"You want me to fire the super-weapon you built into my gun here?" Blake stared at Chimera’s avatar, its grin more mischievous than reassuring.

"You're no fun, Blake. Just hike it up one of these mounds and do a test-fire," she shot back, the digital projection of her tail flicking in the direction of a nearby scrap heap that towered like an unstable hill.

Blake sighed, his eyes tracing the precarious rise of rusted metal and broken machinery. He glanced over at Eland, who gave him an encouraging nod before stepping forward. With a casual lift of his hand, Eland’s golden aura shimmered to life. Scrap debris shifted and rose beneath his feet like obedient servants, forming steps in mid-air as he ascended with effortless grace. Each motion was fluid, almost poetic, as though gravity itself bent to his will.

"Show-off," Blake muttered under his breath before focusing on his own ascent.

Activating [Unfettered Stride], he pushed off the ground, his boots gripping the uneven surfaces as though magnetized. A quick vault over a jutting piece of twisted rebar brought him to a narrow ledge where he planted a foot firmly before launching himself upward again. The mana-fueled agility let him climb with speed and precision, though it lacked the sheer elegance of Eland's golden path-making. Where Eland seemed like a conductor directing an orchestra of metal, Blake was more like a parkour runner improvising on the fly.

Reaching the top nearly at the same time as Eland, Blake caught his breath and scanned their surroundings. From this vantage point, he could see vast stretches of junkyard terrain stretching into the hazy horizon. The air carried a faint metallic tang mixed with heat from the alien sun.

"Alright," he said finally, adjusting his grip on the weapon as Chimera’s avatar materialized beside him with an eager expression. "Walk me through this 'Singularity Shot' before I end up doing something stupid."

"Focus, Blake," Chimera's voice echoed in his mind. "The weapon won't do the work for you—it's just a conduit. You have to visualize exactly what you want to happen."

Blake adjusted his stance, feeling the strange pulse of the gun's secondary core resonating with his own. The geometric patterns along the barrel glowed with an intense violet light that seemed to bend reality around its edges. Far below their vantage point, a collection of wrecked vehicles provided a tempting target range.

"Picture the point of impact," Chimera continued, her avatar gesturing toward the debris field. "That's where space itself will begin to fold. The gravity well forms first, then the detonation follows. Your Alacrity guides the attack, and your Intent shapes both stages."

Blake nodded, letting his breath steady as he raised the weapon. The world beyond the iridescent sights shifted, and his HUD began displaying new targeting data as the barrel array reconfigured itself. He barely noticed. He could feel the weapon drawing on his mana reserves, converting the energy into something darker and heavier.

"That's it," Chimera encouraged. "Let the warp mana pool in the chamber. When it reaches critical mass, the weapon will let you know."

The geometric patterns pulsed faster now, their light taking on an almost ultraviolet quality. The air around the muzzle began to distort, reality warping like a reflection in troubled water. Blake felt pressure building in his skull—not painful, but intense, like the moment before a thunderclap.

A soft chime sounded in his mind, and suddenly he knew the weapon was ready. The world through the sights had taken on a strange, fractalized quality, as though he was looking through a kaleidoscope made of broken space-time.

"When you're ready," Chimera whispered, "pull the trigger and let your Alacrity guide the shot."

Blake exhaled slowly, centering his aim on a particular twisted heap of metal that had once been some kind of transport. His finger tightened on the trigger.

The weapon discharged with a sound like reality tearing itself apart. A streak of shimmering violet and cobalt energy twisted through the air, leaving motes of rippling, bioluminescent light in its wake.

Blake's legs buckled as mana ripped from his core like someone had reached into his chest and yanked out his soul. The sensation left him gasping, hands trembling on the weapon's grip. His vision blurred, head spinning from the sudden drain.

"Easy there, big guy." Chimera's concerned tone filtered through the vertigo. "That's quite a chunk of energy you just burned."

Blake steadied himself against Eland's offered hand, muscles quivering like he'd run ten miles in full gear. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cool air. The gun felt impossibly heavy in his hands, its geometric patterns now dim and quiet.

"Thanks for the warning about the kick," he managed between breaths.

"Would you have believed me if I told you?"

"Probably not." Blake wiped his face with his sleeve, waiting for his heart rate to settle. "But a heads up would've been nice."

Blake tracked the projectile's path, watching as it spiraled toward its target with predatory grace.

The shot struck home.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then the air itself seemed to bend and distort, as if gravity itself was being rewritten. A swirling violet-black mass formed at the point of impact, pulsating with faint arcs of crackling energy. Objects, debris, and loose material within a three-meter radius were suddenly dragged inward, pulled by an invisible force. Their shapes warped and elongated as space contracted toward the singularity's heart.

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The atmosphere felt heavy, oppressive—like a thunderstorm about to break. Blake watched through the sights as the singularity expanded to its breaking point, reality straining against the impossible forces he'd unleashed.

Then it detonated.

