The sky turned violet.
Marike moved first.
"Behind me!"
Keizeix barely had time to object before six versions of her appeared.
Then twelve.
Then twenty-four.
Her clones spread outward in overlapping layers around him and Sia.
The violet sphere descended.
"DOWN!"
Every clone raised its arms.
Mana surged.
The explosion swallowed the battlefield.
Keizeix's vision vanished beneath violet light.
The ground shook hard enough to lift his legs from beneath him.
Marike's first line of clones disappeared instantly.
The second survived perhaps half a heartbeat longer.
The third was thrown backward.
Keizeix felt heat wash over him even from behind the remaining bodies.
Then—
Silence.
Smoke rolled across the ridge.
Marike stood in front of them breathing heavily.
More than half her clones were gone.
Sia stared at the devastation.
Keizeix's mouth went dry.
"That was one attack?"
"Yes," Marike said.
She didn't look back.
"And that is why neither of you is fighting it."
The white beetle stepped through the smoke.
Violet light pulsed beneath its translucent shell.
The creature's horn lowered toward Shirespoke.
Shirespoke stood alone.
Sword in one hand.
A short dagger in the other.
Keizeix frowned.
"He's Master Heroic."
Marike nodded.
"The beetle is a Heroic Tier Breaker."
"That's above him."
"Yes."
Keizeix stared at her.
"And you're just letting him fight it?"
This time Marike looked back.
"Watch."
---
The beetle attacked.
Not with its body.
With magic.
Three violet bolts tore across the battlefield.
Shirespoke moved.
The first missed.
He cut through the second.
Keizeix's eyes widened.
The blade wasn't stronger than the spell.
Something coating it was.
The violet energy twisted the instant it touched the sword, destabilizing and bursting harmlessly to one side.
"Poison," Keizeix whispered.
Marike smiled faintly.
"Not everything he carries is meant for blood."
The third bolt came low.
Shirespoke jumped.
The beetle charged beneath him.
Its horn tore through the earth where Shirespoke had been.
He landed on its back.
His dagger struck.
**CLANG.**
The shell didn't break.
Shirespoke immediately abandoned the strike.
No wasted effort.
The beetle twisted.
Violet light erupted from its body.
Shirespoke was thrown away.
He struck the ground, rolled, and rose before the creature could follow.
The difference in raw power was obvious.
The beetle was stronger.
Faster than something that size had any right to be.
Its magic vastly exceeded Shirespoke's.
But Shirespoke didn't panic.
He watched.
Moved.
Tested.
A violet blade of energy swept horizontally.
Shirespoke ducked beneath it.
Another came vertically.
He stepped sideways.
A third attack split into six smaller bolts.
This time one struck him.
The explosion hurled him backward.
"Mentor!"
Keizeix surged forward.
Three Marikes blocked him.
"No."
"He got hit!"
"And he is still standing."
Smoke cleared.
Shirespoke rose slowly.
One side of his armor had been torn open.
Blood ran down his arm.
He looked at the white beetle.
Then smiled.
Keizeix had never seen that expression on his mentor before.
Not amused.
Not sarcastic.
Predatory.
"So that's your pattern."
The beetle roared.
Shirespoke moved.
---
The next exchange looked completely different.
He stopped trying to reach the shell.
Instead he attacked the magic.
The beetle fired.
Shirespoke flicked his dagger.
A droplet struck the violet sphere forming above its horn.
The magic warped.
Collapsed.
Exploded backward.
The beetle screamed.
Shirespoke was already moving.
Sword across the leg joint.
Not deep.
Barely a cut.
But enough.
Poison entered.
The beetle's leg stumbled once.
Keizeix noticed.
Shirespoke did too.
The next attack targeted a different leg.
Another shallow cut.
Different blade.
Different poison.
The beetle blasted him away again.
This time Shirespoke couldn't fully avoid it.
He hit the ground hard.
Keizeix heard something crack.
Sia's posture shifted beside him.
Marike extended an arm in front of her too.
"Stay."
Sia's black-purple sparks vanished.
Keizeix looked at her.
For once she didn't argue.
The white beetle gathered more magic.
Shirespoke forced himself upright.
Blood ran from his mouth.
"You..."
The beetle's horn glowed.
"...really should have killed me faster."
It fired.
Shirespoke threw both weapons.
The sword struck the magical sphere.
The dagger struck the beetle's mouth.
Neither killed it.
That wasn't the point.
The sphere detonated prematurely.
The beetle recoiled.
Then its entire body convulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Its front right leg collapsed.
Then another.
Violet light beneath its shell flickered.
Keizeix understood.
"The poisons."
Marike nodded.
"Separately, some barely affect something that strong."
Another convulsion ran through the beetle.
"But together..."
"Reaction."
"Exactly."
Shirespoke walked forward.
