She moved without warning, legs kicking off, ground groaning beneath her feet under the pressure they exerted. The feral sneer marring her face seemed more intense than ever, threatening to stop Gem’s heart, to make her turn and run.

And yet she held her ground, and held her gaze. The girl, for all her viciousness and savagery, seemed to move so very slowly. Slowly enough that, as Gem raised a hand and released her magic to gather in the air above them, she didn’t doubt for a moment that her attack would find home.

“Rain.” She whispered, more from habit than any need to aid her focus.

And rain it did.

***

Crow dodged left, and the vision of his defeat failed to come true. In avoiding it he found himself stumbling into another, one he scarcely aborted by flattening himself against the ground and letting the unseen wave of sand slash through the air above his back.

It was beyond him to stop the silicate fist from crashing down atop him, and he barely kept his breastplate in one piece by curling up and allowing the particulates to break against his limbs.

Sand spattered the stone on all sides of him, cascading and splitting like light through a prism. Crow began to sit up, eager to get back onto his feet as soon as possible even as his arms throbbed from the impact, but he got no more than halfway before the tendrils shifted again.

The sand that had been piling around him convulsed, then contorted. It twisted inwards, forming great fingers and closing them around Crow’s torso, pinning his arms about him and squeezing air from his lungs.

Gem’s armour had kept his bones intact even when he used them as shields, but it's flexible nature meant it could do little against sustained pressure.

Crow stared at Ra as yet more sand joined the mass around him, adding to the weight of his binds. Then adding to the weight of their grip.

The boy gave no hint that he planned on relaxing the grip of his magic, nor that his attention would slip and provide Crow a chance to escape it himself. Instead, he simply watched as the pressure increased further.

***

Strikes met Astra everywhere her guard wasn’t. Slipping under and around arms, cracking low when she blocked high, then switching to another target even as instinct pulled her arms to the first.

It was a fight to keep her eyes open as every reflex in her body aimed to shut them. A greater one still to keep herself from curling up and simply weathering the attacks.

She couldn’t counter if she curled up. She couldn’t win if she curled up.

Another kick slipped past her guard, landing just under her ribs and sending the familiar, crushing pain stabbing into her liver. Just as Astra found her form breaking down and her body folding up, she realised Genro had left an opening.

It took every ounce of her will to lunge forwards and throw her jab, but she wouldn’t have traded the crunch of knuckle against chin for all the stars in the world.

As he stumbled back, she began to turn herself and raise her left leg for a kick to the side. The sudden motion jarred her liver, resurrecting the fading pain and bringing her down to her knees. She watched with a sinking stomach as Genro stumbled away, taking long enough to right himself that she knew her blow would have landed if she’d been able to throw it.

And with the strength difference, a direct kick would surely have won the battle for her.

Rage flashed on Genro’s face as he came forwards again, and Astra felt triumph creep onto hers. She’d caught him, failing to instantly win didn’t change that. And it had happened twice.

She could overcome him.

It took only a heartbeat for the boy to reach striking range, but Astra had expected him to be no slower. His opening attack was a kick to the jaw, and she knew better than to try and dodge.

Her arms came up and caught the blow, absorbing its force and pressing her barely half a step to one side. Before he could attempt another attack, Astra retaliated.

Open hands darted for his ankle, barely missing as he snatched it back. She caught a second kick- unguarded- to the ribs for her trouble, but ignored the pain as she spun to charge at him.

***

The cylinder began as wide as a yard, but quickly expanded. It struck the vampire from above, and Gem was sure she glimpsed the girl being pressed down into the ground before she disappeared within the pale light.

Heat leapt from the edges of the beam, as scorching from a dozen cubits as a smith’s forge was from two. Steam hissed free of the stone and air, invisible in the glare of the energies at play, yet so clearly audible. Moments later, however, even that noise was eclipsed by the cracking of stone and grinding of rock.

Gem felt a tugging in her gut, her magic reserves gradually giving way to a vacuum as more of them were poured into the attack. She ignored it, focusing exclusively on what was before her.

The falling energy, so bright it hurt to look at and pale as ivory- save for the orange tint rimming its bottom as stone melted under the heat.

