The obsidian bridge stretched into the fog like a blade of shadow, its arched spine illuminated by flickering lamplights. Below, the black waters of the Aetheric Lake churned violently, its surface shimmering with the academy's invisible forcefield—a death sentence for any trespasser foolish enough to attempt the crossing. Maya's boots scraped against weathered stone as she approached the checkpoint, each step sending sharp echoes across the silent span. Three Sentinels stood vigil at the midway point, their obsidian armor drinking in the pale light like living shadows. The largest—a mountain of muscle named Gorrick—folded his massive arms across his engraved chestplate, the Arachis insignia gleaming dully in the mist.
"Turn back," he rumbled, his voice like stones grinding together deep underground. "No unauthorized entry past this point." The words carried the weight of finality, underscored by the way his massive hand drifted toward the halberd strapped across his back.
The female guard—Liora—suddenly stiffened, her breath catching as recognition flashed across her sharp features. "Frey?" Her voice dripped with disbelief. "You were sacked. Stripped of your credentials." Her fingers twitched toward the shock-rod at her belt. "You know what happens to banished faculty who return."
Maya's grip tightened on her side bag, the leather creaking under her whitened knuckles. The sickly green vial inside seemed to burn against her hip. "I need to see Winston. Now." The words came out flatter than she intended, stripped of all emotion by sheer force of will.
The third guard—a wiry man named Vesper with shock-white hair—barked a laugh. "And I need a royal pardon. Guess we're both shit outta luck."
Maya's pulse thundered in her ears. No. Not after everything. Not when my child's life hangs in the balance. She took another step forward, her tattered cloak whispering against the stone.
Gorrick cracked his knuckles, the sound like snapping timber. "Last warning, girl." His bull-like shoulders tensed, the obsidian plates of his armor shifting like scales. "Take one more step, and we'll drag what's left of you back to the cells in pieces."
Maya didn't break stride. The air around her shimmered, then exploded outward as her emerald aura erupted like a dying star, casting jagged shadows across the bridge's ancient stones.
The first attack came with no warning. The air around Maya compressed with a sickening crunch as Liora struck, her gravity technique squeezing like an invisible vise designed to crush bones to powder. Maya's counter came without words—a pulse of pure aura that shattered the pressure field like glass, sending crystalline shards of displaced energy skittering across the stones. Before the gravity-wielder could react, Maya's wind-gauntleted fist lashed out, compressed air snapping toward her throat with the crack of a whip. Liora barely raised her armored forearm in time, the impact sending her skidding backward, her boots screeching against stone and leaving twin trails of sparks in her wake.
Gorrick's answering roar shook the bridge to its foundations as bull horns erupted from his forehead in a spray of blood and bone fragments. Steam blasted from his flared nostrils in great gouts as his skin darkened to a ruddy bronze, veins standing out like cables beneath the transforming flesh. The massive guard charged, the very stones trembling beneath his weight as he lowered his head like a battering ram. Maya waited until the last possible heartbeat—until she could smell the reek of his sweat and see the flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth—before pivoting smoothly, her spinning back kick connecting with a sickening crack of ribs.
[Shadow Art: Binding of the Unworthy]
Shadows writhed at Maya's feet as Vesper's chains snaked upward, barbed darkness coiling around her ankles. "You always were predictable, Vesper," Maya spat, her wind-gauntlets flaring to shred the bindings to ribbons.
Liora, blood trickling from her nose, raised both hands, and the bridge itself seemed to rebel.
[Gravity Art: Event Horizon]
Chunks of stone tore free, hurtling upward in a maelstrom of debris. Maya answered by slamming her fists downward, unleashing a cyclone that disrupted the gravitational anomaly and sent Liora crashing into the iron railing.
Vesper split into six identical clones, poison-tipped daggers glinting as they darted in from all angles. Maya closed her eyes—listened—then struck the real Vesper square in the solar plexus with a wind-enhanced jab that left him gasping.
Steam screamed from Gorrick's nostrils as he charged again. His muscles swelled to twice their size, the very air vibrating with each thunderous step. Maya didn't dodge—she caught his horns bare-handed, her boots grinding trenches in the stone as she stopped his momentum dead.
[Wind Art: Stormfist Barrage]
Her counter came in a blur of motion, each strike a localized hurricane of force that shattered his left horn and left the massive guard bellowing in agony.
Liora, desperate, tried to pin Maya mid-struggle.
[Gravity Art: Skyfall]
Maya's knees buckled briefly, but with a roar that shook the bridge, her aura flared brighter than the lamplights, shattering the effect completely. Vesper's final gambit—a web of shadow-chains—met only whirling blades of emerald light before Maya's elbow crushed into his jaw.
Gorrick, bleeding from his broken horn, activated his ultimate technique.
[Beast Art: King's Wrath]
His muscles doubled again in size as he swung a fist like a siege hammer. Maya met it with her own punch—wind and aura concentrated to a single, devastating point.
BOOOOM
The shockwave shattered nearby lampposts. Gorrick collapsed first, his transformation failing. Only Vesper remained standing—barely—swaying on his feet as Maya staggered toward him, her breath ragged but her aura unbroken.
"Move," she rasped.
He hesitated. Then, with a grunt, stepped aside.
As Maya limped past the broken guards toward the academy gates, a new figure emerged from the mist.
"Captain!" Vesper croaked before collapsing.
The newcomer's long coat flared in the wind as he regarded Maya with cold, calculating eyes.