Time in Blood

  The moment suspended, thick and heavy. Dozai didn’t move. Neither did the others.

  Every sound amplified itself, the metallic groan of a distant crane, the drip of condensation on rusted scaffolding. The crowd’s whispers turned to murmurs.

  All of them carried a small rusted knife that they could use.

  “Alright, we practiced. Everyone take a deep breath and get ready.”

  Roi looked at Dozai. “It was 60 seconds for her, right?”

  Dozai nodded slowly. “We have one chance. Count with me. We have to end this as soon as she needs to see blood again.”

  Everyone lowered their center of gravity, eyes locked on Galvara’s wrists.

  One.

  The instant Galvara’s halo plates lit, the ground shivered. Heat rushed outward like a furnace door flung open. Her gauntlet howled, plates unfurling into a searing, molten arc as she swung.

  The air screamed. Sparks hissed across the scaffolding, iron glowing cherry red where the lash struck. The kids scattered instinctively, shoes scraping metal, lungs choking on dust and heat.

  Ten.

  Kenny was a half-step too slow. The edge of the lash caught his side, searing cloth and skin in a single flash. He staggered, slapped at the embers licking his jacket, and barked through gritted teeth.

  “—That’s real! That’s damn real!”

  Rei grabbed his arm to pull him back, but Galvara’s second swing hammered the floor. Shards of scorched steel shot up like knives.

  One shard grazed Rei’s shoulder; blood welled fast against her pale skin.

  She locked up, eyes wide, staring at the crimson welling against her pale skin.

  Dozai flinched as heat seared across his cheek, close enough to raise a blister. He swallowed, forcing his breath steady.

  “Don’t bunch up! She’ll take us all out! Spread out, now!”

  The fight had drawn blood already.

  Eighteen.

  The four obeyed without hesitation.

  Nobu slid low, his movements sharp and efficient. His blade feinting at Galvara’s throat, each slash unnaturally precise, forcing Galvara's attention onto him and off the others.

  She retaliated, her molten lash bit into the scaffolding, sparks raining, but Nobu’s angle drove her back step by step toward the pit’s rim.

  Roi’s eyes flicked to the half-hidden ropes and ash-veiled lines she’d laid earlier. She pressed a boot down on one knot, tugging it taut, nothing yet, but the traps were primed.

  “Keep her moving!” she snapped, voice clipped, calculated.

  Twenty Five.

  Rei's hands trembled around the flare. Her eyes were glazed, staring at the blood on her arm like it wasn't hers.

  "Rei!" Dozai barked.

  She blinked.

  Once. Twice.

  Then her jaw set, and she ripped the flare open.

  "EYES!" Her voice cracked, but it carried.

  Blinding light covered the arena in a flash, Galvara stunned by the light.

  Thirty.

  Kenny charged forward—reckless, headlong, using his shout to drown out his fear. He nearly pitched into the open pit when his foot hit loose gravel, but Dozai lunged in, yanking him by the back of his collar.

  “Eyes down! Ground’s not safe!” Dozai barked.

  A steel cart, creaked and swung from its chain. Rei and Roi pushed it together, slamming into Galvara’s back before she could recover.

  Galvara let out a painful grunt.

  Thirty Three.

  Galvara let out a low hiss, steam venting from her gauntlet. Her eyes narrowed, this wasn’t a brawl against beasts.

  This was a hunt, and the prey was circling her.

  She started becoming more aggressive. Her chest heaved, plates spinning hotter, tighter. She jabbed her gauntlet down, not at them, but into the floor.

  The arena shook. A rusted pipe beneath the scaffold shrieked as it tore apart, blasting a geyser of steam upward. White fog rolled fast and choking, swallowing half the space in seconds.

  The crowd above recoiled, their view now just a smear of shadows and warping heat.

  “Shit—!” Kenny hacked, coughing, eyes burning. He swung blindly, metal clanging against railing.

  “Stay close!” Rei shouted, but her voice was swallowed by the cloud.

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  Thirty Eight.

