Gun stared at the circle of enemies around him and made a decision.
Not a desperate one.
A real one.
The kind that had gotten him through thousands of fights before this tower ever existed.
His mind moved fast, cutting the battlefield into pieces.
Not all at once.
Step by step.
Target by target.
"Alright," he said, voice low. "I've got it."
Jack glanced at him sharply. "You do?"
Gun didn't answer immediately.
He was already seeing the flow.
The bodyguards were too strong to rush head-on.
The rookies were the only weak link.
The Architect wanted them boxed into a corner and crushed by superior coordination.
So Gun would do the opposite.
He would turn the whole battlefield into a confusion trap.
He looked at the others.
"Jack."
Jack straightened slightly.
"You flash the weaker enemies."
Jack nodded once. "Blind the rookies."
"Exactly."
Gun turned to Waver.
"You ice prison the crowd. Not to hold them forever. Just long enough to pull attention."
Waver's eyes narrowed a little, but he understood instantly. "A short shock barrier."
Gun nodded.
"Right."
Then he looked at Luna.
"You put Graceful Flame on me."
Luna already had her hand raised. "And Ashen Veil?"
Gun gave a quick nod.
"On yourself and Jack."
She didn't ask why.
She already knew.
If Gun was going in deep, the rest of them needed sustain and cover.
The plan kept forming.
Jack would use Flash first.
The weaker enemies would lose sight for a moment.
Then Waver would use Ice Prison.
Not to trap everyone.
To force attention.
To make the enemy line split in instinctive reaction.
That was when Gun would trigger Flash Step and start running in a circle.
Not away.
Around.
Confusing them. Dragging their eyes. Making them turn, readjust, and overthink.
While they focused on him, Luna would buff him with Graceful Flame and keep herself and Jack protected with Ashen Veil.
Jack would then sneak in and hit one of the bodyguards with Lightning Grab.
Not enough to kill.
Just enough to force a reaction.
And the moment that reaction opened a gap—
Waver's Ice Daggers.
No.
Not Ice Daggers.
This was even more lethal now.
Gun wanted the chain pressure.
The stun window.
The frozen hesitation.
Jack understood the moment Gun described it.
His eyes sharpened.
"Then I hit them again."
Gun nodded.
"Not just hit. You chain into the gap."
Jack's expression changed into something more focused.
"Lightning Cut."
Gun looked at him.
Jack spoke with rising confidence now.
"If I use Thunder Grab first, and then the Conduction Nexus follows through, I can cut through the bodyguards' weak spots with lightning-speed slashes."
Waver looked mildly interested.
Gun's mouth curved faintly.
"Good."
Now the shape of the plan was there.
Jack would blind and harass.
Waver would control the space.
Gun would use Flash Step, Friction, and Mirror Slashes to overwhelm the rookies and force openings.
Then Jack would tear into a bodyguard with Lightning Cut.
It was risky.
It was loud.
And it would absolutely make the Architect angry.
Which meant it was probably the right move.
Gun cracked his neck once.
"Let's go."
Jack moved first.
Flash.
A burst of light tore through the front line, blinding the weaker enemies for just long enough to make them hesitate.
The rookies cursed and stumbled.
Not all of them.
But enough.
Waver slammed his hand down.
The ground split upward in a hard burst of frost.
Ice Prison.
Thick ice walls rose fast, not as a full trap, but as a pressure point.
The enemies reacted exactly as Gun expected.
They turned toward the walls.
Their attention split.
That was the opening.
Gun vanished.
Flash Step.
Then he started running in a circle.
Fast.
Too fast for the rookies to keep tracking cleanly.
Their eyes followed him and lost him and followed him again, each turn making the formation weaker.
Luna lifted her hand.
Graceful Flame drifted onto Gun and settled near him like a warm pulse of protection.
At the same time, Ashen Veil spread over Luna and Jack, keeping them both hidden by smoke and healing pressure.
Jack disappeared into the mist.
A bodyguard turned just in time to see him.
Too late.
Thunder Grab.
Jack blinked forward with lightning speed, seized the enemy by the neck, and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath them.
A bolt of lightning dropped down immediately after and burst over the bodyguard's back.
