The entire amphitheatre held its breath.

  I stood among the five with sword and dagger ready, the lights in my eyes tinted purple. The golden ribbon wrapped tight around Lumi’s hilt.

  A girl lay at the brothers’ feet. Her armour hung loose, straps half cut, pouches ripped from her belt. Another aspirant lay a few steps behind her, stripped and discarded.

  The gang had left a trail of unconscious bodies behind them.

  Nathaniel grinned at me as he tightened the stolen bracers on his wrist. A few new charms hung against his chest now. He swept the last of the girl’s kit into a rune pouch and slung it over his shoulder.

  He smirked and drove his boot into her. She curled tighter, arms pulled in close, a soft sob slipping out. The others chuckled.

  I kept my eyes on him and held my anger in check.

  Nathaniel’s gaze ran over the red robes, then dropped to my ribbon. His eyes lifted again and locked onto mine.

  A slow smile crept across his face.

  “That was really stu—”

  “Shut your fucking mouth,” I snapped.

  Nathaniel’s eyes sharpened. The words died in his throat and his mouth twisted into a sneer.

  Alex bumped his side, let out a short chuckle, and stepped away to take position.

  I shifted to lunge. A feint.

  Power burst beneath Nathaniel’s boots and he tore backward in a blink. He was cautious now. I kept both blades clenched in my fists, pointing at him as I slowly closed the distance at a measured pace.

  “Well then. Come at me,” he said, sneering as his shield snapped up in front of him.

  The gap widened as they began to herd me into place. I let them. Anger pressed at my chest, but I kept it tight and controlled.

  Then their blessings flared.

  Boots scraped against stone as they closed the space around me, blades angling inward to box me in. Not clean. Just fast.

  My weight shifted back as dull iron sliced through the air where my chest had been. Another blade skimmed for my ribs.

  I slipped through the seam between them just as their blades crossed.

  Their circle snapped shut on empty air.

  They skidded, boots grinding against stone, nearly crashing into each other before forcing themselves apart.

  I saw it clearly now. The funnel. They singled out weaker enemies. Cornered stragglers, closed in as a group, and crushed them through numbers. Not clever. Just bullying dressed up as tactics. They narrowed the space, baited the charge, then sealed it.

  A faint smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.

  I shifted forward just enough to sell it, then stalled. Let them read it as doubt. Let them think the pressure was working.

  They reset and opened the gap.

  “Who did you rob for that pretty set?” Alex asked, eyes roaming over my robes as if they already belonged to him.

  “If you strip here and hand over the ribbon, we won’t cut off anything important,” the girl added.

  Nathaniel let out a low chuckle.

  I met her gaze and gave her nothing. She laughed.

  I pushed off and cut to the weak side of their formation, slipping where it could not close cleanly. If they wanted me, they would have to chase me.

  The girl on my left took the bait and swung wide.

  I reversed my grip on the dagger and let her overcommit the strike. As soon as it passed, I stepped inside her guard and flicked the blade across the back of her wrist. Not deep. Just enough. A thin line opened and blood kissed the steel.

  She hissed and stumbled back, clutching her hand.

  “Get him!” called Alex.

  The boy at her side snarled and lunged, the formation breaking as he rushed in. He swung twice in quick succession, his grip wrong, thumb and finger laid over the guard.

  I stepped behind the third arc and turned my wrist, the dagger’s tip slicing through the leather glove and nicking his thumb.

  He jerked back and stared at the cut as if it should not have been there.

  Their blessings fed them strength and speed, but their footwork faltered and their timing slipped. They moved as a pack, not a unit. Whatever edge they thought they had cracked the moment the pressure rose.

  Three left.

  “Amateurs,” I said with a faint smirk.

  Their faces tightened.

  “You wanna go?” the third boy shouted. His face flushed as he shoved the girl aside and charged.

  “Back into formation,” Alex snapped.

  He hesitated mid-step.

  “Yeah. Back into formation, little boy,” I said.

  “I’ll fucking deck you!” he barked, red-faced, hauling the oversized sword above his head.

  “Come on then.”

  He rushed in and brought the blade down in a heavy arc meant to split me from head to groin.

