The coffin’s cover slid off, grating against its stone casing, then clattered to the floor. It cracked in half and let off a plume of dust, but Rallemnon didn’t seem to care. He bent over, looking inside it.

  From Jace’s vantage, he could barely see into the coffin, and the cloud of smoke gathering behind Rallemnon was making the air harder and harder to see through by the minute.

  But the sarcophagus within was simple. It barely had any ornaments, and there were no burial goods around it.

  Nothing except a meter-and-a-half long splinter of blue and white light, resting on the sarcophagus’ chest like a sword might.

  It was hardly a spear. More like…a thorn of raw energy. But it didn’t shimmer the same way as Aes did, and for something that powerful, it didn’t look like a shield.

  But if they let Rallemnon take it…

  “Lessa, do you have a shot?” Jace whispered. “We’ve gotta get down there, and I need you to get his attention.”

  “Attention-seeking is my middle name!” She unclipped her rifle from its slot on her back, then fitted it into her shoulder. “Alrighty there, mister general fellow…”

  Jace didn’t want to rush her, but she was spending a while lining up the sights. Rallemnon reached into the coffin, fingers outstretched, ready to grab the spear…

  Lessa pulled the trigger. The rifle let off a high-pitched whine and a deep boom, and a bolt of searing plasma roared toward Rallemnon. The general’s head flicked up, and he conjured a shield of dark smoke in front of him.

  The smoke blocked the bolt of plasma, but he still skidded backward a few feet, drifting away from the coffin empty-handed.

  “This thing has some kick…” Lessa muttered.

  “And he blocked it, which means it would’ve been a threat to him,” Perril added.

  It was now or never. Jace swung over the ledge’s railing, fell a few feet, then landed on the curved edge of the core room. He slid along its edge until he hit the flat center floor, then sprinted toward the coffin at the center.

  Behind him, four more thuds rang out as the others jumped down and ran after him, brandishing their weapons and preparing technique cards. Lessa’s exo-suit whirred, running at a full charge, and sparks gathered on the tip of Kinfild’s staff.

  “Rallemnon!” Jace shouted. He hadn’t exactly planned out what to say, and he didn’t have a list of crimes to levy against the kyborg general, so instead, he just pointed his Whistling Blade and said, “What are your plans with the spear?”

  “What’s it to you?” Rallemnon raised his fists and sank into a fighting stance. He broke into a fit of coughing after a few seconds, but didn’t lower his guard. “I have my orders. Do you have yours?”

  “That spear seems awfully important to be in the hands of a madman robot-kyborg thingy,” Jace said.

  “And it’d be better in yours, hm?”

  Ash ran up to his side and drew his blade, and Kinfild, Perril, and Lessa took positions behind them, taking fighting stances as well.

  “Your friends. Hm.” Rallemnon coughed once more, then turned toward the ledge on the opposite side of the room. “It’s about to get more hectic down here. Seems you aren’t the only band of friends after the spear.”

  “What?” Jace breathed.

  On the opposite side of the room, on a metal walkway just like the one they’d arrived on, stood a group of Watchmen. They wore their woven leather-strand armour and long cloaks, and they all drew Whistling Blades in unison.

  “Now, wait a minute,” Jace said. “They’ve been corrupted by the dark, and Rallemnon’s working for the Generous Hand too…”

  “Ah, took him long enough to figure it out,” Rallemnon sneered.

  “You’re not working together?” Jace tilted his head. Not that he wanted them to, but he wanted to know what was going on.

  “My master is hedging his bets, it seems.” Rallemnon tightened his fists, then laughed. “We shall see who emerges victorious and earns the Hand’s favour, then!”

  “I’ll handle the Watchmen,” Ash said. “But that means Rallemnon is your problem.” He motioned to the four of them—Jace, Kinfild, Lessa, and Ash.

  Jace clenched his teeth. He didn’t exactly want to face Rallemnon without Ash’s help, especially not when he was still a tier weaker than the kyborg…but there was no other option. “Go,” Jace whispered. “And keep them off us.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Do not die,” Ash said.

  “I don’t plan on it.”

  “Are you waiting for something?” Rallemnon snapped. “Or shall we get this over with? I grow tired.”

  Jace gripped his Whistling Blade with two hands and stepped forward, while Ash ducked to the side and sprinted toward the Watchmen on the other side of the room. Rallemnon lunged, swinging his gauntlet at Jace’s face, but Jace raised the blade and deflected the kyborg’s fists off to the side.

  He activated his fortification technique between blows, increasing his speed, and Rallemnon did the same, triggering a new card. Black smoke slithered down from the cloud behind him and wrapped around his limbs, coiling like snakes. It filled the gaps between the glass shards on his knuckles, making them seeth with power.

  He was fuelling his shards just like Jace would fuel his own blade. Veins of smoke coursed through the crystal, but the cutting edges still glowed bright white.

  When Rallemnon threw his next punch, he matched Jace’s speed, and was even a little faster.

  Can’t get ahead for even a second, then?