Heartbeats passed with no sound save for the roaring of the arcane conflagration, and the void within Gem grew ever bigger. Her arm began to ache, muscles knotted reflexively as she conducted magic with it, and the trembling of her fingers served as the signal that she ought to stop.

She was surprised by how difficult it was to stem the flow of magic, and doubly so at the sensation that overcame her as the cascade of power abruptly cut off.

Gem had expected to feel drained, having used so much magic so quickly. And yet even with a tenth of her reserves depleted in mere seconds, there was no trace of fatigue within her- not her mind, not her body.

It was as though she’d exchanged the energy for pure strength. And the exhilaration of the feeling brought a grin to her.

Magic. She hadn’t touched it for weeks, not really, and she’d come so close to forgetting what it was like. More than a thrill, more than ecstasy. Completion.

A great fog clung to the ground around her, billowing in a gaze Gem couldn’t feel and thick as smoke from a forest blaze. The stone at her feet still burned molten where it had been touched by her attack, all smoothness having been erased from it.

Ugly lumps and welts marked it for fathoms in all directions, and near the centre she saw that more than one part had been affected so greatly as to leave puddles of liquefied rock sizzling in craters.

Simona lay in the centre of such a pool, magically strengthened body no doubt resisting further harm from the broiling rock bubbling around her, yet clearly having failed to withstand the initial attack nearly so well.

Red clothing was hard to distinguish from the crimson blood seeping from the girl’s back, as much of her flesh having been seared or split open as had not.

Hair spilled out in all directions from her head, though where it had previously been long, Gem saw few strands even half their former size- and practically all ended with singed, flayed and burning.

Moving slowly, every inch making it clear of the great pain she was in, the vampire raised her head, meeting Gem’s gaze.

Seen like that, lying helpless and crippled after only a single attack, she suddenly seemed so very small.

“What was your plan there?” Gem asked, stepping towards the girl without even trying to fight the grin that made its way across her face. “Did you think losing once had made me half as powerful? That I’d be too terrified of you to even use any of my magic?”

The vampire’s only answer was a strained gurgle, born from a throat dried and seared by the heat that had made her a bath of lava.

Gem studied the girl’s face. Her skin cracked and ruined. Her lips, quivering like a child trying to bite back tears. Her eyes, wet and silently pleading. She waited for the stab of sympathy, the sudden revulsion at the thought of hurting her further, and guilt at having done what she had already.

Instead, she found her thoughts turning to her last task. Snapping ribs, piercing laughter. Unanswered pleas.

Wordlessly she raised her hand once more and sent a new rush of magic flowing through to the fingertips.

***

Astra almost swore as she saw the gate disappear, its birth interrupted by the kick to her knee. Structure collapsing before her very eyes.

She stepped back, arms raised to defend against the follow-up and successfully keeping the next blow from falling across her jaw, however as she started to focus her magic again, Genro stifled her efforts with a jab.

He ducked back from her blind swing, landing another punch and bursting her lip for good measure. As she backed away, he charged in.

Even after falling for her feint, the speed difference was such that he almost avoided her boot crunching into his gut. Metal screeched and cracked as Genro folded over, then flipped backwards head over heels from the force of the blow. Astra wanted to follow up, but focused instead on bringing her hands together.

The gate seemed to form more slowly than any she’d ever made before, beginning no smaller than usual, yet expanding at a miserably glacial pace.

Astra couldn’t tell whether the sluggishness was real, or simply in her head. But she felt a rush of exhilaration as the mass of magic expanded.

With Genro’s speed, she’d not had the chance to use her gates until then. The majority of her potency, rendered completely useless. But her kick had bought some heartbeats- the boy was only just scrambling to his feet- and she intended on putting them to good use.

So fast she almost missed it, the boy was on his feet and rushing forwards. Astra had fought twice already, and shown her full abilities both times.

And so when he stumbled and broke his charge upon seeing the gate grow large enough to fit one of his limbs in, she wasn’t remotely surprised.

His hesitation bought her a heartbeat more, and as the boy rushed around the crimson oval to strike from the side, Astra leapt into it. The world was tinted red, and the colour gave way to the rushing of air against ear.

She looked down at her enemy from above, saw the confused way in which he backed off from the gate as it disappeared. His head turned one way and the other, eyes clearly scrutinising his surroundings for any trace of her, legs quivering as he constantly began to move, only to second guess himself and remain in place.

