The sand in the center of Sector B was silent, but it was the silence of a held breath.
Kael and Rylen stood back-to-back, a golden statue and a brass steam engine surrounded by two predators. The Retainer Knight was twirling his sabers with a hypnotic rhythm, while the Acid Mage's hands glowed with a sickly, bubbling luminescence.
"On my mark," Kael whispered, his voice barely audible over the hum of Rylen's machinery. "Full vent release. Dump everything you have."
"That will overheat my core," Rylen hissed back, checking his internal gauges. "If I dump the heat sink, I lose mobility for ten seconds. I'll be a sitting duck."
"You won't be a duck," Kael corrected. "You'll be a kettle."
Across the sand, the Retainer Knight's eyes narrowed. He sensed the shift in posture. He didn't know what they were planning, but he knew that giving opponents time to think was a mistake.
He signaled his partner with a subtle twitch of his head.
Go.
