Fourteen ran along the wall and laughed like a madman, boots finding purchase where there should have been none. He was enjoying this.
Jai did not let the laughter pull his focus. He drew in a deep breath, steadied his shoulders, and threw. The bone javelin scread through the chamber, so fast it made the air hiss.
Fourteen’s smile cracked. Three estocs crossed at once to catch the strike. Demonic aura ground against knightly aura, sparks spitting as the weapon stalled and shuddered. Fourteen’s grin ca back, certain, like he had just proven a point.
He had underestimated what was behind him.
Joji surged in first, fist wrapped in Erald Blade Wind Art. Alaric moved with him, pouring everything into the edge of his dagger. They hit together, not as two n, but as a single plan.
Fourteen’s head snapped toward Joji. An estoc slid to et Joji’s left fist.
Joji’s punch landed and there was no power in it.
It was bait.
He ducked hard as they all slid along the wall’s surface, then shifted the aura to his right arm mid motion. His target was not the body. It was the elbow joint. His right fist drove in and t the flat of the machine’s arm with a crack that rang like struck tal.
The arm jerked up too high.
Alaric stepped on Joji’s back like it was a platform and cut. The dagger flashed. The arm ca away clean, severed at the joint.
Alaric caught Fourteen’s estoc as it dropped, fingers closing around the hilt with relief and hunger. Now he had the weapon he preferred.
"Splendid. Truly splendid," Fourteen said, and the praise sounded almost tender.
Then he cut off mid breath. Another bone javelin scread toward him.
Alaric turned vicious. Right foot forward, back foot braced, body angled like a spear.
He wielded the two handed estoc in one hand anyway, because he was not called the Thorny Flower of Everhart for nothing.
Lightness of the Wind Art snapped through his legs. Erald Blade Wind Art laced the steel.
He dashed in a straight line and made his whole body a blade.
The point punched into Fourteen’s torso. tal shrieked. The thrust missed the mage heart by a few centiters, close enough to make the core’s glow flicker in panic.
Alaric ripped the weapon free at once and retreated, the motion clean and disciplined, and the strike left one of Fourteen’s arms stuttering as if the command lines inside it had been severed.
"Ah. So that’s how it was done," Fourteen murmured, not even bothered by the hole in his chest.
Joji did not waste the opening. He snatched the sword from the downed arm and threw it to Jai.
"Catch," he yelled.
Jai caught it and stepped in. Now the knights had proper steel in their hands, and Fourteen was pushed onto the back foot.
Still he smiled.
Jai’s voice broke through the clash.
"Why are you targeting Lacrosse?"
"Lacrosse," Fourteen repeated, amused. "Why would I target Lacrosse? You’re not that important?"
"Then why? Why are you doing this?" Jai demanded, tears sliding down his cheeks and vanishing into gri.
Fourteen’s grin widened.
"I just want to. Ki. Ki. Ki." His laughter died as fast as it ca. "Now let be serious."
His gaze shifted to Joji, calculating, and decided he was the weakest link.
Fourteen’s knight core flared. His body moved with a mimicry of Lightness of the Wind Art and Erald Blade Wind Art together, too smooth for tal, too fast for a human mind to track.
He vanished. Joji barely had ti to react. He crossed both vambraces over his chest and forced aura into them until the steel humd.
The estoc struck. It rang off the first vambrace, then punched through it anyway.
Joji’s aura was thinner, his defense cheaper. The blade found flesh and went straight through bone.
"Argh," Joji roared through the pain, teeth grinding.
It bit into the second vambrace and the shock ran up his arms like fire.
Joji gritted his teeth and refused to fold. He twisted his pierced right arm hard, using the angle, using the trapped steel, and forced the estoc to bend against the vambrace edge until it snapped.
"Joji," Alaric yelled, eyes bloodshot.
Then his voice turned sharp and stupid with fear.
"I’ll kill you."
Alaric charged again, driving for the cores the way he had before.
"That won’t work twice," Fourteen sneered.
He did not bother to parry. A dark magic missile was already waiting, readied like a trap.
It fired the mont Alaric closed the distance.
Alaric’s eyes went wide. For one breath his whole life tried to fit inside his skull.
Jai moved first. He threw himself in front of it and raised his arms.
Demonic aura crawled over him, half ford, because there was no ti for more.
The missile hit. Flesh exploded. The sound was wet. The sll was iron and burned at.
Alaric braced anyway, but he was still too close. Pain burst through his arms and chest from the shockwave, and he was thrown down the corridor like a kicked doll.
His back slamd into the wall hard enough to knock breath out. When Alaric blinked his vision clear, he saw it.
Jai’s arm was gone. Not broken. Gone.
His torso had been torn open too, ribs showing, lungs working in the open air like sothing that did not know it was supposed to be hidden.
Joji saw everything from the side, teeth clenched around the pain in his own arm.
He grabbed the broken estoc still lodged through his right forearm and pulled.
tal scraped bone. His wound wriggled as it tried to knit while regeneration kicked in.
His mind did not go to the itching of regeneration this ti. He looked at the automaton right in front of him.
Fourteen saw them stagger and bleed and turned back to his real goal.
Black smoke poured from his mouth and eyes and crawled toward Jai again, threading into him like reins.
Joji threw a bone javelin. Four estocs snapped up as Fourteen’s body rotated, blades crossing in a smooth ring.
The javelin was perfectly sliced into four, bone splintering against steel.
"Is this all you can do, little knight?" Fourteen said, amused.
On the floor, Alaric forced himself up. His hands shook once, then steadied. He drew his bow.
He did not aim for the torso this ti.
He angled for the head, for the nape line through the nose, a dirty shot ant to destroy the devil automaton’s goal.
The arrow flew. It struck Fourteen’s back and the steel face burst open.
Gears and springs spat into the air, clattering across stone like spilled coins.
Alaric and Joji had been watching the automaton for a while now, and they were certain it wanted to take Jai away.
They exchanged a few glances and understood each other’s intent.
That was why Joji stepped out, drawing attention to himself so Alaric could act.
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