Bullets tore through the corridor in relentless streams, chewing into walls and spraying fragments across the shattered floor.
Henry dragged Cagaro behind a collapsed support beam while muzzle flashes painted the smoke in violent bursts of orange.
"We cannot stay pinned!" Cagaro shouted over the noise.
Arcee did not answer immediately. She closed her eyes. Her hand rose slowly to the sigil at her collarbone.
A single large white feather unfolded from behind her shoulder. Then another no— dozens...
They did not sprout physically but manifested in luminous layers, fanning outward like an ethereal mantle. Each feather shimmered with runic inscriptions, edges sharp as concepts rather than steel.
Henry glanced at her and understood.
"Oh."
Arcee inhaled once and spoke clearly, her voice cutting through gunfire.
"I release the true name..."
The feathers expanded, forming a radiant arc around the three of them.
"... AllGuard!!"
The mantle ignited in immense force.
For three full minutes, the surrounding space shall bend to my authority... the Astra did not block force. It rewrote incoming force vectors...
Incoming bullets slowed midair as if striking invisible water. Their trajectories twisted, curving away from Henry and Cagaro.
Some redirected downward into the fractured floor. Others spun harmlessly back into walls.
A few reversed entirely, streaking past Arcee's shoulders to strike empty armor plating behind the guards.
Arcee's eyes glowed faintly as she maintained the field. Sweat formed along her brow but her posture remained unwavering. The mantle feathers rotated slowly, adjusting angles with surgical precision, constantly rewriting momentum in real time.
"March now!" she commanded calmly.
Henry grinned and surged forward as he brought his Astra out.
Cagaro followed, using the redirected chaos as cover. Guards found their aim betrayed, their suppressive fire turned into disarray.
Henry cut through disoriented lines with wind slashes while Cagaro disarmed and incapacitated those who tried to regroup.
Behind them, Arcee stood like a quiet axis of war.
For three minutes, the battlefield belonged to her. Only three...
The mantle shimmered violently.
Two minutes and thirty seconds left.
Henry did not waste the gift Arcee had given them.
He surged forward like a blade unchained. Wind slashes erupted from his Astra in compressed crescents, carving through rifles, shattering visors, disarming entire lines before they could recalibrate their aim.
Every step he took was decisive. He was not fighting cautiously anymore. He was clearing space.
A guard attempted to flank wide along the fractured wall.
Henry twisted mid-stride and unleashed a multi-slash burst that struck in a single heartbeat. The man collapsed before even realizing he had been targeted.
Arcee's feathers trembled slightly as another barrage bent unnaturally around them.
Cagaro stayed close to her.
He had positioned himself instinctively, not by order. His back aligned with hers, scanning angles she could not while maintaining "AllGuard". He took action when she shifted. Adjusted when her stance tightened.
A shadow lunged from behind through debris with a sharp knife slightly reflecting shine.
Cagaro reacted before thought formed.
He stepped into the arc, deflecting the blade with his forearm guard and driving his shoulder into the attacker's chest. The two crashed to the ground. Cagaro rolled, seized the dropped weapon and neutralized the threat in one controlled motion.
Arcee did not look back but she felt it.
"Thank you." she said quietly.
Cagaro replied with a sharp gaze. "We are not losing anyone here."
There was no drama in his tone. Just fact.
Henry cut through the last cluster of guards with a final sweeping slash that split the corridor air like a stormfront.
Cagaro stood beside Arcee as the mantle's glow began to dim. For a brief second, the three of them shared eye contact.
They had trusted each other without hesitation. AllGuard dissolved into drifting feathers of light as all gaurds were down... for now...
Henry stepped between them like a line being drawn in steel.
Blyke had just forced another dissolution gap when a massive curved blade formed in Tubal Cain's grip but before the exchange completed, a violent wind pressure split the space between.
Henry's Astra carved horizontally, forcing Cain to disengage rather than counter.
"Keep your eyes open, Blyke." Henry said without looking at him.
