Chương 153: Stars and Stripes

Joe appeared on the surface of Augusta Prime. He spread his senses, drawing in a slow, steady breath. This time, there was no forest canopy above him. No roots beneath his feet. He stood on sand at the bottom of a wide valley, sheer rocky walls rising around him and cutting off his view in every direction. Heat radiated from the stone, dry and oppressive. His senses crept outward, climbing the valley walls inch by inch, but from this position, it was slow and inefficient.

Joe bent his knees and launched himself upward with explosive force, clearing the ridge in a single bound and flashing into the open sky. From above, the world revealed itself. An endless expanse of arid land stretched to the horizon. Jagged mountains, fractured valleys, and rolling dunes dominated the landscape. Sand and stone as far as the eye could see. Joe pulsed Corel.

'You guys safe? I'm in the middle of a desert.'

'We are safe, Esha is with me. We're in the middle of an ocean.' Joe winced. He was not sure which was worse, standing alone in a waterless wasteland or being surrounded by nothing but water.

'Good luck,' he sent back. As gravity reclaimed him and he began to fall, Joe felt it. A massive pulse of two auras far to the south. He did not need to look to know who they belonged to. Gale and Travesty. Together. That alone was troubling. The few memories Joe had of the pair suggested that nothing good ever came of their proximity. Whether they were teaming up or colliding headfirst into disaster remained to be seen. Just before he landed back in the valley, another sensation brushed his awareness.

A susurration to the west. His eyes sharpened as space itself rippled, subtle but unmistakable. Someone was warping space. Joe grinned. Bingo. He could feel the particles gathering, the telltale distortion that preceded a large skill activating. Space mages. And close. That settled it. He abandoned the plan to rendezvous with the others. The moment his feet touched the sand, he vanished, Space-Jumping west as he pulled out a communicator and tapped it twice.

The same message went out to Tevenny and Esha, short and to the point.

'Switch to plan B.' Joe accelerated, darting across broken terrain and fractured stone, moving straight toward an encounter with two space mages and whatever trouble they were about to unleash. __ Just before the final Star Shard competition began, Ark checked probability once more. Then again. And again. He knew that the moment they were teleported to the world's surface, probability would become opaque to him. Every thread, every branch of what might be would vanish all at once.

So he lingered on the number while he still could. The result left him unsettled. Fifty-one per cent. Not failure. But it was a number he barely counted as success. One single point from collapse. He frowned. The shift was massive compared to their earlier projections. Something had changed. Something significant enough to tilt fate this sharply. He could not see what it was, only that it existed. Was it the loss of the cube? It had been their one absolute certainty.

A guaranteed Star Shard, immune to variance and interference. They had planned to save it for this final competition, to end everything cleanly. Fate, however, did not care about plans. Now they stood balanced on a razor edge, walking a tightrope of probability with no safety net beneath them. Ark inhaled slowly and recited the words drilled into him by their mentor. His Mantra of space.

"Void of night, void of day."

"Let the void guide us to the way," Gaston finished. He rolled his shoulders, restless energy coiling beneath his skin.

"Restrictions?"

"None," Ark replied, closing his eyes. Gaston grinned.

"Finally. I've been aching to let loose. Let fate mourn those in our way."

"Amen," Ark said softly. The moment they arrived on Augusta Prime, Ark began constructing a Space Gate to bypass the restricted void. Runes flared into existence as he worked, calculations unfolding faster than conscious thought. They immediately ran into two problems. The first was that the restrictions here were far heavier than anticipated. Anchoring the gate to a viable void path would take time. The second problem was far more immediate.

The one person Ark had hoped to avoid at the start of the competition was already moving straight toward them.

"Gaston, form a shield," Ark ordered without looking up. He kept his focus locked on the gate. He knew Feormere's habits well enough by now. The man liked to talk. He liked to posture. He rarely struck first. That delay was their best chance. Ark also knew, from the last probability scan, that this encounter generally led to the most favourable outcome available to them. That knowledge did little to ease his irritation. Just because a path was optimal did not mean it was pleasant. Still, he would walk it.

Feormere arrived five seconds after sensing them. He descended from the sky and landed lightly on one foot, poised in a strange new stance before Gaston. A translucent mana shield snapped into place between them just as Gaston finished forming his own defences. Feormere's gaze flicked briefly to Ark, who remained wholly focused on the Space Gate, hands moving with precise urgency.