  I bolted to the side just as the strike slammed into the ground and kicked up a spray of dust. Smirking, I dashed through the haze and sliced behind his elbow where the armour left a gap above the glove.

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  “Ow. Fuck!” He jerked his arm back, breath hissing through his teeth.

  “That’s why I told you to get back into formation!” Alex shouted.

  They scrambled to close the circle again.

  Two left.

  Alex stood near his brother now, anger tightening his face.

  “Get around him!” he snapped.

  He thought I was scrambling to survive. Thought I was barely keeping ahead.

  He didn’t understand yet.

  Alex bared his teeth. “Keep still, you stupid—”

  I didn’t let him finish.

  I stepped into their little formation and drove the pommel across his mouth before he knew it. His head snapped sideways as my dagger followed, carving a thin line down his right cheek.

  One left.

  Nathaniel’s face burned, confusion tangling with rage. “What are you fucking doing! Get ‘im!” he barked.

  Too late.

  The perception rune flared and every weapon around me sharpened in my mind. And through the rune on the dagger, I could feel their intent settling clear and cold.

  I stopped watching their stances, or faces.

  I felt them.

  The lean of balance. The breath before the strike. Their every intention.

  Steel came from my right. I turned just enough for it to cut nothing but air. Two more followed from the left. I let them pass within inches of my ribs.

  My movements stayed loose.

  I didn’t want to just beat these bullies. I wanted to humiliate them.

  Steel flashed again and again, cutting through empty air.

  Frustration bled into their strikes. Their swings grew heavy, desperate, and sloppy. Predictable.

  I strolled toward Nathaniel.

  Calm. Grinning.

  Each strike meant for me slipped wide with a turn of my shoulder or a short step to the side.

  Nathaniel’s eyes widened. “What the—”

  He snapped his sword up and brought the stolen shield in tight, bracing behind it.

  I moved before he could settle.

  I rolled off the side of the shield, came up inside his guard, and dragged the dagger into the same place I had marked on his brother.

  Left side this time.

  The blade bit shallow and clean.

  He sucked in a sharp breath, clutching his face as he stumbled back. The others flinched and took a step away, as if they had all felt it.

  “There we go,” I said. “All five.”

  They stared at me, confusion tightening across their faces.

  It was time. I pressed my thumb to the rune in the dagger and let it flood my senses.

  Understanding of all five crashed in at once. Not just their stances or reactions. Something deeper. I felt the pull inside them. Flickers of intent. Want. Calculation. Fragments of thought.

  They were not fighting to prove themselves. They fought to take, and it ran deeper than greed. I felt the line they were willing to cross. What horrors they had already done without hesitation. How easily they justified it.

  The feeling settled in my chest and turned bitter.

  Disgust came first.

  Then anger followed, quiet and steady.

  When I had first seen them tearing through the back line like rabid dogs, I had wanted to know why. To understand.

  Now I knew.

  My eyes flicked to the four ribbons.

  I knew what to do.

  “Don’t just stand there! Cut him up!” shouted Alex.

  I stayed among them, letting each strike skim past by a breath. Steel whispered by my neck.

  Once I knew them, I knew I could not let them win.

  Alex’s intent flared. I felt it gather, a reckless decision forming.

  His hand darted into his pocket.

  I knew what it was before he even tore it out. A small round object. The same weapon the boy on the ramp had used before the tackle.

  A grin touched my mouth.

  Perfect.

  I took in the five of them in a single sweep. The gear they wore. The weapons they had taken. The trinkets and charms strapped to belts and wrists.

  Everything they thought made them strong.

  The bomb struck the ground.

  Smoke detonated at our feet and surged upward.

  The world vanished.

  Stone. Ramps. Faces in the stands. Gone.

  Sound dulled to a low hum beyond the cloud.

  The cuts were shallow. The thread that linked me to each of them still held. Faint, thinning already, but enough.

  “Get him!” Nathaniel shouted, the edge in his voice cracking.

  They were panicking.

  It showed in their breathing, sharp and uneven. In the scrape of boots shifting too fast. In the wild snap of steel cutting at shadows.

  Blades rang against each other more often than they found me.