The man grunted, hurt but not broken.
He tried to rise.
Jack kicked off and moved again.
That was enough.
Because behind him—
Five daggers of ice flashed through the air.
Waver had cast his skill.
The blades chained across the enemy line with deadly accuracy, stunning several of the rookies in a sequence of sharp frozen impacts.
Gun saw the window.
His body surged.
Friction.
The boots lit up under him.
His speed spiked violently.
For the first time in a while, he felt like the tower had handed him something that actually fit his fighting style.
He jumped from one ice pillar to the next.
Then another.
Then another.
Three pillars.
Three launches.
And with the extra speed from Friction, he cut through the rookies like they were standing still.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
They dropped in the blink of an eye.
Gun barely touched the ground before he activated Mirror Slashes.
Every strike he made echoed behind him in mirrored force.
He spun through the remaining space and lunged straight at one of the bodyguards.
Avenger's Cut.
At the same exact moment, Jack recovered from the earlier hit and used Lightning Grab again.
This time the skill evolved under pressure.
Conduction surged through the weapon and across the bodyguard's frame.
Lightning Cut.
The air snapped bright.
Jack's slash came down as if the world itself had turned into a lightning channel.
The bodyguard was hit from multiple lines of force in the span of a breath, vital spots cut and shocked and torn open by repeated electrical precision.
The man staggered.
Not dead.
But badly injured.
The others moved to cover him.
That was the problem.
The Divers had won the opening, but now they were crowded into a smaller and smaller space.
Too many enemies.
Too little room.
The formation tightened around them.
Gun clicked his tongue.
The Architect smiled.
Not wide.
Just enough to show he had expected this.
"I see what you are trying to do," he said.
Gun stared at him.
The Architect continued, voice calm and sharp.
"You planned to distract us, clear the weaklings, and then strike at the stronger enemies while we assumed you were only targeting the scraps."
He gave a small sigh, almost disappointed.
"But I already saw that coming centuries ago."
Gun's jaw tightened.
The Architect stepped forward a little, black suit unmoving despite the chaos around him.
"Are you truly this ignorant, Gun?"
The way he said Gun's name made it sound like a diagnosis.
"Can't you see your own limitations? These are low-level battle strategies. Basic pressure. Basic misdirection. Basic force."
Gun's eyes narrowed.
That got under his skin.
A lot.
He moved before anyone could stop him.
A final slash shot out toward the Architect.
But three bodyguards stepped in at once.
The clash exploded.
Gun's blade rang against steel and mana and wind.
One attack.
Two.
Three.
Seven.
Nine.
He parried thirteen attacks in a row.
Perfect timing.
Perfect defense.
But then he missed one.
Just one.
The rhythm broke.
His timing collapsed for a split second, and the next strike hit him hard enough to send him into the side wall.
Gun coughed violently.
Blood splattered from his mouth.
His vision blurred for a moment.
The bodyguards moved in.
Jack and Waver tried to cover him, but the space was already too tight.
Gun got hit again.
Then shoved back.
Then forced down.
For the first time in a while, he looked badly hurt.
Luna's voice cut through the smoke.
"Gun!"
Her Ashen Veil flared.
The healing effect spread over him almost immediately.
His breathing steadied.
His wounds started closing faster than they should have.
Gun pressed a hand to the wall, still breathing hard.
Then something clicked in his head.
A memory.
A feeling.
A habit.
Not from the tower.
From somewhere else.
Deepwoken.
The Depths.
The thousands of times he had fought while outnumbered.
The times where the enemy gang thought they had him boxed.
The times where he had already been losing before the fight even started and still won anyway.
Gun's eyes widened slightly.
This was the same feeling.
Not a duel.
Not a siege.
A gank.
That was what this was.
He had done this before.
Hundreds of times.
No—
Thousands.
His breathing changed.
His face hardened.
The ache in his ribs, the blood on his mouth, the pressure around him all became something familiar.
A pattern.
A shape he understood.
Gun slowly lifted his head.
And smiled.
"...Yeah."
The Architect watched him.
Gun's eyes sharpened.
"This is just a gank."
And for the first time since the ambush started, he looked like he had found the one thing he actually wanted to be in.