Spires

The rest of their people, noncombatants mostly, had evacuated Chamber 3, leaving empty boxes and containers of food and water scattered all over.

The long set of tunnels leading to the secret emergency bunker a few kilometers to the south was hidden on the south wall near the corner it shared with the east wall.

There were a few other hidden entrances scattered all over the other walls and even the ceiling and floor to tunnels that led into dead ends.

The bunker complex hid weapons, shields and more esoteric traps for all the good they had done against Suiteonemiades.

“Figure the bastard has ‘god senses’ to find the right tunnel,” Jayde said. “So—”

“I’ll stay and keep him busy for as long as I can,” Drake said. “You and our unborn baby—”

While the husband and wife argued, Alin listened to his mom try and fail to reach anyone on the comms.

“I will stay too,” Marloes said.

“He wants me,” his mom said.

“Our systems are limited, but we volunteer,” Frequency said.

“Agreed,” Kynnro said. “Place us behind defenses, Boy. We will attack with what we can.”

His mom threw her hands up.

“What’s with all the sacrificing?”

It was the most animated he could remember her being during a combat situation.

Alin opened his mouth and re-thought it for a moment. “I— I can do it. I think. I mean, I haven’t been able to touch him at all, but what if he’s almost at a point where he’s expended enough energy for me to start draining? Then, it’d be like a feedback loop. I feel like I’m not that far off from being able to call on some help from… family. He expends more energy to fight them, while I keep draining to weaken him and strengthen them. I think I can keep him busy enough for you guys to get away and Aunt Rayna to come help.”

“Baby, you don’t go into a fight with an ‘I think’ for a plan. Especially, with a lot of ‘what ifs’,” his mom said. “We can’t even find out if Candys made it far enough to get a message to your aunt.”

“She’ll make it or she already did.”

Alin was certain.

Candys was fast, nimble, agile, quick with a supernatural ability to evade predatory types.

He had watched her in training, both in the Danger Complex and in his dad’s mindscapes.

Those didn’t pull any punches.

Especially the latter.

Nothing like practice that was indistinguishable from reality.

His dad’s methods might have left temporary mental scars, but those were infinitely better than getting eaten in real life.

One didn’t tend to come back from those sorts of things unless they had a healing factor like Howard.

The thought of the old soldier sobered him.

“No,” his mom said flatly. “All of you go. I’ll stall. If not, then,” she locked eyes with him, “your father will come get me later.”

“But the binding oaths—”

“I’ll leave an opening for your father,” she shrugged. “In any case, negotiations will buy time.”

“See!” Drake snapped. He grabbed Jayde’s hand and dragged her toward the real secret entrance. “Let’s go!”

Jayde dug her heels in. “I’m going to slap you with a face full of sticky if you don’t let me go! No way we’re leaving Mrs. Cruces alone!”

Drake hesitated.

“It’s fine, Drake,” his mom said. “I’m giving an order.”

Jayde wagged a finger. “You’ve always said you’re not in charge and don’t give orders even though you do.”

“And you only sometimes not follow them. So, why chose now of all times? Your life isn’t the only one you’re carrying, Jayde.”

“Maybe cause we lose you and I can see a world where we eventually lose everything.” Jayde shrugged. “I mean, not like right away, but down at the end of the road. You know, live today, die tomorrow. Me and my loves.” She gazed up at Drake’s eyes to leave no doubts. “The spires made life one big calculation. What am I willing to give up to save what I want? And that’s sorta how I’ve always been. And I hate math. So, I’m going to punch it in the face, like my dad taught me when I was a kid. Bullies need punching otherwise they won’t leave you alone.”

“Honey, that’s not a bully. That’s a demigod,” Drake said.

“Bullies are bullies. This one is just really, really strong.” She nodded sagely.

Through it all booming thunder echoed down the tunnel leading back to Chamber 2.

So long as that continued they knew that Kelci still stood strong.

