There wasn’t time to acknowledge what was happening; the scene happened in flashes like a strobe light. The lights going out. The Ejderha surrounding us. I watched as Lara fell to her knees, the faint light reflecting in the blood pooling beside her. She had her hand against her shoulder, tears in her eyes.

“La—” I started.

“Lara!” Tristan screamed and rushed forward, putting Zahra to his right and Destiny to his left.

“I’ll burn you alive, you filthy wretch! [Enchant Bomb]!” Destiny screeched. Her bottle grenade was already in the air by the time I understood what she’d done.

Sanrai pivoted to her side, knocking away the bottle with the butt of her spear like a professional baseball player. Gasps followed as the bottle came careening back toward Destiny.

“[Convert Force]!” Lara gasped, her hand extended. A blue-white light flashed around the bottle, instantly extinguishing the flame within.

“Behind!” I heard Cailu bark. The sounds of clanging metal followed as Cailu’s party engaged in combat behind us.

Zahra shouldered her way past Tristan, drawing her katana and catching the inert bomb in her spare hand. She passed the bottle back to Destiny, her stare glued to her sister the entire time.

“My own sister continues to fight me,” Sanrai said, bemused.

Lara groaned, crawling across the stones on her hands and knees behind Destiny and Zahra. Sanrai stamped on Lara’s ankle, raising the point of her spear to the center of the [Conjurer]’s back. Zahra advanced on her sister; katana gripped at her side with the intent to kill.

“My sister died a long time ago!” Zahra bellowed.

At that moment, my lungs filled with cool air as the world around me slowed. Each time this effect of Zahra’s swept over me, I understood it a little better.

While my body couldn’t move very quickly, my eyes were uninhibited. And so I took in my surroundings as best as I could. Destiny and Tristan stood beside one another, Zahra ahead of the pack. Lara reached for her sister, her face captured in agony. Down the hall—at least as far as the light would allow—I could see four, no, five Ejderha. Two of them, a few meters away from Sanrai, had their hands extended. Spellcasters, most likely.

I couldn’t see the remaining two Ejderha well enough to see what weapons they wielded.

Time resumed its normal pace. “Tristan! Cast to Sanrai’s left!” I cried. With Zahra’s wide swing of her sword, a physical attack risked putting the [Myrmidon] in danger.

There was a half-second delay before Tristan extended his hand out in front of him. “[Fire Ball]!” A great blaze of flame larger than any I’d seen shot out of Tristan’s palm, roaring as it soared through the air.

Sanrai’s eyes widened as the blaze approached. It took up nearly half the space of the corridor from wall to wall. Sanrai leaped backward as Zahra’s attack followed through, narrowly evading the swing of her sister’s katana.

The [Fire Ball] crashed against something down the corridor, and a disturbing scream filled the air. The effigy of a catgirl flailed, their body outlined by white-hot flame. Soon, the cries of others followed.

“Put her out!”

“I’m trying!”

“Stop running! You’re going to get us all killed, you fool!”

Sanrai held her spear in both hands, with the point at the side of her head. Despite the cries for help from her fellow Ejderha, she didn’t seem the least bit fazed. Her gaze remained firmly on her sister.

Zahra motioned with a wave of her arm behind her. “Take Lara! Now!”

Destiny was at her sister’s side in a heartbeat, one of Lara’s arms over her shoulder. As Tristan made to join her, I grabbed him by the shoulder, moving past him so that I stood between him and the retreating Destiny. He’d drawn blood from how tightly he was closing his fist. His stare wandered between Destiny, Zahra, Sanrai, everything.

“Stay back,” I said. “I know you want to help, but you’re a backliner. You won’t do any good squaring off against Sanrai. Just give us some backup.”

Destiny dragged Lara back to safety, and I caught sight of Sanrai’s handiwork. The bloodied rips in Lara’s clothing haunted me. The wound was dark and deep. I prayed that the damage wasn’t as bad as it looked.

I hurried past Destiny and the wounded Lara, standing beside Zahra. Ceres repositioned to my right, her brow furrowed. I glanced at her polearm, grateful that at least one of us had a method for fighting off Sanrai’s reach.

