The web snapped taut as Kafka retracted it in one smooth, deliberate motion. Her body rose effortlessly, as if gravity had briefly lost interest in her existence, and the shimmering threads recoiled upward into the lattice of beams overhead.
At the same time, the air itself distorted.
It did not tear or rupture. It bent, like heat haze forced into rigid geometry.
Figures emerged one by one, stepping out of warped space with synchronized precision. Armored boots struck metal in unison. Their armor gleamed beneath the artificial light of Stargazer Navalia.
Cloud Knights.
Sunny squinted his eyes.
Their movements were wrong. They were too uniform, too precise, stripped of the natural hesitation that came with thought. Their eyes were open, yet empty, pupils unfocused and expressions slack beneath disciplined posture. They did not react to their surroundings. They did not hesitate. They simply turned together, attention locking onto Sunny, March, and Welt with mechanical inevitability.
Sunny's mind shifted gears without asking for permission. He assessed distances, angles, and numbers in the span of a heartbeat. Non-lethal takedowns were mandatory. March was unprepared.
His gaze flicked instinctively to where Tingyun had been.
She was gone.
Hidden, but poorly. Her absence was too sudden, too deliberate, and that made it dangerous. She was close enough to the engagement zone to be vulnerable to any large-scale attack, a rookie mistake for someone insisting on playing the role of a mundane guide. Whoever had summoned the Cloud Knights had not cared about precision or collateral damage. They were weapons pointed in a general direction, nothing more.
Sunny inhaled.
The world lurched sideways.
A web struck his torso and cinched tight before his shadow sense finished screaming its warning. Momentum followed immediately, violent and unrelenting, dragging him upward with bone-wrenching force. The ground vanished beneath him as if it had decided it no longer wanted him.
Sunny was airborne.
The Navalia fell away in a blur of metal, light, and motion. He twisted on instinct, forcing his vision to stabilize as his body was slung through open air like a discarded weapon.
He saw everything in that instant.
March was bracing herself, eyes wide, ice already blooming at her feet as the Cloud Knights advanced in rigid formation. Tingyun was pressed against cover, tail tucked tight, breath shallow. Mundane or not, she was still far too close.
Welt looked up.
Their eyes met.
Welt raised his hand and gave him a thumbs-up.
Sunny's outrage barely had time to exist before physics reasserted itself.
Two more webs fired in rapid succession, snapping around his limbs mid-rotation. Sunny traced them instantly, shadow sense flaring as he followed their origin. The air distorted again, and Kafka came into view.
She was level with him now, suspended horizontally against the skyline, her body aligned parallel to his trajectory as if they shared the same invisible plane. Her hands gripped the threads anchored to him, posture relaxed and controlled. Her legs were drawn back, soles facing him, muscles coiled with terrifying intent.
Sunny blinked.
The kick landed.
It was not merely a strike. It was a declaration.
The impact detonated through his torso, compressing air, shadow, and bone into a single overwhelming moment. Sunny vanished from the sky.
He collided with the hull of a half-assembled starskiff, alloy shrieking as it buckled beneath the force. Momentum carried him through a stack of containers, then another, then a support frame, each collision compounding the damage as he tore through the Navalia like a launched projectile.
Bone Weave saved him.
Fibrous reinforcement screamed beneath his skin, dispersing force through a lattice that had no right to exist inside a human body. Even so, his arms went limp as nerves overloaded and muscles refused to respond.
He crashed onto the rooftop of an auxiliary structure, rolled once, and skidded to a stop near the edge.
For a moment, there was only settling debris and the distant echo of metal.
Sunny remained still for half a second longer than necessary.
Then he stood. His arms burned as sensation returned.
Kafka was already there.
'Did she fucking teleport?!'
…She probably just zipped over here with those webs.
She stood several paces away, one foot resting lightly atop a ventilation housing, posture casual as if she had been waiting. The wind tugged at her coat, and the remnants of webbing dissolved into nothing around her.
Sunny rolled his shoulders once, then again, testing movement as his body caught up to reality.
"Yes, I appreciate the gift."
Kafka's smile curved just a little.
"I'm glad."
Sunny glanced down at his chest, then back up at her.
"I do not appreciate being dropkicked into industrial infrastructure."
She tilted her head, genuinely considering his complaint.
"We are fighting. That felt appropriate."
Sunny's mouth twisted into a displeased expression.
Her smile widened.
"This really does feel like old times."
Magenta light condensed in her hand, sharpening and resolving into steel. A tachi formed with elegant inevitability, its blade glowing faintly, the white hilt pristine. Near the base of the blade, a hollow gap interrupted the metal, drinking in light and tension alike. The air responded immediately, pressure rising as the weapon asserted its presence.
Sunny felt his shadows stir, allowing them to augment him. His strength quadrupled to that of four Ascended Devils.
Which… was probably not enough.
Kafka adjusted her stance, angling the blade slightly as her weight shifted into a flawless, balanced posture.
"Being creative is what you're good at, yes? If you want to win, then you'll need to put that imagination to good use.
Sunny stared at her for a long moment. Then he sighed.
"Shut up, knockoff Spider-Man."
White sparks swirled around his body, with a large coalescence occurring near his hand.
He still had to take a look at his gadgets.