King’s gaze snapped between the tagged ballista bolt still smoking in the crater and the fresh red cursor blinking on his map. The cursor moved steadily. Not running. Advancing.

Company would arrive soon.

King turned to the woman. She knelt on the scorched ground, one hand pressed against her throat where Maya’s dagger had dimpled the skin. Her dragon thrashed weakly beneath the Construct Net, the glowing blue strands cinching tighter with each movement.

"You," King said.

The woman looked up. Her confident predator smile had vanished.

King pointed at the cursor on his interface. "Someone just fired that ballista. They’re moving toward us now. More than one."

The woman’s eyes widened. She glanced at her dragon, then back at King.

"Please," she said. Her voice cracked. "Don’t kill me. Don’t kill her." She gestured toward the dragon. "She’s all I have."

The young dragon stopped thrashing. It turned its head toward the woman and let out a low whine. The creature’s crimson scales dimmed as it settled into submission, watching its master plead.

King stared at the woman for a long second.

"I’m not your direct enemy," King said. He opened his faction interface and turned the screen toward her. NULL ALIGNMENT glowed in white text. It wasn’t tagged red, or blue. Just an empty pale space.

The woman blinked. "Null? So that’s why." She whispered to herself.

King closed the interface. "Your real enemies are coming. The ones who fired that bolt. They’ll kill you and take your dragon."

The woman’s expression shifted to worry.

King raised his staff. The weapon’s tip glowed faintly. "So here’s your choice. You aid me, right now. Or I end you here, take the twenty points, and leave your dragon for the people marching toward us."

The woman held his gaze for three heartbeats. Then she nodded.

"I’ll aid you."

King turned to Maya. The child still crouched behind the woman, her black-and-gold dagger pressed against the woman’s neck.

King gave her a small nod.

Maya withdrew the blade in one smooth motion. She stepped back and tucked the dagger into her inventory.

The woman exhaled and scrambled to her feet. She ran to her dragon and placed both hands on the creature’s snout. The dragon rumbled softly. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Release the net," the woman said.

King dismissed the Construct Net. The blue strands dissolved into motes of light. The dragon shook its body free and rose to its full height.

The woman vaulted into the saddle and extended a hand toward King. "Get on. Both of you."

King scooped Maya onto the dragon’s back first, then climbed up behind the woman. Maya wrapped her small arms around the woman’s waist. King gripped the saddle’s edge with one hand and held his staff with the other.

The woman snapped the reins, and the dragon launched into the air.

Wind roared past King’s face as the dragon climbed. He looked down. The scorched clearing shrank beneath them, a black scar on the green meadow.

Then he saw them.

Four figures emerged from the tree line at the meadow’s edge. They moved in formation, their weapons drawn. Three carried swords. One carried a massive crossbow with a fresh bolt already loaded.

And beside them walked a thirteenth figure.

No. Not a figure.

A giant.

The knight stood thirteen feet tall. Golden armor covered its entire body from helm to sabaton. The metal gleamed even in the haze of smoke and ash. No skin showed. Not even eyes were visible. Just a polished golden faceplate with two narrow slits.

The knight carried a crossbow too. But this crossbow looked like a siege weapon. The bow arms stretched wider than the knight’s shoulders. The bolt in its groove matched the one still smoking in the crater below.

The golden knight stopped walking. It turned its helm upward.

Straight at King.

The knight raised the giant crossbow in one smooth motion. Aiming it at them without bracing, showing it’s raw strength.

King grabbed the woman’s shoulder. "Bank left. Now."

The woman yanked the reins. The dragon responded, banking hard.

PEoofFFFFFFFF!

The knight fired.

FFFFFFFFFFFFF

The bolt screamed through the air. King watched it spiral toward them, trailing smoke and fire.

The dragon swerved. The bolt passed close enough for King to feel the heat.

Then the bolt exploded.

The shockwave caught the dragon’s left wing and sent the creature into a violent spin. King’s stomach lurched. The world became a blur of sky and ground and sky again. He clamped his arm around Maya and pressed her against his chest. wrapping them in a sphere of Mana.

The dragon crashed.

The shere impact threw King from the saddle. He hit the ground hard. His head cracked against a rock. White light exploded behind his eyes.

King’s grip on Maya never broke.

He rolled twice and came to a stop. His construct sphere materialized around them a heartbeat before the dragon’s body slammed into the earth nearby. The sphere absorbed the secondary impact and shattered into fragments.

King lay on his back barely conscious. His vision swam, his ears rang. Warm liquid trickled down the side of his face.

He blinked.

Blinked again.

The world was a haze, nothing but blur and muffled noise.

But in some minutes, it slowly refocused.

King pushed himself up on one elbow. His head throbbed. He touched his temple and looked at his fingers, his fingers came away damped in red.

Then he looked up, and saw Maya.

One of the sword-wielding players roughly held Maya by her hair. The man’s dagger pressed against her throat. Maya’s feet dangled off the ground barely standing on the tip of her toes. Her small hands clawed at the man’s wrist, while a purple bruise bloomed across her left cheek.

The woman lay face-down ten feet away. Two men knelt on her back, pinning her arms. Her dragon sprawled unconscious behind them, golden chains wrapped around its snout and claws.

The golden knight stood in the center of the wreckage with Its empty hands rested at its sides. The giant crossbow hung at its hip now.

The fourth player, the one with the massive crossbow, stood beside the knight. He reloaded his weapon with perfect care.

King’s blood turned to fire.

He did not think. He did not plan.

He moved!.

King blitz forward. His Speed stat maxed out in a single instant. The ground cracked beneath his boots.

His right hand came up. Mana surged down his arm. A blade of condensed construct energy materialized from his palm, glowing blue and humming with destructive potential.

The man holding Maya by the hair never saw King coming. King’s blade caught him across the throat in one clean slice. His grip released from Maya. The child dropped to the ground and scrambled away on her hands and knees.

The first man holding the woman could barely register what happened when king’s construct blade passed through his neck cleanly.

THUD . His body crumpled.

The second man released the woman’s arm and reached for his sword. King reversed his grip and drove the blade through the man’s chest. With his hand still on the blades grip, the man fell backward.

King spun.

Three bodies hit the earth in less than two seconds.

As he locked eyes with the fourth player. The man with the massive crossbow. The man froze mid-reload, his fingers still wrapped around a fresh bolt.

King poised himself, then lounged.

He closed the distance in a flash, bringing l his blade in an upward slash.

tu-TANG!

The blade clashed with steel. The golden knight had parried, blocking with the guantlet on it’s left arm.

BRACK!

It slammed it’s second hand into king who managed to block, but the sheer force still sent him crashing back.

"Tch!" King spat to the side,

Wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. His split lip left a smear of red across his skin.

The knight tilted its helm, its narrow eye slits gleamed with cold light.

The battle was not over.