“L-Lara, hang in there!” Cannoli squeaked. Even from here, I could feel the panic in her voice.

Destiny’s sobs filled my veins with concentrated fury. Cannoli offered gentle words to Destiny as the corridor erupted with the blood, sweat, and tears of those fighting.

“[Pinpoint Weakness]!” Keke screamed.

Fire and arrows soared through the air toward the targets in the back, one right after the other. A cacophony of shrieks followed.

“We’ll keep them busy! Take her down!” Tristan said.

“Squawwwk! Burn them to cinders!”

“Your tyranny ends here,” Ceres said, her polearm extended.

“Come,” Sanrai said, spinning her spear in one hand.

Shit, can the three of us even beat her?

“Don’t do anything reckless, boy!” Ravyn yelled.

Yeah, I know. Thanks.

Ceres led the charge, her polearm held low to the ground. I followed close behind, axe held underhanded with my shield before me. Sanrai leveled her stare with Ceres, leaning back on one leg, her spear wielded outward. Ceres stopped just short of running into Sanrai, then took one hand off of her polearm.

“[Icicle Shard]!” Ceres bellowed.

A single shard of ice fired from Ceres’ palm with blinding speed. Sanrai hissed as she stepped to the side, the fragment narrowly missing and lodging itself into the wall behind her. My chance arrived, and I swung my axe upward at Sanrai, hoping to catch her flat-footed. Sanrai’s wicked sanguine eyes landed on me. I struggled to ignore the chill I felt looking into them.

The world slowed once more as I felt Zahra’s presence nearing my left. This was the perfect opportunity. My grip tightened, and I swung with every ounce of power I could muster.

Regret filled every fiber of my being.

Sanrai moved at a fraction of her speed, but it was still leagues quicker than any of us within Zahra’s realm of Perception. She had to be moving three, maybe four times faster than we were. I drew a deep breath, watching as a slow-motion spear headed straight for my face. Sanrai had evaded my attack seconds before it had even followed through.

And then time resumed as normal.

“Fuck!” I said, reeling backward and slicing at the air between us to keep Sanrai off me. Pain seared across my face from one cheekbone to the next, splitting the bridge of my nose clean open. Warm blood gushed from the cut. As I drew breath, I coughed out spittles of blood from trying to breathe through my nose. If not for Zahra’s Perception, that swing would have cleaved my head in half.

“Matt!” I heard Keke and Ravyn yell in unison.

Goddammit, don’t worry about me. Just focus on her entourage.

Sanrai pulled back as Ceres swung her polearm underhanded, narrowly missing the shaft of Sanrai’s spear. As Sanrai drew away, Zahra advanced with her katana held above her at an angle, then swung. With one fluid spin of her spear, Sanrai hit Zahra against the back of the head with the blunt side, using Zahra’s momentum to send her stumbling several feet away.

Sanrai repositioned her spear in one smooth motion, then thrust toward Ceres.

“[Titan of Ice]!” Ceres said. The familiar crystalline barrier surrounded her, and Sanrai’s spear halted inches from contact. Ceres spun on her heel, carving the air between her and Sanrai, her blade aimed at the neck.

Sanrai leaped backward, clicking her tongue as Ceres moved to stand in front of us.

“Allow me,” Ceres hissed.

I wiped away what blood I could from my face and readied back into a fighting stance. Zahra moved to stand beside me once more as Ceres, our vanguard, stood in front of us to create a triangle formation against Sanrai.

If we could bait Sanrai into striking Ceres’ barrier, we could land a finishing blow. We’d need to be careful, though. If the barrier detonated when we weren’t ready, Zahra and I could get caught in the blast. Not that Sanrai knew that.

At least… I hoped she didn’t.

The three of us glanced at each other, nodding to one another. It was all or nothing.

“[Invoke Frost],” said Ceres. A cool, icy wind blew in, covering her weapon in a sparkling blue mist. “We should attack without restraint.”

“Agreed,” said Zahra. “[Holmgang]. [Army’s Unity].” At Zahra’s words, the edge of her blade glistened for a fraction of a second.

We each readied into our positions and charged the leader of the Ejderha.

