Kalden ran in a half-crouch as they left the cover of the trees. The prison was a quarter-mile out, but a Martial sharpshooter could still spot them if they weren’t careful.

Fortunately, their distraction was on the way.

An engine roared from deeper in the forest, and Kalden shifted his gaze to the north. There, a sphere of glowing blue mana soared down the road like a comet. He couldn’t see the details from here, but he knew there was a pickup truck inside the sphere. Relia Dawnfire stood in the truck’s cargo bed with a raised hand, supporting the Construct around the vehicle.

Jared brought his transceiver to his lips. “You’re five hundred yards out.”

The ex-Martial had given her a lecture before they left, warning her not to pull any punches tonight.

“They’re brainwashed,” Relia had said as they loaded supplies into the vans. “They think they’re protecting their families.”

“They still chose to fight you tonight.”

“But they’re following orders.”

“So was I until I stopped.” He fixed her with a hard look. “You think these are a bunch of dumb kids who got dragged away from their homes? They’re smart enough to see what’s wrong with this island. They just don’t give a shit.”

Relia remained silent, seemingly deep in thought.

“I get it,” he said after a long pause. “You don’t want to butcher weaker mana artists. But they won’t share your sense of honor.” He made a broad gesture toward Kalden, Akari, and the rest of the group. “Your friends will pay the price if you hold back. It’s their lives or the Martials’. No one likes it, but that’s war.”

A gust of cool wind blew over the open grassland, pulling Kalden back to the present moment. Chills ran down his spine despite his heavy armor.

“Two hundred yards,” Jared said.

Kalden fixed his eyes on the darkness ahead, bracing himself for the enemy’s attack. He still didn’t know what to expect from this battle, or which side had the advantage. Akari had hacked into a Martial database last night, and she’d learned a great deal about the prison’s layout and security. She’d even discovered the exact cell where they held Relia’s master.

They also had Jared, who knew the inner workings of the organization, down to their weapons and tactics. Not to mention Relia, who was easily worth a hundred Martials in a fight.

For all that, the Martials knew Relia’s exact goal. The only question was when she would strike.

If it were up to Kalden, he would have headed straight for Keylas and returned later from a position of strength. But Relia wouldn’t leave without her master.

“One hundred yards,” Jared said.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a hundred Missiles streaked the night sky. Most collided with Relia’s Construct, and Kalden shielded his eyes at the blinding light. Others struck the surrounding landscape, and dirt erupted like a dozen small geysers.

Her driver didn’t slow down, not even when the Missiles struck the road ahead, forming craters in their path. Not even when they reached the end with its metal spikes and ice-mana Constructs.

Relia waited until the last possible second, then she shot several pure Missiles into the road beneath them. This sent the truck flying through the air, over the barriers, and into the Martials’ ranks.

Kalden couldn’t see what happened next, but he didn’t envy those Martials on the front lines.

“Okay,” Jared said, “that’s our cue. Remember the plan.”

Kalden nodded, mentally replaying the rules in his head. Don’t raise your weapons or shields unless they spot us. Drop if you see a light.

Jared and Viv ran through the open field. Kalden and Akari followed, and a pair of Bronze soldiers held up the rear. They jogged for several minutes until they reached the cover of a short ridge. On an ordinary night, they never would have gotten this close without being spotted. Now, with everyone focused on Relia, they might have a chance.

The structure itself didn’t match his expectations. Most prisons had tall, chain-link fences, reinforced with sigils and lined with barbed wire. But this was a plain brick building surrounded by brick walls. The road ended at a small parking lot with no signs or landscaping of any kind. It was the sort of secret government base that raised eyebrows, but not much else.

Their jog continued, and Kalden’s armor felt heavier with every step. More light flashed from the north as Relia’s team engaged the bulk of the Martials.

“Down!” Jared ordered from up ahead.

Kalden dropped to his belly with the other five, taking cover behind the grassy ridge. In the same moment, he caught another flash of light from the prison.

