The Scorched Canyons lay to the north, a jagged scar in the earth where the heat of the Dragon Spire bled into the surrounding rock.
It was a place of death for most mercenaries. For the Iron-Root Mercenaries, it was a training ground.
"Target sighted," Lyra whispered. She was crouching behind a boulder furrowing her burrows cutely, her Whisper-Crystals humming softly as she calculated the wind speed and thermal updrafts. "Distance: four hundred meters. Elevation: fifty meters. It's a Obsidian Drake. Mature male. Scales are hardened magma."
"Perfect," Briar grinned, adjusting the straps of her leather armor. She drew Ignis. The blade hissed as it slid from the Phoenix Sheath, glowing with a condensed, blue light. "I've been wanting to test if blue fire burns hotter than drake-skin."
Nyx stood behind them, leaning against a rock wall. He was wearing his dusty traveler's cloak, his arms crossed. He looked bored, but his golden eyes hidden from the illusions were scanning the canyon walls for secondary threats.
"Remember," Nyx said calmly. "The Drake has a sonic roar. If it inhales deeply, move. Do not try to tank it."
"I know, I know," Briar rolled her eyes playfully. "Dodge the loud noise. Stab the soft bits. Ready, Lyra?"
"Trajectory locked," Lyra confirmed. "On your mark."
"Go!"
Briar exploded from cover. She used Flash step, moving as a blur of motion. She didn't run straight, she zigzagged, using the rocks as cover.
The Drake roared, spotting her instantly. It opened its massive maw and unleashed a torrent of liquid fire.
"Shield!" Briar shouted, not slowing down.
Lyra, still four hundred meters away, flicked her wand.
"Wind Art: Aero Prism"
A wall of compressed air materialized in front of Briar. It was angled perfectly. The Drake's fire hit the air wall and was deflected upward, missing Briar entirely.
Briar leaped through the smoke.
"Azure Fang"
She slashed. A crescent of blue fire cut through the air. It hit the Drake's leg.
CRACK.
The obsidian scales shattered. The Drake howled in pain, stumbling.
"Leg compromised," Lyra updated via a wind-whisper spell. "Center of gravity shifted. Strike the neck now."
Briar didn't hesitate. She jumped, aiming for the throat.
But the Drake was old, and it was cunning. It didn't try to bite her. It spun. Its massive tail, covered in stone spikes, whipped around faster than Briar expected.
"Briar! Evasive maneuver!" Lyra screamed.
Briar tried to block, bringing her sword up.
SLAM.
The tail hit her. Even with the block, the force was like being hit by a siege weapon. Briar was launched backward. She smashed into a canyon wall, coughing blood.
The Drake turned, its eyes glowing with malice. It lunged at the stunned girl, jaws wide to crush her.
Lyra fired a barrage of wind bullets, but they bounced off the Drake's skull. "It's too thick! Nyx!"
Nyx was already moving.
He didn't use a Flash Step. He just... stepped.
One moment he was by the rock. The next, he was standing over Briar.
He didn't draw Requiem. He didn't even raise a fist.
He looked at the charging Drake.
"PISS OFF"
He released a pulse of the Third Shackle in anger, just a fraction of the Will he was beginning to understand.
The air in the canyon turned solid.
The Drake froze mid-lunge. Its yellow eyes widened in pure, primal terror. It whimpered, its massive legs buckling under the weight of an invisible mountain. It crashed into the dirt, sliding to a stop inches from Nyx's boots.
Nyx looked down at it and sighed.
"Go," Nyx whispered.
The Drake scrambled up, turned tail, and ran. It smashed through boulders in its desperation to get away from the predator it had just encountered.
Silence fell over the canyon.
Nyx turned and offered a hand to Briar.
"Are you alright?" he asked gently.
Briar winced, then shook her head. "Just... bruised. And my pride hurts."
She looked at the retreating Drake, then at her sword.
"I messed up," Briar muttered. "I tried to block a siege attack. I should have dodged."
"Yes," Nyx agreed simply. "You should have."
He helped her up.
"Let's go back to camp. We need to talk."
Later that night, they found a secluded cave to rest.
The fire crackled, casting long shadows on the walls. They had eaten, and Nyx had fully healed Briar's bruises using the residual power of the Second Shackle.