  Each clash only drove them harder. Frustration fed the next swing. Steel cut wide through the smoke where they thought I stood.

  The haze thickened until the world outside it ceased to exist.

  Good.

  It was Lumi’s turn.

  He sliced through the smoke.

  The first strike met steel.

  Alex cried out as his weapon dissolved in his grip. One of them stood a step back, bracing behind his shield. I felt his position in the smoke and drove Lumi into the inner metal band of the shield.

  The iron vanished. The shield collapsed in his hand.

  Panic rose, and they swung wildly. Anything that touched the black edge unravelled. Swords collapsed. Axes split. Metal flaked into nothing and fed straight into the blade.

  They did not understand.

  Outside the smoke, no one could see what was happening. Only hear the panic in their voices.

  Lumi hummed.

  Alex had made the worst possible choice. He had gifted me cover.

  They reached for more weapons, dragging blades from belts and pouches. Each one dissolved the instant they met Lumi.

  Soon, they ran out of weapons. So, I got closer.

  Bracelets cracked and crumbled. Buckles split. Charms and runed fittings broke apart. Even their rune pouches tore open and fed into the blade.

  Everything they had taken went to Lumi. Runes and all.

  They staggered and cursed, stripped of their gear, hands grasping for weapons that were no longer there.

  I stepped forward.

  “I’m not going to kill you,” I said quietly. “I am no executioner.”

  From what I had seen in them, some of them deserved one. But that was not me.

  My jaw tightened as I slid my sword back into its scabbard and returned the dagger to its sheath.

  I sighed. There was no point dragging this out.

  The thread of intent was fading now, thinning to shadows at the edge of my senses.

  Time enough to end it.

  I stepped in and drove my fist into the first jaw. Alex. Bone shifted under the impact. His eyes rolled back and his limbs went slack before he hit the ground.

  The second spun toward me too late. I planted my feet and followed through. The strike landed clean. He dropped hard, breath leaving him in a single broken sound.

  The third swung at air. I caught her clean and sent her down.

  The rules were clear. No killing. No maiming.

  So, I hit only hard enough to end it quick.

  The fourth went down not long after the girl. No warning. No time to brace. The smoke swallowed everything.

  By the time the haze began to thin, only Nathaniel remained upright.

  I grabbed him by the front of his tunic and dragged him close. His feet scraped across ground. His eyes were wide now, breath coming fast and uneven.

  “Do you finally understand?” I asked.

  His gaze flicked past me as the smoke finally fell away. Over the bodies of the gang, he had gathered. The careful plan he had laid out lay broken at his feet.

  He trembled in my grip.

  I had heard what he said about Amelia. Through the dagger’s touch, I had seen the cruel things he had done to others and what he wanted to do to me. The memory stayed sharp as I dragged him close and drove one last punch into his face.

  “Pathetic.”

  From the stands, they saw only the aftermath. Four unconscious aspirants on the ground, Nathaniel dropping at my feet. I bent and tore the golden ribbons from their hands.

  I rose and lifted them high.

  All five caught the sunlight and flashed as they stirred in the drifting air.

  The arena fell silent.

  Then a voice cut through the hush.

  “Butcher!” Derry shouted.

  Another voice joined it.

  “Butcher! Butcher!”

  The chant spread through the stands and took hold.

  I exhaled slowly. So that was how it would be.

  The remaining aspirants stepped back as I approached the ramp. Whatever fight they had left drained from their faces. One by one, weapons lowered. A few let their weapons drop entirely as they cleared a path.

  I walked up the ramp with five ribbons clenched in my hand.

  Lumi rested at my side, quiet and steady. The world still carried a faint violet tint at the edge of my vision as I closed on the first golem.

  It moved.

  I drew Lumi again and stepped into the first golem.

  The blade fell in a clean vertical line from crown to base. Wood split. The column shuddered and collapsed in two broken halves.

  “Butcher! Butcher!”

  I pivoted without pause and cut through the next two. Their frames cracked and fell apart. The magic anchored in their cores flickered once, then died.

  The crowd erupted again, the chant swelling louder.

  I did not look at them.

  I climbed straight to the golden chalice at the centre and dropped all five ribbons into the cup in a single motion.