Mud swallowed my knee as I twisted and brought my blade up under his ribs. He went still in the rain, eyes open, mouth silent.
I pulled free and kept moving.
Another came at me head-on, shield up, blade low. I clipped the shield edge, the vibration biting into my wrist. I stepped wide and kicked his knee out from under him. He went down hard, breath leaving him in a wet grunt.
I dragged the blade across his throat. Blood sprayed hot, lost to the rain.
I turned, searching for Caelira.
She was moving, boots sliding in the churned ground, cloak snapping in the wind. She didn’t stop. She didn’t hesitate. She moved where space opened and where pressure broke.
An Ember strike cut across the field toward her, low and fast.
Too close.
She dropped, rolled through the mud, came up on one knee as fire tore past where she’d been. Lightning cracked overhead and struck the ground where the Ember solider had just stood, splitting wet earth and throwing dirt into the air.
She pushed up from the mud and moved again. One dagger already in her hand, the other flashing free as she closed the distance. An Ember soldier rushed her head-on. She stepped inside his guard and drove the blade straight into his chest. Hard enough that the impact stopped him cold. She wrenched it free and turned before he hit the ground.
I was moving too.
An Ember Court fighter overcommitted on a heavy strike, blade biting deep into the mud at my feet. I stepped past it and opened his thigh from behind the knee. He went down screaming. I finished it and moved on.
Caelira pivoted and buried her second dagger under another man’s ribs and shoved him away.
I took down two more Ember soldiers as I pushed forward. One rushed me head on. I parried, broke his balance and finished it in the mud. The other came from my blind side and caught a burst of wind full in the chest before I drove my blade through him.
I searched the field.
Joren’s ten places to my left, locked with an Ember Court soldier in scorched plate, flame crawling down the man’s blade. Joren blocked a moment too late, his stance faltered as blood streaked his thigh, dark against the rain.
The Ember soldier pressed in.
Too fast.
Too close.
I broke toward him.
Someone cut across my path, forcing me wide. I caught his blade on mine, shoving him back and drove through his guard before he could recover.
Joren stumbled as his ward failed mid-rise, flame sliding through the gap.
Then something shrieked.
Chuck burst out of smoke, wings beating, hitting the man’s face full on. The sound was wet and awful as talons and beak struck home the solder screamed, hands flying up, staggering blind.
Joren didn’t hesitate.
Steel drove forward and the soldiers sightless body hit the mud, unmoving.
Chuck flapped back through the rain and landed on Joren’s shoulder hard enough to jolt him, talons biting through wet fabric. Joren hissed and adjusted the chicken without looking, blade still up, breath ragged. Chuck shrieked again, wings half spread as if daring anything close enough to try again.
Joren steadied himself, shifting his weight and moved.
I turned back, searching for Caelira.
When I finally caught sight of her a blade was flashing toward her shoulder. I was already cutting through the man between us. She twisted out of the strike and rammed her dagger up into his throat. He dropped without a sound.