  He blocked the next two punches, pressing his Whistling Blade’s cutting edge up against Rallemnon’s knuckles but not piercing through. The third punch flew straight at his gut. He brought his blade down to block it, holding the cutting edge fast, but the force of the blow pushed the blade back. The flat, blunt back of the Whistling Blade caught Jace in the stomach, where his cuirass didn’t protect him, and knocked the air out of his lungs.

  The next punch ripped through his shoulder. He wasn’t ready to block it. It shredded his new pauldron, and shards of superheated glass seared the skin below. The force knocked him onto his back.

  He just couldn’t compete with piston-operated arms and mechanical legs. Not directly.

  Rallemnon raised his fists, as if about to drive them down at Jace, but a bolt of plasma surged toward him, illuminating the smokey fog. Rallemnon crushed a card and forged a perfect rectangle of smoke in front of him. It blocked Lessa’s shot and absorbed Kinfild’s curse before shattering like ice.

  Rallemnon turned toward Jace’s fragile back-liners, and his glowing eyes shone a little brighter.

  Lessa prepared another shot, Kinfild was raising his staff, and Perril was putting together an arcane fire—whatever purpose it had—to power her draw-healing.

  Rallemnon sprang toward them, leaping across the ground on all fours, but Jace used a hyperdash to catch up, and as soon as he emerged, slammed his shoulder into Rallemnon’s metal flank. A spike of pain arced through his body, but he spun his Whistling Blade up, trying to slice through Rallemnon’s ribs.

  The kyborg activated another card, and like before, when Jace had fought him after dealing with Neikir, tendrils of smoke shot toward Jace. They intercepted his blade, protecting Rallemnon, and forcing Jace on the defensive.

  Jace hacked and slashed, relying on his fortification card to move with enough speed and intercept the attacks.

  But the moment that wore off…

  This fight might end up being a lot shorter than he thought it was going to be.

  He broke through tendrils of smoke, keeping their attention directly on him, and lunging out to the side whenever one reached for Lessa or the others. Their particles formed into blades, ready to cleave him up into slices if he let any through.

  Smoke and ash from all the tendrils he’d dispersed clouded the air, and he could barely see across the room anymore. There were flashes of green Aes where Ash fought the Watchmen, and glimmers of his orange blade, but Jace couldn’t tell what was happening. A streak of plasma tore through the fog, but a cluster of tendrils intercepted it and dispersed it into sparks.

  Jace clenched his teeth. Where was Rallemnon?

  If he tried to use another hyperdash to get out of this, he’d just shred himself like last time. For all he knew, Rallemnon was stalking up behind Kinfild, ready to rip the Wielder apart before he could even defend himself.

  “Jace!” Lessa shouted. “We need an opening!”

  “I’m trying!” he called back, spinning the blade down to cut through a pair of smoke tendrils that shot at his leg. Another glanced off his greaves, leaving a dent in the armour. The next would break through. “Does anyone have an eye on him?”

  “I’m trying to draw his Vitality!” Perril called. “He should begin glowing soon!”

  Already, Jace felt a faint coolness in his shoulder. His flesh was sealing together—thanks to Perril’s healing.

  “If we cannot hit him,” Kinfild said, “we will never win.”

  “No kidding!” Jace gasped, but he knew what Jace was getting at. Rallemnon was too slippery.

  “Some saviours you lot are,” Rallemnon called, his voice slithering through the fog. It sounded like it was coming from all around. “This is our worldjumper? This is one of the Four destined to beat the Enemy Beyond the Wall? Pathetic.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Jace whispered. “Only been here four months. Ish. Give or take.”

  His fortification card sputtered out, and the power faded from his limbs. A tendril of darkness snapped toward his chest, and it snapped against his armour, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him sprawling onto his back once more. It didn’t pierce through, but it shattered the decorative coating.

  He rolled side-to-side, dodging tendrils. Behind him, Lessa leveraged the mobility of her suit to avoid whips of darkness, and Kinfild struck some with his staff.

  Jace needed to get back up and take them all.

  But he wasn’t out of tricks yet. He needed to know where Rallemnon was, and he needed to react better? He triggered his Questforger card, focussing directly on the idea of Rallemnon.

  A needle of vibrant blue Aes sprang up amidst the fog, pointing across the room. In his senses, Rallemnon’s presence lit up, and a shimmer ran over the man’s form.

  And then he disappeared once more. The needle crumbled, and though Lessa fired in its general direction, the blast didn’t hit anything.

  “It was a valiant effort,” Rallemnon said. “But your technique won’t work on a living being with high Resistance—who knows it’s coming. It is a Curse, after all.” He laughed, which turned to a fit of coughing. “You never stood a chance, I’m afraid.”

  Jace swatted away another tendril of smoke. The Questforger card…it still had one more function, and he hadn’t used it yet.

  He needed to bring the function to its absolute limit. He needed to figure out what exactly he could do with hyperspace, and this time, he couldn’t afford to fail.