Strongpoint beta was supposed to be their backup headquarters. A reinforced building three blocks from the ruins, with its own defensive wards and supplies.
It wasn't enough. Not even close.
Kaelen sat on the floor of what had been a storage room, now converted to an impromptu medical bay. Around him, the wounded were being treated as best as possible with limited supplies and exhausted healers. Someone was crying quietly in the corner. Someone else was praying.
The final count was worse than he'd feared. Twenty-three dead. Thirty-one wounded, of which eight were too injured to fight. That left them with roughly fifty effective defenders against Marcus's still-substantial forces.
"We can't win this," one of the guild mages said. Not quietly—loud enough for everyone to hear. "We're just dying slowly. Maybe we should—"
"Should what?" Captain Valdris cut him off. Her armor was dented and blood-stained, but her voice was steady. "Surrender? Run away? Marcus gave us terms. 'Hand over Soulrender.' You think he stops there? You think he says 'oh, thank you, now I'll leave peacefully'?"
"At least some of us might live—"
"None of us live," Valdris interrupted. "Marcus wants to release the Shadow Lord. That means everyone dies, just slower. At least this way we die fighting."
The guild mage looked like he wanted to argue more, but couldn't find the words. He just slumped against the wall, defeated.
Selene emerged from the command room, and everyone's attention shifted to her. She looked exhausted—truly exhausted in a way Kaelen had never seen before. But her voice was still strong when she spoke.
"Alright. Here's where we are. The warehouse is destroyed, which means Marcus needs a new ritual site. That buys us time—maybe two hours, maybe four. He's consolidating his forces, probably planning his next move. We have a window."
"A window to do what?" Ronan asked. "We're in no shape to attack him."
"No. But we're also not in shape to defend another siege. So we don't defend." Selene pulled out a map—crumpled now, stained with blood and dust. "We switch tactics. Hit-and-run attacks, guerrilla warfare, force him to chase us through the city while we whittle down his forces. Make him work for every step."
"That only works if we have places to fall back to," one of the Shadow Hunters pointed out. "We've lost our primary stronghold. The other positions are too small to hold our full force."
"Then we split up," Selene said. "Three teams, three different directions. Make Marcus divide his attention. He can't chase all of us simultaneously."
"He has two Forbidden Blades," Kaelen said quietly. "He doesn't need to chase all of us. He just needs to find me." He stood, ignoring the protests from his aching body. "I'm the target. I'm the one Marcus actually wants. Everyone else is just in the way."
"Kaelen—" Lia started.
"I draw him off," Kaelen continued. "Lead him on a chase through the city while the rest of you hit his forces from unexpected angles. Take out his cultists, kill his creatures, make him weak enough that when he finally catches me, he's exhausted and vulnerable."
"That's suicide," Ronan said flatly.
"That's tactics," Kaelen corrected. "Use yourself as bait to win the bigger battle. Isn't that what soldiers do?"
"It's what dead soldiers do," Selene said. But she was studying the map with new interest. "Though... if we modified the plan. Kaelen leads Marcus on a specific route—not random, but carefully planned. Through areas where we've set traps, through chokepoints where he can't use his full power. Meanwhile, strike teams hit his forces from behind."
"I'll go with Kaelen," Lia said immediately.
"No," Kaelen replied. "You're needed here to coordinate the magical defenses—"
"I'm going," Lia interrupted, her tone leaving no room for argument. "You're not doing this alone. We agreed—together or not at all."
They stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Kaelen nodded. "Together."
"Then that's the plan," Selene said. "Kaelen and Lia draw Marcus away. Ronan leads strike team alpha against the cultists. I'll lead strike team beta against the corrupted creatures. Captain Valdris, your Iron Fangs stay here and hold this position in case Marcus doesn't take the bait."
"And if he does catch Kaelen?" Valdris asked.
"Then we hope Kaelen's gotten good enough with that sword to hold him off until we can finish the job and come help."
It wasn't a great plan. It wasn't even a good plan. But it was the only plan they had.
They spent twenty minutes preparing. Kaelen checked Soulrender's edge, drank a stamina potion that tasted like burnt copper, tried not to think about all the ways this could go catastrophically wrong.
Lia inscribed emergency beacons onto his armor—quick-cast runes that would alert her if he was in immediate danger. She was pale, her hands shaking slightly from magical exhaustion and probably fear.
"This is insane," she said quietly, repeating her words from hours ago.
"Yeah," Kaelen agreed. "But Marcus probably expects us to hole up and defend. He's not expecting us to go on the offense."
"He's going to kill you."