Something hard struck his helmet as he fell. Another bullet struck his left shoulder pad.

“Everyone alright?” Jared hollered back.

Kalden patted his new armor and found it unbroken. “I’m good,” he replied with the others.

More bullets struck the ridge, sending chunks of grass and dirt into the air.

“That’s a machine gun,” Jared shouted over the chaos.

They would need to leave their cover to continue. They could activate their handheld shields, but those wouldn’t last long against the gun’s pressure. Neither would their armor.

The bombardment continued, and Kalden’s ears rang until he couldn’t tell noise from silence. His heart pounded, and the whole experience felt strangely surreal. Four months ago, all these people would have been strangers to his eyes. He would have been sitting in his alchemy lab, taking measurements or grinding reagents.

Now, he was lying in an active war zone, mere seconds from death.

“I’ve got this one,” Viv said as she raised her Missile rod.

Jared nodded. “I’ll draw their fire.”

The pair sprang into motion. Viv activated the sigils in her armor, refracting the light and becoming almost invisible. At the same time, Jared shot several Missiles of shadow mana along the ridge. Those could easily be mistaken for a sprinting shadow artist from a distance.

The bullets chased Jared’s Missile as expected. Viv fired her rod, then took cover behind the ridge.

“Anything?” Jared asked.

“No good,” she replied. “They’ve got a shield around it.”

He considered that and turned to Kalden. “How’s your shaping, kid?”

Kalden saw his line of thought. Unlike Relia, the Martials couldn’t make complete domes with their mana. That meant a pure artist like him could probably guide a Missile around the shield and take out the gunner.

“Gunners can be replaced,” Kalden said after some more thought.

“That’s a damn good point,” Jared muttered. “But unless you’ve got a better—”

Something metallic fell from the sky, striking a Bronze soldier on the side of his helmet. It took a moment for Kalden’s eyes to process the sight, but Jared was quicker.

“Grenade!” he shouted.

The ex-Martial and his wife were already moving, and Kalden and Akari leapt further down the hill. An explosion followed, shaking the ground beneath their boots. Shards of metal ricocheted off their armor, but they’d cleared the blast in time.

The two Bronze weren’t as lucky. The grenade tore one man’s body in two, separating his torso from his legs. The second man retreated up the ridge, and the machine gun caught him when he crested the top.

They were still recovering when a Martial squad appeared at the bottom of the hill. A second squad appeared at the top, raising their Missile rods.

Surrounded.

Jared and Viv activated their armor, vanishing into the shadows. That left Akari and Kalden to face the enemy alone.

“Back to back!” he told her.

Akari complied, pressing her back against his, facing the enemy soldiers below. Kalden focused on the three above.

The enemy fired their Missile rods, releasing spears of solid ice mana. Kalden pulled his shield from his belt, activating the Construct with a press of a button. The protection mana formed an ellipse around the steel handle, wide enough to stop all three attacks.

His arm shook from the impact. The Construct held, but it wouldn’t last for long.

Kalden extended his left hand around the shield, releasing two Missiles of his own. Viv appeared behind the Martials in the same moment. She swept her dagger in a wide arc, opening two throats in a single swing. The third man aimed his rod toward her, but Kalden seized the distraction and hurled a Missile at his left knee.

The man lost his balance, and Viv’s blade found a weak spot in his armor.

Kalden spun to see another Martial charging Akari. She dodged left, letting a frost Missile pass between her and Kalden. Then she countered with a Missile of her own. Her opponent raised a shield, but she arced her mana around it, slamming into his left flank.

Had her Missiles gotten even stronger?

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The man hit the ground in front of Kalden, turning his next attack toward him.

“Never hesitate,” Jared had said. “Not even for a second.”

Kalden kicked the man’s forearm, knocking his Missile off course. At the same time, he cycled his own mana, gathering a burst of power in his palm.

The Martial’s eyes widened as Kalden struck. His instinct screamed at him to stop, but he ignored them, pressing his palm to the man’s left eye. The mana left his hand, and he pushed the bulk of its power into the center, sharpening the Missile into a blade.

