"I’ve actually come to like you, Dryden. That’s why you have to die today."
The ice wings compress behind Freya.
For an instant, every bit of frost hanging around her is pulled the same direction. The crystals leave short trails in the air, the scythe points at my chest, and the pressure under her feet, hovering inches off the floor now, opens new cracks in the stone.
Then she fires.
Pegasus Wrath doesn’t look like a jump. Freya crosses the arena on a line of ice and compressed wind, fast enough to turn the wings into a blue streak behind her. The point of the scythe leads, funneling all that acceleration into a single spot.
Blocking it would mean accepting Freya’s weight, Permafrost’s weight, and every foot of distance she just converted into force.
I gather OXI in my boots.
At the same time, I picture Kraken rising against the scythe’s shaft, changing the angle of the charge before the blade reaches my body. The sword understands with a vibration.
I choose to leave the line.
Pressure Step.
The floor bursts under my foot. My body throws left as I open the fingers of my lead hand.
Kraken doesn’t follow me. It obeys what I imagined.
The sword stays in Freya’s path for a fraction of a second and completes the movement I abandoned. The dark blue blade rises on its own and strikes the scythe’s shaft near her front hand.
The contact pushes the weapon a few inches off course.
Freya opens the right wing and compresses the left.
The correction happens mid-charge.
A concentration of light runs through the base of the left wing, near the shoulder, and her body changes direction in the air. The scythe misses my chest, but the edge of ice passes across my shoulder before Pressure Step pulls me fully clear.
Horizon takes the cut.
The armor hardens at the point of contact, keeping the blade from sinking deep, and collects its price immediately.
[OXI: 2,404 → 2,316 / 2,500]
The impact still tears me off the ground. I roll over the opposite shoulder, cross a band of frost, and come up on my feet before I reach the barrier.
Kraken spins behind Freya and returns to my hand like a boomerang.
The struck shoulder is numb. A thin layer of ice coats Horizon’s plating, but the joint answers.
Worse would be ignoring what I just saw.
Freya’s wings don’t only hold her in the air. One sustains the acceleration while the other corrects the trajectory. During the change, all that energy passes through a narrow junction near the shoulder.
She lands far from me, dragging the scythe along the floor to finish the curve.
Across the arena, Veric has taken command.
"Rhayne, hold Fang! Oliver, with me on the spearwoman!"
Undertow leaves his arm and crosses the field in a low rotation, forcing White Wake to pull the spear in and jump to keep the shield off her legs. Oliver advances into the open space, Motorhead close to his hip, setting up a lateral strike against the shaft of her weapon.
It’s a good call.
White Wake has placed herself between Oliver and the rest of the team from the start. Taking the spearwoman out of the formation would let him circulate again and turn Split Fang into a far softer target.
Then that bastard Deep Echo ruins it.
The plates around his neck light up.
"The hammer is a distraction. Shield coming back on the left. Duck now."
White Wake doesn’t look.
She drops at the exact moment Undertow passes over her head on the return. The shield goes back to Veric without touching her, and the spear is already rising to meet Motorhead.
Her shaft cracks against the hammer’s haft, shoving the strike wide. Split Fang takes the opening and cuts between Rhayne and Veric, forcing them both to break formation rather than give up their backs.
Veric chose right.
The opponent simply knew the answer before the attack finished. A read aimed at a point that hasn’t happened yet.
Freya climbs again.
This time, Deep Echo is looking at me.
The sensory plates pulse while I gather OXI in my legs.
"Pressure in the boots. He’s going out to the right."
Freya adjusts the scythe before she even advances.
I change the decision.
Pressure Step.
I go left.
She’s already expecting the correction. One wing opens and Freya turns in the air, closing the new path with the scythe’s blade. I have to fire the skill again before my first foot is even set.
Pressure Step.
The second burst throws me under the arc. Kraken rises between us and turns part of the strike aside. The ice blade grinds along Kraken’s edge like a whetstone, but at the last instant Freya rolls the shaft and catches my ribs in passing.
Horizon absorbs what it can.
The OXI vanishes in another dry bite.
[OXI: 2,356 → 2,250 / 2,500]
I go down on my side, slide, and use Kraken to get up before Freya can come back.
A new warning appears at the corner of my vision.
[Void Capacitor: 9%]
I look for Rhayne.
She’s still facing Split Fang, using short curls of the Battle Ribbon to keep him from getting in on Veric’s side. A thread of blood marks the corner of her mouth.
Deep Echo sees it too.
His fingers touch two different plates. The runes light, and a dark current shows for an instant between my reserve and Rhayne.
"There’s a transfer," he says.
White Wake keeps pressing Oliver but turns her face toward the support. "Between those two?"
"Part of the energy Uncle Den spends is being diverted to Ballerina. She’s storing it."
Split Fang backs off the metallic ribbon and wipes a shallow cut on his forearm. "Can she give it back?"
Deep Echo tracks another pulse of the Soul Link before answering. "I don’t know. But every container has a limit. That’s how the world works."
He points at Rhayne.
"Make Sands spend. Pressure the girl at the same time. We’ll find out what happens when she fills up."
The other team’s strategy changes without a single long order.
Split Fang launches at Rhayne.
She readies the shell, but he cuts the dash short of contact. The violet burst never comes. Split Fang pivots on his front foot and attacks from the opposite side, forcing Rhayne to pull the Battle Ribbon back to cover her own body.
White Wake stretches her thrusts against Oliver. She isn’t trying to wound him; she’s keeping Motorhead far enough away that he can’t help Rhayne.
Veric tries to seal the lane with Undertow.
Deep Echo’s plates light again. "Shield low, on the chain. Jump."
Split Fang obeys and clears the shield’s edge.
Freya attacks me the same instant.
The scythe drops in an oblique arc, and I use Kraken to take the heaviest part while my feet move out of the line. Even so, the shock demands OXI from my arms and feeds the bond.
[Void Capacitor: 14%]
Rhayne parries a dagger with the metallic silk. The second passes close to her face and opens a thin line across her cheek.
She doesn’t complain.
She doesn’t look at me either.
She just wipes the blood from her lips with the back of her hand and keeps fighting.
Freya is the strongest weapon on that side, but she isn’t the center of the team.
Split Fang has enough speed to break a formation. White Wake controls space and protects any ally who enters her reach. Freya could cut through almost any defense on her own.
Deep Echo removes the limits from all three.
Every time one of them makes a mistake, his plates light and hand over the correction. Every time we set up a movement, he identifies the direction before the execution finishes.
The runes on his neck are the eyes of that formation.
When he needs to see the whole field, all of them glow at once.
Freya compresses the wings again.
Deep Echo turns his full attention to my boots, waiting for the next Pressure Step.
It’s the first time he’s made a mistake.
Without taking my eyes off Freya, I shout.
"Veric! Change targets!"
Undertow takes a dagger with a crash. "To who?"
"Deep Echo. Sequential Tide Waves."
There’s a short pause.
Then Veric laughs.
"Ballerina, second exit! Bone Crusher, wreck the third!"
Rhayne gives a step of ground and opens the Battle Ribbon. Oliver abandons the pressure from White Wake and starts circling the outer edge.
Deep Echo catches the movement late.
Freya points the scythe at me.
Kraken vibrates between my hands.
The first part of the trap has just begun.
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