The third clash between Suki and Yashin tore across the skies, turning the night into a blazing white scar.
The light burst through the storm's darkness, swallowing Gron-Tarh's towers and stretching five shadows across the wrecked platform.
Down below, Sahger made a single, fatal mistake: he looked up.
High atop a pipe, Vladimir released the string.
The arrow hissed through the rain and embedded itself precisely in the gap of Sahger's damaged pauldron.
The metal tip scraped across the bone of his left shoulder, and the force of the impact twisted his body.
Before he could regain his balance, William lunged forward like a shadow torn free from the ground.
The chaplain no longer wielded a spear. His slender hands revealed Vladimir's curved daggers, now strapped against his forearms, nearly invisible beneath the black sleeves.
William slipped inside Sahger's guard with the ease of someone stepping into his own home.
Not a single movement was wasted.
The first blade slid along the shaft of Sahger's spear, knocking it aside; the second rose in a swift arc, severing the thick straps holding the side plate of his golden armor in place.
Sahger reacted quickly.
He spun the weapon, trying to strike the chaplain with the heavy steel butt.
But he found only damp air.
William had already slipped out of range.
At that same instant, the empty space was swallowed by Lutor's enormous bulk.
The giant roared as he charged, shoulders spread, torso twisted.
His body screamed the message: the wide arc of a colossal axe coming to tear his head off.
Sahger's combat instincts and sharp mind read the movement in a tenth of a second.
He calculated the inertia, measured the phantom weight of the blow, and dictated the perfect response: retreat half a step.
Enough for the axe's edge to miss, leaving his opponent vulnerable from the force spent in the attack.
He stepped back.
But there was no axe in Lutor's hands.
There was a spear.
William's clean, straight thrust came through the center of the feint.
The weapon's tip punched through the exact spot where the side armor plate had just been torn away, ripping through Sahger's abdomen until it caught against a rib.
Without breaking his momentum, Lutor roared with effort and hoisted Sahger into the air, using the warrior's body as a grotesque counterweight before hurling him like a sack of stones against a thick pipe attached to the power tower.
The metallic crash thundered through the air.
All the oxygen was driven from Sahger's lungs with a ragged groan.
Gravity threatened to drag him down, but before he could collapse onto the platform floor, the real axe cut through the rain.
Yasmin.
Her delicate hands clenched around Lutor's brutal weapon.
She did not try to channel her companion's grotesque strength. Her posture was clinical.
A marksman tracing a projectile's path, calculating the wind, compensating for the drop, she guided the weight of the iron straight toward the web-like fracture tearing across Sahger's chest.
Pure instinct made him raise his spear in front of his body.
The collision of steel was brutal.
The axe crushed Sahger's own spear shaft against the center of his fractured breastplate.
He choked as the force of the collision broke a rib or two in the process. He felt the armor collapse into his flesh, his knees giving out before he toppled sideways and rolled across the rain-soaked metal.
A second arrow spat sparks as it buried itself in the floor exactly where his skull had rested seconds earlier.
"Going to keep running?" The taunting insult cut through the storm.
Up above, running across a tangle of thin pipes, was Vladimir, wielding Yasmin's longbow.
Every three quick, light steps, his shattered foot demanded its price, forcing him to stumble, but he had turned his physical defect into his own rhythm.
His imbalance was his evasion.
A limping dance of short, deadly hops beneath the rain, which he used to fire from, far removed from the static perfectionism of a conventional archer.
A bloodied smile colored his face.
"I thought you liked showing off!"
The third arrow whistled.
But it was not aimed at Sahger.
The projectile passed inches from his eyes and struck the thick cable securing the left side of the platform to the tower.
The tip pierced the metal fibers, severing them all at once.
The final support gave way.
With a deafening crash, that side of the platform plunged downward, and everything tilted toward the abyss.
Dirty water, debris, and corpses slid across the metal like an avalanche.
Sahger was dragged along with them.