“Everyone out!” His mom shooed them, but they were like unto cats and everyone knew one didn’t herd cats.

“Alright, Sparkle Happy Super!” Jayde grinned at Marloes. “What’ll it be? High ground? To run and jump around on? You magical girls like that sort of thing, right?”

“I’m grateful, Punchy senpai,” Marloes nodded.

His mom sighed. “Don’t block the weapons and shields.” She had given up on the cat herding.

Jayde dashed across the chamber, punching the floor every so often.

Trees sprouted from tiny sapling to full grown in seconds.

Tall and straight pines and mini redwoods, along with gnarled oaks that spread their branches in tangled mazes.

A forest filled Chamber 3.

“And you said a tree spell was a waste.” Jayde raised a brow at her husband.

“I said that one time…” he shook his head with a grin.

“Boy?”

He still carried Frequency under one arm like a sack of rice.

“Bring me there.”

The location they pushed into his HUD was near the southeast corner where an automated laser weapon lay hidden in the wall.

“Why?”

“I need a power source to utilize my weaponry in full,” Frequency said.

“Either you take us to a place we can contribute or take us to the emergency bunker,” Kynnro said. “Our preference is to stay. Designation: Suiteonemiades killed Primal.”

“Their vigilant watch is finished,” Frequency said. “Ours is not.”

He wanted to argue, but that would’ve made him like his mom and he’d be a hypocrite telling them to run when he didn’t listen when his mom had told him the same.

Thus, he helped Frequency set up and did the same for Kynnro in a location near the center of the chamber hidden in the shadow of a particularly sprawling oak.

All the while he flinched with every crack of thunder in the tunnel while dreading the moment it fell silent.

“Mrs. Cruces. You want me to try getting Kelci out of that?” Drake said.

Alin felt his mom agonize through the thick fog he had filled the chamber with as they prepared.

“No. You’re not fast enough. He’s got superhuman reaction time,” his mom said.

Drake nodded.

“Listen guys.” Jayde pointed to a ring of waist-high saplings in the northwest section of the chamber. “Don’t go over there, but if we can get him to it would be nice. I may have had Bolder do some prep work up there.” She pointed to the ceiling.

The thunder slowed.

“Should you not seal the tunnel, Nila-sama?” Marloes said.

His mom frowned. “No. The doors won’t slow him and we shouldn’t close them on Kelci.”

“Understood.” Marloes leapt into the treetops, disappearing in the thick green foliage.

The thunder finally stopped.

Alin’s heart ached at the cruel grasp of another death.

He waited for the eruption of the automated weapons.

When they didn’t come hope for a spared life began to beat in his chest.

Steps echoed from the dimly lit tunnel.

A long, deliberate stride.

Suiteonemiades emerged.

A black void that seemed to block the entire tunnel.

Such was his size, his majesty.

Jayde punched a redwood.

The spell in her fist toppled it on his head.

The demigod disappeared in a cloud of dust and jagged splinters.

The more powerful a caster and the higher level a spell, the longer the objects they conjured remained in existence.

Autoguns blanketed the area with an unceasing storm of metal flechettes.

Twin beams of golden light screamed out.

They shot through the air erratically, curving in graceful arcs and cutting at sharp angles.

Alin could barely track their flight.

They touched energy shields and autoguns, shattering the former and vaporizing the latter.

Reflex made him duck behind a tree trunk, but the beams just whistled over his head.

“Oh, come on, man!” Drake muttered. “I’m sick of these homing eye beams.”

A thunder clap cleared the cloud, sending wood shards, some as long as a human arm, flying in all directions.

Threnium armor protected.

Shots bursts like twinkling stars from all over the tree tops.

.50 caliber bullets scattered leaves and trembled branches..

“Like the pleasant surprise of a sudden summer’s rain,” Suiteonemiades said as he basked in the torrent.

He showed his appreciation to Marloes by blasting bolts of gold energy.

