Akari surveyed the arena, taking in the abandoned city streets. The shops and restaurants were all closed, with no lights shining behind their glass windows. Apartment buildings loomed above them, and the sky was dark with storm clouds.

Her teammates stood in a loose half-circle, fidgeting with their new bracelet devices. Only Nico had a communication headset, though. The rest of them were ranked too low for luxuries like that

Then again, who would Nico talk to with the rest of his team right here?

“Woah.” Nimble pressed a button on his bracelet and stared off into space. “You guys see this?”

Akari saw nothing. She pressed the button on her own bracelet, and a heads-up display appeared in her vision. The screen had a blue, semi-transparent background with white text. Not so different from a HUD in a video game.

“Looks like we’re with Sun Army,” Nico said.

He was right. Akari skimmed through the first message, which outlined her team’s goal. Their job was to enter the power plant and re-route at least one mana conduit to the ground level.

This mission was also redundant with another squad from Sun Army, but that wouldn’t matter. As long as they redirected the power, they’d get their points. Then she would secure her starting prize for the qualifier rounds.

Historically, those starting prizes were much better than maps or communication headsets.

“The third tab shows a minimap,” Sadie Horne spoke up. She was their team’s Stone Artist—a tiny Espirian girl with blue hair and braces.

Akari pressed a button on her watch and tabbed over to the minimap. It showed everything in a one-block radius, highlighting the other members of Sun Army. Most of them were already heading toward their objectives.

Shit.

“We should move,” Akari told her team. “We’re the only ones gawking at our screens.”

“Oh,” Nico said. “Right. Good idea.”

As usual, her team lacked a proper leader. Nico tried sometimes, but he was way too nice—not to mention easily distracted. She could only imagine what Kalden was doing right now. Probably having the time of his life, bossing his army around, and taking this game way too seriously.

~~~

“Moon Spy Delta,” Kalden said into his headset. “Execute Secret Order Thirty-Seven. Confirm.”

“Acknowledged,” said Landon Windstrider’s voice from his earpiece. “Executing Secret Order Thirty-Seven.”

He jogged down the street with Tori and Lyra on either side of him. The rest of the squad held up the rear.

The headsets only had three channels, but Kalden had prepared his forces for this possibility. Blood Army had orders to enter the first channel, whatever it happened to be. If no order was given, they would sort the channels alphabetically by name.

Here, the channels were Red, Blue, and Green. That made Blue the first channel.

Kalden also called his army the “Moon Spies” to maximize confusion. Ideally, Zukan’s team would mistake the chatter for Moon Army, while Elise and her forces would think he had actual spies within their ranks.

More likely, Elise would see through the ruse as she often did. But that was fine, too. It just meant he could mix in real orders among the nonsense without arousing too much suspicion. As usual, the best way to trick a Dream Artist was to hide the truth in plain sight.

Kalden held a button on his bracelet and brought up his full map. Not only did this show the layout and troop positions as part of his HUD, but it also showed the various tasks and checkpoints.

“Moon Spy Echo,” he said into his headset. “This is Moon Spy Handler. Abandon your current target and head to the plant.”

“Acknowledged, Moon Spy Handler.”

He mixed this with several nonsense orders to squads that didn’t even exist. For example, when he told Bandit Squad to raid a military surplus store and lay mines on Kirkland Street. All the while, Lyra gave more fake orders under the name “Blood General,” while other soldiers kept up appearances by acknowledging them.

“Wait,” Tori said as they jogged down the street. “Why is Echo Squad ditching their task?”

“Echo was supposed to cover our flank,” Kalden said. “But that won’t matter if we don’t take the power plant.”

“It’s risky,” she replied. “And they’ll be pissed if they don’t get their points.”

“Zukan and Elise have more heavy hitters,” Kalden said. “We won’t beat them without risks.” Then he stopped jogging when they reached a canal. Twenty feet deep, it was about as wide as a city street with angled concrete walls on either side.

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“This canal goes straight under the plant,” Kalden said to Lyra. “Can you take three of us?”

Lyra nodded and gathered truewater mana in her palms. “One tidal wave transport coming up.”

~~~

Akari’s group skidded to a halt when they reached a wide thoroughfare. Mana flashed across the battlefield as Sun Army fought Blood Army in the distance.

“Should we help them?” Sadie asked. Mana gathered in her palms as if she meant to do just that.

“No,” Nico replied. “We’re not part of Sun Army.”

“You sure?” Nimble asked. “We could enter together. Strength in numbers and all that.”

“Only if we win,” Nico said.

Akari nodded as she glanced away from the battle. "Worst-case scenario, the Sunshine guys stab us in the back for free points."

Nico crept up beside Akari, following her gaze down the street. “What are you looking at?"

“Potion shop.” She pointed to a brick storefront that sat nestled between a dojo and a pizza place. The blue sign said, “Alchemy Shack” which was a common Espirian chain store.

“Could be decoration,” Nimble said. “You know, part of the level.”

“This isn’t a video game,” Akari said. They’d been in Raizen’s class for seven weeks now, and he’d drilled several things into her head. The first lesson was to use everything at their disposal, especially the environment. But she’d also learned a second, less obvious lesson. if she’d thought of something, then so had the Grandmaster. He wouldn’t be impressed if she looted some random shop for potions. He’d just nod as if he’d expected that all along.

“It’s still a detour,” Nico said. “What happened to reaching the plant quickly?”