In a desperate reflex, he drove the blade of his spear into the floor plating.
The tip tore through several meters of metal, sending a shower of sparks flying before finally catching and holding him a few steps from the edge.
Along the higher, steeper side of the tilted platform, William's soft footsteps slid like a ghost carried by the current.
The chaplain said nothing.
He advanced in a crouch.
One dagger flashed low, aiming to slice through the fingers Sahger used to hold himself up, while the other flew treacherously toward his exposed armpit, ready to spill his organs.
Sahger released the spear for a second, slipped past the slash aimed at his joints, and swung the gauntleted fist of his remaining armored hand into the second thrust.
The dagger did not care.
Its black material sank violently through the metal, piercing his skin and the center of his palm.
But William did not pull it free.
With a sharp twist of his wrist, he widened the hole.
Sahger's vision went white for an instant, a searing fire engulfing his entire right arm.
A guttural roar locked in his throat, and he released it through movement instead: he snapped his torso forward in a primitive motion and slammed the helmet-covered forehead into the center of the bloody band covering the chaplain's eyes.
The muffled impact coincided with William's already-broken nasal bone giving way again, yet the damned monk refused to retreat even an inch.
He merely slid his heels across the slanted floor, dragging Sahger with him toward the slippery abyss below.
At the lower end of the tilted platform, where the floor was still relatively intact, Lutor was already waiting.
William's bloodied spear was in his hands.
The giant planted one boot against the metal, pulled his shoulder back, and aligned his elbow with the shaft.
Sahger immediately recognized the preparation for a thrust.
The blade would come from below, seeking his guts.
Before Lutor could attack, Sahger twisted his torso to the right, pulling his abdomen out of the predicted trajectory.
Sahger had not misread Lutor's movements.
The stance was exactly that of a thrust aimed at the abdomen.
What he failed to understand was the true purpose of the technique. Lutor had never intended to impale him.
The instant Sahger moved aside, the giant struck the floor with the bottom end of the spear.
The metal pierced the plating, leaving the shaft firmly planted right in the middle of the escape route he had chosen.
Sahger was already moving too fast to stop.
His knee slammed into the immovable spear.
The impact cracked his bones and hurled his body forward, sending him rolling uncontrollably across the slanted floor.
He came to a disoriented stop, completely exposed.
And it was not Lutor who finished the attack.
The curved shaft of the axe spun in an arc through Yasmin's swift silhouette, striking mercilessly against the curved temporal bone of Sahger's helmet.
A bell rang inside Sahger's brain. The world lost its colors for a second, and the floor buzzed inside his ear.
The metallic ringing continued vibrating inside his head, but for an instant, it seemed to come from very far away.
From two tiny hands tapping against the side of a helmet.
"Daddy, it won't stay straight."
Sahger lifted his eyes.
His daughter held his helmet with both hands, trying to keep it from slipping over her nose.
The red crest hung crooked to one side, while her sister, standing on tiptoe, pulled the metal in the opposite direction.
The harder they tried to straighten it, the more crooked it became.
Sitting on the bench in front of the house, Sahger abandoned the strap he was repairing and caught the edge of the helmet before it could completely cover the girl's face.
"There's not enough head in there."
"Mine will grow."
"I hope it doesn't grow that much."
The other girl burst into laughter.
The girl beneath the helmet tried to glare at her, but she had to turn her entire body to see through the opening.
At the doorway, Sahger's wife covered her mouth with her fingers to hide her smile.
He wore no armor at all, only a shirt with its sleeves rolled up and trousers marked with dirt around the knees.
The breastplate rested beside the bench; the spear leaned against the wall, safely out of the little girls' reach.
There, in the backyard of that house hidden away in an isolated world, armor served mainly to spark arguments over who would get to wear it first.
"Now it's my turn. You've had it forever."
"But I haven't even fought yet."
Sahger carefully removed the helmet and placed it on the bench.
