Seraphine and the commander came at them together.
Wind screamed.
Steel flashed.
The commander's blade carved downward toward Aldric's head while Seraphine lunged past him, her fist already tearing toward Draven's chest.
Aldric raised both blood gauntlets.
**CLANG**
The sword slammed into them with crushing force, driving Aldric back a full step as cracks spread through the stone beneath his boots.
"Three seconds, right?!" Aldric barked with a grin.
Draven didn't answer.
Seraphine's punch came like a cannon.
Draven slipped sideways.
The strike tore through empty air and **detonated the street** behind him.
He moved immediately after.
Not toward her.
Up.
Draven kicked off the broken ground and shot into the air, his cloak snapping violently behind him.
Seraphine's head snapped upward.
"Oh no you don't—"
She launched after him.
But Aldric moved first.
Blood chains exploded upward from the ground like spears, intercepting her path.
**BOOM**
She smashed through the first chain.
Then the second.
But the delay cost her precious moments.
Above them—
Draven was already pulling his bow back again.
Mana surged violently through his body now.
More than before.
The crimson arrow forming between the bowstring pulsed with unstable, compressed power.
The air around the shaft began to warp under the pressure of it.
Below—
Seraphine tore through another blood chain.
**BOOM**
The construct shattered as she forced her way upward.
"Stop him!" she shouted.
But the moment had already come.
Draven turned in the air.
Not toward the barrier.
Toward the **commander**.
The knight had just forced Aldric back another step, his blade grinding against the blood gauntlets.
For the first time in the battle—
His attention was not fully on Draven.
Draven released the string.
**THWANG**
The crimson arrow shot downward like a falling star.
The sudden change in target was completely unexpected.
The commander's eyes snapped upward at the last instant.
Too late to dodge cleanly.
His sword moved on instinct.
**CLANG**
The blade intercepted the arrow—
But the projectile detonated the moment it touched the steel.
**BOOOOOOM**
A massive explosion of condensed red mana erupted between them.
The shockwave blasted outward violently.
Aldric was thrown backward through the air, blood chains snapping loose around the cultist as he slid several meters across the shattered ground.
The commander was driven down into the street below.
Stone shattered as he crashed into the ground, the impact carving a deep crater.
Seraphine was forced to shield her face as the blast wave struck her midair, throwing her back toward the rooftops.
Dust and burning crimson energy spread across the battlefield.
For a moment—
Everything stopped.
Draven landed lightly beside Aldric, his cloak settling around him.
Aldric rubbed the back of his neck as he stood up.
"…Okay," he muttered.
"That one had some weight behind it."
The dust cloud where the commander had fallen slowly began to settle.
Draven didn't relax.
His bow was already forming another arrow.
Because he knew—
Someone like that wouldn't go down so easily.
Behind the smoke—
A faint glow of steel began to move again.
The dust from the explosion still rolled through the shattered street.
Chunks of broken stone slid into the crater where the commander had landed.
For a moment—
Nothing moved.
But Draven wasn't watching the crater.
He had already drawn the bowstring again.
Mana gathered once more.
Another arrow formed—this one thinner, sharper, more focused.
Aldric glanced at him.
"…You're not aiming at him again?"
Draven didn't answer.
His eyes had shifted upward.
High above the battlefield—
One of the mages floated behind the airships.
A glowing formation circle hovered beneath his feet as he maintained the barrier and fed support mana toward the commander.
A **fifth-circle mage**.
The same one who had been helping him fly earlier.
The mage was staring downward at the explosion Draven had just caused.
He hadn't even noticed the bow being drawn again.
Draven exhaled slowly.
Mana poured into the arrow.
This time it didn't grow unstable or explosive.
It grew **quiet**.
Dense.
Sharp.
Like a needle of condensed death.
Aldric followed his gaze upward.
"…Oh."
His grin widened.
"That's smarter."
Below them—
The crater suddenly exploded.
**BOOM**
The commander burst out of the rubble, cloak torn but body intact, sword already rising again.
Seraphine dropped beside him, wind roaring violently around her.
"Enough running!" she shouted.
But Draven had already released the string.
**THWANG**
The crimson arrow vanished upward.
Not fast—
**Instant.**
The mage's eyes widened as the projectile appeared in front of him.
His hands snapped up, forming a defensive circle.
Too late.
The arrow pierced straight through the spell—
And through his chest.
**CRACK**
The formation beneath his feet flickered violently.
The mage looked down in disbelief at the crimson shaft protruding from his chest.
Then—
The spell collapsed.
The support circle shattered into fading fragments of light.
His body dropped from the sky.
Below—
The commander felt it instantly.
The mana connection that had been feeding him flight and reinforcement vanished.
His eyes sharpened.
Draven lowered his bow slowly.
"…One."
Aldric cracked his knuckles inside the blood gauntlets.
"Good."
Above them—
The massive barrier covering the town flickered slightly as the mage's control disappeared.
Seraphine noticed it too.
Her expression darkened.
Draven looked toward the sky again.
Then back at Aldric.
"Now we leave."
But the commander stepped forward.
His sword rising once more.
His voice calm.
"You're not going anywhere."
And the air filled with killing intent again.