“And?”
Alexander reached up to remove the wire-frame glasses he wore. He folded them gently and placed them into his pocket. “I came to help.”
“Help who?” Kira demanded.
Not her. She had things well in hand.
Alexander brushed her away. His form slipped. His body expanding as everything grew broader and taller at once. The mild-mannered image of a scholar disappeared to be replaced by something much less civilized.
An aspect of Alexander that Kira had always referred to as the berserker.
It was still him—but a different, much larger version of the man she knew.
If Kira had to put it into words, she’d say Alexander resembled a character from one of those ancient films Jin favored. The ones featuring a man with two sides. One was a mild-mannered doctor; the other a ruthless monster.
Only this monster had just been released from its cage.
Kira was never sure if the berserker was a trait he’d inherited or the product of Tsavitee tampering. If they survived, she was sure his birth House would be able to clear up that question for her.
Alexander’s monster was one of the main reasons he was considered among the strongest of the forty-three.
A deep voice issued from Alexander’s chest. “See if you can keep up.”
He tore forward without waiting for her.
“You take off your glasses and suddenly you think you’re an entirely different person,” Kira grumbled.
Kira was reluctant as she reached for the blade Makon had gifted her on the ship. She’d never successfully called the akieri in practice with Wren. To use it now was madness.
Unfortunately, Kira’s options were limited.
Hand-to-hand combat, ki—or her primus. Those were her only choices for landing a death blow. The last of which she didn’t even want to consider given the possibility of her out-of-control primus becoming as big a threat as the face changers.
The first option was equally bad. Almost impossible even with her skills.
But the second—the akieri could help her channel her ki into a usable weapon. If she could make it work.
“Wren said this would be an important skill,” Kira told the blade. “Damn if he wasn’t right.”
She’d have to take back all the nasty thoughts she’d had about Wren and Harlow. Their spartan training in wielding this thing was about to save her and everyone else’s ass.
“Kira.” Ki transmitted Selene’s voice to her. “I’ll provide the path. You follow it.”
By now, Alexander had engaged the face changer. Kira raced forward, relying on instinct and dim memory to tell her when to jump.
She leapt, landing on the flat block Selene had created. It extended in front of Kira, forming a road high in the air she could sprint along.
With it adding to her speed, she covered the distance Alexander had created between her and the face changer far faster than what she was capable of on her own.
Alexander attacked from ground level as Kira channeled her ki into the blade. Not too much or too little. Just enough to form the sword she needed.
Like in practice, violet lines ran through the hilt. A charge built. Gradually, far slower than Kira would have liked, metal began to extend from the hilt of the blade, an aura of violet ki surrounding it.
She resisted the urge to hurry the blade along, knowing a single loss of focus would cause failure in a moment she couldn’t afford.
The arena reached out, trying to gobble down her weapon. For an instant Kira thought her gamble had left her screwed as the arena tried and failed to create a replica of the just barely formed sword.
Yes!