Blyke hesitated only half a second, then withdrew, understanding the shift.
Tubal Cain regarded Henry with quiet interest.
"So," Cain said, adjusting his gauntlet as if this were a formal duel, "the louder one finally reactions properly, huh?"
Henry's eyes were steady. "Talking too much for someone who was sent to stall."
"Conversation refines directions of a conflict," Cain replied pleasantly. "much like heat refines iron."
Around them, the battlefield subtly changed.
Arcee repositioned to higher debris, scanning escape vectors. Cagaro moved left, sealing corridor access points with overturned metal slabs. Blyke circled right, controlling the manifestation radius.
Henry rolled his shoulders once. "You are proud of being a weapon."
Tubal Cain chuckled lightly. "No. I am proud of being a craftsman. Weapons are merely misunderstood tools. Men decide what they will become otherwise, we couldn't witness what blood looks like."
Henry's eyes narrowed lightly.
"Men also decide when to break them. Just as you said, you are a craftsman. "
Cain smiled,
"Ah. There it is."
A spear manifested in Cain's hand, longer than before, humming with Runic density.
Henry stepped forward instead of waiting.
Their clash detonated the air.
Sparks spiraled outward like burning constellations.
"Nice, thou seem very stroner than expected." Cain observed mid-exchange. "Most young fighters either drown in it or deny it."
"I do neither." Henry answered, forcing Cain backward with a surge of compressed wind. "I will use it in my way."
"Good." Cain replied approvingly. "Emotions are raw ore of a human. They decides how a human should be shaped. We are shaped mostly by the things we refuse to say while they are still small enough to strangle."
Another weapon dissolved.
Another formed.
Blyke struck from a micro-delay window. Cagaro sealed retreat. Arcee calculated timing silently.
Tubal Cain glanced around, amused.
"Oh my," he said lightly. "I do believe I am being collaboratively negotiated with."
Even cornered, he looked entertained.
"As craftsmen say," he added calmly, "the finest blades are forged under pressure."
Dimensional pressure gathered along Henry's blade, the air distorting as he prepared a full-output cut meant to split space itself.
And then his Astra dissolved in air.
It simply unraveled into drifting atomic particles mid-formation.
Tubal Cain lowered his hand calmly, metallic veins glowed beneath iron skin.
"Substance Implementation is not limited to my body." Cain said evenly. "Iron obeys structure. Structure also obeys understanding."
Henry's Astra, forged from Runic Stone and metallic framework, destabilized under forced restructuring. The blade disassembled before the dimensional edge could manifest.
The first second decided everything.
Cain stepped forward.
A war hammer formed and struck Henry in the abdomen before he could reconstitute his weapon. The impact launched him through fractured concrete, collapsing an entire section of wall.
Blyke attacked instantly from Cain's blind side, targeting the dissolution window.
Cain did not manifest a weapon.
He caught Blyke's wrist barehanded. Iron fingers tightened like a vice.
A short blade formed from Cain's elbow joint itself, forcing Blyke to disengage or lose the arm. Blyke barely twisted free, boots skidding across debris.
Cagaro entered low, coordinated and precise, aiming to disrupt Cain's stance while Arcee prepared vector manipulation.
"AllGuard—" she began—
Cain stamped the ground. Iron surged outward in a radial eruption, restructuring exposed rebar and shattered steel into jagged spikes. The environmental metal answered him. The mantle flickered as force vectors multiplied chaotically beyond predictive simplicity.
Arcee redirected three projectiles but Cain was already inside her defensive perimeter.
A chain-blade manifested, striking the ground beside her with calculated force, destabilizing her balance without direct injury. The mantle faltered under sustained strain.
Henry reformed his Astra and lunged again.
This time Cain manifested three weapons simultaneously—sword, spear, axe—cycling and landing a critical combo faster than before.
Tubal Cain adjusted his hair.
"One versus four, huh?" he said mildly. "A respectable warm-up."