Chapter 124

  The cultivator’s eyes swept across the battlefield, moving from one opponent to the next before settling on Alexander.

  Alexander saw the calculation happen. Saw the decision crystallize. He was already moving backward before the cultivator’s body followed through, Metallokinesis carrying him away from the others.

  The cultivator launched forward. His air-stepping carried him across the distance, but the speed was diminished. The accumulated damage showed in every movement, each step slower than it had been.

  Alexander kept retreating. The empowered drones shifted from defensive screens to aggressive strikes, their shield-blades extending as they closed on the cultivator from multiple angles.

  The cultivator’s sword swept in tight arcs, deflecting the first drone that came within range. Then the second. His focus remained locked on Alexander, attention narrowing to a single target.

  A drone got through his guard. Its shield-blade carved a line across his forearm. Blood welled up, mixing with the burns already covering his skin.

  The cultivator didn’t slow down.

  Another drone struck from the side, cutting into his ribs through torn robes. The cultivator twisted, sword intercepting the third drone’s attack with a sharp crack of metal on metal. The fourth drone’s blade caught his thigh as he turned.

  Small wounds. Adding to larger ones. Blood trailed behind him in the air. His movements became less fluid with each passing second.

  But the man kept coming. Determination overriding pain. He knew he was running out of time, knew he had to eliminate threats before his body gave out completely.

  The cultivator’s left hand swept up.

  Wind qi erupted from his palm in a visible ripple of compressed air. Two blades formed and screamed ahead, moving faster than the cultivator’s body could follow.

  Alexander angled right. The first wind blade passed through the space where he’d been moments before. Close enough that he felt the pressure wake against his face. He shifted left immediately, reading the trajectory of the second blade. Carefully placed to catch him escaping the first. It missed by a smaller margin than the first, the cutting edge singing past his shoulder with a sound like tearing silk.

  He kept moving backward. Distance was survival. Time was what the others needed.

  Droney stayed close to his shoulder, still coordinating the other drones’ attacks. But Alexander felt the little machine shift slightly, adjusting its position with deliberate intent.

  The cultivator closed the gap. Twenty meters became fifteen. His sword came up, water qi already forming along the blade in preparation for another strike.

  Droney slipped away from Alexander’s shoulder. The movement was subtle, masked by the chaos of five other drones attacking from different vectors. The little machine circled wide, using the cultivator’s tunnel vision as cover.

  Ten meters separated them now.

  Alexander’s gauntlet began to crackle. Electricity built along the metal surface, dancing across the articulated plates in brilliant arcs as he channeled more power into it than before. The charge grew with each passing moment, intentionally visible and threatening in the fading light.

  The cultivator’s eyes locked onto it. His trajectory shifted minutely, preparing to evade the moment Alexander released the bolt.

  Seven meters.

  Droney slipped into the cultivator’s blind spot, behind and slightly above.

  Five meters.

  The gauntlet’s charge reached capacity. Lightning crawled across the entire surface, hungry and violent.

  “Soul Circuit.”

  Lightning erupted from Droney.

  The bolt struck the cultivator at the base of his skull where spine met brain. Alexander had aimed for that exact point through his connection with the little machine. The most vulnerable spot. The place where disruption would cascade through the entire nervous system.

  The cultivator’s body went rigid. He faltered mid-step, muscles locked in a spasm he couldn’t control.

  Alexander raised his hand and released the gauntlet’s charge.

  The second lightning bolt lanced across the remaining distance and struck center mass, right in the chest, directly over the heart. Another deliberate target. Another point for maximum effect.

  The cultivator convulsed. His sword arm jerked, water qi dissipating into mist. Smoke rose from both impact points, from burned flesh and scorched robes. His mouth opened, but no sound emerged, breath stolen by the electrical current ripping through his body.

  He hung there in the air, wreathed in dissipating electricity.

  Momentarily paralyzed, just in time for Julia’s arrival.

  She twisted in the air, using momentum to carry her up and over the cultivator in a smooth arc. Her elbow came down like a hammer onto the top of his skull.

  The impact drove him downward. His body went from rigid to ragdoll, spinning toward the ground far below.

  Julia pursued. Snowflakes trailed in her wake as she dove, relentless in her aggression.

  The cultivator fell, spinning through the air, before shaking his head as control returned. The man’s hand came up, movements sluggish. His descent slowed, qi control reasserting itself despite the damage.

  Then the sapphire dragon blitzed past Alexander, overtaking Julia.

  Maximilian sat astride its back, leaning forward into the dive. The dragon’s wings folded tight against its body, streamlining for speed. They closed the distance in seconds.

