Dagger met metal claws in a sharp, cacophonous screech. The clash was so violent that it sent sparks flying, and Will glared at the Spider through the fiery flares. He tried to slip the dagger past the creature's guard, but it was faster. There was a whoosh of air from his right, and another red blur came from his left, both aiming for his head.

Will ducked and felt the Spider's metal claws kiss the top of his skull, slicing through his hair. He nearly lost his head, but he didn't stop. In a blur of motion, he got past the creature's guard and thrust his dagger toward its throat. The dagger sped towards the gap in the neck guard, but before he could run the Spider through, its fourth and final arm flashed forward and blocked the strike.

Another sharp metallic ting rang out. The Spider's multiple arms reared back, ready to strike, and Will, sensing the momentum of the fight shifting away from him, quickly backed away.

"Where are you going?" the Spider screeched as it pursued. Will dodged a flurry of whirling, flashing claws aimed at his vitals as he retreated, and metal chips flew from his makeshift dagger as it got chipped away with every clash.

"You'll reject my help once again?" the Spider snarled. "You think that crystal is going to break the chains of your birth?"

Will remained silent as the Spider kept up its relentless onslaught, trying to goad him into responding. He didn't utter a single word. If indeed, as he suspected, there was a connection between him and the Spider, then his every word, every action, would be analyzed and made into a weapon to be held against him. He had to make sure not to pass on any damning information about himself. His anonymity was his only shield.

"I've seen many rats like you in the settlements," the Spider commented as it nonchalantly took a swipe at Will's head. "Surviving off of scraps from the dump. Most of you dream about eating something other than nutri-paste, but some, very few, dare for something more."

Will blocked an overhead strike and sidestepped another slash aimed at his stomach. The Spider's words echoed in his ears as he dodged. What was it talking about?

"That's right," the Bishop continued. "You dream big. You think that you can use that shard to reach the big leagues. Go all the way to the top."

Will was stunned. The Spider mistakenly considered him to be someone from the free zones. His surprise only seemed to confirm the Spider's suspicions, and the creature pressed him further.

"You dream of the Tower. That colossus they placed in front of all of us. Reaching heavenward... all those pretty lights that we see in the sky. You want to go there, don't you?"

Will's heart raced the more he listened. There was a kernel of truth in the Bishop's diatribe that resonated with him. Even under some false assumptions, the Spider was coming awfully close to his real goals and intentions.

"What are you willing to sacrifice for that dream?"

Will gritted his teeth and slashed at the Spider, trying to get it to shut up. The Spider easily dodged the strike, and Will closed in, his heart hammering in his chest. He feigned a jab with his dagger and followed it with a knee strike, but the Spider was already moving out of the way before he even raised his leg. The dodge was so sudden that Will stumbled. Frowning, Will tested the Spider's defenses again. He threw out a couple more jabs, mixed in with some feints, but the Spider saw through all of it and countered with ease.

Unnerved by the sudden change, Will pulled back his strike aimed at the Spider's eyes at the very last second. His dagger was nowhere close to the Spider, and yet it jerked back its head well before the strike even came close.

A chill went down Will's spine.

"If you want the Tower, you'll have to pay its dues," the Spider chittered.

A wave of incomprehensible impressions came from the Spider, and Will finally understood. It was that damn link between them. Will felt the yellow signature in his channels flare in tune with his natural field, copying it and transmitting his reactions to the Spider.

Will was getting a garbled set of impressions and thought patterns from the Spider, so it was a good bet that it was receiving something similar from him as well. The spike in his emotions, along with his intent to strike, could be all the information it needed to predict his attacks. Will was being read like a book, and there was nothing he could do about it.

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"So, what's it going to be, hotshot? Ready for another deal?" the Spider snarled before it dashed toward him in a red blur.

Will reached for his shard in alarm. The world vibrated as the skill activated, and time stood still. Sensations flew at him at a speed he would have thought impossible. A slash from the right took his ear off, and a stab from the left punctured his liver. Before he could even register the pain, a clawed metal hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the floor.

Will choked as he felt the life being squeezed out of him. Wild panic set in as air escaped his lungs. Just as his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, the skill broke and time resumed.

Will gasped as he snapped back into reality. Without a second to spare, he dodged out of the way of the clawed fist coming for his head. The red blur zipped past his face, and Will sidestepped another thrust aimed at his abdomen. Wind buffeted him as he avoided the claws by mere inches. He instinctively tried another feint but nearly lost his head as a metal hand came within inches of grabbing his throat.