The air whistled at the rotation of Sanrai’s spear. She stabbed at the approaching Zahra, cutting loose strands of black hair as the point glided past her. Ceres followed up with a sideways swipe at Sanrai’s waist, forcing the leader to hop back.

Zahra pursued with a stabbing motion, leaving behind a small cut between Sanrai’s ribs. As she lurched backward, hissing through her teeth, I swung from the side opposite, catching the loose clothing around her shoulder. It tore away from her shoulder. We had Sanrai on the defensive.

We formed a tight line with Zahra to Ceres’ right. So long as Ceres acted as a deterrent, there was a very real chance we could win this fight. But I knew the Spell couldn’t last forever. We were on a time limit.

“Continue!” cried Zahra.

Ceres went for a sweeping attack next, only to have Sanrai parry with the point of her spear toward the approaching Zahra. Gasps left the girls' throats as Zahra raised her katana to block Ceres’ incoming attack. The world came to a grinding halt once more.

As Ceres’ polearm met the flat of Zahra’s katana, Sanrai stepped forward. Something told me I knew what was about to happen. Urging my muscles to move faster, I carved my axe through the air beside me, hoping to catch Sanrai’s weapon.

The worst possible outcome played out in slow motion before my eyes. I watched as the spear penetrated the icy wall, then Ceres’ stomach. Agony colored Ceres’ features as Sanrai withdrew the spear, leaving behind a gaping mass of gory viscera. A hole was left in the iridescent circle where the spear had been.

Sanrai had broken through the ice shield and retreated faster than it could detonate. When time resumed, the barrier around Ceres shattered. Magical ice covered Zahra and me from head to toe, locking us in place.

“So easily baited,” Sanrai snarled. “Amateurs.”

A yelp escaped Ceres’ lips as she dropped to one knee. Her braided hair came loose as red soaked her pearly-white apron.

No! No! No! Please! Not like this!

“Ceres! Get up!” Ravyn said, her voice cracking.

“She’s wounded!” Keke barked, loosing an arrow in Sanrai’s direction.

Sanrai moved her head to one side, dodging the arrow with minimal effort.

These were not the actions of a person or a soldier. These were the actions of a cold-blooded animal going in for the kill. She wouldn’t mince words, and she cared not for the corpses she stepped over in the process.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

“Cailu!” Ravyn snarled. “[Displace]!”

I blinked, and Ceres was gone. In her spot was Cailu, his shield raised with his sword held over the top.

“[Chain Lightning]!” came a voice down the hall.

“[Quelling Force]!” Cailu retorted.

Lightning streaked across the hallway, bouncing off of Cailu’s shield and back into the group of catgirls beyond. Screams of agony filled the air, and as Cailu neared Sanrai, I heard him utter another Skill.

“[Beheading Slice].”

Steel sang as Cailu’s blade whipped through the air with a speed I could barely register. His cape billowed from the momentum, and the unsettling sound of tearing flesh, then a dull thump as Sanrai’s head hit the ground permeated my ears. It rolled, then stopped less than a dozen feet away from me, her face frozen in surprise. The Ejderha leader’s body slouched to the dirt, and the clang of her spear as it dropped seemed to ring above the sounds of battle.

“Sanrai is down!” Shouted another Ejderha. “Collapse the tunnel!”

“Oh, God,” I muttered under my breath.

“Retreat to the rest of the group!” said Cailu, turning tail to join the others. “Now!”

“R-right!” I stammered.

Zahra and I ran alongside Cailu. My heart pounded against my chest. I weighed whether we could make a run for it, but I had no idea how we’d do that with Ceres and Lara the way they were.

The muffled sounds of explosions crashed against the outer walls, drawing closer by the second. Cailu motioned for everyone to gather around.

“[Sacred Ground]!” Cailu stuck his sword into the ground and fell to one knee. A brilliant white light surrounded his shield, obscuring its details. As the light grew brighter, my anxiety rose. Nothing had happened yet, and bricks were coming loose in the walls.

I lapped at the blood trickling around my lips and closed my eyes. All of our lives depended on him. Where was the Skill? Why wasn’t it activating?

Stone shifted between stone, and I watched in horror as the structure came down around us.