Jace didn’t know where or what triggered the card’s secondary function, but he couldn’t afford to wait five minutes for the card to come off cooldown, and using his reset card right now, when he still had other abilities available, wouldn’t wring the best effectiveness out of the card. All that mattered was triggering the second function and grasping just a little slice of pre-sight.

  He concentrated on what he wanted to happen. He needed to trigger the second function. His Aes responded to his will, and it did what he wanted when encouraged. There was no reason he couldn’t subconsciously influence the card.

  He flooded the pillar that stored the Questforger card, mixing in his will, and begging it to trigger the effect he desired.

  A spear of Aes shot through his core, triggering the card, seeking its extra effect and activating it.

  With his mind firmly set on Rallemnon, Jace caught a vision of where the tendrils would attack next.

  Their assault would speed up, and the tendrils would all converge on him, trying to skewer him, but there was a path through them…

  And then, they would stop. The card would run out of active time, and it would enter cooldown.

  Jace just had to survive a few more seconds.

  Relying on the premonition, he ducked and weaved where he knew the tendrils would fly. Some charged him from behind, but he spun and cut them out of the air with his Whistling Blade, knowing exactly where they would be.

  Then they ended. The tendrils stopped attacking, and dispersed back into a permeating fog. The air cleared slightly, but with the glow of the dungeon’s core illuminating the fog, it was impossible to pick out Rallemnon’s bright eyes from the other light of the room.

  Jace needed to clear the fog. He scraped his Whistling Blade along the ground, chewing up a line of dust and creating a pile. Scooping it up in his hand, he clenched his fist, triggered the Wanderer’s Banishment, and swept his hand in front of him.

  The dust washed through the air, flashing through hyperspace, and creating an enormous wind. It dispersed the smoke, leaving Rallemnon right on the opposite side of the room, in full view.

  “There!” Jace shouted. A blast of wind washed into Rallemnon, and he staggered backward.

  Lessa and Kinfild fired at Rallemnon. The kyborg blocked the first plasma blast with his shield, then deflected a Hollow Dragon’s Bite, but Kinfild launched his two Curse cards next, which pounded into Rallemnon’s chest.

  Incineration’s Mark and Ember Embrace. Whichever order. Whatever their specific effect, Jace remembered their earlier escape from Rallemnon, and how fragile and easily-damageable it made his ribs.

  This time, with both Curses landing square in his chest, they spread over a larger area.

  The perfect weak spot for Jace to attack.

  Jace kept concentrating on his target, looking to see what Rallemnon would do. He considered the kyborg’s fighting style and abilities, and tried to analyze it all in accordance with the Questforger card, and something clicked in his mind.

  The card was seeing an impression of Rallemnon in the split, and in fate, in time, whatever was happening. It knew what Rallemnon was going to do, what he was going to choose…and it could tell Jace.

  In his mind, he tried to simulate an attack, and the card helped him—for a moment.

  Rallemnon took a wider stance, leveraging his resistance, and shook off the ability, and it crumbled in Jace’s mind.

  But Jace, with a grin, widened his stance as well, then stomped down and mustered his reset card.

  “How?” Rallemnon rasped. “So many techniques for an aspect so rare…it is impossible. And…this power?”

  Jace snorted. “I help my friends, and they help me.” Preparation, and developing so many cards at once, went a long way.

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  He reset all his cooldowns, then immediately activated his Lightvein card. Strength surged back into his limbs, and he welcomed it. But now, the card enhanced his Potency as well, and with how much Resistance he’d stacked, he could leverage it to boost his potency insanely high.

  Definitely higher than Rallemnon would be expecting.

  A moment later, he triggered the Questforger card, locked onto Rallemnon, and applied the same push as before. If he could simulate how to defeat Rallemnon…

  His mind raced. Milliseconds passed. The needle of blue light formed in the air ahead of him, and he focused on his target. Rallemnon would attack. His own fotification card would be off cooldown.

  He’d forge a wall of smoke shields behind Jace, trying to trap him, but Jace knew exactly where they’d form.

  If Jace attacked low, Rallemnon would go for his head. But if Jace attacked high, he could expose the kyborg’s weakened center—the perfect target for Lessa’s plasma blast. It’d shatter his ribs and send him staggering back, ripe for a killing blow.