  Shapes warped in the fog. Wires came from everywhere at once, slashing angles that no human should’ve been able to track.

  Galvara’s silhouette shimmered in the steam, fractured and jerking, like her Maho was dragging her body forward instead of the other way around.

  Dozai saw it first. His pupils tightened, every breath syncing to the rhythm of the wires.

  “DOWN!” He hooked an arm around Rei's waist and yanked her hard, just as the molten lash scorched the air where her head had been. Sparks hissed over her boots, close enough to melt leather.

  Another wire shrieked through the haze. Dozai lunged, tackling Kenny sideways before it carved clean across his throat. The two of them slammed into stone, breath knocked out of their lungs.

  Too many. Too fast.

  He wasn’t quick enough.

  Roi cried out, her arm split open as a lash carved a burning line across her skin. Nobu jerked back, too late, his foot clipped, pain flooding up his leg.

  Across the arena, through the haze, Galvara’s silhouette seemed to pulse, the heat around her flaring brighter for an instant as she registered the new blood.

  Dozai froze for a fractured second. A cold stone of dread settled in his gut, heavier than the smoke choking his lungs. He saw the arc of every strike, the way they cut through the haze, but even knowing, even seeing, he couldn’t be everywhere.

  His fear made real, to see everything coming, and still fail to stop it.

  Fifty.

  The steam swelled. High above, the ceiling groaned. Rust gave way with a shriek of tortured metal.

  “Keep moving! Stay Low!” Dozai roared, his own voice cracked, raw in his throat.

  They all darted for cover, barely clearing as the platform slammed down, sparks and dust exploding outward. The shockwave toppled her trap lines in a tangle of useless cord.

  The falling steel clipped Nobu’s ankle as he dove clear. The crunch of bone echoed sharp through the fog. He hissed through his teeth, face twisting, but his blade stayed in hand.

  Fifty Four.

  “NOBU!” Dozai cried, panic ripping out of him.

  “I'm fine! Keep go—!”

  Through the haze, Galvara emerged. The mask of the hunter was gone, replaced by raw panic, her face was bare, streaked with sweat and fear, her own breathing ragged. Her eyes trembled but narrowed with stubborn fire.

  “I’m sorry—” she rasped, gauntlet rising again. “I have to. I have to!”

  Dozai’s stomach turned. Through the choking fog, through the roar of metal and blood, everything was clear to him now.

  He understood that despite Galvara being a hunter, she was still just a girl…

  She’s… not the only one trying to survive…

  That thought cut harder than her wires ever could.

  But he forced the thought down, teeth clenched until his jaw ached. Because if he let it stay, even for a breath, it would break him.

  If we don’t win, we die.

  Sixty.

  Through the haze—Kenny, left flank, fifteen feet. Rei, behind cover, low with Roi. Nobu, limping right, closing distance.

  Galvara Maho flickered but she still swung her fist down at Nobu. But Kenny intercepted her.

  “We’re not losing anyone here!” He roared, wild and defiant. He held his injured side, swinging his whole weight in a broad, reckless arc. His knife clanged against her gauntlet with a sound that split the arena, sparks spraying in the fog.

  Galvara staggered. not because he’d overpowered her, but from the sheer recklessness of the collision. Her retaliation was immediate. The molten whip lashed, cracking through the air and slicing across Kenny’s ribs. His body jolted sideways, breath knocked out, blood misting dark against the haze.

  The crowd erupted, some gasping, others screaming approval.

  Galvara steadied herself, wobbling a half-step, her Maho was starting to dull. But that wasn’t the biggest problem, her boot catching something thin and nearly invisible in the chaos.

  A wire.

  Roi’s wire.

  Galvara froze mid-step, eyes widening as the hook pulled taut beneath her heel.

  “Traps?” she rasped, voice raw. “You guys also placed—”

  Roi yanked the trigger. The tripline snapped, jerking her foot sideways. Galvara stumbled, gauntlet flaring wildly, molten sparks carving black streaks across the fog.

  Dozai’s hand twitched, knowing that this was their chance. He glanced over at Rei who was already bolting towards Galvara on instinct.