Slowly now.
Injured.
Exhausted.
But still moving.
The beetle tried forming another spell.
The violet light sputtered.
Failed.
Its body had begun fighting itself.
One poison attacked muscle response.
Another interfered with magical circulation.
A third damaged blood.
A fourth reacted with the first two and multiplied their effects.
Keizeix had watched Shirespoke use poison before.
He hadn't understood.
Not truly.
This wasn't simply coating a sword with something lethal.
Shirespoke fought like an alchemist conducting an experiment inside his opponent's body.
The white beetle lunged.
Even weakened, it remained terrifying.
Shirespoke stepped aside too slowly.
The horn tore across his chest.
Blood sprayed.
Marike flinched.
But Shirespoke caught the horn under one arm.
The beetle tried pulling free.
He held on.
His free hand produced another tiny blade from somewhere beneath his armor.
Then drove it through the soft tissue beneath the creature's jaw.
The beetle screamed.
Shirespoke twisted.
"Enough."
The final poison entered.
Seconds passed.
The beetle staggered.
Its magic vanished.
Then the Heroic Tier Breaker collapsed.
The impact shook the ground.
Silence followed.
Keizeix stared.
Shirespoke remained standing beside the corpse.
Barely.
Then he looked toward Marike.
"You can let them play now."
Marike sighed.
"Idiot."
Shirespoke smiled.
"Still alive."
"Debatable."
---
The magical beetles hadn't stopped.
With their commander dead, they simply lost coordination.
Marike's remaining clones surged forward.
"Stay near me," she ordered.
Keizeix looked toward the Master-level enemies.
Several glowed blue.
Others green.
One had orange light pulsing through its horn.
Manageable.
Dangerous.
But manageable.
Sia stepped beside him.
"Race you."
Keizeix stared.
"After that?"
"Are you scared?"
"Absolutely not."
"Good."
They charged.
---
The first Master-level magical beetle almost killed Keizeix's confidence immediately.
It fired a blue crescent.
Keizeix dodged.
The crescent changed direction.
"Oh, that's unfair."
Shadow Mist.
He vanished.
The magical blade passed through where he'd been.
Keizeix emerged beside the beetle.
Mana dropped.
He fired silk.
The beetle burned through it with blue flame.
"Also unfair."
It charged.
Keizeix ducked beneath the horn.
His Edenweave hardened as the beetle's shoulder clipped him.
He spun.
Pain exploded through one leg.
Still intact.
He attacked a joint.
The creature countered with another burst of flame.
Keizeix retreated.
This wasn't like fighting ordinary beetles.
The armor remained difficult.
Now the enemy had magic layered on top of it.
A Marike clone intercepted another spell aimed at him.
It disappeared in the explosion.
"Focus!" the real Marike shouted.
"I'm focused!"
"You were complaining!"
"I can do both!"
Sia's lightning flashed nearby.
Her opponent answered with green magical needles.
She blocked some.
Dodged others.
One punched through the edge of her shell.
Sia hissed.
Keizeix's attention snapped toward her.
His opponent attacked.
He barely dodged.
"Right. Mine first."
He stopped trying to web the beetle directly.
Instead he webbed the ground.
Two stones.
A broken spear.
Then a corpse.
The magical beetle advanced.
Keizeix retreated deliberately.
It followed.
Its front leg crossed the first line.
Nothing.
Second.
Nothing.
Third.
Keizeix pulled all three.
The web network tightened from different directions.
The beetle stumbled.
Blue fire erupted.
But it couldn't burn every strand at once.
Keizeix moved.
Shadow.
Reappear.
Strike beneath the neck.
The beetle screamed.
He hit it again.
A blue blast caught Keizeix across the side.
The Edenweave stopped the worst of it.
Not all.
Heat burned through.
Keizeix cried out.
Then drove his front leg deeper.
**Kill registered.**
He collapsed beside the body.
"Ow."
No time.
Another Master magical beetle was already coming.
Keizeix rose.
---
The fight lasted more than two hours.
They did not dominate.
They survived.
Sia exhausted her lightning reserve gradually until only weak sparks remained.
Keizeix's Mana dropped low enough that Shadow Mist became something he saved exclusively for attacks he couldn't physically avoid.
Both accumulated injuries.
Burns.
Cracks in shell.
Cuts.
One of Keizeix's rear legs developed a limp.
Sia had two punctures along her side and a scorched section near her thorax.
Marike's clones repeatedly prevented worse.
But she didn't fight their battles for them.
When a Master-level opponent was something they could reasonably defeat, she made them do it.
"Left!" Marike shouted.
Keizeix turned.
A green bolt passed where his head had been.
Sia struck the caster's leg with the last meaningful burst of lightning she had.
It stumbled.
Keizeix webbed its horn downward.
Sia attacked the exposed neck.
