Seeing his father’s squared back appear in front of him, Rylan felt his heart plummet. “No!” he cried, grabbing onto Artoran’s shoulder, knowing deep down that it was too late, the javelin was already flying, shining like a miniature sun from all the—

  A blue glow came flying in from the side of Rylan’s vision. Suddenly, a figure clad in the Thistlethorn crimson and blue was there, slamming down her glowing spear on the projectile mere feet in front of them.

  The javelin was forced into the deck, which exploded in a rain of splinters.

  Rylan was shielded from the worst of it, but the shockwave sent Artoran stumbling back into him, and with the bamboo bucking beneath their feet, they both lost their balance.

  A figure clad in crimson leather armour emerged from the cloud of shredded bamboo like a vengeful spirit from the stories.

  With a jolt, Rylan finally recognised his... mother. It had taken him a moment because, not only had Helen stopped dyeing her hair, she’d cut off her long blue locks, leaving her with a short blonde hairdo that was not unsimilar to his own.

  For a moment, their gazes met. Joy and relief lit up Helen’s blue eyes, then rapidly faded into a more complex, pained mixture of emotions. “The Stalwart Drift is coming back around,” she said rapidly. “Make sure you both get on; I’ll hold them off!”

  “A-Are you sure?” Rylan asked, as his father sputtered, spitting out bits of bamboo.

  Helen flashed him a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ve been training for this since the day you were born.”

  Rylan didn’t get time to process that statement, as at that moment, a gust of wind blew the remaining dust aside.

  Vidric’s eyes flicked from the massive hole in the deck up to Rylan and Artoran, and finally to Helen. He clicked his tongue. “Well well, Milady Thistlethorn. What a pleasure to meet you on the field of—”

  He wasn’t able to finish his sentence, as Helen flew forward with rapid, glowing steps, murder in her eyes and a growl in her throat as she launched into a flurry of strikes.

  Rylan watched wide-eyed as her furious assault immediately forced Vidric on the defensive.

  While Artoran had ceased playing, the dozen or so Talon soldiers still on the ship did not seem to be in fighting shape, still far too dizzy from all the rotating they’d been forced to do. Rylan saw at least two of them on their knees, vomiting, and another stumbled into Helen’s path and got a spear to the face for his audacity.

  The weapon, clad in a white glow that shimmered with the waveform of what had to be Pierce, went straight through his skull and out the other side.

  The sight of it shook Rylan out of his stupor, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. “Dad, come on!”

  Artoran blinked up at him. “Was that... Helen?”

  “Yes,” Rylan replied curtly as he started pulling his father up by the upper arms. “Come on, get up!”

  “She cut her hair...” Artoran mumbled as he shakily got to his feet, his legs trembling but holding.

  “Focus!” Rylan chastised. “Are you all right? Can you walk?”

  To their left, he spotted the Thistlethorn warship turning around; it seemed Helen had hopped on board as they passed by the first time, and now—as she’d said—it was coming back to sail alongside them, on the raised side of the deck.

  Artoran took a deep breath, and straightened up, glancing around. “I’m fine, son, but... where’s your sister?”

  Rylan froze. Then he quickly shoved his father up the slanted deck to where Yuel was helping Nazyr to his feet. “Prepare to jump; I’ll go get her!”

  Thankfully, a quick scan of the deck was enough to find his sister.

  She was... still slung over Tamina’s right shoulder, struggling to escape.

  Her captor, in turn, was having difficulty walking to Vidric’s vessel, despite the downward slope of the deck. Tamina’s dark braid whipped in the furious gale Izzy was throwing her way—stronger than anything Rylan had seen the little spirit produce before—but with the glow of Footwork below her soles, Tamina was persevering.

  Rylan immediately rushed over, avoiding the heated battle between Vidric and Helen that had taken over the centre of the deck and the few remaining Talon soldiers.

  As he skidded to a halt in front of Tamina, the wind Izzy was brewing immediately died down.

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  Tamina stumbled forward from the sudden shift, then stopped, her brows furrowing as her eyes landed on Rylan.

  “Put. Me. Down! You miserable clodpoll!” Leahna cried, her fists hammering on Tamina’s back and her legs waving in futile effort in front of her.

  “You heard the lady,” Rylan added, keeping Arphin loosely grasped beside his leg. “Put her down, Tammi.”

  Leahna immediately froze at the sound of his voice, then increased her efforts to escape.

  Tamina’s eyes flicked over to him, guilt flashing across her face before her stoic mask slid back into place. With a grunt of effort, she pulled Leahna back onto the middle of her right shoulder. On her other side, her metallic left arm raised her shield ever so slightly. “It’s nice to see you, too, Ry. And you know very well that I can’t do that.”

  Despite himself, he felt a thrill at the sound of her voice, at that oh-so-familiar slight rasp.

  “Guess you still do everything Vidric tells you, huh?” he asked in resignation, a hint of bitterness creeping into his voice. “Did you tell him all of my secrets too?”

  “I answer his questions,” she replied coolly, before a small smile played over her face. “If he fails to ask things, that’s not my fault.”