Kynnro covered the demigod with a laser web.

Gold sheathed his body as he simply walked through it.

He raised a black hand toward the Threnosh without even looking.

Divine energy built up to the brightness of a miniature sun.

Frequency saved their family member.

Waves rippled from the Threnosh to the demigod, distorting the air, but remaining silent to all but the target in the center of the cone.

Muscles in the demigod’s neck and jaw clenched. His eyes twitched, spasming from side to side.

Silently, he raised his other hand toward Frequency.

The distortion cone altered, narrowing, shifting focus.

The golden orbs in his hands wavered. Their surface fuzzed.

It reminded Alin of those ancient anime shows on his dad’s slightly less ancient hard drives.

The demigod turned almost square to Frequency. His mouth worked.

Words lost to them all with one exception.

Frequency replied with a single word.

“No.”

The demigod shrugged.

Golden orbs firmed.

The sound changed.

Light winked out.

Every visible muscle in the demigod’s physique flexed.

The epitome of sheer physical power bulged.

Veins popped through the black skin like wriggling worms.

Alin couldn’t help but feel inadequate in comparison despite being at his own physical peak.

“Gotta love that brown note,” Drake said. “Look at the big bastard clenching his cheeks for all he’s worth. A rational man would let it go and not leave himself standing still in the middle of a fight. Plenty of people shit themselves in a fight.”

“I haven’t… not in a real battle.”

Everyone knew it didn’t count when it happened in training.

“One day, Boy. One day…” Drake nodded sagely.

Red clashed with gold on the demigod’s broad, chiseled back.

A thin beam barely visible to the unenhanced human eye connected Kynnro’s emitter to the demigod’s forcefield.

The lights in the chamber dimmed as the two Threnosh drew power to replace what their partially-destroyed trueskins could no longer generate.

“Drake, bamfstorm!”

Alin’s eyes shot to his mom.

Seriously?

“Seriously?” Drake echoed his thoughts.

“He’s going to kill them. We just need to distract him. Stop him from firing,” his mom said.

She made it sound so simple.

“Okay,” Drake shrugged. He flicked a javelin. At the apex of its flight one became many.

Javelins fell around the demigod like hard, sharp rain.

A few bounced off the golden forcefield.

“Battleground’s set. Just grab one and I’ll pull you back,” Drake said.

“Are you ready, Boy?” his mom said.

“I’m ready. Send me first.” He nodded to drake.

“Where do you want to go?”

“His right side,” he zoomed in on a javelin about a meter and change to the demigod’s right side and sent it to Drake.

“Got it.” Drake placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ready?”

Alin nodded.

He blinked and found himself with one hand on a javelin sticking out of the floor.

Rising from the half crouch, he ignited his multi-weapon in an upward cut.

Muscle memory countered the momentary vertigo.

Hardlight longsword shattered on the underside of the demigod’s outstretched arm.

His mom appeared on the demigod’s other side. Her handcannon roared. Enchanted armor-piercing bullets bounced off the side of the demigod’s face. The ricochets resembled tiny comets with what looked like golden sparkles trailing in their wake.

His mom was the prize.

The demigod went for her, abandoning the blasts he had been about to kill the Threnosh with.

Alin stabbed him in the butt when he turned.

A deep gurgle echoed.

“The forcefield going to keep it in?”

He wasn’t usually one to talk during a fight.

Found it too distracting.

The demigod hesitated a moment, giving his mom enough time to roll under the grasping hand.

She grabbed a javelin and vanished with a pop.

Alin stabbed again. Then threw himself backward to dodge the backhand.

The sheer mass and speed of the demigod’s arm reminded him of his uncle doing a fly-by.

Frequency and Kynnro increased the intensity of their attacks, tracking the demigod.

Alin thrust with a hardlight spear.

Suiteonemiades met the tip with a fist.

Black shattered yellow.

