Their steps echoed as they approached the dark stretch of the tunnel and already, Ethan could see pieces of displaced and smashed crystals littering the ground nearby, confirming that someone had messed with the lighting. Someone who might benefit from having more shadow and darkness to jump out of. But they weren’t encountering any threads, even though there had been plenty outside.

  Did they have a fallout? One’s already dead, and now there’s no thread here. Is the shadow woman acting alone? It’d be dumb for her to attack us by herself. Unless she thinks she can take us?

  Ethan doubted that. But as they slowly stepped into the darkness, he kept his mind from thinking about the rift token he was rewarded and stopped trying to activate the Zenith State again. Obstacles or not, the ability was not responding to his attention, and he even struggled to maintain the mindset for more than a handful of seconds before he lost focus, so he assumed it took time to recharge.

  “[The shadow woman is here. She’s flitting about, looking for an angle to strike.]”

  Ethan envied the cat’s ability to sense the surroundings magic. He probably should ask her for some guidance when things would mellow out. He could sense things a bit, but it was nowhere near as accurate. Him thinking they were being watched was more of a gut feeling than something he could prove or empirically test. In the meantime, he sent a message through the pact link he shared with the Ignisra.“[Alone?]”

  “[I believe so.]”

  The two continued forward. They were already being cautious, having had expected threads and traps, but knowing they were being stalked, they didn’t slow down. After all, he didn’t want to spook her. He wanted the woman to attack so he could move on and get this all over with. After a few more steps of nothing happening, he asked. “[Can you fill the space behind us with fire? I’ll do the front.]”

  “[To smoke the coward out? Sure. On three. Two. One.]”

  Ember did a little hop, turning mid-air to face backward, jaw open, right as Ethan pointed both palm in front. Two pillars of fire filled both ends of the tunnels in an instant, banishing away the darkness and causing a small form to stumble into the blinding light for a moment before she was covered by Ember’s flames.

  A rage-filled scream echoed in the tunnel for the handful of seconds Ember had kept the flames going, and when she stopped, a bubble of roiling shadows dissolved to reveal a panting and singed woman holding both daggers in front of her face, as if she’d used her forearms to protect her face from the heat.

  The cat stepped forward and flicked her ears backward. “[You go ahead. We have some unfinished business.]”

  Ethan blinked at the cat as the anklets manifested around her feet, then at the death-glare the woman was giving the cat.

  Right, she’d fought the woman before.

  Ethan turned away and sent one last message. “[Don’t die.]”

  “[Not planning on it. You as well.]”

  A flare of fire lit up behind him as he stepped around yet another corner, and within seconds, he reached a stretch that had not been obscured. His steps echoed, loud in his ears and Ethan stole a last glance backward as he readied his spells and considered if he needed to switch a trait or a spell, but decided not to. The Arcanum of Forms might have been good in many scenarios, but he needed his control over fire here. Everything else needed more capacity slots or more wands, and he didn’t have either of those.

  I got this, he thought as the bright end of the tunnel approached. I have everything I need to finish this up.

  Ethan leaned under a crystalline, glowing overhang, and came out into a wide, open chamber and instantly, a small part of him wanted to retreat into the tunnel, but as his eyes roamed the enclosed space and finally managed to look away from the disconcertingly larger tunnel near the end, his gazed landed on recognizable face sitting near one an alcove-like depression into the wall, and any thought of backing was quickly set ablaze by the roiling anger in his stomach.

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  He was ending things today. Now.

  Edwin stayed seated for a handful of seconds while Ethan approached, elbows on his knees, and when he realized Ethan wasn’t stopping, he slowly got up, and theatrically dusted off his pants before he looked up and smiled. “I surrender.”

  Ethan didn’t stop. He wasn’t trusting what he was hearing for a second. He wasn’t even entertaining the idea of letting the man in front of him walk away after everything he’d tried to pull off in the last couple of days. Much less what had happened in the past.

  Edwin’s brows furrowed for an instant before the smile came back as he raised his hands. “Seriously. I’ll stay out of your way. Whatever Ava did, she’s on her own. I didn’t ask her to—whoa,” he shouted, dodging down at the shard of crystal that barely missed his head.