"Whatcha doing there?" Feormere asked, his voice wrapped in the same overconfident ease it always carried. The tone grated on Ark more than it should have. It reminded him too much of Gaston when he was younger, careless and convinced the world would bend around him. Ark lifted one finger. Six orbs of compressed lightning-aspected mana drifted outward, fanning toward Feormere in a slow, deliberate pattern. Ark expected hesitation.

Expected Feormere to focus on the threat, to give Gaston the opening to strike unseen. That had been the plan. Occupy and delay. Feormere did none of that. He ignored the orbs entirely. Instead, he flowed forward in a sudden blur, moving through a style Ark did not recognize. It was new. Worse, it was fluid in a shocking way. The motion carried no wasted effort, no telegraphing, only intent. The sheer shock of the movement stole a fraction of a moment from Gaston. That was all Feormere needed.

His quarterstaff slammed into Gaston's chest with a thunderous crack, sending him flying backwards like a discarded shell. Gaston's startled shout echoed through the air as his body skidded across sand and stone. Ark barely had time to register the strike before Feormere turned on him. Two lances of mana burst from Feormere's fingertips. One carved straight through an orb, dispersing it into nothing. The other struck Ark's shimmering barrier head-on.

The shield buckled, cracked, and nearly collapsed under the impact. Ark's breath caught. Feormere was past the bottleneck. The realization hit with cold clarity. His attacks were denser than before, carrying a weight Ark had not accounted for. Stronger. Faster. Ark abandoned his original calculations and snapped his wrist, clicking the first seal embedded beneath his skin. One restraint released. But before he could trigger the second, Feormere was already there.

The staff came down glowing violet, pulsing with mana, and shattered every remaining layer of Ark's defences as if they were made of glass. Ark cursed and dispelled his skill mid-formation. The half-formed Space Gate collapsed, the mana invested in it vanishing into nothing. He twisted aside just in time, feeling the pressure of the blow scream past him. This was not how this encounter was supposed to unfold.

Every probability branch he had trusted dissolved in an instant as Feormere pressed the attack, relentless and unapologetic. Ark no longer had the luxury of planning. Now, his goals and dreams were all drifting on the winds of fate. __ Joe smiled as he leapt at Ark, his staff humming a low, mournful tone. This time, he did not waste effort on words or delays. He had one goal: to break the star on Ark's chest and remove him from the competition.

Ark was the brains of the pair, and Joe intended to remove the mind as quickly as possible. He knew he had only seconds before Gaston returned, so he pressed forward with the ferocity of a bear protecting its young. His staff blurred as he activated Rapid Strike, the air snapping with each blow. Ark answered with layered defences, orbs and barriers of mana flashing into existence in frantic succession. Joe shattered them all. He caught flashes of fear in Ark's eyes just before Ark Space-Jumped away.

Joe followed, using Space Traversal to appear beside him. He stayed on Ark without mercy, giving him barely a breath as Ark hurled defensive skill after defensive skill into place. Joe mixed mana blasts between staff strikes and pushed his speed to the limit, but he could not land a clean hit before Gaston reentered the fight. In an instant, it became two against one again, forcing Joe to disengage and pull back. He straightened and studied the pair before him.

Whatever Ark had been constructing when he arrived was gone, and he could feel the disruption lingering in the air. He smiled and leaned casually on his staff.

"How about we make a deal?" he suggested. Ark and Gaston exchanged a glance. Gaston stepped forward.

"You leave, and we go claim the Star Shard?" Joe chuckled.

"Not quite. How about we come to an agreement? I'm guessing you're both here for the Star Shard itself?"

"Wow. Quite the genius," Gaston scoffed. Joe's smile sharpened.

"Excellent. Now my goal is not, in fact, the Star Shard. I'm only…" He did not finish the sentence. Joe activated Seeds Will Grow. Vines exploded from the ground between Ark and Gaston, surging upward in a living wall. Both reacted too late, diving aside as the separation snapped into place. Joe moved a fraction of a second before either of them could recover. He appeared beside Ark, whose eyes flickered in surprise.