  Jace let the vision fade from his mind, and reality played out. Rallemnon charged, conjuring shields as he ran. He crossed the distance in a matter of seconds, head down, iron mouth wide open, ready to attack.

  But Jace was ready. He slipped between the forged walls of smoke, ducked away from a punch, then swung his Whistling Blade high, aiming for Rallemnon’s face.

  The kyborg blocked it with his gauntlets, raising his steel arms, and exposing his gut to attack. He was stronger, though, and he pushed Jace back, sending him skidding a few feet across the floor.

  But it was enough. Lessa fired a bolt of plasma, and it caught Rallemnon in the exposed chest, shattering his metal ribs and armour plating, and revealing his inner machinery. A furnace blazed, pistons chuffed, a crankshaft whirled, and smoke poured out.

  Rallemnon shrieked, but it wasn’t dead yet. Jace pointed his blade, aiming for a killing blow, aiming to pierce Rallemnon through the chest.

  But, unlike in his vision, Rallemnon was gone. Jace had executed his attacks a fraction too slow, and the kyborg was beside him, sprinting past. He charged directly at Lessa.

  “No!” Jace yelled, whirling to face him.

  Rallemnon tackled Lessa before she could dodge out of the way. He pinned her arms, fighting against her exo-suit, and overwhelmed it. The motor in her right arm popped and sparked, but it saved her from injury.

  “You brought a feeble mortal to battle?” Rallemnon exclaimed. “A woman, no less. Fools, all of you! And now you’re unarmed, weaponless. You will—”

  Before he could finish, Lessa shouted, “Wrist launcher!”

  Rallemnon’s eyes flickered, and he leaned backward slightly. Lessa angled her left forearm up, and pointed the modified second rifle at him.

  They’d made a plasma cannon out of the second stolen Luminian rifle. They’d cut off the entire barrel and stock, eliminating the cooling fin and only allowing it to store one shot of plasma.

  But it was perfect for emergencies. She fired a scatter of plasma beams at Rallemnon. Without the barrel to keep them contained, they burst out like a shotgun shell, clattering against his mask and making his head snap backward. He staggered, now with a starburst of charred plasma lines across his mask.

  Jace darted in with a hyperdash. Rallemnon swung his arm, and his knuckles caught Jace across the stomach, leaving a slightly burnt gash, but nothing critical. With his other hand, he swiped at his own eyes. Lessa had damaged one of them.

  “Now you know how it feels,” Jace spat. He slashed at the kyborg’s gut again, at the exposed internals, but Rallemnon backhanded his sword, knocking the blade out of Jace’s grasp. Then, his fist spun around and shot back at Jace’s face. It’d cave his skull in, and Perril wouldn’t be able to heal that.

  Just before it collided, Jace reached up and caught Rallemnon’s fist with his mechanical hand. “I wouldn’t do that.” He flooded the artificial hand with Aes, turning his wrist and redirecting it away from his face. His mechanical hand was stronger and firmer than any flesh-and-blood limb would have been.

  “A man resisting my metal!” Rallemnon exclaimed.

  “You’re the one who cut off my hand,” Jace said.

  “Jace!” Lessa called. “Catch! Finish him!” She tossed a handful of stone shards at him, and he caught most of them in his left hand.

  He threw Rallemnon back, then triggered the Wanderer’s Banishment. The stone shards blasted forward, cleaving Rallemnon in half at the weak middle of his body. His legs tumbled aside, his lower organs exploded, and his upper half toppled to the ground, crawling with its two arms, dragging itself away.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Jace said. He snatched up his Whistling Blade with a reverse grip and sprinted toward Rallemnon.

  “You won’t make it out of this,” Rallemnon spat. “The Generous Hand has plans for you. You will finally register to him as a threat, and he will kill you!”

  “Yeah, if he’s anything like you, I’m sure I’ll struggle a lot,” Jace said, narrowing his eyes. He raised his Whistling Blade, preparing to stab it down.

  “He’s nothing like me. He is a Worldjumper too.”

  “What?”

  “He has a grand vision! To bring it about, he needs the five weapons of the Five Luminian Kings! You cannot stand against his might!”

  Jace’s eyes widened, but there was no time to hesitate. He couldn’t let someone like Rallemnon escape, for however long the kyborg general might still live. And, if nothing else, he was putting Rallemnon out of his misery. He jabbed the blade down and pierced through Rallemnon’s back.

  The kyborg fell still.