  Ethan frowned. That was disappointing for a tier-2 homing spell.

  Edwin looked up and all the false friendliness fell away to reveal who he truly was. His lips tightened in a line that almost looked like a sneer. His eyes narrowed with a snap of his finger, a pulse of magic spread out, echoing along with the noise he made.

  In response, Ethan summoned the Prime wand and flicked a fireball at him. The ball of intense red zipped forward, but it blew up when it barely got half-way to its target, caught on a metallic panel of criss-cross wires.

  A cacophony of echoing growls and hisses suddenly filled the space and out of the large tunnel, three cave monitors came out, and that finally made Ethan slow down. Especially when he noticed that all three of them had glowing, collar-like length of white threads around their necks, matching the milky-white glow in their eyes.

  Edwin moved to step behind his mind-controlled lizards, pace slow and confident. With a gesture of his white wand, the three monitors roared and rushed forward. “I guess you’re as stupidly stubborn as you were back then,” he said, voice echoing in the cave. “Even when I give you a chance, you manage to throw it back in my face. But it’s fine. This time I’ll make sure you stay down.”

  Ethan was already running forward. Of course Edwin was ready for a fight, though subjugating the monitor had not been one of Ethan’s expectations.

  Where are the others, though? And where’s the lord?

  The lance appeared in his hand, tip glowing with ominous red light and for a moment, Ethan looked beyond the oncoming monitors. Beyond Edwin, and hoped the lord hadn’t been subjected to the same magic.

  No way. He would have attacked more if he could manage it… and why no use the lord? He must be limited by the creature’s levels.

  The first monitor lunged forward, only for Ethan to jump up and flare his wings, but as expected, there were invisible threads blocking his movement. Edwin tilted his head and aimed with his wand. “You can’t be that dumb, right?”

  There was a metallic flash at the end of the wand right before Ethan could react, the projectile cracked painfully against his scaly stomach before it dropped and hit one of the clambering monitors on the face. Edwin frowned and looked down at his own wand.

  Ethan stabbed down shoved the lance between the shoulderblade of one of the monitors, tearing out chunks of crystal and blood before he grinned back at Edwin. “You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, right?”

  Edwin glared up at him and Ethan had the pleasure of seeing a trickle of doubt in the eyes of the scheming bastard. He took that image and shoved it into the merrily bubbling cauldron of frustrations in his chest, stoking the fire under it. All of these little attempts at tripping him up were only helping him recharge the Zenith State faster. But it wasn’t ready yet, and he wasn’t about to use it just yet either. Knowing who he was dealing with, he’d rather save that card for when he’d really need it, and it wasn’t as if a handful of rocky and fat lizards were capable of doing much to him, especially since none of them were past level 60.

  Ethan dismissed the wings and lance, and dropped down to the ground, kicking one of the monitors reaching for his ankle. His scaly feet slammed against the hard ground, and he shoved his left claws into the jaw of the bleeding monitor as it tried to bite him. With a flex, he dug his claws into the back of the creature’s throat and in the next breath, he created a torrent of flames deep in its guts while the third bit down on his thigh. The powerful, crystalline teeth crunched and struggled to punch through the scales as the monitor flailed and thrashed, hissing and sending out droplets of smoking blood, but it couldn’t get away from him, no matter how hard it tried. In the meantime, he kept the others away with a few kicks and swipes, carefully watching for openings to quickly dispatch them.

  Edwin took a step back, teeth gritting, then he turned and ran.

  Ethan wrenched his arm out of the dying monitor, tore into a second’s throat, and sent out a point-blank fireball into the third’s mouth. He wasn’t going to let him run. He—

  He’s not running?

  Edwin came to a stop near the large tunnel, and with a swing of an arm, a bunch of threads rippled into existence. He gripped them, turned to give Ethan a manic smile, then yanked powerfully enough that he lost balance and once that was done, he let go of the threads that quickly dissolved into motes, then he ran. Toward the exit Ethan came from, right a massive pained roar filled the cave.

  That can’t be good.

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