A burst of .50 caliber bullets in the demigod’s face blinded for a moment.

He dived across the ground with his thrusters.

A shadow loomed, quickly growing large on the floor.

He reached for a javelin—

Blinking he lay at Drake’s feet.

“Cutting it close!” Drake grinned.

The chamber’s lights went dark.

As did Kynnro’s laser beam.

Frequency fell silent a moment later.

“Computer, don’t turn on emergency lights!” his mom said.

They could fight in darkness thanks to their helmets.

The demigod cast an eerie figure with his deep black skin sheathed in a faint, almost twinkling gold glow.

.50 Caliber Bullet Storm drenched him in armor-piercing rain.

Gold eyes flashed bright in the darkness.

A thousands stars were born and died in an instant, vaporized into nothing.

The sparkle in Marloes mahou shoujo persona, but not the kind that’d make her happy, let alone super.

Twin beams cut through the darkness and the tangled branches near the chamber’s ceiling.

Marloes ran and jumped, twisting through the wooden web as she leapt from tree to tree.

Splinters from the beams’ near misses bounced off her armor.

“Relocate her,” his mom said.

“On it.” Drake flicked a javelin into a nearby tree trunk.

They coordinated through the network.

“Send us again.”

“Me first.” Alin cut in front of his mom and gave Drake the location he wanted.

Drake grabbed his shoulder.

He blinked with his hand around a javelin.

Multi-weapon in long-handled axe mode cleaved into the side of the demigod’s thick neck.

It was like hitting a mountain made of solid metal.

He wouldn’t bet on having more success even if the demigod didn’t have a forcefield up.

Hardlight shattered.

He had been tired of that the fifth time it had happened.

His mom popped into existence next to him.

She had traded her hand cannon for a sleek spellgun.

Magic sticky foam poured out in a thin stream.

She coated the demigod’s lower body, going from sandals to waist.

“That’s going to leave a sticky mess in your skirt.” He tried.

“Japes can be an effective tactic, but not when delivered without easy confidence. It ill suits you as you are, child,” Suiteonemiades said.

“Yeah, well, I’m not the one with sh—”

His mom shoved Alin aside before she grabbed a planted javelin to vanish with a pop.

“When you seek to distract an opponent, don’t fall prey yourself.”

The demigod’s eye beams cut a tight angle, doubling back.

Alin hadn’t noticed the demigod had abandoned his pursuit of Marloes.

He scrambled, laying a hand around a javelin a scant moment before the golden beams scorched through the metal floor.

“Good tactic.” Suiteonemiades swept a hand, vaporizing every javelin surrounding him in a flash of gold. “Now you die.” Gold streamed from his hand.

Drake cursed, but spun a spear in his hands in a blink of an eye.

The magic shield gave them a split-second to dive out of the way.

What followed was a golden barrage of devastation and chaos.

Alin sprinted and scrambled, diving behind trees only for golden blasts to shower him in splinters and falling branches.

His HUD flashed red, registering hits from the blasts.

Layers ablated.

Microthrusters destroyed.

He pulled his belt free and hurled it nearly a hundred meters with strength he stole from the monsters.

Compartments of holding disgorged their contents explosive when the demigod blasted them with a look.

Grenades, mines and traps. Magical and mundane. Bottles and vials filled with deadly alchemical substances.

Everything exploded in a cloud of death raining down on the demigod.

He regretted the move the instant he had let go.

“Poison in the air!” he said into the comms.

Their helmets had filters. Their armors had an internal oxygen supply and a recycling system. They even had antidotes ready to be applied automatically.

But all of those redundancies relied on a properly function armor.

Kynnro and Frequency.

Their trueskins had been breached, exposing their fragile Threnosh constitutions.

Concern for other people.

Perhaps not admirable in the middle of a battle.

The demigod leapt through the cloud straight for Alin.

Suiteonemiades punched through a thick tree like it was made out of sticks and paper.

