Kei leaped high, closing the distance in one motion, and dropped straight into the middle of the battle.
Victorina watched the chaos spreading below her with something close to satisfaction, her eyes scanning the crowd, searching for one particular target. When she tried to move toward it, her whole body seized up mid-step, pain lancing through her core hard enough to stop her cold. "That punch," she thought, grinding her teeth against it. "I can't believe it did more than I realized. Even my core's taken damage."
Down on the beach, Garoda was carving a bloody path through the Horris soldiers and imperial guards alike, his massive cleaver swinging in wide, indiscriminate arcs. He did not seem to care who stood in the way — friend or enemy, all the same to him, so long as something fell.
Yul spotted him first and moved to engage, driving a crescent slash through the air that streaked toward the Third Commander. Garoda caught it on his blade without much effort, grinning wide and bloodlust bright in his eyes. He slammed the cleaver down into the sand, and three shapes of solid red shadow tore into existence around him, immediately scattering to slash through anything nearby.
Yul deflected and parried the one that came for him, blow after blow, but the moment he tried to strike back, his blade passed clean through it like it was made of smoke.
The shadows dissolved as quickly as they'd come. Yul barely had time to reset before Garoda was already airborne, cleaver raised, crashing down toward him with bone-jarring force. Yul caught the strike on his blade, and every muscle in his arms screamed in protest just holding the block.
Vincent's flame serpent slammed into Garoda from the side before the Third Commander could follow through, driving him backward into a nearby structure hard enough to bring the whole thing down in a burning heap. The serpent had grown noticeably since the duel against Yejin — bigger, more coiled with raw heat, and Vincent himself seemed to carry a more powerful presence than before.
Yul barely had a second to breathe before more SAT soldiers converged on him, one managing to drive a spear clean through his leg before the imperial guards arrived to help drive them back.
Nearby, Vincent tore through a dozen more soldiers with sweeping arcs of flame, fire licking up bodies and armor alike.
An imperial guard rushed to Yul's side, urging him to get the leg treated immediately — but Yul just glanced down and watched, half in disbelief, as the wound was already closing on its own, faster than any wound had a right to. He pushed himself back up, driving off another wave of attackers, and within a couple of minutes the puncture had sealed completely. He returned to the fight without missing another beat.
"You've got some serious natural healing there, sir," the guard said, falling in behind him to cover his back.
"Surprises me too, honestly." Yul kept his eyes forward, blade ready. "But don't worry about that right now. Garoda's still standing."
Vincent kept up the pressure with wave after wave of explosive flame, driving Garoda's position hard — until the ground beneath him started to shake, cracks spreading fast toward where he stood. The three red shadows tore back into existence, striking without pattern or mercy, cutting down several nearby guards before Vincent managed to throw up a flame barrier around himself in time.
That was when Garoda came in himself, closing the distance in a single burst and slamming his cleaver straight through the barrier. The impact shattered it entirely, the resulting explosion hurling Vincent backward across the sand, blood already streaking down his side.
"Vincent!" Yul was moving before he'd even fully processed it, sprinting toward him.
Vincent rolled to a stop, groaning. His wounds were bleeding freely along his ribs.
"Damn it." He forced himself up onto one elbow, breathing hard. "Let my guard down there."
"Hey — hey, you good? Can you still move?" Yul dropped beside him, scanning the damage.
Despite everything, Vincent hauled himself upright. "I'm fine. Still got fight left in me."
Garoda was already airborne again, dropping straight toward the two of them. They scattered in opposite directions just in time to avoid being crushed where they stood.
His eyes locked onto Vincent, gleaming with fresh fury. "I'm going to tear you apart!"
Vincent's flame serpent surged back to life, coiling around Garoda and hauling him bodily off balance. When Garoda swung his cleaver to cut through it, the serpent detonated point-blank in his face instead, the blast throwing him back several feet.
"This guy just doesn't quit." Vincent muttered, calling the serpent back to coil protectively around his own body.
"He's the Third Commander, after all. We have to finish this together." Yul settled into a ready stance beside him, blade raised.
Vincent managed a tired grin despite the blood still trickling down one side of his face.
Meanwhile, Victorina had finally forced her way back into the fight, cutting through Horris and SAT soldiers with equal indifference, her stakes catching imperial guards in the crossfire without discrimination.
"Bring me King Logan, you insects!" she snarled, sweeping one hand through the air. A stake followed the motion, tearing through a line of soldiers standing in her way.
Yejin caught sight of the carnage and moved instantly, anima flooding her legs with speed as she blinked across the battlefield straight toward Victorina, with her blade already swinging.
The witch never saw it coming. The strike drove clean through her body, blood spilling fast down her front. Yejin followed through with a hard kick, wrenching the blade free and putting distance between them in the same motion.
Victorina crumpled to the ground, coughing blood into the sand.
Far from the chaos, aboard a merchant ship carrying them safely away from Eralsa, the Emperor sat with the Crown Princess, watching her stare out toward the smoke rising off the island behind them. Worry sat heavy on her face, and it hadn't left since they'd boarded.
"Don't you trust your friend, my dear?" the Emperor asked gently. "The Shogun's own daughter is fighting on that battlefield right now, and yet you don't see worry written across his face, do you?"
"Of course he's worried." Akira didn't look away from the smoke. "He just can't let it show. His responsibility is the whole nation, the royal family most of all. But I know it's there, underneath. He worries... a lot."
The Shogun, seated nearby, offered a warm, tired smile. "It's true. I worry a great deal, more than I'd ever say out loud. But I trust my children. This is the path they chose for themselves, and all I can do now is have faith they'll see it through — that they're strong enough for what this life demands of them." He turned toward her. "Perhaps you should extend that same faith to Yul. I know that boy. He's strong. You believe that too, don't you, Your Highness?"
Akira nodded slowly.
"Then you already know he'll come through this," the Shogun said simply.
"You really think so?" she asked, some of the tension easing from her shoulders despite herself.
"I know so." His voice carried quiet certainty. "I've fought the South more times than I can count, long before I ever became Shogun. Yul will make it. So will my daughter. So will my son."
For a moment, his words settled something in her, the knot in her chest loosening just slightly.
But it didn't last. Word came through shortly after that Hokaishin, Baoahong, and Kyungsuk were all under attack now too, the Southern Alliance striking multiple fronts at once. At least the empire had seen this coming, with Hwa-Samurai divisions already stationed and waiting in each of those settlements, ready for exactly this.