Naru looks thoroughly unimpressed, except for the part where he sputters and waves his hands around at the pest flying repeatedly into his eyes.

It's more or less in line with my own expectations. I dart backwards quickly, wary of retaliation, and even with that preemptive dodge his strike slams me in the chest hard enough that I can feel my ribcage caving in. It's only Second Wind that keeps me alive, heart and bones quickly forming out of Firmament and keeping my blood pumping.

Second Wind dampens the pain, too. I see the surprise in his eyes when I stay standing, and despite the difficulty I have breathing — Second Wind is not perfect — I force myself to grin.

I'll make him think I'm stronger than I am. I'll make him hesitate. Unlike before, with Mari and Ahkelios harassing him, he doesn't have time to check his own Interface; he won't know exactly how many loops I've been through, so he can't be entirely certain about my strengths.

Not that the number of loops tells him that much, really. I dash forward, feeling the flames of Firestep ignite beneath my feet.

There's more to Firestep that I haven't fully uncovered yet. The skill is weak for a Rank-C skill; it makes me about ten times faster to Triplestep's three, and while that's good, it doesn't feel like the upgrade from Rank F to Rank C should. Rank C takes five times as many points, and leaving fire behind me isn't exactly useful in a fight.

Not unless there's more to the skill. It's not just a glorified firesetter, is it?

I'd noticed this before, the first time I was in this Hotspot. My Firestep Firmament kept a hold of its color up until the Firmament drained out of it, leaving behind nothing but ordinary fire. I might be able to use that Firmament to my advantage — it is, after all, technically my Firmament.

No better time to test it than now, in the middle of a fight that could kill me, I think sarcastically — but I'm not faking the grin that's stretching across my face.

I've always been good at this.

Naru tries to focus on me, but his mother makes it nearly impossible. Mari rockets towards him, barrelling in his direction with the force and inevitability of a train, and he crosses his arms in front of his chest to defend himself.

The force of the blow still craters the ground, and blows back a few of Naru's feathers. He doesn't look hurt, but he's looking steadily more annoyed.

Ahkelios, meanwhile, darts in and out with astonishing speed — stinging his eyes again and again. Naru is frustrated enough by this that he swings a fist at Ahkelios, but without a Dispel empowering his blows and Second Wind reinforcing Ahkelios, his attempts are almost entirely ineffective.

Ahkelios proves very, very good at being a distraction. He flares his Firmament brightly at random intervals, almost searing one moment and then dim to the point of near-invisibility the next; it's clever, I realize. All the physical defenses in the world don't protect Naru from the overstimulation of bright, flashing lights that insistently fly into your eyes.

Ahkelios is also still yelling out random plant biology words, which I figure is part of the whole distraction thing.

The strange thing is, that strategy is working. Naru's looking more and more overwhelmed — whatever Reflex skills he has, they don't seem to cover multitasking. His ability to track Mari, Ahkelios and I seems severely diminished, and he catches a powerful blow in the side from Mari.

Even with his impressive reserve of Firmament, he's sent flying. This time, it's his turn to crash through several trees, their wooden trunks cracking apart with a loud creak that echoes throughout the forest.

"Trialgoer!" Naru yells. I don't know why he's yelling at me — but his eyes are wild and crazed, and I realized we've pushed him past his breaking point. The anger in his eyes is frightening.

And yet...

They don't compare to the pain in Mari's. They don't compare to my own anger, the thought of this crow betraying Mari and Tarin like that. I've known them for all of two days, at most; I know how good they are. I know how hard they try.

And maybe that's unfair of me. I certainly don't know everything about them; I haven't known them for long enough. But Naru hasn't said a single word in his own defense — he's only made grandiose claims about the power he's gained, and the benefits of working with the Integrators.

As far as I'm concerned, Naru is throwing everything they are — everything they've done back into their faces.

Maybe part of my anger is because I wish I'd had parents like them.

I shove the thoughts to the back of my head, turning them into fuel for the battle. I run straight towards Naru, igniting Firestep Firmament in my wake.

Strangely, it glows brighter and stronger than before. It's almost like it's responding to my thoughts, my emotional state; it wavers like it's being blown forward by an invisible wind, creeping slowly towards Naru, the flames rising higher and higher.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This time, the Firmament isn't dissipating. Not while my mind is focused on the skill, stoking the flames.

A Speed skill, I realize, doesn't just have to be about speed.

Naru flies back into the circle so fast that I don't have time to respond to his presence, and his fist catches me in the face. I feel my bones cracking, but Second Wind holds everything in place as I tumble in the dirt.

For a moment, all I see is a chaotic mess of black and white. I come to a stop lying on my back; Naru is trying to follow up with a second blow, but both Mari and Ahkelios are on him, distracting him just enough that he can't.

It gives me just enough time to get back to my feet. Firmament-fueled fire is all around the battlefield, flickering an ominous orange in the midst of the colorless landscape.

