The Nullchain Knight toppled from its perch. Xavier met it on the way down, palm to the anchor cuff, and erased the reel-in motor from within. The chain went slack. The Knight fell without a sound and vanished into the dark below.
The Shield Wall reoriented, doors locking in layers until the bridge became a corridor of steel. Spearheads pushed forward like a thorn hedge. He refused to go through. He went around. He ran the rail, boots light on the ribbed curve while Phantoms flickered in and out beside him like sword-length strobes. He took their timing in three steps. The fourth blink lagged a hair from the second. He laid his lines in the places where they would be. One appeared into a thread-cut already lying across its throat seam. Another formed at his flank and came apart before its blade finished hardening. He stole their future and kept moving.