He had no chance to resist as Joe seized his arm and pulled him into the void with a wrenching twist of space. They reappeared hundreds of meters to the east, at the bottom of a narrow valley Joe had glimpsed earlier as he approached. Ark struck out, triggering a skill the moment they stabilized. Joe answered with an Aura Shout. His pulse hit first, disrupting the skill in formation and slamming Ark backwards in a wave of dizziness. That moment was all Joe needed. His staff connected cleanly for the first time.

The impact landed with a crack as it smashed into Ark's left arm. The limb went limp, bone fracturing within, and Ark's face twisted in pain as he staggered back. Joe moved like water through a stream as he swept Ark's legs out from under him. In the same motion, he spun and pulled free an item he had prepared for the instant the two Space Mages were separated. A small silver disc flashed from his hand as he leapt back out of range. The disc shimmered, then ignited with light. Ark had no time to counter.

The flash swallowed him whole, and he vanished, torn from the battlefield and hurled to a destination unknown to him. The plan was now in motion. Joe vanished a second later, Space-Jumping back toward Gaston. Far away, in a different sector, Ark slammed into an ocean, water exploding around him as he surfaced in shock. He was suddenly alone. His brother was gone, and he had no idea where he was. __ Esha felt a ping in the back of her head as Joe activated the paired teleporter.

She reacted swiftly, ripping the matching disc from her storage and flinging it into the surrounding ocean. A heartbeat later, a hooded figure materialized where the disc struck the water and plunged beneath the surface in a spray of foam. She glanced at Corel. Corel nodded, already moving. They dove together. Esha cursed inwardly as she accelerated through the water. The farmer was not supposed to separate them this early. What was he thinking?

She cut through the sea like a blade, her dagger flashing as she passed the cloaked figure. Blood trailed behind her strike. A barrier snapped into place around him, but she was already gone, twisting away with fluid grace. She surfaced just long enough to draw breath before diving again. Corel engaged him head-on, drawing his attention, while Esha circled wide and closed in from behind. Two orbs spun out to intercept her, moving with the currents.

She slashed at them, but they flowed aside, slipping through the water like living things. Striking small, round targets underwater was a waste of effort. She ignored them and went for his body. Another barrier flared, and the force hurled her backwards. Before she could recover, Ark vanished. The water churned as the orbs withdrew, darting away in his wake. Esha did not panic. She had expected this. The farmer had warned them. Ark and Gaston had the same spatial tricks.

She sheathed her blades and broke the surface. Ark stood waiting on the deck of the boat they had secured earlier, water dripping from his cloak as he watched her calmly.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Are you with the anomaly?" Esha felt Corel closing in from the opposite side, but Ark glanced that way briefly before returning his focus to her.

"I don't have time for this," Ark grumbled.

"This was never part of my calculations." Esha laughed, an easy, confident sound.

"Calculations? You should know better than that by now. Once the Farmer gets involved, calculations stop mattering. You might as well give up." Esha dove as Corel burst from the ocean, spinning like a mini-tornado and snapping a kick toward the back of Ark's head. He ducked at the last instant and engaged Corel directly. At the same time, Esha swept wide beneath the surface, the two orbs harrying her relentlessly. She already hated the damned things. With a flick of her wrist, she released two compact trap arrays.

Mana flared, and a pair of enhanced nets burst outward, tangling the orbs and buying her precious seconds. She kicked hard, surged upward, and broke the surface in a spray before leaping onto the boat. She landed in a slick splash and ducked as Corel rolled through the air toward her. Esha angled her leg, redirecting Corel's momentum just enough. Corel landed cleanly on the deck, bounced once, and came up in a ready stance. They faced Ark together. He was not looking at them.

Instead, he scanned the endless ocean, brow furrowed, clearly trying to understand where he was. Esha's thoughts clicked into place. He did not know the rules of this sector. Which meant he was trapped here until he either figured it out or someone explained it to him.

"Again," Ark demanded, turning back to them, "who are you? Wait…" His eyes narrowed on Corel.

"I recognize you, girl. You are the anomaly's woman." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Esha broke into laughter, nearly doubling over.

"That's how you recognized her?" she said once she caught her breath.

"She has a name, you pig." Ark's jaw tightened.

"I don't have time for this. Send me back. I know what disc he used to get me here. You must have more." He gestured sharply at them.

"Why would we do that?" Esha replied, her grin widening.

"Why wouldn't we just keep you here while the Farmer claims the Star Shard?" Ark's expression darkened.

