’Duck!’ Vexis hissed beside him.

Arthur dropped.

The bolt cracked over his head and the air above him turned hot and sharp. He felt the heat on his scalp. A few strands of burnt hair drifted past his face.

The tree behind him split at the trunk. Bark exploded off it.

Arthur came back up. Shoulder first. Eyes already moving.

Twelve crawlers and now this. Great island. Love it here.

"You low lives." The green-haired man’s voice had gone flat. "Blood for arrogance then."

Kreasial was already moving. She stepped right, both arms swinging forward, and the ice shards launched, bigger than before, edges razor-clean, spaced wide to cover all three of them.

The black-haired woman stepped up without blinking. Her palms opened and a wall of fire came up and the ice hit it and turned to steam and disappeared.

Kreasial landed from her step and immediately went low, dodging a green-glowing spike that buried itself in the dirt where her knee had been.

Those knives again.

Arthur kept moving. He circled left, keeping distance, eyes tracking all three of them. The broad man was repositioning along the bank. Building angle. The green-haired one was pulling two more spikes from somewhere in his coat.

Don’t let them set up. Keep moving.

He closed his left eye.

His shadow anchor pushed out through the wet grass, along the riverbank, under the rocks, threading toward the other side. The river surface moved above it. Cold. Rust-colored.

I need them to cross. Or I need to cross. Either way, the shade under that treeline is where I can end this.

A bolt ripped across the water.

Arthur threw himself sideways. It missed his ear by less than a hand’s width and he felt the current of it pull at his hair. He hit the bank on one knee, both palms flat against the wet grass, aetheric blood rushing down through his arms before he’d fully landed.

Shadow formed under his hands.

He pushed up. Left hand out. Index finger up.

Water gathered at the tip, small, dense, spinning , and he fired.

The broad man stepped left. Casual. He looked at the water hitting the ground behind him and made a sound through his nose.

"Water magic."

"Yeah." Arthur was already moving again. "Water magic. I know. Devastating. Terrifying."

He fired again. The broad man stepped right. Arthur missed on purpose.

Come on. Move where I need you to move.

On his right, Kreasial threw a wall of ice shards in a flat spread. The black-haired woman brought her fire wall up again, but this time Kreasial was already moving. She cut sideways mid-throw, changed the angle, and launched three more directly at the woman’s feet.

The woman stepped back to keep the fire wall between them.

Good. Kreasial’s pushing them.

Then something cut the air to Arthur’s left.

He didn’t see it. He felt it ,the specific wrongness of displaced space, and ducked his chin to his chest on instinct.

The metal spike buried itself in his shoulder instead of his throat.

He looked down.

Deep. Past the jacket fabric. Into the flesh above the joint. Dark blood spreading fast through the material around it.

Oh that’s in there. That is genuinely in there.

He looked up.

The green-haired man was already holding three more between his fingers. The green glow pulsed up each one, slow and rhythmic, like a heartbeat.

"He’s directing them!" Theodore called out from behind. He was moving, weaving between bolts, his bellus darting between his feet. "The aetheric blood runs through each one. He corrects mid-flight—"

"What are you, a ninja?" Arthur said.

The green-haired man stopped.

He tilted his head. "Stop saying nonsensical things."

"No I’m serious, are you a ninja. Where are you hiding those. How many do you have. Are there more. Are they in your shoes."

’THIS IS NOT THE TIME—’ Vexis started.

Another bolt came.

Arthur ducked. Hit the ground on both palms again. Shadow spread under his hands, thin and low, moving along the bank, inching toward the water’s edge.

He came up firing. The water shot crossed the river and the broad man sidestepped it with that same lazy ease and Arthur filed it. He moves right. He always moves right.

He fired again. Broad man stepped right.

Arthur adjusted his next anchor point.

On his left, the black-haired woman pressed her palms toward the river.

The current slowed.

The surface frosted.

Ice spread from her side of the bank, thick and fast, clicking and cracking as it pushed across until it reached Arthur’s side. Solid. Walkable.

She stepped onto it.

Kreasial moved immediately.

Both arms wide, hands open — and the ice the woman had just made cracked straight down the center. Then fractured. Then the fragments lifted clean off the river and flew back at all three of them at speed. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The green-haired man threw himself sideways. The broad man got clipped across the arm, a line of red appearing through his sleeve. The woman redirected two shards with a quick burst of heat but a third caught her on the back of the hand and she hissed.

Good.

Then something crossed the air beside Arthur ,invisible, barely a sound, and the broad man’s shirt split from collar to sternum. Blood came through. He grabbed at his own chest with both hands.

"Who—" He looked at Theodore. Eyes going sharp.

Theodore was shaking. His breath was coming out wrong. Sweat ran down the side of his face and dripped from his jaw. His bellus was pressed flat against the back of his leg.

He’s burning through it. He can’t keep this pace.

Arthur fired twice more. Moved between shots. Kept the broad man from locking his angle.

I need to push them back. All three of them. Back into the shade under the treeline. If I can get the anchor on those roots I end this. But how do I push three people who are winning backward at once.

A spike hit the dirt four inches from his boot.

Another bolt. He stepped left this time. Felt the heat of it pass his ribs.