  The dragon’s claws extended. Maximilian said nothing, face set with grim determination. Barriers snapped into existence on either side of the cultivator, tipped chains erupting from them and spearing into their enemy’s sides.

  Then the dragon’s claws raked across the cultivator’s chest. Deep gouges opened through burned robes and flesh. Blood sprayed, droplets catching the light as they scattered.

  The cultivator went spinning again, ripped free of the chains. His attempt at controlling the descent shattered as he tumbled end over end, completely disoriented.

  The dragon’s wings snapped open, breaking its dive. Maximilian glanced back once, confirming the hit, then turned to follow.

  The cultivator fell toward the forest canopy below.

  Alexander watched as the man took control of his fall once again, qi flaring once as he began to stabilize. The cultivator clearly had reserves that Alexander hadn’t expected.

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  Julia closed from above, ice-encased fists ready for the follow-up strike.

  The cultivator refocused. Found her, tracked her descent.

  His hand swept beneath him. Qi formed into a solid platform, shimmering and translucent. He landed feet-first, crouching to absorb the impact.

  Then he launched.

  Straight up at Julia. Sword point forward. A desperate thrust born of the recognition that he was out of time and options.

  It happened fast.

  Alexander saw it. Saw the cultivator explode upward from his qi platform with speed that shouldn’t have been possible given his injuries. Saw Julia already committed to her dive, unable to change trajectory.

  His hand reached out. Willed Metallokinesis to respond, reaching across the distance toward the cultivator’s sword.

  The power found the blade and scattered. Qi reinforcement disrupted his attempt to control it. Alexander pushed harder, forcing more power into the effort.

  The sword thrust slowed by a fraction. Barely enough to notice.

  The cultivator’s weakened state showed in the reduced resistance. Showed in how Alexander’s power managed even that small success.

  But it wasn’t enough to stop it.

  The sword point drove into Julia’s chest. But it punched through with an explosion of ice rather than blood, as her body transformed instantly. Flesh became solid ice in the heartbeat between the sword tip’s penetration and the sword’s complete impalement.

  The blade emerged from her back, ice crystals forming along its length even as it moved.

  Julia clamped a hand around the cultivator’s wrist. Her fingers dug in with strength that could bend metal and crack stone.

  She held the weapon inside her body. Held his wrist with a grip that wouldn’t break.

  The sword froze. Ice spread from the blade to the hilt in seconds, blue and crystalline and absolute. His hand froze to the grip, fingers locked in place as ice bonded flesh to metal.

  Julia roared.

  The sound was wordless effort and fury. Her face contorted, features still recognizably human despite the ice that comprised her entire form.

  She flew upward. The surrounding snowflakes became jagged and sharp. She angled the cultivator up as she rose, his body lifting above her, vulnerable and exposed.

  Placing him right in the path of Hjordis’s descent.

  Alexander hadn’t tracked her position during the chaos. Hadn’t seen her climb while the rest of them pursued. But she was there now, wings of flame carrying her down in a sharp dive.

  She saw the opportunity Julia was presenting..

  Her voice carried on the wind. “Sundering Flame.”

  The aura retracted from Alexander like a physical thing leaving his body. The warmth that had filled muscles and bones withdrew in a rush. The enhanced strength and tingle of healing in his arm pulled back to its source.

  Hjordis’s wings shrank as flames contracted inward, concentrating and compressing into her blade.

  All of her power focused into a single point.

  The blade blazed white as it became a downward-thrusting spear of condensed fire so hot the air around it rippled and distorted. So bright Alexander had to squint to look at it directly.

  She drove it down into the cultivator’s shoulder.

  The angle was steep, aimed through his body toward the vital organs. The blade sank deep, meeting resistance only for an instant before punching through. Fire erupted from the wound. Alexander could see it through the man’s skin, could see the glow spreading through his torso.

  The cultivator’s qi reinforcement finally broke. Alexander felt it somehow, felt the moment when that internal defense collapsed completely under the assault.

  Everything stopped.

  Julia pulled herself backward off the frozen sword, ice breaking off from her as the blade remained frozen in the cultivator’s grip. Her chest had a massive hole where the weapon had pierced through, though ice was already reforming to fill the gap.

  She floated away, putting some distance between them.

  Hjordis ripped her blade free. The extraction was brutal, tearing rather than sliding. She flew backward immediately, sword held ready. Not a single drop of blood remained on the super-heated blade.

  The sapphire dragon bobbed in the air nearby, wings steadily beating. Maximilian stood on its back, watching.

  Alexander descended until he was beside Julia. His eyes went immediately to her chest. To the hole that was still partially visible despite the ice reforming.

