I didn’t waste another heartbeat.

  Ember flared in my hands, heat rippling off the blades as I stepped toward the second gate. The soldiers on the ramparts scrambled, shouting orders that were already too late. I swung.

  The impact detonated through the wood and iron, the entire structure bowing inward with a tortured groan. Splinters blasted outward. Screams followed. I hit it again, harder, until the hinges tore free and the gate collapsed in a thunderous crash.

  The defenders behind it barely had time to register what was happening.

  Tucker vaulted over the fallen gate with a snarl, slamming into the first cluster of Faction members. I followed Ember carving arcs of burning light through armor and bone. They tried to form ranks. They tried to stand their ground.

  They died anyway.

  One lunged at me with a spear; his head was gone in a single stroke. Another tried to flank Tucker. Tucker ripped him off his feet and hurled him against a wall. A third raised a shield; Ember sheared through it like paper.

  Bodies hit the stone one after another, and the survivors finally understood.

  This wasn’t a battle.

  It was a massacre.

  Weapons clattered to the ground. Boots pounded in retreat. The last few Blackthorn members broke ranks entirely, sprinting for the inner courtyard.

  Tucker skidded to a stop beside me, chest heaving, blood dripping from his jaws.

  “Should we chase them?”

  I shook my head, already scanning the ramparts for any sign of Balt’s signal.

  “No. Let them run. They’re not a priority. Keeping are vision clear to find Balt's signal is. If they attack us, we destroy them, but if they run, let them.”

  I pointed upward.

  “We find the girls. Run the ramparts. If we don’t see Balt’s signal, we head into the castle and start searching room by room.”

  Tucker growled in agreement, muscles coiling as he prepared to leap.

  I tightened my grip on Ember, forcing my breathing steady.

  Hold on everyone, we’re coming.

  Balt

  Balt didn’t breathe as Carson materialized. One instant he wasn’t there. The next, the man stood between them and the double doors as if he had always belonged in that space. The crystal in his hand pulsed with a sickly green heartbeat, casting warped shadows across his face that flickered like a dying flame.

  Marcilla froze beside Balt. Alice gripped Liz tightly, her face white as bone.

  Carson’s voice cut through the tension like a knife. “It’s about time your brother showed up,” he said, amusement dripping from every syllable. “My shadows will be taking Elizabeth now. For safekeeping before he gets here.”

  One by one, five dark-clad faction members emerged from the shadows, forming a semicircle around Balt, Marcilla, and Alice.

  Alice screamed, stumbling backward as the soldiers stepped forward. Boots scraped stone. Armor shifted. Cold eyes, disciplined faces, weapons held at the ready as they inched forward.

  Balt’s jaw clenched. He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. The air between him and Carson seemed to hum with tension.

  Then the soldiers attacked.

  His barrier flared. A thunderous crack of blue energy erupted around him, a shimmering dome that forced the nearest soldier’s back against the wall and caused a few to stumble back. “You will not,” Balt growled, his voice a low thunder in the cavernous hall.

  Marcilla lunged forward out of the barrier at the two staggering soldiers. She was able to stab one in the throat before the other recovered enough and attacked her head-on. Sparks flew. Steel rang against steel. Behind him, Alice pressed herself against the ground, shielding Liz, eyes wide with fear.

  Carson didn’t rush. He didn’t panic. He strode forward slowly, the crystal in his hand now gone. With a flick of his wrist, dark green energy surged, probing Balt’s barrier, testing, pushing. Vibrations ran up Balt’s staff, but he held, refusing to falter.

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  Balt’s staff sparked with lightning. He channeled mana, forming six lightning orbs.

  Three orbs struck the glass. Three more streaked toward Carson. The orbs struck the glass and shattered into sparks.

  Carson drew his sword and slashed so fast that Balt barely saw his orbs being cut.

  Carson laughed. “That was an interesting guide, but that attack was far too weak to break that glass.” He stepped closer, deliberate, calm, a predator enjoying the prey’s futile struggle. “But I am impressed with your growth. Truly. For a tutorial dweller to have grown as much as you have. It will be almost a shame to kill you.” A slight smile tugged at his lips. “Almost…”

  Balt Blinked behind Carson, lightning crawling across his skin like living fury. He struck again and again, fast, relentlessly, each blow forcing Carson onto the defensive. Sparks burst with every clash, staff meeting shattered blade in a storm of light and steel.

  Carson blocked two, twisted away from a third, and caught a fourth. “You’re fast,” he admitted, teeth gritting, “but still not fast enough.”

  Balt’s barrier flickered under the relentless hammering of the faction soldiers. Marcilla’s breathing was ragged, blood running down her arms as she tried to harass the soldiers. She had to hold them off, or the continued hammering would eventually drain all his mana and they would be truly fucked. Alice stayed crouched behind the barrier, body tense, shielding Liz.

  Balt Blinked again, this time above Carson, slamming down a lightning-charged kick. Carson slid backward, grinding boots against stone, the boots leaving shallow gouges in the floor. Balt heard a rumble outside and felt the stone shake. He needed to send a signal, but to do that he needed time to charge his cannon. It was the only thing he had that might be able to break the glass.