“You guys go ahead,” Akari said. “I’ll still beat you there.” Then she crept down the sidewalk toward the potion shop, using the awnings for cover. That was one nice thing about not having a designated leader. She could do what she wanted, and no one could accuse her of breaking rank.

The others caught up with her a minute later. Nico Cloaked his right leg with fire mana and kicked open the front door. Glass shattered from the impact, and they rushed inside the shop. Despite the narrow front, it actually extended more than a hundred feet back. Bottles and jars lined the shelves, along with other alchemy equipment that she’d never learned about.

“Look for spatial mana,” Akari told them. “And maybe a flask.”

“How are you gonna get us all in the factory?” Nimble asked as he strode down a random aisle.

“It’s a power plant,” Nico said. “Not a factory.”

“Either way. I thought the portals were like six inches wide? We’re not all twigs like Zeller.”

Akari snorted. The Artegium was filled with people twice her size, but Nimble wasn’t one of them. Besides, her portals were far wider now. They knew about her breakthrough last night, but they hadn’t seen the results of it yet.

More searching revealed three pint-sized bottles of space mana on a back shelf. Akari uncorked the first bottle and took a swig. Then she poured the remaining contents into the flask Nico had found.

“Okay,” she told her team as they stepped outside. “Watch this.”

By now, the fighting had died down, and the victors had probably made their way toward the plant. Akari glanced at the structure on the horizon with its massive cooling towers that loomed over the rest of the city.

She cycled the space mana and shot her first Missile at the base of one tower. Then she shot her second Missile into the brick wall between the alchemy shop and the pizza place, forming a portal between them.

The resulting hole was at least two feet wide, and it led straight onto the power plant’s roof.

~~~

The wind whipped through Kalden’s hair, and water sprayed his face as they rode the crest of the tide. Lyra's Constructs kept them steady, letting them stand on the wave as if it were solid ground.

He’d seen enough of Lyra’s duels to know this would carry them down the canal. Still, knowing something and feeling it were two different things.

“Moon Spies,” Kalden said into his headset, “this is Moon Spy Handler. Code trashcan. I repeat: code trashcan.”

“Code trashcan” was their cue to ignore any orders until they heard “code window.” He and the others would enter combat soon, and he couldn’t have Elise imitating their voices again.

The plant grew closer with every heartbeat, and Lyra decelerated as the canal passed through an open gate. Here, the water flowed through metal grates near the wall, passing through various pipe to cool the plant’s mana burners.

The room was wide and well-lit, with weathered brick walls and massive glass windows on either side. Three levels of metal catwalks overlooked the water.

“Two hostiles above,” Tori said.

A metal ladder hung from the catwalks but Lyra didn’t bother with that. Instead, she pushed against the bottom of the canal, and the water formed a platform that carried them upward. By now, Kalden had several pure mana blades orbiting his body, and he knew Tori would be forming her own weapons.

Two figures sprang from the shadows as they reached the first level. Kalden recognized one as a Lightning Artist from Moon Army.

“Shield!” he shouted.

Lyra stretched out her hand and formed a wall of solid ice. Lightning flashed from their opponent’s palm, and the scent of ozone filled the air. Lyra's shield broke like a glass window under the impact.

More hostiles joined the fray, and the platform buckled under the weight of their techniques.

Kalden and Tori leapt forward, spanning the gap and landing with their enemies on the catwalk. Blades swirled around his body, slicing through the Lightning Artist’s shield with ease. The boy tried one last attack, but Kalden sliced off his hand at the wrist, then brought around a second blade and opened his throat.

His instincts screamed as someone struck from behind. Kalden brought his blades around just in time to intercept a metal Missile, then he lashed toward the newcomer, striking high. The boy forged a shield to deflect the blades, but Kalden fell into a crouch and swept another blade at his legs.

A Gravity Artist emerged from another doorway and hurled her Singularity at Kalden, trying to pull his blades from orbit. Before she could, Tori's chain whip moved like a scorpion’s tail and struck the girl in the center of her face.

“Wow.” Lyra surveyed the scene as she rode a small wave back up to the catwalk. If this were an actual battle, then blood and broken bodies would have covered the narrow walkways. Fortunately, they’d all faded to white mist as they died. “Thanks for saving me some bad guys.”

“Hostiles,” Kalden corrected.

She gave a mock salute as she landed in a shallow puddle.. “Yes, General Trengsen.”

“Wait.” Tori held up a hand, brow furrowed in concentration. “You hear that?”

Kalden strained his ears to listen. Unlike the others, he’d only been an Apprentice for a few months, and he still wasn’t used to all these heightened senses. But now that she mentioned it … was that metal grinding against metal?

Just then, a massive object fell from the catwalks above. It flew straight past Kalden’s group, plummeting toward the water below.

There was no splash. Instead, a portal opened on the opposite wall, and the object flew straight through, propelled by the momentum of its fall.

“Move!” Kalden shouted as he jumped away. Tori and Lyra dodged the other way, and the object tore through the wall behind them. It looked like a massive, iron-wrought hook. The kind you could attach to a crane and lift a car off the ground.

“Everyone okay?” Kalden asked as he scrambled back to his feet.

“Yeah,” Tori muttered. “What the hell was that?”

Kalden let out a long breath. He tried to search the rafters above, but their enemy was out of sight. Still, there was only one answer.

“That’d be Akari Zeller.”