Blood shot out from his victim’s broken face, drenching Kalden’s hand and forearm. A few drops even reached his visor.

The Martial kicked him in the thigh, and Kalden staggered back against the hill. The man’s body writhed and squirmed for several more seconds before he fell still. A quick glance around the hill confirmed the other Martials were dead as well. So were the Bronze soldiers, judging by Viv’s face as she checked their wounds.

Jared knelt over Kalden’s victim, cleaning his dagger on the man’s shirt. “First kill?” he asked with a glance at Kalden.

Kalden gave a shaky nod. When he moved his fingers, he found them sticky with his victim’s blood. He wiped his hand on the grass, but that didn’t help.

“Let me guess,” Kalden said. “It gets easier?”

“No.” The older man sheathed his blades and gestured over the hill. “About that machine gun . . .”

Kalden surveyed the bodies in the dirt. “Can you find me another grenade?”

Jared knelt by the closest Martial and opened a chest pocket. “You know how to use this?”

Kalden nodded. “I have four seconds to hit the wall after I pull the pin.”

The older man nodded and extended his arm.

Kalden accepted the explosive, and the four of them climbed back to the top of the ridge. Jared formed a Construct once they’d crested the top, refracting the light around them. Viv drew the gun’s fire with her shadow Missiles.

Only one chance to get this right.

Kalden released a breath and cycled his mana, aiming above the stationary machine gun. Then he pulled the pin with his left hand and released a Missile from his right. Instead of forming his mana into a blade, he put pressure on the edges, cradling the explosive as it flew.

Three seconds . . . two seconds.

Kalden slowed his Missile a few yards from the gunner and redirected it upward, separating the mana from the grenade.

An explosion hit the wall a second later. The Construct flickered out, and the gun stopped its barrage.

“Nice shooting, kid.” Jared clapped him on the shoulder. “Now let’s move.”

They activated their portable shields and broke into a run. The mana on Kalden’s shield rippled as he ran, and he felt the impact from the snipers’ bullets. His battery was still at forty percent, though. He’d make it.

They reached the outer wall a few seconds later, and Viv began unraveling a grappling hook from around her torso.

“Stay here,” she told them. “And don’t get killed.”

Kalden and Akari raised their shields as the shadow artists vanished.

“Great,” Akari said. “Guess we’re the bait again.”

He grinned at her sarcastic tone, mostly because it was something familiar to ground him.

Viv shot the grappling hook over the wall with her Missile rod. Gravity brought it back down, and it coiled around the parapet. The hook and rope both refracted the light, just like the shadow artists’ armor.

That’s useful, Kalden thought as the pair scaled the ropes. It never would have fooled anyone in broad daylight, but the Martials didn’t have the best vantage from inside the prison.

Screams followed a few seconds later, and Jared waved for Akari and Kalden to climb up behind them.

“Go ahead.” Kalden gestured to the rope.

Akari gave it a few tugs, then she scaled the wall as if it were solid ground.

Not bad. She’d been all skin and bones when they’d first met, barely able to do a single chin-up. Her frame hadn’t changed much, but she’d clearly put on more muscle during her house arrest. Not only could she climb the rope with relative ease, but she did it with twenty pounds of equipment on her back.