  Every step, every blink, every strike he threw from that point onward was a mask. He poured every last bit of regen mana into the spell building inside him, hands trembling violently, lungs screaming for air. His vision blurred. Pain clawed at him from every angle as he tried to keep up with more his physical stats than using his Talent spells to assist him.

  Carson didn’t notice, not yet.

  He could feel the mana building; he was almost there.

  Balt’s barrier flickered dangerously. A soldier’s strike piercing through his barrier for the first time, but Marcilla was there and attacked like a wildcat to force the guy back. She was bleeding from a dozen cuts now but still standing.

  Carson’s eyes narrowed. “You fought well. Better than I expected. But this is where it ends.” Aura crawled along Carson’s blade, thick and venomous. It appeared he was done playing.

  Balt gritted his teeth, voice a rasp of blood and determination. “Stormbreaker…”

  Carson frowned. “…What?”

  “…Cannon.”

  Time seemed to stretch. Carson blinked. The three reaming soldiers paused, uncertainty creeping into their movements. Balt’s hands glowed with raw, unbridled energy. Lightning coiled around his arms, throat raw, heart pounding like a war drum. The spell erupted as he transferred it to his staff.

  A beam of roaring blue lightning shot from Balt’s staff. It struck Carson head-on. He staggered, boots carving shallow trenches in the stone floor, forced to brace himself. Balt quickly adjusted the staff and aimed the beam against the stained-glass wall.

  The glass shuddered under the impact, thin cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. For a single, breathless moment, nothing gave. The shard?laden panes held.

  Then Balt roared and poured everything he had left into the cannon.

  His barrier collapsed as he poured every ounce of mana he had left into the cannon, no longer shielding the girls, but the glass finally broke. A fist?sized hole punched through the stained panes, and his beam tore out into the open air.

  Balt hit his knees in exhaustion. Carson laughed mockingly. “What the hell was the point of that? All that… for a little hole in the glass?”

  Balt coughed, blood splattering, arms trembling. He forced himself upright, vision narrowing, teeth gritted. “Sometimes,” he rasped, voice low but fierce, “the river has to go around the mountain.”

  Carson cocked his head, giving him an amused but confused look. If this was where he died, at least the signal was sent.

  Then Balt heard it… music… Carson’s amusement faltered. A low, distant rumble echoed through the hall, rising into a howl that made the very stones vibrate.

  “What’s that sound?” Carson demanded, composure cracking. His voice trembled slightly, eyes scanning the hall in sudden apprehension.

  Balt couldn’t help it. He started to laugh, a broken, bloodied, triumphant laugh. “That’s the sound… of your reckoning.”

  The howl became a roar. A deep, bone-deep sound that seemed to come from the world itself. The glass groaned. Cracks splintered across its surface, spreading like veins of lightning.

  And then, an explosion.

  The wall erupted inward. Shards of glass, caught in the blue storm of Balt’s magic, spun like deadly glitter in the air. Two figures burst through in a storm of light and chaos.

  For a heartbeat, time froze for Balt. Riven stood in the center, cloak billowing, armor glowing, eyes burning with silver fire. The air itself seemed to bend around him as he floated within the stained shards of glass.

  Riven vanished; one heartbeat he was suspended in the air, the next he was in front of Carson. The shock on Carson’s face was priceless.

  “Eclipse Strike!” Riven roared.

  The blow hit like a falling star. Carson met it head-on, a green aura colliding with sapphire in a blinding detonation. For a heartbeat, he held on.

  Then the stone beneath his boots shattered.

  And he was launched.

  Carson’s body slammed into the double doors, the impact sending a shockwave rolling through the hall as the doors exploded into splinters. Balt scraped together the last scraps of his power, forcing a barrier up around the girls.

  Two soldiers dropped in the blast’s wake, but not because of it. The shockwave merely toppled them. Their heads had already been severed.

  Riven had reached them first.

  The remaining soldier spun toward Riven, panic finally cracking through his discipline.

  He never saw Tucker fully.

  A massive shape blurred through the storm of glass and lightning. Tucker slammed into the man, driving him flat against the stone.

  A massive paw came down on the soldier’s chest, the impact roaring through the floor like a collapsing building.

  Then Tucker’s speakers flared, compressing the air into a force that shattered armor, bone, and stone.

  The scream lasted less than a second.

  When Tucker lifted his paw, nothing recognizable remained beneath it, only twisted metal embedded in shattered stone.

  Marcilla sagged against the stone floor, bleeding but alive. Alice clutched Liz, sobbing in relief.

  Riven turned back toward Alice, hair wild, dust streaking his face, eyes still blazing silver. His voice was hoarse but warm. “Hey, sis.”

  Alice broke then. Tears streaming, voice cracking. “Hey… you big dummy.”

  Balt let the barrier fall. His mana reserves completely depleted. But he allowed himself to breathe out in relief. Pain still lingered in his body, blood still coated his robes, but he had done his part.

  He had held on. He had kept them safe until Riven could get here. He had bent the river around the mountain. He smiled a tired smile as he looked at his friend. The Outlier had not come to go around the mountain. He had come to crush the mountain.