“You’ve got people inbound,” Bonnie said. Her voice was tight now, strain threading through every word. “Multiple vectors. I don’t know exactly who all of them are yet, but the garrison is moving. At least one Knight Order is coming in fast.”

  I stood still my boots barely whispering against the stone. “That’s good news.”

  “It is,” she said, “as long as they don’t collide with each other. Right now, everyone’s blind, confused, and jumpy. If they all arrive at once, this turns into a mess. We need a distraction.”

  I felt the corner of my mouth lift despite myself.

  “Oh,” I said. “You want a distraction?”

  “Yes,” Bonnie replied immediately. “Something loud. Something obvious. Something they have to look at.”

  I slowed near the outer wall and let my eyes trace the space beyond it. Night pressed close on the other side, open and wide, full of angles and movement.

  “Alright,” I said. “I can do distraction.”

  An aura blade rested nearby, mounted more as decoration than armament. It was both polished, and ceremonial, meant to suggest tradition rather than use. I wrapped my hand around the hilt anyway and poured power into it. Aura compressed until it screamed back at me, dense and unstable, the blade protesting as it filled with more than it was ever meant to hold.

  I knew it wouldn’t survive more than a strike or two.

  That was fine.

  I stepped up to the wall and swung.

  The blade slid through stone as if it had forgotten it was solid. Aura detonated on contact, fractures racing through the metal edge. I struck again, and the blade shattered completely, shards of light tearing free as the wall gave way in a cascade of stone and dust.

  Cold night air rushed in.

  Outside, the grounds were already alive with movement. Voices carried through the dark. Orders snapped back and forth. Boots pounded over gravel and grass as people converged on the breach I’d just opened.

  Good.

  They knew exactly where I was now.

  “Something flashy, right?” I said.

  “Yes,” Bonnie answered, a breathless laugh bleeding through the tension. “Very flashy.”

  I stepped through the opening and jumped.

  Three stories down.

  I pulled Arcanum inward as gravity grabbed hold, clumsy but effective, bleeding off momentum in uneven bursts. Gravity magic had never been my strength—it demanded finesse I didn’t have—but Kinetica and reinforcement filled the gaps. I hit the ground hard, rolled once, and came up in the middle of a cluster of Gravebound.

  They stared at me just for a heartbeat, when they should have moved. That was enough to break them.

  I struck the two closest with reinforced Aura layered with a sharp burst of lightning. The shock ripped through armor and bone alike, power packed tight enough that unless their defenses were flawless, it would drop them on the spot.

  I wasn’t aiming to kill.

  I wasn’t trying not to either.

  They fell.

  Four more rushed in, spreading instinctively, trying to bracket me. I felt the shift in their movement and reached for something flashy, spells that I knew how to use but didn't necessarily favor.

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  I pulled at my mana, cycled it into Elementa Arcanum and started manipulating fire. A dense sphere no bigger than my fist, materized and compressed until it howled as it boiled in my hands. I adjusted the parimeters of the spell. Looked for a target or two; and I let it rip. The flames cut through the air and punched through the first man before he understood what he was seeing, then clipped the second hard enough to send him tumbling backward in a burning heap.

  The remaining two reacted fast.

  One launched a piercing ice construct toward me, sharp and focused, screaming as it crossed the distance. It was a clean casting. Whoever this was, they knew what they were doing.

  I knocked the first shard aside. The second scraped past my shoulder, cold biting deep as it tore through fabric and skin.

  I smiled.

  Lightning arcanum climbed over me as Aura wrapped tight around my frame. I surged forward, closing the distance in two steps before he could finish forming the next spell.

  My hand came down, wrapped in power, in a slicing cut from the top of his head to his groin. I literally cut him in half.

  His partner froze, horror plain on his face.

  He died in a similar way.

  I exhaled slowly and took in the scene.

  Bodies scattered across the ground. Smoke and frost hanging in the air. Shouts rising as more people realized where the fight was unfolding.

