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No simulated weakness or recovery delay. The adjustment I'd made earlier was correct. If Jade could repair an injury without draining the casualty, keeping one of us out of formation simply because she'd healed us made no sense.

The scout pointed west. "Route's compromised. Cinderhound sighting near the ash cut. Alone. The last position was the western shelf, maybe three hundred paces."

Jade's attention sharpened immediately.

"You know them?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then talk."

She rose and pointed toward the terrain ahead. "Cinderhounds hunt in packs. A lone animal should avoid an armed group unless it's starving, cornered, injured or protecting something. They conceal themselves in ash and strike from cover if forced into an engagement. Their right flank is usually weaker because packmates cover it, so if this one commits alone, that angle should expose the underside of the neck."

"Should?"

Her gaze moved to mine. "Behavior isn't absolute."

Good.

"Movement stays mine. Creature decisions are yours unless I override them."

She paused for barely a second before nodding. "Understood."

We abandoned the compromised western route and approached from the south, keeping the scout protected inside our formation. Nykos moved high enough on the next ridge to see beyond the ash cut before returning with a report of fresh disturbance heading north. Jade glanced toward him, then toward me, and when I gave her a small nod she directed us that way.

By the time we reached the shelf, the wind had changed enough to redraw the ground. Fresh ash drifted against the rock and swallowed the shallow marks Nykos had seen minutes earlier.

I knew what was coming.

Jade didn't.

Before the session, I'd told Alex and Halver what I wanted once the creature engagement began. Halver was to stop behaving exactly like the Cinderhound profile Jade knew, while Alex would deliberately break formation if an opportunity appeared. I wasn't interested in catching her out for the sake of it. Her knowledge was obviously extensive, but knowledge gathered in controlled lessons was clean in a way the field rarely was. I needed to see what happened when every piece of information she possessed was technically correct and still failed to describe what was happening in front of her.

Nykos climbed high enough to see over the ridge. "Still north."

Jade shifted our attention that way.

Halver erupted from the ash on our left.

He was no longer recognizably Halver. The full Cinderhound form came low and fast, broader through the shoulders than Ashter and built closer to the natural Fire Rift creature. Dark hide stretched over a heavy frame streaked with ember-colored markings, smoke pouring around his legs while his jaws opened as he drove straight toward us.

Jade lost one beat before reacting. "Left. Corian, close the lane. Alex, push him off the ridge."

My shield formed before she finished speaking, and Alex drove Air from the right, forcing Halver away from the cleanest route. Then Alex broke formation. Instead of holding the outer line, he surged through the opening beside my shield with a training blade in hand.

Jade's head snapped toward him. "Alex, you're out."

He ignored her.

Her eyes moved from Alex to Halver, then toward the space Alex had abandoned. "Nykos, take his lane. Alex, stay in and force it clockwise."

The correction came a fraction later than I'd want on deployment, but she made it without looking to me for help.

Halver circled exactly as she'd described, keeping distance from my shield and angling toward what should have been his protected side. Jade anticipated the movement now, steering Alex toward the vulnerable flank while shifting far enough to threaten the throat if Halver committed.

Then Halver stopped behaving like the profile.

He guarded his right side.