The tension in the clearing snapped like a dry branch.
Henry didn't wait for a signal. He lunged, his body a blur of grey and black as he threw a heavy, straight punch directly at Wanda's chest. But instead of the sickening thud of a hit, Henry's fist collided with a shimmering, crystalline surface.
A massive, intricate Silver Sigil flared into existence at the point of impact. The air groaned under the pressure, and then—CRACK—a wave of kinetic energy rippled outward. The sigil didn't just block the blow; it inhaled the force and spat it back. Henry was launched backward, his heels skidding across the dirt, but he twisted mid-air with the grace of a cat, landing in a low crouch.
He stayed there for a second, checking his knuckles. Unharmed.
"Nice catch," Wanda said, glancing at Leena. "That was a hell of a sigil."
Leena didn't take her eyes off Henry, her fingers already dancing in the air to prep the next sequence. "I knew he'd go for you first first. I drew the Sigil before we even stepped into the ring."
"Let's not give him room to breathe," Wanda whispered. "Restrain him. Now!"
Leena nodded, her voice dropping into a rhythmic, melodic chant. High-frequency mana began to vibrate the very air. Suddenly, a blue, transparent dome—fractured with impossible geometric lines—snapped into place around Henry.
Inside the dome, the light bent at wrong angles. Henry straightened up, but as he did, Wanda appeared behind him like a ghost. He spun to strike, but she vanished before his fist could connect, leaving only the faint scent of ozone and madness.
Henry suddenly gasped, his hand flying to his neck. Thick, angry red nerves began to bulge and pulse beneath his skin, spider-webbing across his jaw and down his arms.
"Impressive," Henry choked out, a dark chuckle vibrating in his chest despite the Madness Hex clawing at his brain. He looked at the shimmering walls of the vault. "You two really do make a good team. Lena traps me in a cage where I can't escape, and Wanda plants a mental Hex on my jugular the second I'm distracted."
Henry looked at his trembling hands, then up at the girls with a predatory glint in his eyes.
"The Non-Euclidean Vault... a classic. No three-dimensional object can escape its grasp," Henry said, his voice sounding oddly hollow. "Living with Morgana for two years has taught me a lot about witchcraft."
He stood perfectly still. "But here's the thing about the Void Path, girls. I can just stop being a 3D object altogether."
Before they could react, Henry's body didn't just move—it unraveled. He turned into a thick, pitch-black liquid that didn't spill onto the floor, but rather sank directly into his own shadow.
The blue dome sat empty.
A heartbeat later, a shadow elongated from beneath Leena's boots. Henry rose from the darkness like a phantom surfacing from deep water, standing casually outside the shimmering vault with his hands still buried in his pockets.
The angry red veins of the Madness Hex didn't just fade; they seemed to be absorbed back into his skin, forced down by the sheer weight of his presence. He looked at Wanda, a ghost of a smirk on his lips.
"The hex was a nice touch," Henry said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "But my will is a bit more... stubborn than that."
Without another word, Henry lunged. He didn't use a spell; he used raw, explosive physical speed. Leena countered instantly. As he closed the gap, her eyes flared a brilliant, piercing sapphire.
Suddenly, the world turned to molasses.
Henry's forward momentum didn't just slow—it congealed. The air around him hardened into invisible layers of chronal pressure. He strained against the invisible weight, his muscles bulging as he tried to force his way through the stasis, but he was pinned in mid-air, a fly caught in amber.
"Now!" Leena screamed.
A massive, multi-layered magic circle ignited beneath Henry's suspended feet. The ground groaned as a pillar of white-hot, chaotic flame erupted, swallowing Henry whole. The sheer heat turned the surrounding grass to ash and sent a shockwave of hot air screaming through the training grounds.
Leena and Wanda hovered in the air. Leena panted, her blue eyes fading back to silver as the strain of the time-lock took its toll.
"Well," Wanda said, shielding her eyes from the glare of the fire. "That's one way to make him shut up."
Leena watched the inferno, her expression guarded. "I don't know... he's been through worse than a little fire. Keep your guard up."
The crowd of students was dead silent, staring at the pillar of flame in awe. Whispers broke out—Did they kill him? Is that even allowed? Even the Remington twins looked shaken.
Then, the fire didn't just die down. It was shattered.
A silhouette tore through the center of the flame, moving at a speed to fast to see. Henry didn't look burned at all.
He reached them in a fraction of a second. Before Leena could even raise her hand for another spell, Henry's hand clamped onto the back of her neck. With a clinical, cold efficiency, he drove her downward, slamming her into the soft dirt of the clearing. The impact was enough to knock the wind—and the consciousness—out of her instantly.
Wanda shrieked and vanished in a puff of purple mist, reappearing twenty yards away near the treeline. She scrambled to prepare a counter-spell, but as she turned, the air behind her grew cold.
"Too slow, Wanda," Henry's voice whispered in her ear.
Before she could scream, a sharp blow to the back of her neck sent her world into darkness. Henry caught her before she hit the ground, gently laying her down next to the unconscious Leena.
Henry touched down in the center of the clearing, the soles of his boots clicking softly on the scorched earth. Wisps of smoke still curled off his shoulders, and his grey shirt was charred at the edges, but his skin remained flawless, untouched by the inferno.
Nearby, Wanda and Leena groggily pushed themselves up from the dirt.
Henry watched them for a moment, then offered a lazy, lopsided smile. "That was touch-and-go there for a second," he admitted, though he didn't sound particularly worried. "You almost had me with that Chrono-Stasis. It's a nasty trick."
Wanda glared up at him, brushing dirt from her red hair, her pride clearly more bruised than her body. "How did you get through the pillar? That was peak-tier elemental manifestation."
Henry shrugged, his eyes distant for a fraction of a second. "Simple, really. Fire doesn't work on me."
He turned away before Leena could snap back at him, gestures for them to rejoin the group.