The Sluice Stalker lunged.
Kaelen was already moving, SkyStep snapping into place beneath his boots, the tether's hum threading up through bone and muscle. The tunnel blurred in his periphery, brick and shadow flashing past in jagged streaks of light from the yard behind.
The thing was fast, stupidly fast. He'd fought Enforcer Veyr to a standstill once, but Veyr didn't move like this. The Stalker didn't just close distance, it ate it, each burst sending ripples across the water and a cold draft over the back of Kaelen's neck. Every time he tried to open a gap, it was there again, claws scraping sparks off the walls.
SkyStep had always been precision for him. The spatial compression subtle, almost invisible. He'd run it before, the Guild made sure of that when it was issued to him two months back, but only in the controlled emptiness of the training hall. Yesterday had been the first time in the field, and it had felt familiar yet sharpened by the strange layer of spatial compression.
This wasn't the clean, measured technique he'd drilled for 2 years with mobility sparks. The Nexus's alteration had changed it entirely, the pulse of the Spark was deeper now, almost resonant, a low thrum he could feel in his ribs. Each step hit harder than he intended, the bursts carrying him farther, higher, twisting his balance mid-air. It wasn't just lifting him, it was pulling, a second current running under his own, dragging him into tighter arcs and sharper drops.
It felt like the spatial compression in its true form at this tier, sharper, clearer. In the stretch of this extended race, he could feel it, begin to understand it.
He hit a bend in the tunnel and let that current take him, a half-step up the wall, pivoting over a stream of black water to land light on the far side. The Stalker hit the turn too, claws gouging deep grooves in the brick as it slung itself after him, tail lashing for balance.
Blink burned in his veins, tether flashing in controlled bursts. He'd never had to chain them like this before, stacking momentum without losing control. The charge wanted to run wild, to spill into his muscles all at once. He forced it into rhythm, one burst to clear the water, another to vault the jutting pipe, a third to twist through the low arch without smashing his head open.
The sound behind him was constant now: claws on stone, water churning, the low, wet rasp of its breathing.
Close. Too close.
The tunnel widened slightly, he took the chance, cutting a tighter angle over a broken sluice gate. His boots barely kissed the top rail before he kicked off again, pulse and breath syncing with each flare of the tether.
Light flared ahead, wardlight from the yard. He poured the last few bursts into speed, muscles screaming with the strain, the altered SkyStep hauling him over the final stretch.
The grate spilled him out into open air, the yard's hum swallowing the tunnel's echoes. Kaelen hit the chalk mark at a run, weight shifting as he readied to cut back. The air here was thicker, charged, as if the ward-lines themselves were holding their breath.
The trap was set.
The line of Enforcers was already in place, chains coiled, and weapons set, their silhouettes braced against the faint shimmer of the reinforced ward. Somewhere in the back channels, the Sluice Stalker scraped along the stone, its movements quickening, not yet a charge, but the restless testing of a predator sensing change in its cage.
A quick glance caught Renn and Varric in their positions, still as stone, watching. Then his eyes locked on the dark grate.
The hum of the ward deepened a low note that thrummed in his ribs. Water lapped against stone somewhere below, masking the faint shuffle from the tunnel. The Stalker was closing.
Kaelen's stance tightened, Spark coiling in his legs, the Nexus's deeper current thrumming beneath it. Alright, he thought, come and get me.
The shadows behind the grate rippled, a pale glint of lidless eyes, a sudden coil of long limbs, and then it came, the Sluice Stalker tore from the darkness, pale eyes locking onto him in the full light, its body rippling like liquid muscle as it crossed the threshold bursting through the shallow water with a spray of cold droplets. Kaelen's Spark flared, and the blink hit like the snap of a bowstring, hurling him into open ground as the real chase began.
Now outside the darkness of the tunnels, the Sluice Stalker was in full sight, and it was faster than the dim light had made it seem. Its slick, stone-grey hide glistened in the ward-light, muscles firing like coiled springs. Water streamed off its narrow frame as it lunged forward, claws gouging deep into the cobbles, each stride a burst of raw predatory force. The pale, lidless eyes locked on him without blinking, the focus of a thing that had already decided how it would take him apart.
It was frenzied now, mouth peeling open to reveal rows of jagged, mismatched teeth, a rasping hiss escaping between lunges. Every few strides it swiped low with one hooked forelimb, claws sparking as they scraped the ground where his heel had been a moment before.
Kaelen's lungs burned. The Nexus' altered current twisted each Blink into viciously tight arcs, dragging more speed out of him than he thought he had, but it still wasn't enough to shake the Stalker's shadow at his heels. Every burst landed harder, sharper, feet hitting stone for a fraction of a heartbeat before the next pull ripped him onward.
A hook-claw sliced through the air beside him, close enough that the wind of it stung his cheek. He cut right, Blink snapping him up and over a low rail, only for the Stalker to match the move, claws skittering off the rail's metal as it vaulted after him without losing pace.
Come on, come on, He was running the edge so thin one slip would leave him in pieces.
The shouts of Enforcers cut through the pounding in his ears, chains rattling into readiness, the deep hum of ward-lines vibrating under his boots. He angled toward the waiting line, every muscle straining, burning, as if he could squeeze one more drop of speed from his body.
The outer gates clanged shut behind, more Enforcers closing in to cut off escape. The Stalker, undeterred, surged into the tightening space, its speed and ferocity making the ground seem too small to hold it.
Kaelen hit the encirclement, heart slamming against his ribs. The Stalker was right there, a final swipe whispering past his shoulder as he threw himself clear into the ring of black-and-silver coats.
The hiss became a guttural snarl, claws flexing, muscles bunching for another strike.
The fight began.
"You actually did it, kid, you crazy bastard!" Varric's voice cut through the chaos, half a laugh, half a shout.
He was already moving before the words finished, chains rattling at his hip. The Stalker was still charging, claws tearing into stone, but Varric didn't flinch. He tore a squat, round device from his belt, a disc of dull iron etched with deep, knotted runes, and slammed it into the ground between them.
The runes flared white-hot. A wall of translucent force erupted upward, curving like a shield dome just as the Stalker slammed into it. The impact cracked the air like a thunderclap, ward-light rippling out from the point of contact.
The creature rebounded with a snarl, claws scrabbling against the barrier. Its pale eyes darted, looking past Varric toward Kaelen.
"Hold it!" Renn's voice barked from the flank. The Enforcers surged in, chain-smoke ready.
But the Stalker didn't hesitate, it crouched low, muscles bunching. The barrier flickered, runes dimming under the strain.
Then, with a whipcrack of motion, the monster lunged again.
It didn't hit the barrier this time. Its body blurred, no, split, into a dozen jagged afterimages, each one bent at a wrong angle, rippling like reflections in broken glass. They slid past one another in erratic stutters, overlapping and snapping apart, every shape wearing the same lidless stare.
It reformed mid-stride behind the barrier, claws biting deep into the cobbles. Varric swore, twisting to track it, but the real Stalker was already past, the false shapes collapsing in its wake and closing fast on the Enforcers around Kaelen.
Kaelen's breath caught. This wasn't just speed, it was something else entirely. This was what made it Grade 3.
The Stalker's head snapped toward him, muscles rippling. Its claws flexed once. Then it sprang. The ground buckled under the force, shards of stone snapping into the air. Kaelen's pulse lurched with the sound, not of one body moving, but of many, the staggered echoes of its afterimages racing ahead of it. For a heartbeat, it was like watching the whole horde was collapsing on him at once.