Nyx was cleaning Requiem, the black blade drinking in the firelight. Briar was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, staring into the flames, looking frustrated. Lyra was reviewing the battle in her grimoire, frowning at her calculations.
"Stop thinking so loud," Nyx said, not looking up from his sword.
Briar looked at him. "I'm not thinking. I'm seething. I have the power of an Intermediate Lunar. I have a National Treasure sword. And I still got swatted like a fly."
"You got swatted because you doubted yourself," Nyx said.
He set the sword down and looked at them.
"In the garden, I showed you the power of nature," Nyx said. "I showed you that fire flows and wind dances. You understood the theory. But today... you hesitated."
He looked at Briar.
"When that tail came at you, you didn't trust your fire to burn through it. You tried to use it as a shield. Fire is not a wall, Briar. If you had committed to the strike... if you had pushed your Azure Fang through the tail instead of blocking... you would have severed it."
Briar blinked. "Cut through a Drake's tail? That's insane. It's solid rock."
"And you are a star in human form," Nyx said smiling. "Do you think a rock can stop a star?"
He turned to Lyra.
"And you. You saw the tail moving. You calculated the impact force. But you didn't calculate the intent. You treated the Drake like a math problem, not a living thing."
Lyra pushed her glasses up. "Biological variables are hard to predict."
"They are not," Nyx countered. "Every living thing telegraphs its intent. Fear. Anger. Pain. You need to stop looking at the numbers and start looking at the soul."
He moved to sit between them. He took their hands.
"You are frustrated because you think you're weaker, you've hit a ceiling" Nyx said softly. "But you didn't. You just forgot to look up."
He squeezed their hands.
"I am not going to leave you behind. I am not going to let you fail. But you have to stop comparing yourselves to others. You are traveling with a Void Vessel. You are armed by the World Tree. You are not normal mercenaries anymore."
Nyx's golden eyes glowed in the dim light.
"Believe in your power," Nyx whispered. "Because I believe in it. I want you to be with me but not because of your power, becuae i know you both can storm through anything with me."
Briar looked at him. The frustration in her eyes melted away, replaced by a fierce determination.
"You really think I could have cut that tail?" Briar asked.
"I know you could have," Nyx said. "Next time... don't block. Burn."
Briar took a deep breath. She nodded. A slow smile spread across her face.
"Okay," she said. "Next time, I burn."
"And next time," Lyra added, closing her book with a snap, "I will not just calculate the wind. I will be the storm that redirects it."
Nyx smiled. He wrapped his arms around them, pulling them into his sides.
"Good," Nyx said. "Because the Open Bracket begins tomorrow. And I do not want to fight weaklings."
"We aren't weaklings," Briar scoffed, leaning her head on his shoulder. "We're the Iron-Root Team. We're going to win this whole tournament."
"That is the plan," Nyx murmured as he placed his chin on Lyra's crown.
They sat there for a while, the warmth of the fire and each other's bodies keeping the cold desert night at bay.
"Nyx?" Lyra whispered after a few minutes.
"Yes?"
"Can you... do the thing?"
Nyx raised an eyebrow. "What thing?"
"The smile," Briar mumbled into his tunic. "The real one. Not the scary God one."
Nyx chuckled. The sound rumbled in his chest.
"You are demanding," Nyx teased.
But he smiled. He looked down at the two women who had followed him into hell and back, and he smiled with a warmth that could have melted the ice caps of the north.
"Better?" Nyx asked.
"Much better," Lyra sighed contentedly.
"Now sleep," Nyx commanded gently. "We have a lot of people to beat up tomorrow."
They settled down to sleep, the anxiety of the day washed away by his confidence. Nyx stayed awake for a while longer, watching the entrance of the cave.
He felt the Heart beating beneath the earth. He felt the gaze of the Dragon at the peak of the Dragon Spire. He felt the other dragons circling the Spire.
The world was dangerous.
But as he looked at Briar and Lyra sleeping peacefully against him, he knew they would be fine. He wasn't just dragging them along. He was sharpening them.
And soon, the world would realize that the Void wasn't the only thing they should be afraid of.
The Iron-Root Mercenaries were ready for war.