He looked at Roz.

"Master." Low. Under the noise. "I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to use Hellshade. Not yet. Not here."

Roz looked at him.

Then he grinned.

"You don’t need it." He fixed his bow tie with one claw. "Do what you know. What you’re actually good at."

Arthur looked back across the water.

What I’m good at.

He thought about it for exactly one second.

Oh.

Theodore flew backwards.

The right side of his chest was dark. Smoking at the edges, the fabric blackened in a wide ring where the bolt had caught him. He hit the ground and bounced once and lay still.

His bellus ran to him immediately.

"Theodore—"

"I’m—" He was pushing up on one elbow. Barely. "I’m okay—"

"Hand it over." The green-haired man walked to the bank. Easy steps. He wasn’t even breathing hard. "All of it. Necklace, whatever else you found. Make it quick and we’ll leave the three of you with your health mostly intact."

He was smiling again.

’ARTHUR. RIGHT NOW—’ Vexis was in his face, both hands up.

And Arthur looked at the smile.

And something in him went very, very calm.

Right. There is exactly one thing I was genuinely good at on Earth.

Fourteen years of internet forums. Comment sections. The kind of arguments that go from zero to unhinged in four messages. The ancient art of making someone so furious they stop thinking.

Keyboard warrior.

Arthur stood up straight.

He opened his mouth.

"YOU ABSOLUTE PIECES OF SHIT—"

Everyone stopped moving.

Kreasial turned. Theodore looked up from the ground. The black-haired woman’s hand froze mid-motion. Even the broad man blinked.

Arthur’s voice came out ragged and loud and completely unhinged.

"I HAVE BEEN STANDING HERE BLEEDING OUT OF MY SHOULDER, WATCHING YOUR LITTLE DOG-AND-PONY SHOW AND I AM DONE. I AM COMPLETELY DONE WITH ALL THREE OF YOUR STUPID FACES."

"Wha—" The green-haired man took half a step back.

"YOU. GREEN-HAIR." Arthur pointed with two fingers. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT HAIRCUT WAS ACCEPTABLE. WHO LOOKED YOU IN THE FACE THIS MORNING AND SAID YES. YES THAT IS A NORMAL THING A NORMAL PERSON DOES WITH THEIR HEAD. WAS IT YOUR MOTHER. DOES SHE HATE YOU."

’What are you DOING—’ Vexis was staring at him.

Arthur threw the pendant sideways into the grass.

"AND THE CREDITS! FORGET THE CREDITS! FORGET THE CULMINATION! FORGET VIVIENNE! FORGET THE ENTIRE ACADEMY! YOU THREE WANT IT THAT BAD? TAKE IT! TAKE THE WHOLE ISLAND! I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!"

"This lunatic—" The broad man started.

"I HEARD THAT. THANK YOU. YES. I AM INSANE. THIS IS ESTABLISHED. AND YOU KNOW WHAT INSANE PEOPLE DO?" Arthur raised both hands.

Water gathered.

Not small. Not coin-sized.

Both palms. Growing fast. Spinning inward on itself, pulling in more and more, the mass of it darkening as the aetheric blood fed into it. Getting bigger than his fists. Bigger than his head.

The color was wrong. Too deep. Too dark. The air around it hummed.

"He’s burning through his core—" the green-haired man said.

"CORRECT! I AM! AND I DON’T CARE!" Arthur stepped forward onto the frozen bank. "I AM GOING TO STAND HERE AND POUR EVERY DROP OF BLOOD I HAVE INTO THIS AND THEN I AM GOING TO THROW IT AT ALL THREE OF YOUR STUPID FACES AND I WILL DIE HAPPY! BECAUSE AT LEAST YOUR FACES WILL BE GONE!"

"He’s joking—" the broad man said. He did not sound certain.

"AM I? AM I JOKING? DO I LOOK LIKE I’M FUCKING JOKING? LOOK AT MY FACE! LOOK AT IT! IS THIS THE FACE OF JOKES?" Arthur inhaled. "YOU STUPID BUNCH OF NPCS?"

The water mass was larger than his torso now and still pulling in. The dark of it spreading at the edges.

"You’ll kill yourself!" the broad man snapped.

"BREAKING FUCKING NEWS! I DON’T CARE!"

"He’s lost it," the black-haired woman said.

"THANK YOU FOR NOTICING! NOW. WHERE WERE WE." Arthur took two more steps forward. Both arms raised. The water roaring in his palms. "OH RIGHT. YOUR DEATHS.

"MOVE—" The green-haired man threw himself backward.

All three of them hit the treeline.

Backs against the trunks.

In the shade.

Arthur dropped both hands.

The water dispersed instantly. The aetheric blood pulled back into his body in one clean rush. He exhaled.

He felt all three of them through the network. Three sets of feet planted in the shadow under the roots. His anchor was already there. Had been there since before he started screaming.

Gotcha.

He opened his palm.

Bind.

The shadows moved. Dense. Heavy. Locking around their ankles like something had grown up through the ground.

"What—" The green-haired man looked down. He tried to lift his foot. Nothing happened. He tried again. "What is— I can’t—"

Arthur turned his head. To Kreasial and Theodore.

"Now!"