Her feet caught him on both shoulders as she landed, and seeing herself fall so perfectly on-target brought a smile to her face as she drove him face-first into the ground.

***

Unity’s fingers grazed Sia’s breastplate, and for a moment he was sure the connection was enough. The metal held fast, however, and rather than leaping to rend its target apart, his magic barely had time to coil around his knuckles before a punch sent him stumbling.

Sia’s hands followed him, and it was all Unity could do to keep his arms between them and his breastplate.

He glimpsed the boy’s expression through the hurricane of blows, triumph and pride intertwined. It made him want to rip the smug cunt’s eyes out.

One of Unity’s legs buckled, the dizziness and strain afflicting him from Sia’s assault seeming to double without warning. Even as he struggled to straighten himself once more, to fight his hands and keep them from dropping, he knew the opening would be there for too long.

Metal rang out against bone as Sia cracked a fist against his temple, and the world became a dim mess of wavering lines and shrill ringing.

***

Gem watched as Simona’s body smouldered, more from fascination than any actual investment in her wellbeing.

Smoke coiled from what little remained of her clothing and hair, and steam hissed about the charred black crusts that now covered so much of her flesh. For a moment it occurred to her that she’d killed the girl, and was staring at a corpse.

That thought was interrupted by a glimmer of light and a sudden popping noise as the air rushed in to fill a Simona-shaped vacuum, left by the transportation magic snatching her away.

She supposed it should have been more surprising that enough of the girl’s breastplate had survived the initial blast that she’d only been removed from the stage upon taking the second.

“Gem, has your fight finished?”

The voice, Xeno’s, was soft, almost hesitant. All the same, its presence in Gem’s head nearly had her cry out loud in shock.

“Yes.” She said, fighting to control her breathing.

“Brilliant. Then get ready to follow my directions, and try not to wander off this time.”

***

Genro’s face met the ground with such force, Astra worried for a moment she’d seriously injured the boy. Stone buckled inwards, compressed under the impact and gave way as his head sank a full hand downwards while cracks crept away in all directions, thick as fingers and long as legs.

Astra toppled , dropping to the ground beside the boy and quickly rolling to her feet. She wasn’t remotely surprised to see he hadn’t moved by the time she stood.

Taking her chance while she saw it, she pounced. Her foot came down on the boy’s back, slamming into metal and sending fissures across it just as Genro’s head had the stone. Another stomp widened them to a hand span, and by the fourth she was certain they went all the way through the metal.

The cuirass broke into pieces on the fifth, and Genro vanished in a flash of light moments later.

Backing away, Astra allowed herself to slump against the wall as she eyed the spot in which her finishing blow had landed, somehow sure that her enemy would return at any moment.

But he didn’t. And the only company she was left with was her own breathing.

***

Xeno listened for some five seconds, carefully paying attention to all the ambient noise around Astra as she tried to discern whether the girl was still in combat or not.

“Astra, have you finished-”

She was interrupted as her friend yelped in a most undignified way, then filled Xeno’s ears with the sound of scrambling feet and scraping stone. A few moments later, Astra responded with a tone that wouldn’t be out of place to hear from an executioner.

“Don’t scare me like that, Xeno.” She growled.

“Sorry.” Xeno answered. “I had to make sure your fight was over so I didn’t distract you and… well, anyway, I assume you won?”

“I did.” Astra answered, sounding no happier for it.

“Good, then I have some more directions for you. Crow’s still fighting, and he’s going up against Ra.”

“Talk fast.”

Xeno did as instructed, and Astra needed her to repeat herself only twice before she was confident in knowing where to go.

“Gem’s on her way as well.” She told the girl. “I imagine she’ll reach him first, but that’s no reason for you not to hurry.”

“I wasn’t planning on slacking off.” Astra muttered, a little defensively.

Xeno left her mind, then strained to find Unity’s. It didn’t surprise her to be greeted by the sounds of ongoing battle.

***

Unity leapt back as Sia’s fist shot for his side, and he barely snatched his leg from the way of the follow-up low kick. Another kick followed, and Sia seemed surprised when Unity turned his leg to catch it instead.