  He stared at it. Several heartbeats passed. She’d been impaled all the way through. He’d thought for a moment that she was going to die.

  His eyes lifted to her face.

  Julia raised an eyebrow. A very pointed eyebrow. The sort that said he’d been caught staring at her chest, regardless of the why.

  The corner of his mouth twitched despite everything. Despite his own wound, despite the exhaustion.

  Alexander looked back to the cultivator.

  He floated in the air, surrounded. Suspended by failing qi, kept aloft through pure Will alone.

  His hand came up to his shoulder. Fingers trembling. They touched the massive wound where Hjordis’s blade had punched through. Felt at the edges.

  Alexander could see the fire still burning inside.

  He coughed, spraying blood.

  “You fought... well...”

  His voice was wet and bubbling. Each word clearly cost him.

  “Guess I... am your breakthrough... instead.”

  He grinned at them, teeth red with blood. Eyes beginning to glaze over, but still aware enough to recognize the end.

  His eyes closed. The grin remained for a moment longer. Then his face went slack and he began to fall

  They all watched the body tumble toward the forest below.

  Alexander reached out at the last moment, power flowing across the distance between them. He found the cultivator’s ring and pulled.

  It slipped free of the dead man’s finger, rising through the air before coming to a stop between them. The simple band of metal was proof of what they’d accomplished.

  Alexander flicked a finger. The ring shot toward Hjordis.

  She caught it, surprise crossing her face. She looked at the ring, at Alexander, then at Julia and Maximilian in turn.

  Maximilian’s expression was solemn. “Spoils of war.”

  Alexander swept his gaze across the forest below. Somewhere down there, his gauntlet lay among the trees. His arm, too. He’d need to get close enough to sense the gauntlet through the canopy with Metallokinesis.

  But he wasn’t sure he had the strength for it right now.

  Thunder cracked across the sky.

  Alexander’s head snapped up. Light flashed in the distance, far beyond the gateway, above the mountain peak where they’d first emerged. More flashes followed, accompanied by rolling thunder.

  Cultivators. Dozens of them.

  “We have to get out of here now,” Maximilian said, voice sharp.

  Hjordis turned toward the gateway. “What about the gate?”

  “Let’s get back to it first,” Alexander said. “Then figure it out.”

  Everyone nodded, then turned and flew toward the gateway.

  The cultivators were closing fast. Alexander could see them clearly now, distant figures air-stepping down the mountain with impossible speed.

  Half a minute of flight brought the team back to the gateway.

  Alexander stumbled as he landed. The Electrokinesis he’d been cycling through his Core finally ran empty. His vision blurred and darkness crept in at the edges.

  Julia caught him by his remaining arm. She pulled it over her shoulder, taking his weight. “I’ve got you.”

  Maximilian looked up at the gateway, then across to Alexander. “Can you control it?”

  Alexander fought to keep his eyes open. He shook his head sluggishly. “Don’t have enough power to try.” The words came out slurred. “Don’t want this gate anyway.”

  “What?”

  Alexander forced himself to speak louder. Clearer. “I want the Beastworld gate. Not this one.” He looked at Hjordis. “You should do it. Just... push your Will into it.”

  Hjordis stared at him. “Even if it works, what am I supposed to do with a gate?”

  Maximilian shrugged. “Hopefully control who can come and go with it?”

  “They’re almost here,” Julia said, voice tight. She adjusted her grip on Alexander, keeping him upright.

  Hjordis growled under her breath. She held her hand out toward the gateway and closed her eyes.

  Flames erupted down her arm. Orange fire that burned bright as day finally gave way to night. The flames stretched across the space between her and the gate, reaching like living things.

  When they touched the gateway, fire exploded around its edge as the entire gateway became wreathed in flame. Hjordis frowned as a bead of sweat trickled down her temple.

  Then her eyes opened.

  “It’s done,” she whispered. Wonder colored her voice. “I really can control it. The System says I can even relocate it once as a reward for claiming it.”

  Maximilian stared. “You can move it?”

  Julia didn’t wait. She half-carried, half-dragged Alexander toward the portal. “We’re leaving. Now.”

  The portal shimmered, showing The Nexus beyond.

  She pulled Alexander through. The world lurched, reality twisting around them. Then they were on the other side, standing on familiar ground.

  Alexander’s legs gave out. Julia held him up, her strength the only thing keeping him from collapsing completely.

  The others followed moments later. Hjordis glanced back once at the portal behind them.

  Then a black aperture appeared from the outer edges, rotating as it closed over the gateway, sealing it shut.

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