"Fine," he growled.

"Then we do this the hard way." He moved. __ Joe smiled as phase one fell into place. It was not exactly how they had planned it, but it was close enough. This Star Shard competition differed from the previous ones in a crucial way. The starting area was divided into three sectors: Water, Earth, and Sky. Esha and Corel had been placed in the Water sector, while he began in Earth. That likely meant Alice and Tevenny were in the Sky.

He looked up and saw a shimmering blue barrier separating him from the thick clouds above. He hoped they were there. There was no way to be sure. They had been unable to form a party before the teleportation to Augusta Prime, leaving him without a direct link. All he had were the beeps from his communicator, and those told him very little. He was about to move when Gaston finally found him and appeared in front of him.

"Where's Ark? What did you do!" Joe rested his staff against his shoulder.

"I sent him away. Thought you and I could have a private talk."

"No. I don't believe you. No way you're smart enough to pull something like that," Gaston said as he produced an orb that began scanning the area. Joe's patience snapped. He surged forward to interrupt the scan. Gaston was ready and flashed away, but Joe anticipated that and followed in his wake, Space Traversal snapping him back onto Gaston's heels. Gaston shifted again, then again, until he finally stopped with an irritated groan and turned to face him.

"It's really annoying when you do that."

"I know," Joe replied, smiling as his staff hummed through the air. Gaston was faster than Ark. He dodged Joe's initial attacks cleanly, weaving and slipping past each strike, but the shock was plain on his face. Joe was nothing like the opponent he remembered.

"How?" Gaston asked between movements. Joe did not answer. He focused and pushed harder, his speed increasing until Gaston could no longer talk and evade at the same time. Forced fully onto the defensive, Gaston activated his armour and began blocking instead of dodging. That was what Joe had been waiting for. He feinted a strike high, then pulled back at the last instant and produced a second silver disc. He hurled it forward. Gaston was still mid-movement and could not react in time.

The disc activated directly in front of him. He tried to jump away, but the flash consumed him, and he vanished. This time, he was sent straight to Tevenny.

"Two rabbits captured," Joe muttered as he retrieved a new item he had purchased from his pillar store and fastened it to his wrist. Phase two of the plan was officially underway.

"Time to play whack a mole." He tapped one of the four buttons on his wrist guard. Each was linked to one of his friends. Blue for Alice. Yellow for Tevenny. Green for Corel. Red for Esha. The green button flashed. Mana swirled, space folded, and Joe vanished. In his place, a soaking wet Corel appeared. __ Corel stared out at the sandy desert around her. She had not realized how pleasant solid ground could feel, especially after all of that constantly shifting water beneath her feet.

'What is the goal here? Did you send the other one to Tevenny?' Corel pulsed. It took Joe a few moments to reply. She could tell he was occupied, likely engaging with Ark.

'Yes. The goal is simple. You need to find a mole. It's a creature that burrows underground, so look for vibrations. Once you catch one, the way will be open,' Joe instructed. Corel nodded and shifted into motion. Before starting the hunt, she prepared for a possible relay to either Alice or Tevenny. She wrote Joe's instructions onto the small notepad he had given her and strapped it securely to her waist. She genuinely liked Joe's plan. It was clean, efficient, and relied on trust. With that settled, she set off.

She activated Seeker's Sight, and within five minutes, she was already closing in on the nearest mole. __ Alice rode atop Bravo's broad back as the great tiger padded across the clouds in hot pursuit of the cloaked figure fleeing ahead of them. Tevenny hung at her side, spinning a slingshot and condensing a crackling sphere of mana. Gaston had bolted the instant he arrived, not even sparing them a word as he ran. Rude.

"Firing!" Tevenny called out as she released the shot. The mana sphere struck true, but it splashed harmlessly across Gaston's armoured legs.

"Setf!" Tevenny swore as she hauled herself up behind Alice.

"Can you speed up?" Alice smiled. Could she ever. She'd been waiting for an excuse to unleash Bravo's full speed in battle. Her beastmaster class was honed to perfection, and since pushing to the bottleneck at level one hundred and seventy, she had gained a suite of powerful boosting skills. She clicked her tongue sharply, not bothering to warn Tevenny to hold on. The Aur Garde Fern girl had reflexes sharper than anyone Alice knew.