Kalden waited until she’d reached the top, then he followed her into the prison.

~~~

Akari’s arms felt like jelly as she crested the prison wall. She’d done plenty of pull-ups on the Cliftons’ swing set these past few months, but it clearly hadn’t been enough. No one told her she’d be wearing half her weight in armor.

Viv offered her a hand. She accepted it, and the older woman yanked her over the metal parapet.

Akari fought down the urge to collapse and catch her breath; that wasn’t how a real mana artist behaved in a battle. Instead, she shot a wary glance around the courtyard, taking in the sights and searching for enemies. The prison itself was a long, brick building—four stories high, with cylinder-shaped chimneys protruding from one side. It looked about as big as Elegan High. Just older and creepier.

A gravel road led through the main gate, and the cars had to pass through a cage of razor wire and protection mana. Aside from that, the inner courtyard was as barebones as the outside. Most prisons had yards for the inmates, but not this one.

A few bodies littered the walkway around her feet. Akari clutched her Missile rod, expecting more guards to leap out from the shadows.

Silence greeted her instead.

She glanced up at Jared and Viv. “Where are the rest?”

“Hiding,” Jared said with a shrug. “The Golds will be here any second. No sense playing hero till then.”

Right. These guards were all Silvers with minimal combat training—not full agents like the ones Relia had fought in White Vale. Those would come later.

Viv helped Kalden up next, then she retrieved the rope and wrapped it back around her torso.

“There’s another machine gun farther down,” Jared said. “Trengsen and I will commandeer that—see if we can help Dawnfire outside.” He gestured toward Viv and Akari. “You two open the gate.”

Kalden jogged down the wall with the ex-Martial, and Akari helped Viv search the bodies for keycards. Looting corpses was far more unsettling than attacking living opponents. Despite their wounds and lack of pulse, they still felt like people. Warmth radiated from their skin, and half of them hadn’t bothered to close their eyes.

Still, she searched their belts and pockets one at a time, pulling out utility knives, flashlights, wallets, and radios. One man carried a black handgun at his side instead of a Missile rod, and Akari took the holster and attached it to her own belt. People expected Missiles, and it never hurt to have a surprise up her sleeve.

Finally, she reached into a dead officer’s pocket and grasped what felt like a plastic keycard. She tried to pull it out, but the man’s body gave a violent twitch.

A high-pitched scream escaped her lips, and she staggered back.

Viv looked up with a smirk. “Oh yeah. They do that sometimes.”

Akari cleared her throat, lowering her voice as deep as it would go. “I, uh . . . felt a card in his pocket.” She pointed a finger at the shaking corpse.

Viv’s smile widened. “Too scared to get it yourself?”

Akari retracted her finger and raised her middle one instead.

“You’re adorable,” Viv said with a laugh. Then she reached into the twitching body’s pocket and pulled out the plastic white card. “Yeah, this should work.”

They found the nearest staircase and followed it down to the ground level. Viv found the security terminal there, swiped the card, and flipped a few switches.

The mana barrier flickered out a second later, and Relia joined them inside the courtyard. Unlike the rest of their group, she wore her usual flannel shirt and jeans. There was only so much armor to go around, and she’d claimed her Cloak techniques were stronger.

“Anyone need healing?” she asked as she stepped through the open archway. Her hands were already glowing with golden-green mana.

Viv shook her head. “We lost two soldiers outside, but the rest of us are fine. Jared and Kalden are upstairs.”

Relia gave a grim nod. “A land mine got our truck. I was the only survivor.”

Akari swallowed, feeling a wave of ice wash over her. It always happened this way in movies, too. The Bronze soldiers died first while the stronger ones pushed on. It never bothered the audience much. The Bronze were just background characters, after all.

But in this case, Akari was one of those Bronze soldiers. And if that first grenade had landed a few inches closer, she might not have cleared the blast in time.

Jared and Kalden met up with them soon after, and they all stepped toward the prison’s entrance, where two metal doors impeded their path. Viv tried the keycard on the terminal, but it gave her a buzzing red light. She tried it again and got the same result.

“They’ll be in lockdown mode,” Jared said. “Good thing Dawnfire’s got the master key.” He stepped aside, and the others did likewise.

Relia planted her feet in a wide stance, gathering pure mana in both of her palms. The technique doubled in size over the next few seconds, glowing brighter than every light in the courtyard. The wind tugged at her clothes and hair, and she looked like something from a movie poster.