The beetle twisted.
Keizeix joined her.
Together they drove it into the dirt.
**Kill registered.**
They separated immediately.
Both panting.
Sia looked toward him.
"I did most of that."
"You stunned it."
"I created the opening."
"I restrained it."
"I hit first."
"I hit harder."
Marike appeared between them.
"Would you two like another enemy?"
Both looked toward the remaining beetles.
"No," they answered together.
Marike smiled.
"Thought so."
---
When the last magical beetle in their immediate position fell, Keizeix didn't celebrate.
He simply sat down.
Sia collapsed beside him.
Not touching.
Close enough that neither bothered moving.
Across the battlefield, spiderkin soldiers finished wounded enemies.
Marike dismissed her remaining clones one by one.
Then hurried toward Shirespoke.
He had finally sat down beside the Heroic Tier Breaker's corpse.
His chest wound looked ugly.
Keizeix stood despite his exhaustion.
"Mentor."
Shirespoke raised one hand.
"I'm alive."
"You look terrible."
A faint smile appeared.
"Commander Vaelcor said the same thing."
Marike knelt beside him and began inspecting the wound.
"You fought someone above your level alone."
"Won too."
"That does not make it intelligent."
"It makes it successful."
She glared.
Shirespoke looked toward Keizeix and Sia.
His expression softened.
"You two did well."
Keizeix blinked.
Actual praise?
Sia seemed equally suspicious.
Shirespoke continued.
"You obeyed."
Keizeix frowned.
"That sounds less impressive."
"For you, it is remarkable."
Marike laughed.
Then looked at both young spiderkin.
"You fought opponents at your own level who possessed a major advantage you weren't accustomed to."
Her gaze moved over their injuries.
"You were hurt."
Pause.
"But you adapted."
Sia lifted her head slightly.
Marike smiled.
"I'm proud of you."
Sia looked away.
Keizeix noticed the tiny shift in her posture.
She liked that.
So did he.
Not that he planned to say it.
Shirespoke pointed toward the dead Heroic Tier Breaker.
"Remember today."
Keizeix looked.
"Raw power matters."
Shirespoke's voice remained tired.
"But knowing what your power can do matters too."
Keizeix remembered the poisons.
The reactions.
The way Shirespoke had dismantled someone stronger by turning tiny wounds into a death sentence.
"Understood."
"Good."
Shirespoke leaned back.
"Now somebody find me a healer before Marike murders me herself."
"I am considering it."
---
The aftermath was considerably more profitable than any previous day.
For Keizeix, anyway.
The Master-level magical beetles he'd personally helped kill provided exactly what he'd been seeking.
Magic-bearing cores.
Some were assigned to him directly as legitimate spoils.
Others went to Sia or soldiers who had contributed.
Keizeix did not complain.
He had enough.
That evening, after treatment, food, and several hours of rest, he sat alone in his tent.
His wounds had been cleaned.
The Edenweave needed significant repair.
His Mana remained low despite eating.
That would take proper sleep.
But his storage contained several new Master-level magical cores.
Keizeix smiled.
Carefully.
One at a time.
No rushing.
The first core raised the pressure inside him noticeably.
He stopped afterward.
Waited.
Ate again.
Rested.
Later, he consumed another.
By the following evening, after giving himself plenty of time between them, Keizeix deliberately checked his status.
**Strength: 96,884 / 100,000**
**Health: 95,713 / 100,000**
**Magic: 69,276 / 100,000**
**Intelligence: 98,441 / 100,000**
**Mana: 69,276 / 69,276**
Keizeix stared at Magic.
Nearly eight thousand gained.
That was what true magical opponents changed.
He closed the display.
Still behind.
But no longer crawling.
Outside, Sia's voice suddenly carried through the camp.
"KEIZEIX!"
He froze.
That tone never meant anything good.
He stepped outside.
Sia stood thirty feet away.
Bandaged.
Scorched.
Smiling.
That was worse.
She held something between two front legs.
A violet core.
Keizeix's eyes narrowed.
"Where did you get that?"
Sia's smile widened.
"Shirespoke gave me part of the Tier Breaker's core reward."
Keizeix stared.
She leaned closer.
"Jealous?"
He looked toward Shirespoke.
His mentor was lying beneath a healer's canopy and pretending not to watch.
Keizeix looked back at Sia.
"No."
"Liar."
"Enjoy exploding."
Sia's smile vanished.
"I'm not stupid enough to consume this."
Keizeix paused.
"...Good."
She carefully stored the core with Marike's assistance.
Then gave Keizeix another smug look.
"Still jealous."
Keizeix turned away.
Six steps later Shirespoke started laughing.
Keizeix called over his shoulder.
"I hope your stitches open!"
Marike shouted from the healer's canopy.
"DO NOT ENCOURAGE THAT!"