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She quickly switched her attention to Julius, pulverizing the area beneath him in one massive, panicked blow. So much of the floor fell away that it extended into Daven’s dome and took him down too. They were still falling when she collapsed the ground below Mannus’ cage. It was messy and drained the last of her energy, but it worked. It worked!

Then, Ben had her.

“Finally!” Reaching over the counter, he seized hold of Randa and dragged her out of hiding. “I’ve had my eyes on you for a long time.”

Randa shoved at him, trying to break his hold.

Sullivan kicked the side of his cage. “Let her go!”

“Son of a bitch.” Isaacs searched for a way to reach her.

“Kill her!” Vandal screamed at the robots. “Kill anyone who gets in my way.”

Tessie vanished from Job’s cage. Randa vaguely remembered that her powers allowed her to escape any confinement. She’d used the distraction to go for help. Probably to the Fire Phases. They wouldn’t get here in time. Randa already knew it.

“Go through the floor!” Nia shouted to everyone else.

Randa gave a cry of alarm, as Ben shook her. His eyes looked cold and hollow. Empty. She knew she wouldn’t be able to reason with him, just as she hadn’t been able to reason with Parald. She couldn’t even try freezing him, because her powers were exhausted from freeing the Light Phases.

“Why do you think you’re so much better than me?” For a human, he was incredibly strong. “Just because you were born beautiful? Just because you were…”

Kahn tackled him.

Her Match climbed back up from the hole in the ground and immediately attacked the man threatening her. Ben didn’t even have a chance to fight back. Kahn’s gigantic fist slammed into Ben’s face hard enough to crush bones. Again and again. It was fast, brutal, and methodical. In a handful of seconds, Kahn decimated his opponent and left Ben’s once handsome features pulverized. No human could survive it.

Vandal let out a roar of fury.

By that point, Daven, Mannus, and Julius were back on the roller rink floor, battling marauding robots. Purple laser blasts set sections of the wall on fire, as Happy Applewhite and his birthday buddies fired from their eyes. Vandal kept ordering the robots to kill, but the Light Phases were hacking through them and dodging their attacks.

Kahn shoved Ben’s body aside and glanced at Randa. “You alright?”

“It’s probably not healthy to say so… But that was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” She informed him seriously.

“You’re a Light Phase. Of course it’s healthy.” He gave her a quick kiss. “I am in love with you. All that I could think about in that cage was that I’d never said it. So, I’m saying it now.”

She blinked. “Okay.”

“Okay.” He smiled widely. “Wait here. I have to go kill Vandal.”

Randa watched him stride past her, her heart going six hundred miles an hour. Her Match loved her! Kahn loved her. It was a miracle.

And now he was walking off into danger.

She shook her head to clear it. Wait. Hang on. Vandal was so big, and he’d been a warrior for centuries. Kahn could be murdered. She could lose him. No. She had to make sure he was safe. Even if she couldn’t fight, she could hand him weapons or something.

She suddenly recalled Gion’s birthday sword, which was still on the ground. Hurrying over, she grabbed up the blade. The 3D-printed resin was sharp and heavy. Kahn could do real damage with it.

“You wish to fight me again, boy?” Vandal taunted Kahn, stepping forward. “Wounded as I was, I nearly slayed you the last time. Today will go even worse for you. I am the greatest warrior to ever emerge from our House.”

Kahn answered by reaching behind his back and pulling his weapon free.

The two of them started battling with swords. Randa cringed at the sound of metal blades slamming together. Kahn and Vandal fought without pause. No careful circling of each other, looking for openings. No gentlemanly swipes. It was relentless, instinct-driven warfare, using blades and fists. Strategy was surely involved, but only in the service of brute force.

She gasped in alarm as Vandal’s weapon sliced a shallow cut on Kahn’s chest. One of them was about to die. The sheer aggression of the fight left no other option.

The other Elementals were still attacking the floor of their cells. Sullivan’s Wood House powers crushed the concrete by growing massive vines straight through it. Gion and Isaacs were slamming Air into the floor like jackhammers, while Ty pressed her hands over her ears from the noise.

Once they were free, everyone else would be saved and the fight would be over. Unless they collapsed the whole building, which was a distinct possibility at the rate they were compromising the foundation.