Alin rose, hardlight spear thrusting upward.

He had no shot.

This wasn’t a charging boar.

The demigod was about to flatten him—

Suiteonemiades vanished in a crack of thunder that momentarily lit up the near darkness.

Jayde had taken the demigod’s place.

“Up, up, up!” She shook her hand. “Feels like I broke it. Almost like punching your uncle.”

Alin scrambled to his feet, keeping himself between Jayde and the debris-shrouded crater in the distant wall.

“Aww, that’s sweet! Oh—”

Jayde punched the floor, creating a thick wall of stone in an instant.

Not a moment wasted.

Shattered rock kicked Alin like a sawed-off shotgun.

He stumbled into Jayde, knocking the two of them to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

She pushed him off and rose, uppercutting the golden blast into the ceiling.

“Okay… now it’s definitely broken.”

The demigod suddenly appeared, looming over her.

Jayde resembled a child in front of a giant.

Yet, she gazed up with defiance.

Jayde probed with a snappy jab.

Golden light flashed on impact.

Her eyes narrowed.

Punches came in bunches.

Hands almost too fast for Alin to follow.

A jab to freeze, followed by a straight to heat.

Golden forcefield shattered.

Lefts and rights punched a staccato against the demigod’s groin.

Impact Mana Siphon fired with each hit, alternating with a different ability.

Jayde scowled and shuffled back from the demigod’s lazy grab.

Alin took the opening and stabbed his hardlight spear into the demigod’s underarm.

A vulnerable spot usually, but his hopes dashed against the hard black skin.

“Whatever that divine energy crap he’s got, it’s not mana. At least, I can’t drain it,” Jayde said into the comms. “The forcefield doesn’t count as magic either. Had to break it. Couldn’t get through with my Kohalun’s Punch.”

He drove his spear, but he was the one that slid back.

“I almost felt exactly half of your punches. An interesting… feel to your ability. Skill or spell?” Suiteonemiades said.

Jayde scowled.

“You are at least Level 50. A consolidation of a magic user class and a boxer class judging by your technique. Quite good by the way. Very technical. I barely noted wasted motion. A nearly unbroken kinetic chain with, I’d say, 85% of your punches. I’ve always thought it interesting to see how similar fighting styles human cultures across many worlds are. Granted, the biomechanics of the human body dictate that there can only be so many ways to achieve efficient generation and transfer of force. 20 to 30 more levels and you’d force me to expend some measure of effort.”

“Great. Why don’t you give up this hostage-taking nonsense and we can exchange notes. My father was a great follower of the sweet science and I’ve got lots of notes,” Jayde said. “Shit… power level me up to that and I’ll really show you what kind of boom I bring on that smug face of yours.”

The demigod laughed.

“I’ve fought alongside many brothers and sisters in arms across my centuries. I stood side-by-side on the battlefield with women heavy with child many times. I may not have agreed with their— your choices in that regard, but I can’t help but respect it. Your demeanor would fit as perfectly as a master-crafted glove. Perhaps, in a different existence. Sadly, there can be no mercy in war.” Suiteonemiades paused in thought, ignoring the bullets striking his forcefield. “Although, I shall extend it one last time for I don’t wish to be a monster if there is another path. Your child deserves to draw breath in this world. They deserve a mother and a father.” Golden eyes found Drake poised to throw a javelin in the branches of a half-destroyed redwood. “You,” he regarded Jayde, “may leave. He,” he regarded Drake, “will be a hostage. I remove your fates from that of Nila Cruces. Please, see reason. I promise to negotiate a fair agreement to return him to you and your children. He will be treated honorably.”

“Dude. Shut. Up.” Jayde rolled her eyes. “Honor this, honor that, bla, bla, bla. There’s nothing honorable about doing a war. You guys murder people like Chef Alex. He just wanted to make super food for people and your spec ops assholes stabbed him in the back like he didn’t matter. All you’ve done is robbed future generations of his work.”