Silently cursing, Will moved deeper into the tunnel, where the metal pillars grew denser. He hoped to lose the Spider among the tightly packed pillars, but the creature was relentless. The tunnel floor fractured, and cracks ran across the stalagmites as they rushed up the tunnel.

Will's heart raced on the verge of panic. How was he supposed to fight someone of the Bishop's caliber when all his cards were exposed?

The yellow signature in his system was still sticking close to his natural field. Will watched it spike just as he was about to strike and saw how the Spider easily dodged his attack. It saw his dagger coming before he even made a move. There was no point in attempting feints and deception when all his intentions were transparent. If he knew, it knew.

Will gritted his teeth. There was only one logical solution to this problem: even he shouldn’t know when he was about to attack.

Letting out a breath, Will emptied his mind. The Spider crashed through the pillars, sending metal chips flying, but Will kept only a cursory eye on the creature as he retreated. He sank deeper into his meditation, and when the Spider finally reached him, he dodged using only his muscle memory. The creature’s multiple arms brushed past him in a flurry of whirling red blurs, but Will kept his focus clear. As the seconds ticked by, Will noticed that he was moving faster with each passing moment. He was not thinking, just doing, and as he got faster, he noticed the slight delay between the yellow signature and his natural signature.

Will's fist rocketed past the Spider's crimson helmet and nearly clipped its cheek. A wave of impressions burst forth from the Spider, which Will interpreted as stunned surprise. It didn't see that attack coming. Will was moving too fast for it to even interpret the emotional cues he was giving off.

There was a delay between transmission and interpretation, and in that very delay, the Bishop was blind. A sharp screech rang out as Will's dagger raked across the Spider's armor. Another set of impressions came from the Bishop—surprise, disbelief, and then finally amusement. The Bishop was amused. Will frowned as he pressed his attack.

The Bishop stopped going on the offensive and allowed Will to wail on him with impunity. All his attacks were deflected with only minimal energy. Will’s confusion only deepened, and it took him about a minute to realize the problem. His internal reserves were draining rapidly. His speed came at a cost. He hadn't noticed how tired he was getting with how focused he was. It wouldn't be long before he ran out of gas.

Will bit back a curse and fought even more furiously. This was going against everything he was taught in basic, but he had only a few more minutes of fight left in him anyway. This was a lose-lose situation. If he tried to preserve his energy, he would eventually be ground down by an opponent who could see his every move. Conversely, if he decided to stake it all on the next few minutes, he might get enough wiggle room to try and get past the Spider's guard, but he could just as easily run out of gas and fall under the creature's mercy.

Will tightened his grip around the dagger. It was go big or go home. Loud metallic clangs rang out as his dagger connected with the Spider's claws. Strike, parry, dodge, and counter all happened in the span of a few seconds as one move flowed into the next. Will moved as naturally as he breathed. While they fought on, he kept a close watch on the yellow signature in his system, trying to find a flaw.

The foreign field still stubbornly clung to him, and Will moved his field in erratic ways to loosen its grip. It was only when he twisted his field out of frustration and suddenly reversed its flow that things changed. The yellow signature faltered for a brief instant, and his eyes widened. He found what he was looking for—a flaw. For a brief moment, he had felt something... a discordance between the yellow signature and his own. If he could exploit this...

Pain blossomed in his channels as his psion flow violently righted itself. It was a reckless move brought about by desperation, but it had brought results. Breathing heavily, Will took another look at his reserves. He needed to calculate how long he could keep this up. He needed just a little bit more time to figure this out. After a few quick calculations, he came up with an answer that made his heart stop cold.

Three minutes.

Ice crept up his veins. His breath came in short gasps as he processed everything. Will pushed down the rising panic and looked up at the grinning masked helmet of the Spider, who was soaking in his every emotion.

"Tick tock, little mouse," it whispered.

Will gritted his teeth and channeled his field to his legs. The tunnel floor started to crack under the pressure.

Three minutes... one hundred and eighty seconds.

It wasn't a whole lot of time. Some would say it was barely a blink of an eye, but it didn’t change what he had to do.

Will's field flared violently as he pushed off the floor and rocketed toward the Spider.

Three minutes to live.

Three minutes to die.

Will fought on as the clock to his doom ticked away.