Both girls followed the red crest with the same expression of protest.
"You two aren't fighting in that."
"Then show us."
"Show you what?"
"How you fight."
Her sister immediately agreed, clutching her own shirt against her chest as though she were wearing armor.
"With the spear!"
"Without the spear," their mother corrected from the doorway.
Sahger gave his wife a resigned look, but she simply settled more comfortably against the doorframe, clearly intending to watch.
He stood and walked toward the open part of the yard, the girls following behind, nearly tripping over each other.
"All right. Both of you against me."
The two girls looked at each other.
"Together?"
"With everything you've got. If you can touch even one finger to me, you win."
"And you can't use the spear."
"Your mother already banned that."
"Not the helmet either."
"That too."
One of them pointed at his arms.
"And you can't grab us and put us up there."
Sahger looked at the bench, then at the wall, pretending to consider the options they had just taken away from him.
"You two thought of everything."
The first attack came before he finished the sentence. One of the girls ran to grab his waist, arms spread wide and her face already lit with the certainty of victory.
Sahger took half a step to the side.
She hugged empty air and had to take two more steps to keep from falling.
Her sister tried to take advantage of the distraction.
She jumped to reach his arm, but Sahger raised it just enough for her fingers to pass underneath.
"Close," he commented.
"Stand still!"
"That rule wasn't part of the agreement."
They came at him again, this time from opposite sides.
Sahger turned between them, pulled one foot back to avoid a tiny hand, and tilted his torso when the other tried to catch his shirt.
None of his movements were large.
He seemed merely to open space for his daughters to run through.
They stopped, panting, and gathered a few steps away from him.
They whispered behind their hands, glancing at their father every few words.
Sahger waited with his arms hanging loose.
"No listening," one of them warned.
He turned toward his wife.
"Now I'm not allowed to listen either."
"I'd say that's fair."
The girl behind him charged immediately.
Sahger moved his leg away before she could grab his knee, while the other, coming from the front, caught nothing but the edge of his shirt slipping from her fingers.
"You weren't even looking!"
"But you stomped your foot before you ran."
She looked down at her own feet, offended by their betrayal.
Her sister tried one last time.
She pretended to walk back toward the bench, changed direction suddenly, and reached for his back.
Sahger turned at exactly the right moment, letting her fingers pass beside his waist.
"That's cheating!"
"Prediction," he corrected.
"That's just another name for cheating!"
His wife's laughter finally escaped.
Sahger pressed his lips together, trying to maintain his seriousness, and crouched down in front of them.
"It's the name of my ability."
"You know everything we're going to do?"
"Not everything. Want to see? Try touching my shoulder. Slowly."
The girl reached out her hand.
Before she could touch him, Sahger leaned his body away, letting her fingers pass within inches.
"You looked over here first." He touched his own shoulder.
"Then you shifted your weight onto that foot and raised your arm. By the time your hand arrived, I'd already understood where it was going."
She wrinkled her nose.
"Then I won't look."
She turned toward her sister and tried to touch him again.
Sahger pulled his shoulder back.
"This time it was your elbow."
"But it has to move!"
"It does."
Her sister stepped closer, far too interested to keep pretending she wasn't paying attention.
"So you don't see it beforehand?"
"I see the beginning. The way someone steps, breathes, holds something. It helps me understand what comes next."
"And if I change?"
"Then I have to notice and change too."
One of them hid her hands behind her back.
Sahger followed the movement but said nothing.
"You never make mistakes?"
"I do."
Both girls looked genuinely surprised.
"When?"
Sahger scratched his beard, choosing his words.
"When I think I already know what someone is going to do and stop paying attention."
"Then you get hit?"
"Then I get hit."
The girl let out a small giggle, though she tried to sound concerned.
"Then pay attention, Daddy."
"I'm trying."
She pulled one hand from behind her back and reached for his nose.
Sahger tilted his head, the tip of her finger passing through empty air.
