Yuri ran.
Branches whipped across his face as he crashed through dense overgrowth, boots slipping against wet stone and tangled roots. Rainwater poured from broken structures overhead in uneven streams, splashing across rusted walkways swallowed by vines.
Behind him—
Footsteps.
Fast.
Measured.
Not frantic.
Hunting.
A blade flashed past his head and buried itself into a tree trunk hard enough to split bark apart beside him.
Yuri flinched violently and pushed harder through the forest district, shoulder screaming with every movement. The river water had soaked through his clothes completely. Cold air clung to his skin.
Another voice echoed somewhere above him.
"Too far right."
"Then cut him off."
"Watch the ice."
They weren't shouting.
They sounded bored.
Yuri vaulted over a collapsed railing and landed badly on one knee atop a narrow rooftop bridge swallowed by moss. Pain shot through his leg instantly.
He nearly slipped off the edge.
Below him, floodwater rushed through the streets between collapsed towers and hanging vegetation. The district stretched endlessly outward beneath heavy fog and drifting rain.
Another figure landed lightly behind him.
Masked.
Dark jacket.
Thin wires wrapped around one arm.
Yuri spun instantly, ice forming along his fingertips—
The student moved first.
Wire snapped through the air toward Yuri's throat.
Yuri ducked instinctively.
The wire sliced clean through a hanging branch behind him instead.
The branch collapsed across the rooftop with a heavy crack.
The student tilted his head slightly.
"Better reaction speed than the last one."
Yuri's breathing became uneven.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?"
No answer.
Only movement.
Another student emerged from the trees overhead, crouched upside down against a broken support beam like some kind of insect.
Visor covering her eyes.
Rain rolled slowly down the black surface.
"He's destabilizing the air temperature," she said calmly.
"Yeah," the wire-user replied. "You can see it."
Yuri froze.
Thin frost had spread beneath his boots without him noticing.
The rooftop around him crackled softly with forming ice.
The visor girl pushed herself off the beam.
Yuri reacted instantly.
Ice exploded upward between them.
Jagged spikes erupted across the rooftop in violent uneven formations. The girl twisted midair and landed lightly against a nearby wall instead.
The wire-user didn't stop moving.
He lunged directly through the forming frost with terrifying speed.
Yuri barely raised his arm in time—
The impact slammed him backward across the rooftop.
Pain detonated through his injured shoulder.
The student grabbed his coat and drove him hard into the side railing.
Metal bent sharply.
"You're hesitating too much," the student muttered.
Yuri shoved ice directly into his chest.
The explosion of frost forced them apart instantly.
Steam erupted outward.
Yuri staggered backward breathing heavily.
The students didn't press immediately.
They circled.
Watching.
Evaluating.
The visor girl crouched near one of the frozen spikes.
"Output's increasing."
"Emotional trigger?"
"Probably."
Yuri stared at them in disbelief.
They were discussing him.
Like an experiment.
Another blade flew from somewhere in the trees.
Yuri twisted aside just before it buried itself into the rooftop beside his leg.
More movement.
Three now.
No—
Four.
They were surrounding him slowly.
Yuri's chest tightened.
Too many directions.
Too many sounds.
Rainwater around his boots began freezing solid.
The visor girl noticed immediately.
"There it is."
The wire-user smiled faintly beneath his mask.
"Push harder."
They attacked together.
Yuri reacted on instinct.
Ice surged outward violently across the rooftop bridge, freezing railings, walls, vines—everything.
One student leapt over the spreading frost.
Another slid beneath it.
The wire-user came straight at him again.
Too fast.
Yuri panicked.
The air temperature dropped sharply.
A massive spike of jagged ice erupted upward from the flooded rooftop beneath them.
The wire-user avoided it instantly.
But the second student didn't.
Momentum carried him directly forward.
The ice spike punched through his torso with a wet cracking sound.
Everything stopped.
The student stared downward silently.
Blood spread slowly across the translucent blue ice beneath the rain.
Yuri froze.
The student's body twitched once.
Then went still.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Rain tapped softly against frozen metal.
Yuri stared at the corpse, breathing unevenly.
"I…"
His voice failed.
The visor girl crouched beside the body calmly.
"Pierced lung."
Another student landed beside her.
"Unlucky angle."
Yuri looked at them in horror.
"That's all you have to say?"
Nobody answered.
One of them simply looked toward Yuri's wrist.
Yuri followed the movement instinctively.
The black bracelet around his arm flickered faintly.
0001
His stomach dropped.
