Once again, Akari marveled at the sheer size of this arena. She’d fought in plenty of duels, but those rings were only thirty yards in diameter. This was closer to a hundred yards, and she could barely make out her opponents as they emerged across the field.

“Who are these guys?” Akari asked. The cheering crowd drowned out her voice, but her teammates would still hear her through their com devices.

“Garriland Team Three,” Kalden’s said. “They have one Artisan—a stone artist.”

“Shit,” she muttered. Most teams had no Artisans at all, so this was already bad luck. “What else?”

Kalden paused as if straining to remember. “One light artist, two wind artists, a gravity artist, and a tech specialist. Their aspects are simple, but don’t underestimate them.”

Akari gave a slow nod. Wind and stone were less impressive than spacetime, but that wasn’t always a bad thing. She’d only had her aspect for a few months, along with a single technique to show for it. But wind and stone? They could have gotten those aspects in late elementary school. That gave them the better part of a decade to refine their techniques.

Her team kept walking until they reached their starting positions. Six circles of light appeared in front of them, and they all stepped inside. Akari joined Kalden and Relia in the right circles, while Zukan, Elise, and Arturo took the spots on the left.

These positions weren’t random. Some arenas and game modes would split their team in half and they’d all agreed this was the best setup. Zukan and Relia were the strongest overall, so it made sense to separate them. Akari and Arturo both served utility roles, while Kalden and Elise were more balanced, bringing a mix of knowledge techniques and raw power.

They still had some overlap, of course. Arturo’s tech let him turn invisible, and so did Elise’s dream mana. Then there was Kalden’s alchemy. Unlike tech specialists, who could craft items for the whole team, alchemists couldn’t divide up their potions before a battle. If anyone else carried one, they had to drink it within the next twenty seconds. Putting Kalden and Relia in one squad forced them to consolidate all their healing power.

Arturo had brought up these issues in their earlier meetings, but Akari pulled rank on him. She trusted Kalden and Relia more than the others, and that trust counted for more than any tactical setup.

Once they’d taken their spots, the arena blurred and warped as the dream Constructs sprang to life. The blue sky became a ceiling of dark stone, and the walls closed in around them. Some sort of cave?

Akari had been hoping for an open field where she could flank her opponents with portals. Something more like KU’s midterm exam, or the qualifying rounds. Even most dueling arenas had more space than this. Instead, a pair of narrow tunnels snaked out in front of them, barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. Wooden rafters supported the stone ceilings, and amber lanterns hung from their lintels.

The dream mana blocked out the sounds of the crowd, but the announcer’s voice came loud and clear over the speakers. “Looks like we’re in for another team death match this morning. Get ready for a heated battle in this brand new arena—the Molten Mines!”

A death match. Once again, she’d been hoping for something else, like capture the flag, domination, or siege. Her portals would have excelled in those modes. No sense in complaining about that now, though. Akari tried to imagine her goal in her mind’s eye: to impress the Solidors and become an Aeon. That focus brought clarity, and she leaned into it.

“Any ideas?” she asked her team. They had less than a minute until the arena was fully formed. Then the countdown would begin in earnest.

“The terrain favors the enemy,” Kalden said. “That Artisan could bury us alive.”

“But we’ve got the better fighters,” Arturo added. “And those wind artists can’t fly underground.”

“So we rush them?” Akari asked. “Full speed ahead?”

“Too risky,” Kalden said. “We’re technically the stronger team here. Better to play it safe.”

She gave a slow nod. “Then what’s the safe plan?”

“We could set up a base right here,” Arturo said. “Those tunnels slope downward. That gives us the high ground.”

Akari squinted ahead and realized he was right. And if this arena was symmetrical, then it would punish any full-speed rushes.

“Not against that Stone Artist,” Kalden said. “We have to assume he’ll use this terrain against us. If we stay here, we put our eggs in one nest.”

The arena finished forming, and armor formed around their combat suits.

Finally, the announcer began the countdown. “Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . “

“So we split up,” Akari said. “Two squads of three, then we move forward at a light jog.” She made her words a statement rather than a question this time. Elend’s lessons were crystal clear on this point: good captains listened to their squads, but in the end, they made the tough calls themselves.

