The clash split again.
Two fronts.
Two battles.
And neither had room for hesitation.
—
On Seryna's side—
The chamber shook with every exchange.
Lightning cracked through the air in violent bursts, carving white-blue scars across stone and shadow alike. Mana tore through the environment like a living storm.
The black hobgoblin moved within it as if it had lived inside storms its entire life.
Not wild.
Not desperate.
Precise.
Efficient.
Cruel.
It twisted between Seryna's lightning arcs with surgical timing, slipping past the mage's compressed mana shots and pivoting through Kaelira's aggression like a blade sliding between ribs.
Then its claw came down—
Not on flesh—
But on the barrier forming around Kaelira.
**BOOM.**
The impact rippled outward in a violent shockwave.
Cracks spidered instantly through the construct.
The mage coughed hard, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth as his knees nearly buckled.
Kaelira didn't retreat.
Didn't even hesitate.
She pushed forward.
Mana coiled around her limbs—dense, sharpened instinct made physical.
Her fist slammed into the hobgoblin's ribs.
**THUD.**
The creature slid half a step.
Not from force—
but from intent.
Because she hit like someone who had already accepted the outcome.
No restraint.
No fear.
Just execution.
The hobgoblin's grin twitched.
Then it struck back.
Too fast.
A claw tore through the space her head had occupied a fraction of a second earlier.
Kaelira twisted low, tail snapping for balance, and drove her knee into its side.
**CRACK.**
This time—
it reacted.
Its snarl deepened.
Yellow eyes locking fully onto her.
"…Tch."
Kaelira landed lightly, shoulders rising and falling once as she steadied her breath.
"…I told you."
Her voice was low.
Cold.
"…Never trust a monster that looks like it's dying."
Seryna's lightning flared harder around her arms.
Sweat traced down her brow now. Her breathing tightened—but her focus didn't break.
The hobgoblin lunged.
Seryna met it head-on.
A spear of lightning formed instantly in her grasp—
she drove it forward—
and the hobgoblin crossed both forearms to meet it.
**BOOOOM.**
White light swallowed the chamber.
Stone fractured beneath their feet.
Kaelira darted in from the blind side—
claws of condensed mana forming over her fingers—
aimed for its neck.
But the hobgoblin twisted unnaturally mid-impact.
Its elbow crashed into her ribs.
**THUD.**
Kaelira was launched sideways, slamming into a pillar hard enough to crack stone.
"Kaelira—!" the mage shouted.
"Barrier—!"
A layered shield snapped into place in front of Seryna—
just as the hobgoblin's claw descended.
**BOOM.**
The barrier shattered instantly.
The mage screamed, collapsing to both knees as blood poured from his nose.
Lucien's sister stepped back.
Not in fear.
In precision.
Her eyes were closed again. Her breathing slow. Controlled.
Her hands clenched slightly.
"…Just hold it," she whispered.
"…One minute."
Seryna flicked a glance toward her.
Only once.
Then nodded.
No questions.
No hesitation.
Because whatever was building—
they needed it.
Kaelira coughed, blood at her lip, and pushed herself off the cracked pillar.
Her grin returned.
Smaller now. Sharper.
"…One minute?"
She rolled her shoulder, wincing as mana crackled around her.
"…Fine."
Her eyes locked onto the hobgoblin again.
Predatory.
"…Then for one minute…"
She stepped forward.
"…you're mine."
Seryna moved beside her.
Lightning surged brighter.
The mage forced himself upright, shaking violently, raising what remained of his support array.
The hobgoblin watched them.
Then smiled.
Wider.
Like it had been waiting for exactly this.
And all three moved at once.
—
Kaelira went first.
Low. Fast. Direct.
A blur across shattered stone.
She didn't aim for the head.
Didn't aim for pride.
She aimed for structure.
The left leg.
Even if the injury had been fake—
balance could still be broken.
Her heel struck the side of its knee.
**CRACK.**
The leg dipped—just slightly.
Not a collapse.
An opening.
Seryna was already there.
Lightning erupted along both arms—white-blue arcs screaming as she drove both palms forward.
**BOOOOM.**
The chamber lit like day.
Stone shattered outward in a widening ring.
The hobgoblin roared—
the first sound of genuine pain ripping from its throat.
Its body skidded backward, claws gouging deep trenches into the floor.
The mage acted instantly.
Hands trembling, blood still dripping from his nose.
"…Bind!"
A ring of glowing sigils formed beneath the creature and snapped upward—
locking around its limbs in layered restraint.
The hobgoblin snarled.
Muscles bulging. Veins standing out beneath black skin.
The bindings trembled.
Then cracked.
Lucien's sister stood behind them—still, silent, eyes closed.
Her lips moved faintly.
Not words for them.
Not commands.
Names.
Old. Heavy. Resonant.
The air changed.
Not mana.
Something deeper.
Something that made the world feel… attentive.
Seryna felt it first.
Mid-motion.
Mid-breath.
Kaelira felt it a heartbeat later.
Her ears twitched sharply.
"…About time," she muttered.
Then the hobgoblin's head snapped upward.
Past them.
Toward Lucien's sister.
And for the first time—
its grin disappeared.
Fear.
Instinct.
Recognition.
Too late.
The restraint shattered.
**KRAAAASH.**
The mage was thrown backward, slamming into the wall and collapsing unconscious.
The hobgoblin surged forward—
not toward Seryna.
Not toward Kaelira.
Toward her.
Because predators understood threats.
Seryna cursed.
"…Move—!"
Kaelira lunged to intercept—
but the distance was wrong.
Just barely.
The claw rose—
aimed for Lucien's sister's throat—
—
And the world stopped.
Not silent.
Still.
Wind froze mid-motion.
Dust suspended in the air.
Even the hobgoblin's body locked in place like reality itself had seized.
Lucien's sister opened her eyes.
Behind her—
something stood.
Not fully formed.
Not fully visible.
But vast.
Radiant.
Ancient.
Its presence bent perception itself, as if the air had become heavier just by acknowledging it.
A spirit—
no.
Something greater.
Its outline shimmered like moonlight trapped inside a storm.
Its eyes opened.
And the chamber trembled.
Lucien's sister whispered:
"…Sylvaris."
The name spread like a ripple through existence itself.
The hobgoblin froze.
Instinct screaming.
Too late.
The spirit raised one hand.
And the wind—
did not blow.
It *erupted.*
Not forward.
Not sideways.
Everywhere at once.
A storm born from nowhere.
A violence without direction—
only intent.
The chamber broke open to it.
Stone screamed.
Air fractured.
And everything the hobgoblin had been—
was swallowed by the sky.