“Then, you must understand why you should accept my generous offer.” Suiteonemiades’ gaze fell on her rounded belly. “For her future. A paradise world rather than this house of slaughter feeding the spires’ rapacious hunger for conflict.”

“Hypocrite.” Jayde smirked. “Also, surprisingly easy to stall and distract.”

The demigod’s shadow rippled.

A blender of blades and claws erupted from below.

Adrian scratched clawed fingers and toes against black skin like an angry cat.

Tabitha slashed daggers. She split the hem of her monster hide cloak into long strips. A twirling leap raked with the monster claws embedded at the end. Inky black seemed to swallow what little light remained in the chamber.

The demigod snapped like a serpent.

Adrian kicked and snarled at the massive black hand crushing the back of his armored neck.

Tabitha landed in a crouch and sprang like the panther-like monster that had donated its parts.

The demigod grabbed… and missed.

Nearly a meter off target to Tabitha’s right.

She used the arm as a platform to pass her blades and claws across his perfect face. Flowing over his head, she ripped down his muscled back and dived into his shadow a finger’s-width ahead of a back kick.

“They call you a traitor.” Suiteonemiades brought Adrian closer, ignoring the blur of claws ripping at his face and stomach. “I see potential value… yet, I know you’ll refuse like the rest. Thus, a quick death.”

Black hand squeezed.

Adrian’s armor squealed.

A javelin flashed across the near darkness.

The demigod snatched it out of the air.

Adrian touched it, vanishing from the crushing grip.

Suiteonemiades spun with a punch.

Large size rarely meant slow.

Even knowing this, Alin continued to be surprised by the demigod’s quickness.

Black fist thundered against big hammer.

Alin swayed back from the unleashed wave of force.

The hammer’s wielder recoiled. Nearly stumbling onto her backside.

Hayden stood clad in damaged armor. Matte gray plates broken and melted in parts, charred black, exposing gray onesie and tan skin.

Blue-white arcs of electricity danced up and down her entire body from the gaping openings.

The long-handled hammer rested on the floor. Its head glowed blue from the magitech module buried in the center. Blue-white arced up the shaft, feeding it.

Impact Hammer.

Specifically made for the Heartfury.

Two spells.

One to lighten.

One to convert her power into kinetic energy to be released on impact.

As a side affect the latter spell module dispersed a portion of the force applied to the hammer.

Hayden’s right eye crackled blue-white.

She brought her hammer down.

The demigod met it with an uppercut.

Thunder cracked.

Drake hurled a javelin that accelerated to near supersonic speed.

The steel vaporized against the demigod’s forcefield.

Hammer.

Fist.

Shockwave.

Golden flash.

Blue-white crackle.

“You saucy bitch! Kick his ass!” Jayde whooped, punching the floor. A low wall of stone slammed into the demigod’s ankle. She punched the wall, sending spikes shooting up between black, tree trunk-sized legs. “Shouldn’t wear skirts—”

Stone spikes crumbled.

The demigod did not.

Hammer.

Fist.

Shockwave.

Flash.

Crackle.

The demigod advanced, meeting hammer with fist at each step.

Over a dozen exchanges.

The blue-white glow in the head was subsumed by red, orange, yellow, then white hot in quick succession.

Hammer cracked.

Fists did not.

“Boy, we can’t do much here,” his mom said through the comms. “I’ll grab Kynnro, you take Frequency. We can hide them in the false tunnels. It’s not much, but it has to be better than leaving them exposed.”

His mom dashed through the fallen trees and craters toward the northwest section of the chamber.

He did the same to the southeast.

Frequency was conscious, but with vitals in the red.

He picked her up and went to the closest false tunnel.

The wall slid open with a cybernetic thought.

“Here,” he pulled a small medical unit out and handed it to the Threnosh.

“Thank you.”

“I’ll—”

“Go. I am still capable of operating this.” Frequency placed the unit on their chest.

