James Jones did not like being pushed back.
For the first few seconds after Gun had barely managed to stop his blade from reaching Luna, the man in black had looked almost amused. Almost interested.
But now that the fight had dragged on long enough for him to see the shape of Gun's style, the amusement had faded.
His expression sharpened.
He straightened his posture.
And when he attacked again, the pressure in the air changed completely.
Gun felt it instantly.
The speed was still absurd.
The strength was still overwhelming.
But now James was taking him seriously.
"Finally," Gun muttered, tightening his grip.
James appeared in front of him in a blur of wind and steel.
Gun barely got his sword up in time.
CLANG.
The impact shook his arms to the shoulder.
James struck again.
Gun parried.
Again.
Parried.
Again.
Parried.
His body was still struggling to keep up, but now he was seeing the rhythm.
The angle of James's shoulders.
The slight pause before each burst of speed.
The way the wind gathered a fraction of a second before each slash.
Gun's eyes narrowed.
He was adapting.
Not fast enough to dominate.
But fast enough to survive.
James clicked his tongue as another strike was turned aside.
"So that's what you're doing."
Gun didn't answer.
He blocked another slash, then barely twisted his body to avoid the follow-up. A line of wind tore across his coat instead of his chest.
His breathing was heavy now, but his mind was sharper than it had been at the start of the fight.
James noticed too.
That annoyed him.
His eyes hardened.
Then the air around him exploded.
"Enough."
He vanished.
Gun's whole body tensed.
The tower floor seemed to scream around them as James unleashed a terrifying burst of movement.
"[Astral Passage]!"
He shot forward like a blade of compressed storm wind, dragging hundreds of slashes behind him in a long, devastating trail. The entire space in front of him blurred into white and silver lines. Stone shattered under the pressure. Dust and fragments tore into the air.
Gun's eyes widened.
He could not stop that cleanly.
He raised his sword anyway.
Too late.
James was already right there, two or three meters away from crushing through him—
Then a wall of ice slammed up between them.
A massive one.
The impact rang through the arena like thunder.
James's rush stopped cold.
Gun stared.
Luna and Jack both looked up at the same time.
Standing above the giant ice wall was Waver.
The commander.
Calm.
Still.
Aura farming like he had all the time in the world.
His eyes came down to them, sharp and unreadable.
Then he looked at Gun.
"Did you miss me?"
Gun blinked once.
"…You again?"
Waver gave a faint smile.
"If I were being generous," he said, "I might consider helping you."
James snarled and shattered the ice wall with [Dismantling Winds], carving the entire barrier into fragments of frozen debris.
But Waver had already expected that.
The broken wall became a cloud of shards.
And in the next instant, another prison snapped shut around James.
Ice sealed him in from all sides.
A cold box.
Thick and brutal.
James turned inside it, furious.
Waver tilted his head slightly.
"You're one of the fighters with the most potential in the tower," he said to Gun. "I do not especially like the woman or the child beside you, but I may help them too. Just this once."
Gun stared up at him, then at the ice prison.
James slammed against the walls.
The structure cracked, but not enough.
Waver's gaze shifted toward Jack.
Then he said, almost casually, "You might actually be useful this time."
Jack blinked.
"Me?"
Waver nodded once. "You had [Thunder Bolt] right?"
Jack straightened slightly. "Yeah. I have it."
Waver's expression barely changed, but there was a faint curl of approval at the corner of his mouth.
"Perfect."
James's roar echoed from inside the prison.
Waver kept his eyes on him.
"Use it exactly three seconds after he escapes."
Jack looked uncertain.
Gun looked just as unsure.
"Three seconds?" Gun repeated.
Waver didn't bother looking at him.
"Yes."
Jack frowned. "How do you know that'll work?"
Waver finally glanced at him.
"I know because you are not the only one watching the flow of battle."
That wasn't an answer, but it was enough to make Jack hesitate.
Then he remembered Floor 5.
The strange timing.
The strange coordination.
The way Waver had read them while they thought they were reading him.
Jack slowly nodded.
"…Alright."
James broke the ice prison a second later.
The crack widened, then split.
The cold barrier exploded outward.
He rushed forward instantly, furious now, blade raised to kill.
Waver lifted one hand.
