Cassian clashed with Rocky in a blinding explosion of heat and pressure. Solar light burst from his axe, striking the crystalline man with enough force to carve a trench through the ground.
Rocky raised both arms, his body hardening with a dull shimr. Cassian’s strike connected but instead of breaking him, the impact cracked the ground beneath them.
Cilian moved like mist, cold spreading from every step he took. He flanked Speedy in a blur, launching dozens of frost-laced javelins made of ice.
Speedy weaved through them with ease, his body flickering like an afterimage. One mont he was in front of Cilian, the next behind, landing a solid blow to Cilian’s ribs before vanishing again.
Edgar hunted Slippery.
Shadow trails followed his movents, his body lting in and out of darkness. But every ti he got close, Slippery tilted his head and the world bent. Edgar’s blow would pass through an illusion. Sotis it wasn’t even clear if Slippery was really there at all.
But the other two Empire grandmasters hadn’t moved yet.
Until now.
And now, the other two stepped in.
Speedy grinned and blurred forward. Cassian barely raised his hand in ti, solar light flared as a barrier caught the blur.
A shockwave erupted as the two collided. Behind Speedy, Rocky charged in, his body glinting with jagged crystal. He tried to flank Cassian, but Cilian slid in, ice blooming across the floor. The mont Rocky stepped on it, frost climbed up his legs.
"Not so fast, pebble boy," Cilian muttered.
Slippery, anwhile, leaned back and spread his arms. The air shimred around him, warping like heat waves. A second later, copies of him blinked into existence across the field—illusions. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. They all smiled that sa condescending grin.
"Try hitting the real one," Slippery said.
But the Empire’s side didn’t panic.
From above, the wind-wielding Grandmaster raised a hand. A gust tore through the battlefield with pinpoint precision.
Dozens of illusions were blown away instantly, revealing the real Slippery’s position. He barely had ti to react before arrows of air ca slicing toward him. Slippery clicked his tongue and vanished in a shimr.
"Smart," Edgar murmured from a nearby shadow. "But not enough."
He erged directly behind the spot Slippery teleported to. A dark blade ford in Edgar’s hand. It hissed like boiling oil. Slippery barely dodged, the blade grazing his shoulder and lting through part of his coat.
Rocky grunted and slamd both fists into the frozen floor, shattering the frost and trying to trap Cilian in a rising ring of crystal spikes. But before the spikes could trap him, a massive wall of stone erupted beside Cilian, blocking the strike.
The sixth Grandmaster had arrived. He was silent, but when he moved, the ground moved with him. Rock armor coated his arms. His presence was firm, steady. He raised a hand and the earth surged in a wave, crashing into Rocky and lifting him off his feet.
anwhile, Speedy darted in and out, bouncing between wind currents and sunlight bursts. But now the pressure changed.
Dante’s influence began to show.
It was subtle. When Rocky threw a gleaming spike straight at Cassian, it suddenly blinked out of existence and reappeared twenty ters behind him, embedding uselessly in a pillar. Rocky blinked. "What the—"
Cassian took advantage of the mont and hurled a solar spear. It smashed into Rocky’s side, knocking him down with a thunderous blast.
Speedy tried to retaliate, he zipped toward the solar user, aiming to hit and retreat. But just before he landed the blow, space twisted around him. He passed right through Cassian’s illusion, stumbling.
"What?" he barked.
"Confused?" Edgar taunted from the shadows. "You’re not the only one with a sneaky teammate."
The battlefield was shifting fast now.
The Empire’s five were moving together seamlessly. Each one guarded the others, when Cassian charged up an attack, Cilian provided cover. When Cilian froze the air, the wind Grandmaster guided it with precision.
Edgar kept Slippery off-balance with shadows, while the earth user constantly reshaped terrain to block Rocky’s brute-force assaults.
And all the while, Dante’s space distortion added unpredictability. Nothing the Holt trio threw could be trusted to land as intended.
The illusionist grew frustrated. His smile faded. "You think tricks will save you?"
"We’re not the ones about to lose," Cilian replied, frost forming along his eyebrows.
Speedy dashed toward the wind Grandmaster next, hoping to take him down fast. He spun mid-air, twisting like a bullet. But the wind Grandmaster was ready. He narrowed his eyes and unleashed another blast that curved around himself like a shell.
Speedy slamd into it and got flung backward.
Rocky tried to regroup. He pounded the ground and covered himself in a second shell of thick crystal, even as solar spears rained down.
But the earth Grandmaster wasn’t having it. He pulled the ground up into sharp spires and launched them like missiles. They shattered Rocky’s outer layer and sent shards flying.
Slippery tried again, this ti casting illusions of Dante himself, trying to confuse the team. Ten, twenty, thirty Dantes flickered into existence.
But I was watching carefully from Arkas’s side.
I frowned. "Slippery’s getting desperate."
Arkas, his voice raspy, murmured, "Then now’s when it gets dangerous."
He was right. Slippery lunged forward through his illusions, a gleaming dagger in his hand, heading straight for Cilian.
But before he could even reach him, the space around Cilian flickered and Slippery’s hand swung through the air.
Dante was there, still invisible but he had intervened again, bending space to keep his team alive.
Slippery snarled. "Cowards! All of you!"
"Excuses." Cassian answered, his next solar blast nearly blowing Slippery’s illusions apart.
The three Holt Grandmasters were powerful but they were being pushed back now. Teamwork, coordination, and Dante’s manipulation of the battlefield gave the Empire’s side an edge.
Speedy suddenly pivoted, feinted past Cillian, and burst toward the Earth Grandmaster in a blur of motion.
"Idiot, you’re in my domain now." the Earth Grandmaster growled, slamming his leg on the ground.
A deep, guttural hum echoed across the battlefield as veins of black energy surged out from his legs and into the earth. The broken stone rippled unnaturally, and then—
"[Grave Seal]!"
The ground erupted with force. Black earthen chains, thick as his legs, burst upward like serpents, twisting through the air with unnatural speed. They wrapped around Speedy mid-dash, coiling tight around his arms and legs, locking him in place with a crunch of stone.
Speedy snarled and struggled, a golden blur vibrating violently against the bindings.
That’s when Edgar moved.
A shadow flickered behind the bound man. In a blink, Edgar stepped out of it—silent, sharp, deadly.
His black blade sliced through the air.
Speedy sensed it just in ti, twisting his torso and narrowly avoiding decapitation.
But not fast enough.
His right hand flew off in a spray of blood and dropped on the cracked ground.
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