"He's going to try." Kaelen caught her hands, stilling their trembling. "But I'm faster than I was. Better trained. And I have incentive to survive." He kissed her forehead. "I have you."
"That's emotional manipulation."
"Is it working?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Lia pulled him close. "Come back to me. Don't make me read that stupid letter you wrote."
"I won't," Kaelen promised, hoping he could keep it.
They moved out in the pre-dawn darkness. Three teams, three directions, all trying to salvage victory from what looked increasingly like defeat.
Kaelen and Lia headed east, toward the docks where Marcus had originally landed. The route Selene had planned took them through the warehouse district, past three pre-positioned trap sites, and ended at the old coastal fortifications where they could theoretically hold out if things went completely wrong.
Getting Marcus to follow them turned out to be embarrassingly easy.
Kaelen just walked into the open square where Marcus's forces were regrouping and shouted: "Hey! Looking for this?" He raised Soulrender high enough for everyone to see. "Come and get it, you pretentious windbag!"
Probably not the most diplomatic approach. But it worked.
Marcus's attention snapped to him immediately. Even from across the square, Kaelen could see the fury on his face—the careful, controlled rage of someone who'd been having his perfect plan disrupted all night.
"Kaelen Voss," Marcus called out. "I've had enough of your interference. This ends now."
"Had enough of yours too!" Kaelen shouted back. "So how about we settle this? You and me. Leave everyone else out of it!"
"You think you can match me?" Marcus laughed. "Boy, I've been wielding shadow magic since before you were born. You've had Soulrender for what, a few weeks? You're delusional."
"Then it should be easy for you!" Kaelen was already backing toward his planned escape route. "Come on, old man! Or are you scared?"
Marcus's expression shifted from fury to cold determination. "Cultists, stand down. Let him run. I'll handle this personally."
Oh good. The plan was working. Now came the hard part—staying alive while Marcus chased them through the city.
Kaelen and Lia ran.
Behind them, they could hear Marcus pursuing. Not at full speed—he wasn't rushing. He was confident, probably thinking he'd corner them eventually. Probably right about that.
They hit the first trap site two minutes into the chase. Collapsed buildings on either side, creating a narrow canyon Selene's people had seeded with proximity runes. The moment Marcus stepped into the kill zone, the runes detonated.
Fire, force, and shrapnel filled the narrow space. It should have been devastating.
Marcus walked through it like he was strolling through a garden. The flames parted around him. The shrapnel bounced off invisible shields. When the dust settled, he was completely unharmed and looked disappointed.
"Really?" he called ahead. "Proximity mines? That's the best you have?"
Second trap site: a section of street where the cobblestones had been loosened, ready to give way into a pre-dug pit. Kaelen and Lia jumped it easily—they knew where the safe footing was.
Marcus didn't even slow down. He simply raised Hearteater and solidified shadow energy into a bridge, walking across the pit like it wasn't there.
Third trap site: archer teams hidden in buildings on both sides, ready for a crossfire ambush.
Marcus detected them before they could fire. A wave of shadow magic swept through both buildings, and the archers scattered before they could loose a single bolt.
"Your traps are predictable, Kaelen," Marcus called, still pursuing at that same unhurried pace. "I've been fighting for three decades. I know every trick, every ambush, every desperate tactic. You can't surprise me."
"Maybe not," Kaelen muttered to Lia. "But we can annoy him."
They kept running, kept drawing him away from his forces. Behind them, somewhere in the city, Ronan and Selene's strike teams would be hitting the cultists and creatures. Hopefully taking them apart while Marcus was distracted.
Hopefully this wasn't all for nothing.
They reached the coastal fortifications as false dawn began to lighten the eastern sky. The old stone walls were crumbling but defensible, and Selene had stashed emergency supplies here days ago.
Kaelen turned to face Marcus, Soulrender drawn, ready for the fight he'd been delaying all night.
Marcus stepped into view, both Forbidden Blades gleaming in the growing light. He looked pristine—not even winded from the chase.
"End of the road," Marcus said. "No more running. No more tricks. Just you, me, and three Forbidden Blades." He smiled. "Let's see if you've actually learned anything, or if you're just a boy playing with weapons he doesn't understand."
Kaelen settled into a fighting stance he'd practiced a thousand times with Ronan. Beside him, Lia's hands began to glow with prepared runes.
"Guess we're about to find out," Kaelen said.
Marcus attacked.
And everything Kaelen had learned, all the training and techniques and desperate battles, came down to this moment.
Him against a master.
Student against teacher.
One Forbidden Blade against two.
The fight began.
And somewhere in the city behind them, dawn broke fully, painting the world in shades of red and gold.
Blood and fire.
How appropriate.