  Dozai didn’t slow. He tore a rusted chain free with one sharp tug.

  “Rei—cut left!”

  The ore cart suspended above screeched loose and swung like a pendulum. It slammed into Galvara’s shoulder, shoving her further off balance.

  Rei was already charging the left flank. She gritted her teeth, raised a jagged stone, and smashed it into Galvara’s forehead. Blood streaked down her face, red cutting through her vision.

  It was a good hit. A winning hit.

  And a terrible one all the same.

  Galvara roared, trying to find her footing, but Nobu crawled in low, teeth gritted against the pain in his leg. He jammed a chunk of rusted metal into the molten whip mid-snap. Sparks spat and the wire sputtered, recoiling like a wounded serpent.

  The opening was there.

  Kenny, ribs slick with blood, staggered upright. His knife was gone, knocked away in the earlier clash, but his hands still clenched into fists. He let out one last ragged yell and barreled forward.

  He slammed his shoulder into Galvara’s chest, raw force over finesse. The impact drove her backward, stumbling feet-first into the softened sand.

  The ground gave.

  With a heavy crash, Galvara toppled into the pit Roi had hollowed out, ash and dust swallowing her lower half. Her halo plates sputtered, wires twitching

  The arena shuddered with the crowd’s roar.

  Galvara thrashed, doing everything she can to claw her way out the pit. Her voice was hoarse, breaking. “No—NO!! I can still—!”

  But the wires faltered. She blinked hard, like something red in her eye. Her Maho dimmed slightly, wires spasming like dying nerves. The heat around her dropping.

  But she didn’t stop breathing. Didn’t stop trying.

  Her fingers scraped against the arena floor.

  “You—you cheated! When did you—?” Galvara yelled as she tried digging herself out.

  Master Hellick never said a word, a simple, knowing small smile on her lips

  Galvara’s lips moved soundlessly, forming a desperate, looping mantra, a prayer or a plea, as she opened her eye that was filled with blood.

  Above, the crowd was already shifting, boredom setting in.

  A few jeers, a yawn. Another "glorified prisoner" folded up like a child’s toy.

  Dozai saw it first. The wires began to stir again.

  “THIS IS OUR CHANCE! WE CAN HOLD HER DOWN FOR THE TEN COUNT!” Kenny yelled.

  “No!” Dozai’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp and absolute. “FALL BACK! NOW!”

  Rei and Roi froze.

  “NOW!”

  The ash pit boiled.

  Heat pulsed outward in a low burst, subtle, then sudden.

  The shockwave rattled one of the dangling carts overhead, causing it to swing violently and smash into a scaffold nearby Dozai, who duck last-second before it hit him.

  Galvara screamed as the forge re-lit around her, voice raw and scraped from the throat. This wasn’t the Maho dragging her forward anymore. This was her dragging the Maho with her.

  “The blood in her eye,” Nobu grunted as he tried to stand back up. “She’s always seeing blood now…”

  Galvara rose from the pit, sand falling like rust off her shoulders. Her bandages had burned away. Ash clung to her cheekbones. Her lip dripped blood from biting down on it so hard as she pulled herself out the pit.

  “I can still win,” she whispered. Not to them. To herself. “I can still win, Delnora!”

  The plates behind her spun faster than before, jerking with imperfect rhythm, whistling like blades in a cyclone.

  Dozai exhaled slowly, hands still at his sides.

  A faint tremor ran through his fingers as his gaze flicked across the fog. Each clash replayed in his head, angles, openings, the rhythm of her gauntlet. Yet beneath the calculation, something deeper stirred. His body moved like it already knew the path, nudging him toward an answer he hadn’t fully grasped.

  “This is worse case scenario.” he said softly. “She’ll either overload, or kill us first.”

  Roi coughed as she scrambled up beside him. “So what now? New plan? Kenny and Nobu are bleeding out, and she’s a supernova!”

  Dozai didn’t answer. He stepped forward. His hand twitch once, three fingers tapping behind his back.

  A signal.

  Backup plan.

  Flare.