“Sounds good,” Kalden said.

“Seven . . . Six . . .”

The others made similar sounds of agreement as they cycled their mana and prepared to move.

“Five . . . Four . . . “

Akari cycled her own mana and shifted her feet in the dirt. Her hands ran across the holsters on her belt, double-checking her weapons and items.

“Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Fight!”

The two squads sprang into motion. Akari’s squad fell into a wedge formation as they ran, with Relia in the front and Kalden and Akari behind her.

“The field’s a hundred yards across,” Kalden said as they jogged. “At this speed, we should reach the middle within twenty-three seconds.”

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Twenty-three seconds exactly? Yeah, that was definitely his battle mana talking.

The tunnel continued downward, and everything looked the same as their starting spots. Lots of stone walls and wooden rafters.

“What’s that up ahead?” Elise’s voice asked through the com device.

Akari’s squad kept running, but Relia cycled pure mana to her hands, ready to make a shield at a moment’s notice.

“Shit,” Elise said. “That’s—”

The ground shook beneath their feet, and a sound like falling boulders echoed from somewhere down the tunnel.

“Moonfire?” Kalden asked.

“We’re trapped,” Elise said in a panicked voice. “Arturo’s down, and Zukan’s—” Her voice cut off without warning. Static followed, then nothing at all.”

“Moonfire?” Kalden repeated. “What’s going on?”

No reply.

“Zukan?” he asked. “Do you copy?”

“They rushed them,” Akari muttered. Even if it took twenty seconds to reach the middle, the wind artists could have flown the distance in half the time. It was a risky move, but it had clearly paid off.

Her group jogged for a dozen more yards until the tunnel widened into a larger cavern.

“Stop!” Akari and Kalden said in unison.

Relia skidded to a halt up ahead, and they took cover behind a pile of massive boulders. The path ended a few paces beyond. Akari couldn’t see much from this vantage, but it looked like a drop off.

She shot a spacetime Missile several yards above their heads, then she conjured a portal on the wall, no more than a few inches across. She brought her eye to the small portal and took in the scene.

“What do you see?” Kalden asked.

“It’s a big open space,” Akari said. “There’s a wooden bridge to our left. It goes over a canyon, and there’s another tunnel across from us. Probably leads to the enemy base.”

Relia blinked. “Did you say canyon?”

Akari nodded. “And there’s lava at the bottom.”

“Molten Mines,” Kalden muttered. “Guess that explains the name.”

Akari shot a nervous glance over her shoulder. Whoever had attacked the others was probably lurking around here somewhere, and she’d rather not get taken by surprise.

“I’ll get us across,” she said. “Better than staying here with that Artisan.”

She shot a Missile across the canyon, then formed a portal near the enemy’s tunnel entrance. Relia ran through the portal first with Akari hot on her heels.

“Wait,” Kalden said from behind them. “It’s a trap!”

No sooner had they stepped through the portal than an anti-mana pulse tore through the air. The portal broke into silver mist behind them, and Akari stumbled forward. As always, the sudden loss of mana left her dizzy and weak.

A laser shot out from the shadows, followed by a volley of pure Missiles. The attacks came from the opposite side of the canyon. Almost as if they’d known she would teleport across.

“Get down!” Relia moved with blinding speed as she put herself between Akari and the enemy. Her Artisan body absorbed all three attacks, despite her lost mana.

Akari spun to face the enemy’s tunnel entrance. But now that she was closer, she finally understood Kalden’s warning. The entrance was an illusion. Their opponents didn’t have a dream artist, so this must have been sigilcraft tech, like the arena itself.

Several small canisters rolled out from beneath the projection, and Akari bolted away.

“Grenades!” she shouted.

More Missiles cut through the air. By now, Relia had recovered her mana, and she conjured a shield, more than a dozen feet in diameter. Several Death Missiles formed in her other hand as she readied a counterattack.

An enemy Missile flew over the shield and struck Akari on the top of her helmet. Her vision flashed with stars as she stumbled on the stone floor.

The grenades exploded a heartbeat later, releasing bursts of shrapnel and force mana. Akari slid a dozen feet across the floor, while Relia Cloaked her legs and dug in. It might have worked against one grenade, or even two. But even Artisans had their limits.