  I checked the timing out of habit.

  Thirty seconds. Maybe less.

  “Bonnie,” I said, already moving. “Distraction one is live.”

  She laughed, breathless. “Oh, they definitely see you. The few Knights that the Gravebound have just flared their signatures. You’ve got their full attention now.”

  I grinned as another group burst from the treeline, weapons coming up.

  “Good. It will give them time to come to terms with their God”

  I pushed deeper toward the center of the grounds, angling myself into open space where what came next would be impossible to miss.

  “Bonnie,” I said sharply, “I need a target. Something I can destroy without turning half the property into collateral.”

  “Stand by.”

  I slowed and waited.

  Despite the chaos I’d already kicked loose, no one rushed me. Too many people moving. Too much mana in the air. Too much noise for one more presence to stand out.

  I drew the shadows in around myself—not concealment meant for movement, but stillness. An old Wastes trick and clever bit of Arcanum that I used often. I check my casting aid. My mana still felt good. I was wasn't overextended. I pulled on the Arcanum and cast a Shadow Conceal. The spell let the world slide past you while you remain a gap in its attention.

  Bonnie’s voice cut back in. “Three hundred paces to your left. Equipment shed. The Gravebound have been staging out of it.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “Mark it.”

  “Already done.”

  Sarien cut in next. " The Knight Order is fully committing. I don't know how we got through but they are talking to me. They are coming in hot with basically the entire Order. Aerial transport from the south.”

  “They asking about anti-air?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not seeing heavy arrays,” I said. “No fixed constructs. Tell them the zone is hot, but uncoordinated. They’ll be too distracted to mount organized resistance.”

  “Done,” Sarien said. “Keep an eye out; maybe 10 minutes. They said something about not being stupid.”

  Bonnie’s voice softened. “Then I think we need to show we aren't just a bystander. Do it. Cale.”

  I stepped away from bodies and voices, pulling in the shadows and started toward the marked structure.

  I breathed and cycled my mana faster, deeper pulling on the deep reservoirs of my mana.. Arcanum came first—dense and hungry, feeding into a shape that took time to build. I defined boundaries, locked parameters, chose exactly how much destruction I could afford. I built the magic circle by hand this time, ignoring my casting aid.

  My wrist buzzed as the system recognized the pattern. The spell name surfaced in my display as the final alignments locked.

  This was going to be a big one.

  I raised my arm and released it.

  The night split open.

  A column of white-blue light punched skyward first, wide enough to swallow the space around me, bright enough to turn the clouds above into a glowing ceiling. For a heartbeat, it looked like the world had caught fire from the ground up.

  Then the beam came down.

  Not a line—an axis.

  The ground screamed as it struck. Stone didn’t just crack; it unraveled. Metal shrieked as it liquefied, running like water before evaporating into sparks. Every enchantment caught in the path failed at once, glyphs flashing in protest before collapsing into useless ash.

  The equipment shed didn’t fall.

  It ceased.

  One moment it existed, reinforced and warded and prepared for war. The next, it was a widening absence, the space where it had been glowing white-hot as reality corrected itself too late.

  The beam carved on, punching through earth and structure alike, tearing a luminous scar across the grounds that burned bright enough to cast shadows for hundreds of meters. The shockwave followed a half second later, a rolling wall of force that flattened grass, hurled bodies aside, and rattled windows across the lodge complex.

  The sky above rippled, clouds boiling as the light reflected back down, turning night into day.

  Screams rose everywhere. Orders dissolved into noise. People ran without knowing where to go, eyes locked on the blazing wound that now dominated the grounds.

  Every single person on the property knew exactly where I was.

  Bonnie sucked in a sharp breath over the channel. “…Yeah,” she said. “That definitely did it.”

  I lowered my arm as the light began to fade, the scar still glowing in the earth like a brand pressed into the world.

  I didn’t slow.

  I had their attention.

  And now, I had the time I needed.