SYSTEM ASCENSION

The students that had stayed behind splitted up after leaving the palace.

Tyler picked a direction and went alone. Tiana went with Lane and Anya. Claude went alone. Fayera and Davon went together.

When the island was raised, the intruders were forced to take the fight down. Exactly how it was designed to be.

Fayera and Davon got to the edge of the island and looked down.

”How do we get down?” Davon asked.

”Hold on.” She said,

He expected her to pull off some random trick or find a gryphon, but was hit with shock as she jumped down.

”What the—”

He looked down, watching her plummet till she hit the ground. Dust covered everywhere and alerted some of the intruders.

”Is she alright...”

He suddenly saw something shot out of the dust, came up to him and stopped right at his face.

”A...tentacle?”

She wrapped it around his neck and yanked him.

”Wait! You damn freak!”

He almost hit the ground, until numerous tentacles cushioned his fall.

”Simple right?” She grinned.

He glanced at her. Her transformed self and the single eye blinking innocently.

”One thing,” he stood up. ”Do not ever use...” he gestured at the tentacles. ”Those on me again. It makes me insecure for some reason.”

She grinned. ”How about we face the problem before us?”

He turned his gaze. About thirty of them were lined up and a single person was already facing them.

Kael.

His wings were out, as he hovered. He swung the flute, releasing a massive attack that flung a lot of them into trees and rocks.

The duo observed the fight for a moment before Davon spoke.

”Is he not supposed to blow the flute?”

Unfortunately, no one could answer that question.

They joined the fight.

Fayera shot out multiple tentacles, catching them by the neck or limbs and tightening it, till she heard bones popping.

Davon went full combat mode, moving slightly faster than his opponents.

When a person threw a punch, he already threw two, and when a person threw a kick, he already broke the leg.

They fought side by side, assisting each other, but not quite interfering with each other.

In a minute, Fayera had snapped the neck of the last one.

They stood for a few seconds before Davon glanced at her. ”Is killing that easy for you?”

”I’m over five centuries old, darling.”

”Hey! Students are supposed to be young adults!”

Kael snorted. ”She’s lying. The oldest among the students is Coco.”

”Coco?!” Davon was even more stunned.

Fayera laughed. ”how did you know?”

”I can somehow read it?” He shrugged.

”Yeah. Just like that blind bat.” Another voice answered.

Their eyes widened. It was a different presence they didn’t even notice. They turned around, getting combat ready in a second.

”I see he managed to pass on his ability...at least this one can see.”

The man stood at the treeline, hands in his pockets, like he’d been watching for a while.

He was tall, his coat was dusty, and his smile was too relaxed for someone facing three of them.

Kael’s grip tightened on the flute. ”You.”

”Me.” The man tilted his head. ”You’ve grown loud since I last saw you. Well, since I last saw ’him’. It’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

”Who is he, Kael?” Fayera asked.

”He killed the last protector of Qld.”

The man nodded. ”Liumin was weak. Don’t you think so?”

Kael didn’t answer. He was already in the air.

He swung the flute, and the shockwave tore the ground apart as it rushed forward. The man didn’t dodge. He lifted one hand, and the attack bent around him, shredding the trees on either side.

”Sloppy,” he said. ”Liumin’s strikes were sharper.”

”Don’t say his name!”

Kael dove, and Davon moved with him. He hit the ground running, closing the distance before the man’s smile had even faded. He threw a jab at the ribs, then a second at the jaw, and both were blocked. The man caught his wrist on the third.

”Fast,” the man said. ”But you telegraph with your shoulders.”

”Then watch this.” Davon twisted, dropped low, and swept the man’s legs while his free hand drove upward into the stomach.

It landed. The man grunted and slid back a step.

”Now!”

Fayera’s tentacles were already there. Six of them lashed out, wrapping the arms, the throat, and the ankles. She pulled with everything she had, and the single eye on her face narrowed.

”Just die nicely ,” she said sweetly. ”It will be a pleasure.”

The man looked at the tentacles wrapped around him. Then he laughed.

”Oh, you’re a fun one.”

The tentacles shuddered, and a pulse rolled through them. It wasn’t fire or a blade. It was force, dense and silent, rippling down her limbs. Fayera hissed and released him, shaking two of them like they’d been struck by lightning.

”What did he do?” Davon shouted.

”He sent it back!” she said. ”Everything we hit him with, he sends it back!”

”Not quite.” The man rolled his shoulders. ”I just choose what to keep.”

He vanished and reappeared in front of Davon. A knee slammed into his chest. Davon flew, crashed through a tree, and hit the dirt coughing. Before Fayera could react, the man’s hand closed around her tentacle and yanked her forward, right into a palm strike that cracked the ground under her.

”Kael! Sound!” Davon wheezed from the dirt. ”Use the flute!”

”No!” Kael snapped.

”Why?! It’s a damn flute! You’re supposed to blow it.”

The man’s smile widened. ”Hehe.”

Kael’s face hardened. He raised the flute, but he didn’t blow it. He spun it like a staff and dropped straight at the man, wings folded, using his fall as momentum. The strike came down with a crack that split the air.

The man caught it with both hands and skidded backward, boots carving trenches in the dirt.

”Better,” he admitted.

”Davon, left!” Fayera called, rising with her tentacles fanned out behind her.

Davon was already moving. He came in from the blind side while she struck from above, and Kael pressed down from the front. Three attacks landed at once from three directions, too many to redirect.

The man’s eyes flicked between them.

Then he raised his voice, almost cheerful. ”There it is. Now we’re playing.”

The ground beneath all three of them lit up.

The light spread in a ring around them, lines crawling through the dirt like veins. Davon felt it in his boots first: a pull, as if the ground were breathing in.

”Don’t stay in it!” Fayera snapped, and her tentacles hauled all three of them out of the circle. Too late. The lines flared, and every bruise Davon had dealt, every crushing squeeze Fayera had made, came back at once.

The impact ruined the clearing, knocking them several steps back.