The explosion was unlike anything Blake had ever witnessed. A deafening boom shook the air as the concentrated point of warped space-time released its pent-up energy in a catastrophic burst. The resulting shockwave of kinetic force hurled everything outward in a devastating radius. Debris that had been pulled inward was now violently expelled, transformed into hypersonic shrapnel that tore through anything in its path.

The blast wave rolled outward like a ripple in a pond, leaving strange distortions in its wake that bent light like heat waves on desert sand. When the chaos finally settled, a perfect crater marked the point of impact. The edges were unnaturally smooth, as though that section of reality had been scooped away with surgical precision.

"Fucking A," Blake breathed, lowering the weapon. His hands were steady, but he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. The display of raw destructive power was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

"By the twins," Eland rumbled beside him, his massive form silhouetted against the alien sky. "I've seen some devastating applications of spatial manipulation before, but that..." He shook his head slowly. "That isn't something you should be capable of doing yet."

Blake glanced down at the weapon in his hands. The geometric patterns had dimmed to a soft glow, and he could feel the secondary core slowly recovering from the massive energy expenditure. This wasn't the reliable P226 he'd gotten used to over the years. That gun had been a tool—this was something else entirely.

"What do you call it?" he asked. "Can't exactly call it a Sig anymore."

Chimera's avatar flickered, her tail curling around her feet in an almost bashful gesture. "I thought about it while you were sleeping. Given your choice of class and what it represents..." She paused. "I named it Verdict."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Verdict?"

"A Roadwarden walks the line between order and chaos, right? Makes judgment calls that keep the peace?" Her avatar straightened. "When you draw this weapon, you're passing judgment. The name felt... appropriate."

Blake continued to explore the weapon in his hands, feeling its weight—both physical and metaphorical. The name resonated with something deep inside him, a note of purpose that aligned with his new path. But practicality won out over poetry, and his mind turned to tactical considerations. After that display of raw power, he needed to know its limits.

"Chimera, how often can I fire something like that?"

"At your current mana capacity?" Her avatar materialized between them, studying the aftermath of the shot. "Maybe once every few hours. The energy cost is significant, and manufacturing the specialized round takes a toll on my biomass."

Eland turned to look over Blake more critically. "How's your mana recovery feeling? Any strain from the test fire?"

Blake did a quick internal check, sensing his energy levels. "Some depletion, but nothing severe. The weapon's secondary core seemed to handle most of the load, honestly. The overall mana consumption was just so high I didn't notice at first." He paused, considering. "Though I noticed my mana channels felt... stretched? Like they were being pulled taut."

"That's normal," Chimera assured him. "You're essentially forcing space-time to bend in ways it doesn't want to. Your channels will adapt and strengthen with use, just like any other skill."

"Still," Eland mused, "having that kind of firepower available could change our entire approach to dealing with Rax's compound." He gestured toward the crater. "A shot like that could breach their walls or create a devastating diversion."

Blake nodded slowly, his mind already running through possibilities. "The sound would alert everyone within kilometers though. We'd need to time it perfectly with whatever other moves we make."

"The initial gravity well could be useful for crowd control too," Chimera added. "Imagine firing it into a chokepoint—anyone caught in the pull would be helpless until the detonation."

"And completely pulverized afterward," Blake grimaced. "You think Rax has access to anything like this? Spatial manipulation or gravity weapons?"

"Nothing this refined," Chimera interjected, sounding almost offended at the idea.

"Regardless," Eland interjected, "we should talk to Mara about integrating this new capability into our overall assault plan. The compound's northern wall still seems like our best target, but now we have options for how we approach it."

"And we'll need to account for Rax's response," Chimera reminded them. "A weapon like this will draw attention. He'll either try to fall back to a more defensible position or commit everything to a counter-attack."

"We've still got the rest of the day to make any adjustments we need to. The night too, if we start cutting into rest hours." Blake checked his ammunition count, the numbers flickering across his HUD.

"The timing will be critical," Eland said. "A shot like that will draw every enforcer in the compound. The chaos should give Mara's people the opening they need to breach the outer defenses."

"Perfect distraction," Blake nodded. "While they're scrambling to respond to a frontal assault, I can slip in through the maintenance tunnels Mara mapped out. The old processing lines should be nearly empty."

Chimera's avatar flickered. "Zephyr and I have been running simulations on the infiltration route. Their security patterns are predictable - especially when they're responding to a crisis."

"And what about Rax himself?" Eland's massive form shifted, casting a long shadow across the debris. "He'll be expecting something."

"That's why we hit from multiple angles," Blake said. "The Singularity Shot creates havoc at the front gate. Mara's people push through the confusion. Meanwhile, I'm already inside, moving through their blind spots." He checked his knife, running a finger along the strange new metal of the blade. "By the time they realize there's an infiltrator, it'll be too late."

"Your confidence in this plan..." Eland studied Blake with those deep, knowing eyes. "How certain are you about the infiltration?"

Blake smiled, feeling Chimera's quiet satisfaction humming through their bond. "That's something Chimera and I have been planning together for a while now. They won't know what hit them."