Bravo blurred forward in a sudden burst of speed that completely caught Gaston off guard. The sabretooth slammed into him with a brutal shoulder charge, knocking him off his feet and sending him skidding across the cloud surface. Tevenny leapt as they passed, landing a rapid series of lightning-fast kicks that knocked Gaston further aside before he crashed down onto the clouds, which rippled beneath him like solid ground. Alice leaned low, guiding Bravo into another pass as they began to harry their target.

She was about to swing in for support when her bracelet flashed green. Corel was requesting a swap. Alice let out a sharp whistle to warn Tevenny, then tapped her wrist. Light flared, and she vanished. Corel appeared in her place, standing atop the clouds, at the same moment Alice appeared in a desert under a hot sun. She barely had time to register the change before she swung her arm down and caught the falling notebook Corel had left behind.

She skimmed the instructions quickly, then jumped down from Bravo's back and landed in a crouch, adapting to the new terrain. She pulsed her beast soothing skill and found what she was looking for directly beneath her. The mole was there. She followed up by activating Beast's Scent and Beast's Attraction, clapping her hands once as the effects spread outward. Bravo dropped into a low, prowling stance, guarding her flank in case anything else caught the lure. She did not have to wait long.

The ground erupted beneath her, and a mole the size of a large dog burst free in a spray of sand and stone. Alice leapt at the same instant, wrapping an arm around the blind beast's neck as she landed squarely on its back. She triggered Beast Domination, and the battle of wills began. As long as she was mentally stronger than the beast, she could tame it, and she had not been idle during her years in Landradad. She had trained relentlessly.

Her class had evolved to Legendary at level one hundred and fifty, and her ability to tame beasts had yet to fail her. After only three minutes, she felt the resistance fade. The connection settled, the mole calmed, and the violent bucking stopped. It was hers. Alice smiled. As she touched the mole's side, the competition clue appeared in her mind. It would normally lead her through several steps before revealing the location of the mole's nest deep underground. That process would take time.

Time she did not want to waste. Instead, she simply directed the mole itself to guide them straight to the nest. Simple and much more efficient. Unfortunately, it also involved tight, enclosed tunnels, which she disliked. She hopped down from the beast and considered her options. A grin slowly spread as she raised her wrist and pressed the red button on her bracelet.

__ Joe twisted mid-motion and landed a devastating kick against Ark's armour, sending him gliding through the water until he slammed into the side of an underwater mountain. His and Ark's heads were encased in a shimmering bubble that somehow supplied endless fresh air, meaning neither of them needed to surface. Joe turned as a flash of light bloomed beside him. Esha vanished, and Alice appeared in her place. Joe swam over and linked his air bubble with hers as she stared around, momentarily disoriented.

"Hey Alice. Welcome to the water zone," Joe said quickly.

"These bubbles give us unlimited air, so we have to fight underwater. Ark's over there." He pointed toward Ark, who was struggling free from the rock face.

"And that," Joe continued, gesturing toward a massive underwater palace in the distance, all sweeping arches and glowing stone, like something torn straight from an Atlantis myth, "is what we need to keep him away from." Alice followed his gaze, then nodded once. She gave Joe a quick wink before gliding aside. A sharp whistle left her lips. From the depths below, something massive answered. A huge red killer whale surged upward, its presence warping the water around it.

Alice leapt cleanly onto its back, steady and fearless, and in the next heartbeat, she was blasting forward, cutting through the sea straight toward Ark, whose eyes widened as the shadow closed in on him.

"Now that is just unfair," Joe laughed as he Space-Jumped forward and tried to keep up with Alice, but failed. Space-Jumping underwater was far harder than in the air. The water ruined his accuracy, and he kept missing his mark. It reminded him of the early days of learning the skill. He pushed the memory aside and refocused on the task at hand. Ark. He barely managed to latch onto the fin of Alice's massive beast as they surged into battle.

__ Esha appeared in the Earth sector and swiftly caught the falling notepad without breaking stride. She found herself standing beside a massive mole and gave the area a quick sweep with her senses, spotting only a single group of two far to the south, moving away from her position. She skimmed the notes Alice had left and groaned. There was no doubt Alice had done this on purpose. That hussy would pay later. Blonde women could never be trusted. Esha reached out and patted the mole's furred head.