The blast knocked Relia off the edge, and she soared over the canyon. More Missiles closed in on Akari, and she ducked behind a stone boulder.

Meanwhile, Relia arced through the air, launching Death Missiles at her opponents as she flew. One boy faded to a cloud of white mist, while the others scrambled for cover.

Akari cycled spacetime mana as she prepared to catch her teammate with a portal. But no . . . that would expose her to the light artist. And unlike Relia, she couldn’t take those attacks head-on.

“Kalden?” She pressed a hand to her ear. “Where are you?”

“A little busy here.”

She peaked out from her cover and spotted him across the canyon. Violet blades orbited his body as he charged the enemy team.

Just then, another Missile cut through the air and struck the boulder. Damnit. Akari ducked her head as chunks of broken stone hit her helmet.

She raised her hand and conjured another portal on the cavern’s ceiling, giving her a bird's-eye of the battle below. She shot a second spacetime Missile through the opening, forming a portal face-down on the lava’s surface. That might come in handy later.

“Get the light artist,” Kalden said in her ear. “Three o’clock from your position.”

She turned her gaze to a stone ledge, a dozen feet over the main walkway. The ledge itself was shrouded in darkness, but it seemed like the perfect hiding place.

Akari pushed her soul to its limits as she conjured a third portal directly above the ledge. Then she grabbed her dagger and leapt through. Her body collided with a young woman a second later. They collapsed on the ledge together, and Akari drove her blade into her opponent’s windpipe.

From there, she leapt off the ledge to join Kalden on the walkway below. Mana flashed through the air as he exchanged techniques with his opponent. The other boy flew around Kalden’s blades, feet never touching the ground. Whether he was a wind artist or a gravity artist, Akari couldn’t say.

She kept to the shadows as she approached their fight. Then she raised her right hand and launched a sharpened pure Missile at their opponent.

The boy whirled at the last second, deflecting her attack with a flash of his own mana.

That was all the distraction Kalden needed. He brought his violet blade down in a low arc, slicing through the boy’s ankles. Another blade cut through his spine, and he faded to white mist.

How many had opponents had they killed now? Three? Four? Maybe if they were lucky, they’d just have the Artisan to deal with. That would be hard, but not impossible.

The cave shook, and dust fell from the ceiling above. Akari and Kalden Cloaked their muscles and raised shields around their bodies.

A crack spread through the floor, and the ground opened beneath Kalden’s feet. The stone itself moved with impossible speed, like a massive dragon stretching its jaw. Kalden fell through the crack, and it closed with a sound like thunder.

Oh, Talek. This was going to suck.

The ground opened beneath Akari, but she’d already conjured a portal beneath her boots. She fell through, emerging on the other side of the canyon.

The ceiling shook above her head, and stones rained down like falling meteors.

Akari formed another portal and leapt back to her last position.

Footsteps echoed from the nearby tunnel, and a muscular figure emerged. He was almost as tall as Zukan, with stone armor encasing his entire body. His movements weren’t as graceful as Zukan’s, but his power was undeniable.

The Artisan.

An Apprentice couldn’t kill an Artisan with ordinary techniques. That was why her opponents had used the grenades to throw Relia into the canyon.

Two could play at that game.

The Artisan readied his next technique, but Akari was quicker. She used the last of her spacetime mana to form a portal over her the man’s head, linking it to her other portal at the bottom of the canyon. Then she pulled the Construct around his body like a curtain, throwing him head-first into the lava.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she sagged her shoulders. Her team had gotten off to a rough start, but at least—

The cave shook around her, and the air grew several degrees warmer. Lava shot out from the canyon like an erupting volcano, and a stone figure stood atop the flaming orange geyser. His body glowed like the magma itself—a web of black stone and bright flame.

He landed in front of Akari, shaking the ground once again. Lava splattered the surrounding stone, burning her armor in several places.

Akari tried to muster a counterattack, but her Missiles broke against his armor like water droplets on a hot stove. He grabbed her right arm and twisted it backward, shattering her bones like a tree branch.

Finally, the Artisan raised a flaming orange fist, and the world faded to white.