Naru isn't paying attention. The fire creeps closer to him. I don't need to do anything to command it: they move almost of their own volition now, as if they have a target. They leave charred land in their wake as they move, but strangely, they don't spread; not while my Firmament is still in control.

And since Firestep is largely acting on its own... I decide to try something new.

It's clear that my skills have some amount of flexibility to them. I've been thinking of them as buttons I to that output an effect, and I've been proven wrong on that count. That means there's a more effective way to use my skills. Even beyond Firestep — which I don't fully understand just yet — there's my current bread-and-butter combination, Crystallized Strength and Barrier.

But if all I'm doing is forming a globe around my fist, I'm not using it effectively.

This time, instead of just forming a barrier around my fist, I command the Firmament to shape itself into something more damaging. It's still a barrier that protects me from being directly hurt by my own strength — but now that barrier is shaped like a heavy spike, and I allow myself a small grin of satisfaction.

Naru's still distracted. He stays distracted, right up until the moment I swing my fist at him, Barrier Firmament glowing brightly with a sharp, pointy end to it.

There's a certain instinct I'm relying on, here. I call that instinct "do everything you can to protect your eyes". Ahkelios has spent the entire battle harassing him and targeting his eyes specifically — so now when there's basically a needle coming straight towards his eyes, the Dispel is instinctive.

I dart backwards, having expected the response; the rainbow Firmament touches my barrier and shatters it in an instant. Crystallized Strength falters a second later. I feel my headache spiking.

Second Wind wavers... but it doesn't break. I'd gotten out of the way in time, and the Dispel only brushed against me rather than going through me.

The Firestep Firmament reaches him a second later.

I'm not sure I expect it to do much. None of the physical blows I've used on Naru do much of anything, and even the non-physical ones like the pure Firmament blasting out of the Hotspot's obelisk barely affect him. But it's a new form of attack, and something I've never tried before; I want to see what it does.

In that regard, it exceeds all my expectations.

Maybe it's because the target of my anger is Naru, but the flames flare brighter and brighter as they approach him — and then Naru flinches backwards, stumbling, as though the heat's actually burned him. His eyes take on a wide, panicked sort of look as he waves a hand ineffectually at the flames. The Firmament fire catches onto his feathers, igniting them and burning into his flesh.

For the first time, Naru screams. The sound almost makes me take a step back — something about it is raw and primal, nothing like what I would have expected the mere touch of fire to do to anyone.

Then the air around him cracks. He's used a skill. I don't know what the skill is, but it craters the ground, force exploding outwards from him like he's set off a bomb; the force of the blow is enough to send all three of us flying back and snuff out the fire around him.

I grit my teeth.

For all that the skill clearly caused him pain, he doesn't look actually injured. I'm not sure I understand exactly what kind of injury it inflicted on him, but he's breathing more heavily, his eyes clouded with a mixture of anger and pure instinct. He lashes out, and the blow catches Mari in the chest.

This time, it's so quick she doesn't react in time.

I hear the sound of her bones cracking, on top of the sound of trees breaking, and realize that we're running out of time. I'm not letting her die here. Not while she's in the Hotspot and technically part of the Trial.

Barrier. Crystallized Strength.

And because Second Wind is starting to run out, the skill wavering, my vision blurring and my chest starting to burn with pain —

Second Wind.

I'm not going to layer the skill more than once. The effects of overusing my Firmament have been made clear to me, and I'm not interested in losing multiple loops to the mantis over and over again. Even with just this, I know I'm going to have a headache for most of the next loop, but that's a cost I can accept.

I rush towards Naru, throwing all the force I can into every blow against him.

It doesn't do much. Even with Barrier formed into a single spike, or a blade — no matter what shape I imagine or how sharp I make it — I can't achieve anything more than a shallow cut.

But a shallow cut is more than I'd achieved before. It's progress. It's movement.

Naru grabs me by the arm. The way he moves is deliberate. He knows what Second Wind is, I think. He knows what it does. He twists my arm unnaturally, one fist pressing at my elbow, straining agains the Firmament that's reinforcing it —

My arm snaps.

I swing my other arm at him.

He catches that fist, too, but my leg comes up to kick him between the legs in an echo of what his mother had done, and that he doesn't catch, because Ahkelios chooses that moment to fly into his eyes once again. Naru doesn't flinch. I don't have nearly the power his mother does, and so his body is like steel when I try to break it.

But I try anyway.

He breaks my leg, and I kick up into his stomach, driving myself into the ground. He lunges at me, trying to claw at my face, but Second Wind keeps me going, keeps me moving. I think, for a moment, that I see a flash of discomfort flash across his face. He doesn't understand how I'm still going, how I'm still fighting.

I doubt he ever will, I think, as Second Wind fades away into nothing.

[ You have died. +26 Strength credits. +42 Durability credits. +12 Reflex credits. +19 Speed credits. +4 Firmament credits. ]

My last thought is that I have just enough points to hit a total of one hundred banked into Firmament.

I don't know what that'll get me, but I hope it's something I can use to wipe the damn smirk off of Naru's face.