It purred softly, waiting for instruction. At least it was obedient, just as the notes promised. She slid the notebook into the leather strap on her thigh and swung up into the saddle, securing herself in place. Her task was simple. dive into the tunnel network, locate the nest, and extract as many entry tokens as possible before anyone else arrives. Ideally, she would secure one for each of them. That would leave only the problem of regrouping in this sector, which she intended to leave to the farmer to handle.

He had started this mess, so he could clean it up. She pulled a silk cloth over her face to guard against dust, drew in a steady breath, and nudged the mole to dive through the earth like a fish through water. Esha disappeared into the depths, racing toward her prize. __ Tevenny flipped over Corel's head and snapped out a darting kick toward Gaston. He grunted as his raised arms absorbed the blow, the impact echoing through the clouds.

"What the hell has he been feeding you?" Gaston growled as he leapt aside, his armour visibly dented where her foot had struck.

"Why are you so… durable?" Tevenny answered with a slow, sultry smile.

"Lots of protein," she said lightly, "and a bit of… exercise." She giggled, and the reaction was instant. Gaston stared, thrown off balance for a heartbeat. That was all Corel needed. She surged forward like a hunting fox and lunged for him from behind. Gaston twisted at the last second, snapping up a mana barrier that flared under her strike. He vanished a breath later, slipping away with a space technique.

Tevenny pulsed her senses and caught his trail as he sprinted east, straight toward the cloud mountain they knew housed this sector's tokens. The mountain was devoid of stone and more a marvel, an enormous floating aquarium of glassy structures and drifting, airborne monstrosities. Tevenny pulled out the hoverboard they had earned from the sector's first clue and dropped onto it, the board humming as it stabilized beneath her feet.

It was perfect for navigating the trap-filled clouds, something Gaston was about to learn the hard way. A hidden mechanism triggered beneath him, and thick, cloudy tendrils surged up, wrapping around his legs and torso as they tried to drag him under. Corel grabbed Tevenny around the waist, and the two shot forward, skimming the clouds in pursuit.

"These guys are slipperier than an eel coated in oil," Corel mumbled. Tevenny shot her a puzzled look. She had grown accustomed to Corel's strange human sayings, though most of them made very little sense. What was an eel? Before she could ask, they crested a low rise, and Gaston came back into view. Tevenny raised her slingshot and peppered him with rapid bolts of mana while he fought against the tendrils pinning him down.

Corel launched herself into the air and dove straight into the heart of the trap, moving with fluid precision as she slipped between grasping strands and struck at the cloaked figure. Gaston threw up barrier after barrier, his defences flaring as a swirling mass of mana began to distort the air beside him. Tevenny stowed her slingshot and focused, unleashing a wave of telepathically charged mana. The impact rocked Gaston just enough to shatter his concentration.

The forming void collapsed, the warped air snapping back into place as he skill failed. Corel flashed her fingers in thanks as she closed the gap and leapt toward him. At the same moment, Gaston tore free of the tendrils and reached out, his hand coming within a breath of Corel's. Tevenny opened her mind's eye. Her skill unfurled, and a vast, invisible eye manifested above Gaston, wrenching his attention upward. He fell into the illusion without resistance, caught like a mouse in a trap.

The world vanished for him, replaced by Tevenny's design. He drifted through endless space, suspended in the void, unable to move, unable to act. Corel slipped past his frozen reach and drove a crushing blow into his chest. The strike shattered the illusion's hold as the cloaked Gaston flew backwards. He slammed into a cloud mound, triggering yet another concealed trap. Corel did not have time to press the advantage.

She twisted away at once, flowing into evasive motion as the trap activated around her, clouds snapping and folding inward with lethal intent. Tevenny trusted Corel to handle herself and guided her hoverboard closer to Gaston. He was now struggling against a swarm of shrieking, marsupial-like creatures that poured over him in a living tide. Tevenny slowed to a stop, content to watch the chaos unfold. Their goal was simple. Stall him as long as possible until they secured access to the next area and could move on.

She swung back, scooped Corel up, and drifted a short distance away to observe.

"What do you think he looks like under that hood?" Tevenny asked.

"I'm not sure," Corel said thoughtfully, watching Gaston wrestle with the creatures.

"His gear is… odd. My sight can't pierce his veil, so he could look like anything."

"What if he's as good-looking as Joe?" Tevenny mused. Corel shot her an aghast look.