For a moment, they simply stared at each other. Then the girl burst into laughter, and her sister joined in.
Neither of them could touch him.
"One more!"
"You've already asked for one more about twenty times."
"This one is the last."
"You've said that too."
Sahger's wife crossed her arms in the doorway, smiling when he glanced toward her.
She did not look inclined to save him.
He sat down in the dirt, resting his forearms on his knees.
"That's it. I surrender."
Only then did the girls throw themselves onto him.
Sahger caught them with a low laugh, one clinging to his neck, the other trying to settle herself across his legs.
"I won," announced the one who had arrived first.
"We won."
"Both of you won," he agreed.
One of them ran her fingers along the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt and looked at the armor on the bench again.
"Will you teach me?"
Sahger followed his daughter's gaze.
For a moment, his smile faded.
"I want you two far away from these fights. You don't need to be like your father."
The girl lifted her face, displeased.
"But I want to. I want to have that Prediction too."
Her sister pressed herself a little closer against him.
"I want to be just like you too, Daddy."
The snap of a bowstring brought the rain rushing back.
Sahger was still on the ground.
Yasmin's blow had opened the helmet's clasp. The armor had slipped when he turned his head and struck the floor in front of him. The helmet had survived the impact, but now it was already—
Thank you for the improvements, Gordon, he thought.
Vladimir's arrow tore through the space his face had just occupied, slicing his ear.
Then pay attention, Daddy, whispered his mind.
William's daggers descended toward his chest, but found only the wet plating when he rolled onto his side.
One of the blades tore away a sliver of steel beside his ribs.
Lutor was pulling the spear from the floor.
Yasmin was finishing her recovery of the axe.
Higher up the slope, Vladimir was already drawing another arrow to the string.
Sahger saw Lutor's thumb shift position on the shaft.
He saw Yasmin lighten the weight on her heel, allowing her to turn her hips.
William withdrew one dagger but kept the other low, waiting for Sahger to try to stand.
They were all showing him something else.
Sahger stopped trying to make them fit the memories in his head.
The spear came first.
He drew in his abdomen and slid across the tilted plating, letting the tip pierce the floor beside his flank.
William surged through the opening, blade low and seeking his throat, and Sahger turned his face inward along the arc, so close to the chaplain's arm that he felt the wet fabric brush his hair.
The dagger passed behind his neck.
With the foot still supporting his weight, he braced it against a raised joint in the plating and pulled himself into a crouch.
Pain shot through his injured knee; Sahger exhaled through his teeth without putting weight on the leg.
Yasmin's axe swept through the space where his head would have been if he had finished standing.
He stayed low.
The enormous blade passed over his hair and forced William to break off his approach.
Sahger followed the attack underneath, reached for his own spear lying against a crossbeam in the floor, and closed his right hand around the shaft.
Vladimir fired.
Sahger was already moving his shoulder when the string vibrated.
The arrow passed beside his neck without drawing a drop of blood.
He drove the bottom end of the spear into the metal and used the leverage to rise onto his steady leg.
Lutor pulled the weapon back for another thrust; Sahger took a short step to the side before it came.
The tip sliced through the air beside his waist.
William tried to reach him from behind the giant.
Sahger only needed to draw his elbow in and pivot on his supporting foot.
The first dagger passed in front of his chest; the second found only the space between him and the spear he raised.
When Yasmin recovered the axe, Sahger was already out of range.
None of them had touched him.
He finished straightening slowly, helmetless, one pauldron hanging from a strap and his breastplate open where the armor plates had been torn away.
Blood ran from his temple, through his gray beard, and dripped onto his wounded hand.
His knee had not improved.
His ribs still screamed with every breath, yet the green-tipped spear finally stopped wavering.
A flash of red and blue tore through the clouds above the towers.
Sahger lifted his eyes for an instant, recognizing the battle still raging in the sky.
Suki would give him a way out.
Lavinsk.
A place to take his wife and the two girls without having to hide them from the rest of the world.