"No…"
The visor girl stood slowly.
"Fresh drop confirmed."
Yuri backed away instinctively.
The dead student remained hanging from the ice behind them, rainwater washing blood slowly downward through the cracks.
Nobody even looked at him anymore.
They were looking at Yuri.
Differently now.
—
Far below another district of the Damocles, Kain moved carefully through steam-filled corridors lined with rusted pipes and flickering industrial lights.
Every breath hurt.
His ribs felt like broken glass beneath his skin every time he moved too sharply.
But he kept moving.
Slowly.
Carefully.
The industrial sector groaned around him constantly. Steam vents hissed overhead while distant machinery pulsed somewhere deep below the massive structure.
The place felt alive.
Not abandoned.
Watching.
Kain stopped near a fractured railing and listened.
Metal creaked faintly above him.
Left side.
Light footsteps.
Controlled breathing.
He turned just as a figure dropped silently from an upper walkway.
The student landed smoothly despite the narrow platform.
Mechanical eye glowing dim blue beneath dark hair.
One arm reinforced with exposed metal plating.
He studied Kain quietly.
"You landed hard."
Kain said nothing.
Steam drifted between them.
The student glanced briefly toward the blood staining Kain's side.
"Broken ribs?"
Still no response.
The student shrugged lightly.
"Still moving though."
Kain's hand rested near the dagger strapped against his back.
The student noticed.
"You won't win by waiting for the perfect opening."
Kain finally spoke.
"Who said I was waiting?"
The student smiled faintly.
Then disappeared forward instantly.
Kain barely reacted in time.
Metal crashed violently as the student's reinforced arm slammed into the pipe beside Kain's head instead of his skull.
Kain twisted underneath the strike and drove his shoulder into the student's ribs.
Pain exploded through Kain's own side immediately.
The student stepped backward smoothly.
Fast.
Too fast.
Kain pulled the dagger free.
Small blade.
Plain metal.
Nothing special.
The student looked at it briefly.
"That thing won't help much."
Kain attacked anyway.
Short movement.
Direct.
No wasted motion.
The dagger flashed toward the student's throat.
Blocked instantly.
Metal fingers caught Kain's wrist mid-strike.
The student countered with brutal force—
Kain twisted sharply and redirected the blow into a nearby steam valve.
The pipe exploded.
Scalding steam burst outward between them.
Kain moved immediately through the white haze.
No hesitation.
He heard the student repositioning through the steam currents.
Right side.
Three steps.
Pivot.
Kain slashed low.
The student barely avoided the blade and retreated across the walkway.
For the first time, his expression shifted slightly.
"…How are you moving like that with broken ribs?"
Kain didn't answer.
Blood continued dripping slowly down his side.
The industrial lights above them flickered violently for a split second.
Then stabilized again.
The student's mechanical eye narrowed slightly.
His gaze shifted toward Kain's wrist.
0001
Interesting.
"Already?" he muttered quietly.
Kain noticed the change immediately.
"You know what this means."
The student leaned lightly against the railing.
"Means you survived longer than most."
"That all?"
"That depends." His glowing eye focused directly on Kain. "Was it self-defense?"
Kain remained silent.
The student laughed softly.
"Same thing here."
Then the lights died.
Darkness swallowed the corridor instantly.
Kain heard movement.
Fast.
He ducked instinctively.
Something heavy passed through the air above his head.
The student attacked again from the dark.
Kain blocked late.
Pain shot through his injured ribs as metal collided against his forearm hard enough to nearly break it.
He countered immediately with the dagger.
Missed.
The student grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into a nearby pipe.
The entire walkway shook violently.
Kain drove the knife forward blindly.
This time it connected.
The blade cut shallowly across the student's side.
Not deep.
But enough.
Both of them stopped.
The student looked down at the blood spreading slowly across his clothing.
Then back at Kain.
Steam rolled between them.
"…Interesting."
Somewhere far above the industrial district, enormous sirens suddenly echoed through the Damocles.
Not alarms.
Something slower.
Heavier.
The lights throughout the corridor flickered rapidly.
Kain looked upward instinctively.
Digital screens lining the walls activated all at once.
Static crawled across them violently before stabilizing.
Numbers appeared.
4,812 / 10,000
Kain stared silently.
The student beside him exhaled quietly.
"…Damn."
Far away in Greenveil, Yuri saw the same numbers flicker across abandoned towers through the rain.
Bodies drifted silently downriver beneath them.
And somewhere deep within the moving fortress above the clouds—