They moved, two blooms in step, light singing to meet them.
Halo Stake.
William nailed daylight into the floor. Space firmed; their feet landed heavily. Crown Line narrowed the middle to a rail; any reach felt wrong.
Rin split the rail with Hollow Line. Kai took the seam with Hanuman Step, Agni Mudra hot in his chest, Bodhi Palm hammering through the hinge before it could harden. William absorbed and flowed straight back in, eyes bright, playful tone gone.
Strobe Step.
White ticks at contact; he was inside their guard before the sound finished. The Lumen Blade drew a daylight straight Daybreak across the center. Kai's Enlightened Senses caught the tell; Surya Spiral bled the cut along his frame while Rin's Darkpoint kissed the wrist, tap... delay... tap, nerve pings stacking.
At the courtyard's edge, Lila slid to Aria and set both hands just under the ribs. Water aura spread like cool silk.
"Don't move," she whispered. "You're benched."
Aria's jaw flexed; pride fought her bruises. "How bad?"
"Manageable if you let me work." The pool formed beneath Lila's palms, drawing heat, stitching micro tears in muscle and aura channels. Each shock ring from the fight sent tremors across the pool; Lila stilled them with a thought, eyes flicking up despite herself as light and shadow carved lines through dust. Awe slipped out before she could catch it. "They're actually hanging with him."
Aria exhaled, a thin grin despite the ache. "Good."
"Better than good," Lila murmured, pressing. "In... out."
The water brightened and held. Aria stayed down.
⸻
Back in the ring, William stacked a second Halo Stake. Their timing dragged a half breath late; his felt early. Photic pressure organized the air.
Rin cut the bias with Silence Break, severing the rhythm inside William's step. The strobe hiccuped. Kai arrived first on Hanuman Step, Agni Mudra primed, Bodhi Palm thudded through the brief opening. Tiles crazed. William parried across Crown Line anyway, center never ceded, and answered with a short Daybreak meant to punish any wobble.
No wobble. Kai slipped the line by a grain; Phantom Thread nicked the anchor at William's heel, so the punish drifted a hair wide. Darkpoint String, tap... delay... tap tap, stole a blink from the forearm. Kai stepped through with a second Bodhi Palm that moved him a full tile.
William laughed, delighted. "Good."
His Ōi climbed, clean, controlled. Light skimmed his blade arm in a thin outline; parries clicked a fraction sharper, reach feeling just a breath longer. He erased his own shadow to kill lanes and cut low inside.
Rin made lanes, and two Kagebana petals opened where no shade should have been. Shadow Dash put him past the low line; Moon Draw unspooled the circle William set with his shoulder. Steel met light at wrist distance, tang, no bite. Surya Spiral caught the rebound and planted Kai for another body short Bodhi Palm that met light square. Daylight rang; control held.
"Again," William said, thrilled.
He stepped to Crown Line so tight their choices thinned to one each. He wanted honest exchanges, so he forced them to happen.
Rin took the cut that mattered, Hollow Line through pressure, a quiet verdict. Kai took the strike that mattered, Bodhi Palm, straight, no flourish. William accepted both, shaved one, turned the other, tried to flip the moment with Strobe Step, and Rin's Silence Break clipped the foot beat again while Enlightened Senses dropped Kai into the true center before glare could steal it.
They worked the lesson from the Black Forest without a word:
Rin finds the seam.
Kai makes it matter.
Three beat:
1. Petal Draw shows at the hip (rag threat). Guard dips a hair.
2. Darkpoint tags wrist; Surya Spiral opens the rib.
3. Bodhi Palm lands; compressed aura thuds through the plate.
William absorbed, then pushed harder.
His aura brightened the space, not with fireworks, but with pressure. Angles stayed razor clean; after image strobes made his approach feel a blink early. Crown Line compressed to a thread. Daybreak came like a sunrise, simple and punishing anything less than perfect.
Rin cut the thread anyway, Hollow Line found the empty inside the parry shape, and unspooled it. Kai met sunrise with Agni primed Bodhi Palm, teeth bared, feet honest.