"I hope you keep your promise, Suki," he murmured.
He lowered his eyes to the Beasts, but he could still remember the tiny arms wrapped around his neck.
His wife standing in the doorway.
The pride with which his daughters had asked to be like him.
He wanted to return to that backyard.
"No, my girls. I don't want you to be like your father."
A small curve appeared at the corner of his bloodied mouth.
He spun the spear, slicing through every drop of falling rain.
The Four Beasts froze. They knew that arrogant stance all too well.
"You didn't kill me in time."
Vladimir released the string before Sahger had even finished the sentence.
The first arrow sought his exposed throat; the second came right behind it, lower, aimed at his injured knee.
Sahger turned his face and drew his leg back, letting both projectiles pass.
By the time the assassin's hand returned to the quiver, he was already advancing.
Lutor took the lead and thrust beneath his arm, sending a trail of water spraying from the floor.
The giant began twisting his wrist to turn the thrust into a sweeping strike when Sahger struck the shaft from below, near the tip.
The deflection lifted the blade above his shoulder, opening a path for him to move underneath.
William appeared to his right, spreading his daggers to cut his throat. Sahger noticed the lead hand loosen an instant before the attack.
That blade would force him backward; the other, held close to the chaplain's waist, was waiting precisely for that evasion.
He kept advancing.
The first dagger passed behind his head, while the bottom end of the spear struck the wrist holding the second and pinned it against William's abdomen.
The chaplain lost his breath, but still tried to drag the blade along the shaft.
Sahger twisted the weapon before he could.
The shaft struck William beneath the chin, snapping his head upward and drawing blood from his mouth.
Before the man could fall, the hunter shoved him away with his shoulder, sending him into Yasmin's path.
She halted the axe inches from her companion's back.
She had to twist her hips and spread her feet to support the weapon's weight; Sahger followed the movement and struck the ankle she was bracing on.
Yasmin lost her balance, slammed one knee against the metal, and dragged the axe across the floor to keep from falling completely.
The third arrow passed over her.
Sahger tilted his head as he drew back his spear, striking the projectile with its green tip and splitting it apart before his face.
Vladimir was already reaching for another arrow when he realized the warrior was staring at him.
The smile vanished from his lips.
Lutor attacked from behind, aiming for the gap between the torn armor plates.
Sahger shifted his torso before the thrust could fully extend, let the blade pass beside his exposed ribs, and trapped the shaft between his right arm and body.
When the giant pulled, he went with the motion.
The momentum carried him close enough.
The green tip slipped into the fold of Lutor's elbow, tearing a gash down to the tendons.
The giant roared and released the weapon with his injured hand.
Sahger freed the enemy shaft before the other arm could grab him and escaped along the side, dragging his injured leg.
"Separate!" William spat blood as he gave the order.
Yasmin rose.
Lutor adjusted his grip, holding the spear mainly with the arm that still answered him, while Vladimir retreated toward the highest part of the platform near the tower and drew the bow again.
This time, William moved in without waiting for his companions.
Yasmin came an instant later from another angle; Lutor delayed his thrust, while Vladimir kept the string drawn, waiting for the moment Sahger became occupied with a defense.
The chaplain's first step gave away the change.
Instead of parrying his daggers, Sahger moved back only his foot, forcing him to stretch out his arm to reach him.
The green tip pierced the outside of his exposed forearm. As he pulled the spear back, the hunter tore through the flesh in a long cut.
The axe descended from the left.
Sahger waited for Yasmin to shift her weight forward and stepped out of the trajectory with a short movement.
The colossal blade struck the plating where he had been, splitting the metal and scattering water and rust.
Lutor took advantage of the impact to attack.
Sahger struck the side of his spear, redirecting the tip into the axe haft.
The weapons collided, forcing Yasmin to pull hers back to keep from losing it.
The giant withdrew the spear before the collision could break his fingers.
That was when Vladimir fired.