It was all he could do not to scream in pain as the boy’s metal-coated shin sank deep into the muscle of his thigh, sending pain and weakness spreading out through the viscera in all directions and leaving him wobbling where he stood.

But his hands lashed out faster than the boy’s foot could retreat, and as they closed around the metal sheen, crimson lightning building like the static in a storm, Unity saw utter terror sprout in his enemy’s face.

That terror was the final ingredient to his plan.

Sia snatched his leg back with such speed that it might have pulled Unity to the ground, had he maintained his grip. Instead it served only to break the boy’s balance, sending him stumbling as he tried to right himself.

Unity rushed him before he could recover, magic already thick about his hands as they closed around either side of the breastplate. The arcane power passed through his fingertips, scorching the air as it split the armour lengthways down both sides.

Metal glinted, and Unity dived back to avoid the wild swing that came for his jaw. His back hit the ground and his legs kept moving as his body stopped, sending him tumbling over backwards.

As he came back up to his feet, he flashed a grin at the boy before him and brandished the sheet of metal he’d pried from his curais.

“Just a hair too slow, and a mile too stupid.”

The boy realised instantly what had happened, and what was about to. One of his hands shot to the scraps of armour still hanging at his front, holding it in place as he charged forwards.

He needn’t have bothered, Unity had already finished building another mass of magic by the time he took his second step.

Lightning danced about the metal, already warped from being so roughly detached. Forks broke against the surface, spitting sparks and breathing smoke, and the stannic plate’s gleam quickly turned black and sooten.

Sia’ hurled a kick, magic metal leaping to cover his foot just as Unity’s lightning enveloped the armour. Where he surely sought his heel to meet body, however, it instead struck the stolen strip of steel.

Shards escaped in all directions as the impact ran up both of Unity’s arms, threatening to dig into every scrap of skin they hit.

He forced his head to remain still, kept his face from turning away, and dived for the boy’s legs.

The tackle couldn’t have been done better if he’d tried another ten thousand times. His arms closed around Sia just below the knees, hands closing around wrists as Unity planted his feet and straightened up.

An elbow fell upon his head, sheened in metal and carrying force enough to split a man’s skull like a grape.

But Unity’s body, feeble though it was, still had magic coursing through it, and no strike was worth considering when thrown by a man whose legs barely grazed the floor. Sia continued toppling, and Unity adjusted his grip just as the boy’s instinctive flailing dragged his arms away.

Pressing both palms flat against the back of his plate, and curling the tips of his fingers to grip the metal like talons sinking into flesh, he charged magic anew.

Sia’s feet scrambled for purchase, his eyes wide and his face contorted in panic- making it clear from just a glance that he’d realised what was about to happen. His balance was restored, his footing cemented, and yet it all came too late.

Lightning screamed and steel roared, the arcane and mundane screeching as they locked horns.

For one terrifying moment Unity felt Sia continued to move, finding himself certain that the boy would strike before his gambit could be completed. And yet the blow he’d awaited with bated breath never fell.

With a crack like clashing mountains, he felt his hands pry apart- each still firmly clutching the section of armour they’d been digging into. The sudden jolt sent Unity stumbling away, his feet crashing into one another as toppling him to his back.

Sia seemed to chase him even as he fell, arm raised to deliver a downward-blow that would surely crack bone.

And yet before the hammer could come even halfway to Unity’s body, his opponent vanished into light and vacuous sound.

It was a tenuous effort for him not to weep with relief, as the metal disappeared from between his fingers. And yet his efforts to remain dignified proved for nought. Even as he realised the sudden voice addressing him belonged to Warper, it dragged a squeal from him.

***

“Unity, have you won?” Xeno asked, desperation to help Crow finally winning out against caution not to interfere with the artificial’s task.

She found herself wishing, however, that there was some way of controlling the volume of her teammate’s replies. Even without any communications device at all, she may well have heard Unity’s string of curses from however many miles away.

“Are you finished?” She snapped.

A pause came before the artificial’s reply.

“Yes. I take it you have some new directions for me?”

Xeno didn’t bother saying anything other than the instructions themselves, and Unity’s only answer was a single grunt of acknowledgement. She left his mind without a moment’s hesitation, focusing back on Crow’s.

The moment the connection was made, it greeted Xeno with the sounds of magic and destruction.