The Missiles shot forward like a battering ram, and both doors flew clean off their hinges. The ground shook from the impact, and Akari felt the vibrations deep in her bones.

The five of them pressed on, stepping onto a sterile white floor. Relia took point down the first corridor, followed by Kalden and Akari with their portable shields. The shadow artists held up the rear, following more than five paces back.

“Anything on their radios?” Viv asked Jared in a low voice.

“Nothing on the usual channels,” Jared said. “I don’t like it.”

The interior walls were half brick and half poured concrete, all covered beneath a layer of thick white paint. Icy air blasted from the vents, and fluorescent lights flickered from the ceiling above. Why did these places always have air conditioning and fluorescent lights? As if they didn’t feel cold enough already.

“Take a left up here,” Jared said when they reached a junction.

As usual, Relia deferred to the ex-Martial, and she led them down another corridor with numbered metal doors. Akari counted the doors as they walked, watching the odd numbers on her left. Seven . . . nine . . . eleven.

“This is it,” Relia said. “Cell thirteen!”

They all paused while Relia pressed her hands to the door. Unlike the prison’s outer door, this had no handle, lock, or hinges. The surface was solid steel, polished to a mirror shine.

“Can you blast through that?” Akari asked.

Relia shook her head. “They’re called ‘blast doors’ for a reason.”

Kalden gestured a finger down the hall. “There’s a security booth down that way. Maybe the computers open the door?”

Akari followed his gaze to a smaller office surrounded by glass on three sides.

Relia nodded, and they set off in that direction. Viv swiped her keycard on the next terminal, and the door popped open with ease.

Akari eyed the glass as she passed through, and it looked thick enough to stop a bullet or Missile. Good to know. They might need a place to hunker down if things got heated. She also spotted a switch to override the card terminal and lock down this booth from the inside.

So why hadn’t the Martials hidden in here? They might have assumed Relia could break through, the same way she’d done at the main entrance. Still, this seemed far too easy.

Jared sat down at the closest computer and turned to Kalden. “You got those usernames?”

Kalden nodded as he pulled out a piece of paper from his bag. Akari had thrown that together last night when she’d found a list of the prison staff.

Jared accepted the list with a nod. “Now we just need a password.”

Akari started rummaging through the file-cabinet drawers, hoping to Talek that one of these guards had a bad memory. Her search was rewarded a second later when she found a yellow sticky note with a string of random letters and numbers.

“Got one.” She sat down next to Jared and placed the sticky note between them. “I’ll start from the bottom of the list.”

“Right,” he said. “I’ll take the top.”

After a few dozen failures, they finally matched the password with a username somewhere in the middle. Akari and Jared each logged in with that account and started clicking around, opening the various Martial applications.

On one monitor, she pulled up the outdoor security cameras, revealing a courtyard full of black, unmarked vans. The van doors slid open to reveal dozens of Gold Martials.

Her hands moved faster as she found another program for controlling the cell doors. Each cell had a value of ‘1.’ Akari found cell thirteen, switched the value to ‘0,’ and pressed save.

Metal ground against metal as the blast door opened down the hall.

“That’s it,” she said.

Relia bolted out of the room, and Akari followed.

They paused when they reached the doorframe. The room was far larger than she’d expected. At least ten feet wide, and half again as deep. A steel cylinder loomed on the opposite end, stretching all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Gusts of icy air escaped into the hallway, and it felt like an open freezer.

“Stay here.” Relia stepped into the cell, and her muscles glowed with her Cloak technique.

Akari nodded, shooting a wary glance down the hall. The reinforcements should be inside by now. What were they waiting for?

Relia reached the ice-mana chamber in three steps, and she pulled a heavy lever on one side. A series of metal clamps snapped open, and a burst of white fog blew out from the opening.

Akari squinted through the mist, struggling to see the Grandmaster over Relia’s shoulder. But the chamber was . . . empty?

Oh, shit.

Footsteps echoed from inside the cell. The light warped, and several shadow artists appeared out of thin air.

“Behind you!” Akari shouted.

Too late. The ceiling opened, and a metal net fell around Relia. It must have been impedium, because the glow faded from her muscles.

In the same moment, a shadow artist ran his blade across the back of her neck. Her body went limp, and they threw her face-first into the chamber.