Light, shadow, lotus, exact grain of time.
The blast bowed pillars; dust peeled off the world. When it settled, William stood one tile off his stakes, both hands on the Lumen Blade, grin bright and fully alive.
"Again."
Rin wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his wrist and angled Tetsuba. "Ready."
Kai rolled his shoulders, lotus steady. "Always."
By the tree, Lila's pool deepened from pale to river blue as Aria's breath evened. A welt cooled. A spiderweb crack across one rib smoothed like glass.
Lila kept a firm hand on her shoulder. "Don't even think about it."
Aria stared at the ring, eyes bright, and didn't argue.
Another shock ring kissed the basin; water rippled and calmed at Lila's touch. She looked back at the boys, reverent. "Go," she whispered to them both. "Show him."
⸻
William tapped once more.
Halo Stake.
The floor answered. He cut a daylight line. Rin split it with Hollow Line and Shadow Dash. Kai was there, Hanuman Step on the beat, Bodhi Palm carrying the weight of a promise.
They moved, two blooms in step, light singing to meet them.
Halo Stake.
William nailed daylight into the floor. Space firmed; their feet landed heavily. Crown Line narrowed the middle to a rail; any reach felt wrong.
Rin split the rail with Hollow Line. Kai took the seam with Hanuman Step, Agni Mudra hot in his chest, Bodhi Palm hammering through the hinge before it could harden. William absorbed and flowed straight back in, eyes bright, playful tone gone.
Strobe Step.
White ticks at contact; he was inside their guard before the sound finished. The Lumen Blade drew a daylight straight Daybreak across the center. Kai's Enlightened Senses caught the tell; Surya Spiral bled the cut along his frame while Rin's Darkpoint kissed the wrist, tap... delay... tap.
On the edge, Lila's hands stayed firm on Aria's ribs, water aura steady. Aria watched, benched, jaw set.
William exhaled.
"Truth fast."
Light tightened, no flare, just pressure, and he became a line.
He moved at light speed.
Sound arrived late. Petals jerked in his wake; dust hung confused. Hair fine sunlines vanished as you noticed them. Kai fired Hanuman Step again and again—one, two, three... ten—each landing on air. Enlightened Senses read angles that were gone before they finished being angles; Surya Spiral had nothing to borrow.
Rin tore Viatra wide to see it. Threads blew out in a starburst; Stage Two bled down his cheek. He barely tracked the ghost lines. He set a Genmugan lock beat on the worst branch and watched William choose the one beside it before the lock had weight. Even if he read right, his body wouldn't arrive in time.
Three polite touches bloomed after the fact: Rin's blade spine, Kai's wrist, Kai's sternum, flat, measured, stopping short of hurt.
William started to press—
Enough.
The voice wasn't loud. It decided the air.
A tall man stood in the archway, his weathered field coat and travel satchel at his side, where a few vials clicked, his eyes clear as cut stone. Empty hands. Stillness like a flag planted.
Captain Darius "Boze Master" King.
"I am too sober for this," he said, dry as dust.
Kai's grin broke like sunrise. "Captain!"
William let the light ease from line back to man. The blade winked out; the stakes bled away. He tipped his chin. "Captain King."
Darius mirrored it. "Captain Lockhart."
William's mouth quirked. "What are you doing here?"
"In the city," Darius said. "Came to see Kai before he heads to the last trial."
A beat of old steel passed between them, trenches and sun glare, Janoah and Britannia shoulder to shoulder against Germania, the day two strangers became allies.
Rin dragged a thumb under his bleeding eye and opened his hand.
A frayed strip of William's rag lay across his palm.
William's brows climbed, then he laughed, bright and honest. "Technical, huh?"
Rin nodded once.
"Then the squad wins," William said, amused.
Darius's mouth twitched. "Good boys."
Kai stood taller at that, Lila's water settled deeper into Aria, and the courtyard finally exhaled.
Petals fell. Dust settled.