"I was just wondering," Tevenny said quickly, holding her hands up. Corel laughed softly.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone as handsome as… him," Corel admitted, her voice turning wistful. Tevenny smiled and shook her head.

"There is no saving you, sister. You are doomed to be in that man's grasp forever." Below them, Gaston finally began to force his way free of the swarm.

"He's breaking loose," Corel said, her smile lingering.

"Let's circle round and block his escape." Tevenny angled the hoverboard into position. Less than a minute later, Gaston slipped free with a burst of space mana. Tevenny gave chase at once, and the two of them closed in again as they all rolled onward through the clouds.

"How many of you are there? Where did the other one go?" Gaston snarled as he batted mana bolts from the air and drew a short sword that thrummed with power. Corel answered by surging forward, her own blades flashing as she aimed for the star set into his chest while guarding her own. Steel rang against mana as they clashed, the air rippling with every exchange. It did not take long for both women to understand the truth. Beating Gaston outright and forcing him from the competition was unlikely.

He was stronger than either of them and faster than he had any right to be. Their hope lay in numbers and rhythm, in never letting him settle into a pattern. Constant pressure. Constant disruption. Just as that thought settled, golden light flared.

"One!" Tevenny shouted, vanishing as the switch activated. __ Joe appeared on a hoverboard suspended above the fight, clouds drifting beneath him. He needed only a heartbeat to orient himself before he Space-Jumped, reappearing behind Gaston. His staff snapped out, striking Gaston's elbow and breaking his stance. Gaston grunted in surprise, and Corel capitalized at once. Her twin short swords crashed down onto his armoured frame.

Mana detonated at the point of impact, forcing Joe to dive aside to avoid being crushed as Gaston was hurled into the clouds below. Corel landed hard, pinning the larger man beneath her. She twisted to strike again, but an orb flared into existence between them and exploded. The blast threw her upward, spinning through the air. Joe flashed up and caught her, relief flushing her cheeks as her barrier shimmered and absorbed the worst of the impact.

He grinned as they settled onto the hoverboard, which had glided neatly into place beneath their feet. He glanced down at it, curious.

"How is this thing following me?" Corel laughed and planted her feet.

"I'm controlling it. Ownership transferred when Tevenny switched out." She gave his chest a quick pat before movement below drew their attention. Gaston was moving again, sprinting toward the aquarium and Space-Dashing between clouds to put distance between them. They launched after him in pursuit. Joe's gaze flicked east, catching on a pit of roiling, smoky clouds that churned with ominous intent. He pointed it out as they closed the distance.

"Meet me by the pit, I'll drag our little friend over there. Might be a good spot to pin him down," Joe instructed, vanishing as the words left him. He reappeared directly in Gaston's path. Gaston reacted in a blink, flashing to the side, but Joe followed through Space. Three rapid jumps later, his hand closed on Gaston's billowing cloak.

"You know," Joe said with a laugh as he hauled them both through space, "there's something to be said about capes and danger. You really should invest in better-fitting clothing." They reappeared above the pit, where Corel was waiting.

"Shut up!" Gaston snarled. A massive boulder slammed into him from the side, launching him downward and sending him tumbling into the churning clouds below. Joe froze for a split second, staring in disbelief. Where did that come from? And how did she throw it? He barely avoided following Gaston into the pit himself, flashing away at the last instant.

"Damn! Nice move!" Joe called, holding up a hand. Corel slapped a high five into his palm, laughing as the cloaked figure vanished beneath the boulder. Muffled shouts drifted up from below as Gaston struggled somewhere out of sight. __ Esha swore as she took in the scene before her. She was definitely going to make Alice pay for this. The mole nest had been bad enough, but this was something else entirely.

After forcing her way to the heart of the tunnels, she had triggered a trap that dropped her into a cavern of absolute darkness. At first, she thought she had failed and been expelled from the nest. Then she pulled out her night vision goggles and slipped them on. She was exactly where she needed to be. Ten entry tokens floated far across the cavern, nearly half a mile away. Between her and them stood a mass of multi-legged beasts that shifted and clicked in the shadows.

"Nope," Esha declared. She tapped the golden button on her bracelet, the device chiming once to confirm the transfer request. There was no chance she was wading into that nightmare. Only one person deserved that fate. Esha vanished with a smile.