Alin shut the door.

He had removed his eyes from the fight for seconds. Less than 30.

It had been a mirage, he realized.

Hope grasping at smoke.

Reinforcements briefly delayed the inevitable march of doom.

Gold bursts of light in the distance erupted with each crash of fist and hammer.

One last thundering impact.

Hayden’s hammer exploded.

Suiteonemiades was on her in a blink.

Hand around her throat.

Boots kicked.

Electricity arced.

Left eye glowed red.

.50 Caliber bullets vaporized against golden eyes.

Thin red lanced.

Short-range laser burned against golden forcefield.

Hayden banished the darkness for a moment. Electric power filled her artificial eye beyond its tolerances.

Smoke streamed.

Sparks erupted.

Red vanished abruptly.

Black hand tightened.

Her kicks weakened.

Then stopped as the blue-white arcs running up and down her body fizzled out.

Blue-white in her natural eye died.

“No! Don’t do it—” Drake’s cry was swallowed by an earthquake.

Jayde screamed, flying through the air propelled by the eruption underneath her boots.

Superman punch cracked the demigod’s cheek.

I Bring The Boom.

Her Skill’s name was a wholly insufficient explanation on what it did.

Everything.

All that she had.

Spells and Skills.

All at once. Combined, but separate.

Like that weird trinity thing where three things are completely separate, but also the same at the same time. Or that slightly less weird cat in a closed box. Dead and alive, both at the same time, neither because one couldn’t see it.

High level Skills at high levels were bullshit that broke things that seemed set in stone.

Suiteonemiades wobbled, releasing Hayden.

The demigod spat ivory slick with wet gold.

A weakness?

Perhaps he couldn’t absorb many, simultaneous spells.

“Impressive.” Suiteonemiades spat ivory pieces slick with wet gold. “I didn’t expect you to be the first to draw true blood and pain, slight as it is.”

“I don’t know, dude.” Jayde smirked. “You were doing the chicken dance there.”

“It is the strike you don’t see coming—”

“— that knocks you out.”

“Do I look out to you?”

The demigod loomed.

Jayde had to crane her neck to stare him down. She flexed her right hand. The armor had been destroyed all the way up to her elbow.

“Was that your best?”

“Yes… and no.”

Bullets and javelins desperately rained down on the demigod.

He blocked them all with an upraised arm.

Alin’s heart sank at flashes of golden light.

All that for a tooth and a cut mouth.

“Damn it! Don’t do it!” Drake cried out. “Someone stop her! I’ll take your deal! Just leave her alone! She can’t hurt you!”

“Listen to your husband.”

Jayde stood silhouetted by gold light.

“Stand aside. Save your life. If you don’t care for it, then save your daughter’s. She deserves an opportunity. Does she not?”

“No.”

Hayden’s crumpled form lay on the floor behind Jayde.

“Drake! She’s not going to leave Hayden.” Alin thickened the gray around Hayden. The demigod had ignored him the whole time, but he felt that something was better than nothing. “Get Hayden out of there!”

Up in the distant tree branch, Drake gave no indication that he had heard.

He flicked a javelin with his right and then another with his left.

The first flashed and banged in the demigod’s face.

The second pierced the floor next to Hayden.

Drake popped out of the tree tops, reappearing next to Hayden.

Twin eye beams curved around Jayde even as she tried to punch them.

Drake spun a spear out of nowhere.

Beams struck magic shield.

“They will die.”

“No means no, asshole!” Jayde snapped. She glanced at Drake.

His eyes begged.

Not to save him and Hayden, but her and their unborn daughter.

Had they even known the baby was a girl?

Alin couldn’t remember if they had mentioned it.

Tabitha and Adrian launched themselves recklessly from the shadows.

“Heartfuries always have each other’s backs. Sorry, honey.” She grit her teeth. “No Spells, No Skills. Just Me And You In The Ring.”