Lindon held out his white hand. He and Orthos had tested this as much as they could without risking Lindon’s life, and it should work in theory. But there was every chance that the Flowing Flame madra would pass over him like a tide and leave him helpless.
As the Striker technique hit his palm, he triggered the hunger binding.
Unleashed, his arm started devouring the technique. It reached its capacity almost immediately, and orange lines began to stain the limb, searing Lindon’s soul and filling his arm like a sack stuffed to bursting.
But he’d consumed the technique.
Without giving Ekeri an instant to recover, Lindon held his white arm out as though holding a shield. Flowing Flame madra gushed out of his forearm.
It wasn’t as focused as her original technique, and it had lost much of its potency, but she still had to cross her arms and bear it. Liquid fire splashed out of the holes in the house.
Cutting off the technique, Lindon launched himself forward with the power of the Burning Cloak. He hit Ekeri foot-first, stomping her back.
For once, he landed a clean hit. Whether she thought she could endure the blow or just failed to dodge, she took the kick on her crossed arms.
And she blasted back through the wall of her shelter, hitting the sand like a falling star.
Lindon dashed after her while she was still in the air, the corona of the Burning Cloak turning him into a black meteor. He landed in front of her, sending wide, sweeping slashes of dragon’s breath scything into the waving sea-stalks around her.
Stalks toppled, smoldering and smoking, but because of the water aura, none of them burst into flames.
Shrieks rose in a chorus from all over the habitat. He sensed cold, savage power approaching from every direction as the Silverfang Carp closed on them.
A great roar echoed over the sand as Ekeri’s shelter collapsed. The blocks tumbled to the ground as though they were made out of real stone, a great puff of essence rose into the sky like dust. At last, flames licked up from the wreckage as bits of smashed wooden furniture caught fire. That was one of Lindon’s worries eased.
But she had been waiting too.
The fire aura from around the flame gathered behind him, flames pulling themselves into a river. He sensed it happen, whirling to face the Ruler technique she was conjuring behind his back.
It was like staring down a dragon made of orange flame. He extended his own madra to the aura, contesting her control, but he felt like a child throwing his whole body weight against the arm of a warrior. The snake of fire washed over him, instantly igniting the edges of his clothes. If not for him using fire aura to push the fire away, and the water aura weakening flames, his robes would have burned away entirely.
Still, fighting against her Ruler technique took everything he had. His soul blazed, his Blackflame madra rolling like a whirlpool, and his teeth were gritted as he threw his whole concentration into it. With his right hand, he fumbled at his pocket.
The hand ignored him.
Not now, Lindon begged. Please, not now.
The hand lurched in Ekeri’s direction. Lindon split his attention, and the fire pressed closer, searing his skin. He screamed, but forced his hand to listen to him.
It reached into his pocket and withdrew a sealed vial of baked clay. He broke the seal with his thumb, dumping glowing purple water into his mouth.
Instantly, his concentration sharpened. His vision cleared, and his control over the aura firmed. His training with Orthos had showed them both that reaction speed and focus were both noticeably improved under the effects of the Dream Well.
But his newly enhanced reactions weren’t enough to stop the golden tail from catching him across the chest.
He flew back, tumbling across the sand, trying to scramble to his feet. Fear spiked in his chest.
He only had one chance of winning: keeping Ekeri on the defensive. Orthos had lectured him at length, but it was a principle he’d learned from Yerin. The strength of an offensive Path, like the Path of Black Flame, was its ability to put pressure on the opponent. Without that pressure, he would crumble like a dry leaf.
And now she had him on the back foot.
With the power of the Burning Cloak, he ran, trying to put some distance between them. She followed him as though tied to him with a string, holding out the needle in her hand.
A long string of orange madra extended from the end, and Lindon recognized it for what it was. Not a needle, but a whip. This would be a tool to enhance the whip-like Forger technique she’d used before.
She spun it over her head, and the line of flexible madra spun in all directions, slicing stalks open. The aura around them was mixed with spots of visible red, as fires started to ignite, and the air was beginning to choke with smoke. The screams of the fish grew closer as Lindon ducked and dipped through the stalks and the occasional boulder, trying to increase the gap between them.
A man in white appeared out of nowhere in front of him, sending a kick at his feet.
Lindon leaped over him, driving his fist at the servant’s face, but he ducked his head slightly to one side. Lindon followed up with a kick, but the servant moved back a step.
Lindon’s gut clenched. The man wasn’t trying to fight him, just to tie him up until Ekeri reached him. Though he didn’t want to waste the madra, he gathered black fire in his left palm.
Silver flashed from within the smoke, and a Silverfang Carp came for him with fangs open.
Lindon seized the fangs with his Remnant arm. After feeding on their meat for so long, Lindon could hold it back much more easily than before; even his replacement arm had been strengthened by the power in their flesh. However, it was still massive. As it swam through the air, it pushed him back through the sand.
A burst of pain exploded next to his shoulder blade, and he screamed, hauling the fish with him as he twisted to see what had hit him.
The servant stepped back, bloody knife in hand.
Rage flowed from his Blackflame core. Still gripping the massive Carp, Lindon extended his hand of flesh and fired his dragon’s breath.
Ekeri leaped over her servant at the same time. If she wanted to save him, she would have to land and take his Striker technique, which would give him time to push away the fish. His Bloodforged Iron body had already started to drain madra to heal the wound in his back, so he needed to end this quickly.
But the dragon-girl ignored his technique. The bar of fire punched into the Lowgold’s side, instantly taking a chunk out of his ribs and igniting his clothes. His body bucked, and the wound flashed with green light—he must have had a treasure to preserve his life.
It wouldn’t be enough. Three more Carp darted over, descending on him.
Then Lindon could no longer pay attention to the Lowgold, because there was a Truegold on top of him.
She whirled her whip at him, and as he struggled to cut off the flow of his dragon’s breath, the glowing orange weapon wrapped around his leg.
It seared like red-hot metal against his skin, and Lindon knew with rock-solid conviction that it was about to tighten and tear his limb away. Instead of cutting off his dragon’s breath, he poured more madra into it, slicing down like a burning executioner’s blade onto her head.
Before she could cut his leg away, she had to raise a hand to defend against the dense bar of Blackflame. With her attention distracted, he kicked the weapon away.
As the whip slid back down his skin, it burned him, and he choked back a scream. He wrenched his leg free, stumbling back.
The Silverfang Carp had truly gathered now, flashing everywhere, so he and Ekeri fought in the middle of a school. The air was so hazy that it looked like they were swimming through smoke. With the Burning Cloak active, he knocked them to one side and the other, leaping and kicking off of a fish that hovered in the air.