His spear spun in the air and shot toward James.
James parried it without even slowing.
The spear was deflected cleanly.
But Waver had not intended to hit him.
He had intended to waste a second.
James's foot hit the ground.
Gun counted instinctively.
One.
The commander's expression stayed calm.
Then he moved beside Jack and raised his hand again.
Two.
A spell formed in front of him.
A dense, brilliant spike of ice.
"[Cryo Crystal]."
The spear of ice burst upward in front of him.
James was still charging.
Too close now.
Too fast.
And then Waver's eyes flashed.
"Conjoint Nexus."
Volt light surged through the ice.
Jack's eyes widened.
The lightning from his [Thunder Bolt] met Waver's cryo construct perfectly, and the two powers fused.
The result was monstrous.
A spinning crystal drill of ice and electricity erupted from the front of Waver's spell, crackling with violent charge and rotating at deadly speed as it launched straight at James.
It moved faster than either of them had any right to believe.
James barely had time to react.
He tried to dodge.
Too late.
He raised his blade and blocked.
The Volt Crystal drilled through the defense anyway.
Straight through his chest.
For a second, James just stood there.
Then the pressure finally gave.
Blood spilled.
His body dropped to one knee.
The terrifying bodyguard who had sliced through them moments ago now looked genuinely stunned.
He coughed once, then looked up at them with a cold, hateful stare.
"…The Architect…" he said weakly. "Will not forget this."
His eyes shifted between them.
Then he smiled faintly through the blood.
"…He will avenge me."
And then he collapsed.
Gun stood there silently, breathing hard.
Jack was still staring.
Luna's face had gone pale.
Gun looked at the body, then at Waver.
"The Architect?"
Waver said nothing for a moment.
Then he turned slightly.
"I assume you do not know who that is."
Gun shook his head slowly.
"Not even a little."
Waver looked thoughtful for half a second.
Then he shrugged in the smallest possible way.
"That is unfortunate."
The battlefield went quiet.
The ice shattered and fell away.
The smoke from Luna's support had already faded.
For a while, none of them moved.
Then Gun took a breath and stepped forward.
He looked at Waver carefully.
This time, he did not hide the fact that he was impressed.
"Join us."
Waver arched a brow. "What?"
Gun gestured toward the wreckage around them.
"We lack crowd control."
He looked at the bodies, then back at Waver.
"If something like that happens again, we're dead unless we have someone like you."
Jack looked at Gun.
Luna did too.
But Gun kept his eyes on Waver.
"We need a commander. Someone who sees the field before it breaks."
Waver laughed softly.
It was not a kind laugh.
More like he found the idea entertaining.
"You are asking me to join a party with a child assassin, a support mage, and a no-nexus duelist wearing some goofy boots."
Gun didn't flinch.
"Yeah."
Waver actually looked amused now.
"You are shameless."
Gun shrugged.
"Yeah. It works."
Waver folded his arms and looked them all over again.
Then his gaze lingered on Luna.
Then Jack.
Then back to Gun.
He seemed to be thinking through a dozen outcomes at once.
Finally he said, "For now."
Gun blinked.
Waver continued, "I will consider it for now."
Luna let out a small breath.
Jack crossed his arms. "That's not really a yes."
Waver looked at him with complete disinterest.
"It is the closest thing you will get."
Gun nodded once. "Good enough."
Waver's expression shifted slightly.
"But I am not committing to helping the woman and the child again unless I decide the investment is worthwhile."
Luna frowned. "The woman?"
Jack immediately looked offended. "The child?"
Gun closed his eyes for a second and sighed.
Waver, completely unbothered, looked at them both as if he had just made a practical statement.
"I said what I said."
Gun opened his eyes and pointed at him.
"You are seriously annoying."
Waver smiled faintly.
"And yet you still want me in your party."
Gun had no answer to that.
So he just stared.
After a moment, Waver looked away first.
"Rest. Recover. Then we move."
Jack glanced at Gun.
Luna looked uncertain, but relieved.
Gun looked at the fallen James Jones once more.
Then at Waver.
Then at the path ahead.
The fight had ended, but the tower clearly had not finished with them.
And somewhere deeper in all of this was someone called the Architect.
Gun didn't know who that was.
Not yet.
But now he had another reason to climb.