Sahger dropped beside Lutor's shoulder; the arrow passed through the space where his eye had been and scraped across the giant's armor.
When he emerged on the other side, he was closer to the assassin.
Vladimir stepped back, but his pierced foot failed beneath his weight.
He corrected the movement in haste, and Sahger tracked the shift in his footing.
Whenever he needed to move quickly, the assassin escaped to the same side.
"He's coming!" Vladimir shouted.
William tried to close the passage.
Sahger kept his eyes on the assassin until the chaplain raised his dagger; then he struck upward from below, hitting his clavicle with the shaft.
The bone gave beneath the soaked cassock.
William was thrown sideways into Lutor, and Sahger passed through the space the two men left behind.
Yasmin pursued him with a low sweep, aiming for his legs.
Sahger had already seen her fingers slide along the handle to increase the reach.
He stepped onto an exposed beam with his steady leg, drew the other up, and let the axe pass beneath his boots.
As he landed, he struck the woman's wrist with the end of his spear.
Yasmin's hand opened.
Held by only the other, the axe's weight pitched forward before she could pull it back.
The blade scraped across the floor, dragging her down, and the woman had to crouch to regain control.
Sahger advanced two more steps, just in time to see Vladimir fire from nearly point-blank range.
He was already tilting his torso when the arrow tore through the rain beside his neck.
His spear came up beneath the bow and knocked it from the assassin's bloodied hands.
The weapon struck the tower wall and fell between the two men.
Vladimir instinctively reached for his waist, searching for the daggers he no longer carried.
The gesture lasted less than a second; Sahger followed it to the end.
"Vladimir!"
William hurled one of the blades over Lutor's shoulder.
It spun with the handle aimed toward the assassin's open hand, returning to him the weapon with which he had killed for so many years.
Sahger struck before he could catch it.
The green blade passed cleanly through the wrist.
Vladimir's hand dropped, fingers still trying to close around the weapon, and the dagger struck the floor beside it.
His scream came out high and broken by the shock.
He clutched the stump against his chest and tried to leap aside, relying on the foot that still worked.
Sahger was already moving the spear in that direction.
The shaft slammed into the side of his knee with a short, brutal crack, folding the leg inward with an audible snap beneath the rain.
Vladimir fell.
The hunter stepped back half a pace, letting him drop to his knees in front of him, but the assassin still lunged forward, reaching with his remaining hand for the dagger on the ground.
Sahger stepped onto the weapon, pinning it beneath the fingers trying to grab it.
Vladimir pulled once, desperately.
Neither hand nor blade came free.
Lutor roared and charged.
Yasmin finally raised the axe, and William ran after them both, ignoring his own pain.
Sahger heard their footsteps and felt the giant's weight reverberating through the floor.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Lutor raise the spear to throw it.
Yasmin still needed two more steps to reach him.
Neither would make it in time.
Vladimir raised his face.
The rain swept the pink hair away from his wide eyes. He opened his mouth, but had to draw breath before the voice came.
"Wa—"
Sahger slid his right hand along the shaft, shortening his grip, and spun the spear at neck level.
The green blade entered beneath the jaw, cut through the throat, and met the rough resistance of the spine.
He completed the motion on his steady leg, driving the steel through the bone with the rotation of his hips.
The head separated before Vladimir could finish the word.
Hot blood splashed across Sahger's bare chest.
The head struck the floor, rolled down the incline, and stopped against William's boot.
The chaplain froze.
Lutor had his arm cocked to throw the weapon, but Sahger was already turning toward him, the green tip raised.
The giant hesitated.
Yasmin stopped beside him, tightening her grip on the axe with the only hand she could still close.
Sahger spat blood between his feet.
Rain streamed down his gray beard, washing Vladimir's blood from his face.
Behind him, the corpse began sliding across the metal, leaving a thick trail between the puddles.
Then Red Crest took a step.
And THE THREE BEASTS STEPPED BACK.