  His heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he hesitated, then he threw his caution to the haze. Fog it. Vidric figured it out by now already anyway.

  “Why don’t you just ditch him and come with me?” he asked, his eyes boring pleadingly into hers. “You don’t even like the clodmonger! I can remove the Restrictions that breaking your Contract would put on you, give you back access to your Skills, your Status, everything. All I’d need is a console.”

  Her eyes widened at his admission. For a moment, she seemed to genuinely hesitate, then she slowly shook her head. “Ry, I can’t. My family lives on Hawkwing Crescent, remember?”

  Rylan swallowed against the lump in his throat, drawing himself up and raising Arphin. “Then you leave me no choice. Put her down, or I’ll make you.”

  Tamina smiled and raised her shield. “Very well. Show me how much your mana control has progressed.”

  [Fog yeah, let’s show her what we can do!] Arphin enthused

  “Ryles, enough chit-chat!” Leahna called out, exasperated. “Get me down already!”

  By way of response, Rylan drew a throwing knife into his left hand and started charging his Skills.

  Tamina stepped forward, and he ducked to the left, trying to whip his knife past her shield.

  However, the runes on her Obsidium shield lit up, producing a cone of darkness that slowed down his knife enough for her to bring her shield to bear.

  Rylan clicked his tongue, already drawing another knife and moving back to block her path forward.

  He could try to get around her with Redirect, but the Sapphire-Grade Skill wouldn’t stop Tamina from slowing his knives down. Worse, with Leahna on the right, he could really only attack Tammi’s left side.

  [Let me at her, Boss; I can get her!]

  ‘Fine. Just don’t do any irreparable damage,’ Rylan replied grimly.

  Rylan threw his mundane knife at her feet, then immediately flung Arphin to her left, this time curving his throw in an attempt to catch her off guard.

  Unfortunately, Tamina managed to move her feet away in time, then caught Arphin in her momentum-robbing field.

  To Rylan’s surprise, Arphin fought back, somehow resisting her slowing effect. The glowing yellow blade shot right past the edge of her shield, and cut through her armour, leaving a red streak on her ribs.

  Then he returned to Rylan’s hand with a pop.

  [Got her!] Arphin cried. [Wooh... just let me... catch my breath...]

  Tamina, meanwhile, grunted in surprise, but didn’t seem fazed. “Not bad!”

  “Stop complimenting me while I’m trying to attack you!”

  Tamina shrugged, the motion causing Leahna to bounce up and down. “Sorry. But you’re going to have to do better than that to convince me I can’t carry her off.”

  “Seriously, what’s with all the talking?!” his sister complained. “Just... do something!”

  [All right, I’m ready to go again! But Boss... how are we going to stop Tammi if we can’t hurt her too much?]

  ‘That’s an excellent question, Arphin... but I may have an idea.’

  Rylan’s eyes narrowed as he raised Arphin once more, the yellow blade already glowing. Then he darted forward, using a few short steps and his long-jump Augmentation to build a sudden burst of speed. The cone of darkness tried to rob his momentum, but despite having used only half his charged mana in the Jump, he had a lot of it.

  As he neared her shield, Rylan lifted his other foot and activated his Flying Kick Augmentation, blinding light bursting off her shield as their Skills collided.

  He’d purposely jumped a bit high and aimed his foot above the centre of her shield, which caused it to tilt back as he hit it. Between the angle and his remaining speed, he managed to kick down rather than back, launching himself upwards.

  But he wasn’t done yet.

  As he rose above her, he activated Redirect on himself.

  Shifting his direction of motion from upward to forward was a jarring, stomach-lurching experience. But it worked.

  As he’d expected, Tamina was using her Footwork Skill to maintain her grip and not get pushed back, so as she stood nailed to the ground, his manoeuvre brought him up and over her.

  Even as he moved down, he was already twisting around on his axis. And before Tamina could do anything to bring her shield to bear, he had a hand fisted in her surcoat and Arphin pressed to her throat, Knife-Fighting activated.

  Like his father had said, her Mana Shell had barely protested as he pressed the sharp blade up against her flesh.

  “You learned that from the ramtusk Malequint, didn’t you?” she asked, the vibrations of her voice travelling through Arphin’s blade as she spoke. “Well done!”

  “Thanks,” Rylan said gruffly, trying not to get distracted by her familiar scent. “Now release my sister.”

  As he spoke, he caught a glint of silver in her hair, at the base of her braid.

  It was a hairpin with an abstract bird at the tip.

  She’s wearing it!

  A confusing, warm feeling suffused his chest.

  Tamina let out a dejected groan. “Ah man... I hate to do this, but you see, I don’t actually believe you’d be willing to slit my throat, so...”

  In his distraction, her words didn’t quite register fast enough for Rylan to see the backwards headbutt coming until it smashed into his nose with a flash of white light.

  Cursing, he stumbled back, lifting Arphin from her neck as he did to avoid severing anything important.

  Now unimpeded, Tamina immediately started moving forward again, but before she could even take two steps, a blue-haired figure darted in front of her and pointed a glowing rapier at her chest.

  “Having some girl trouble, Ryles?” Soren asked. “Please, do allow me to serve as your finman.”

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