Keira’s laughter rang through the canopy—bright, mean, delighted—and it was followed by thunderous crashes as trees shook and some outright toppled.

  Derren rammed his emerald-tier gauntlet into another trunk.

  The stump cracked. The tree folded over with a groan.

  “WILL YOU LEAVE MY MUM OUT OF THIS!”

  Keira cackled. “Oh, so you are a mummy’s boy. Oh look at her little hero all dressed up—oh does someone want a cuddle?”

  She jumped branch to branch, and every jump—one heartbeat later—Derren smacked the next tree full force.

  “Why don’t you come down and say that to my face instead of running away?” he shouted.

  “What do you mean by running away?” Keira called back. “I’m winning hands down, bitch. Get a grip, will you?”

  Keira landed on another branch and took a shot—ding—tagging the same spot again on his right chest plate.

  Derren huffed. “Come on. We’ve been through this. What’s even the point of trying? Those little rocks would crack this armour in a million hits.”

  Keira racked the bolt with a shit-eating grin. “Oh, honey, you clearly never got to experience the absolute cinema that was Skyrim. I trained to break this shit before I even got here.”

  Derren pulled back and, with a single fast fist, smashed the base of the tree into splinters in an instant. “Well, if you want, you can just admit that you’re scared!”

  Keira gently landed on the next branch—then her eye began to twitch.

  She took a deep breath to steady herself.

  One leg slid off the branch.

  Then she dropped.

  It was a thunderous fall—she hit the ground hard enough to crack it, leaves bursting into the air around them like a shaken storm. They drifted down again in slow, floating sheets.

  Derren walked toward her with smug satisfaction and a wide smile. “So you’ve finally decided to stop running. Now I’m starting to understand how a group of complete idiots actually pushed that moaning child, Ravon, out of the region… still. I expected better.”

  Keira stared at him with dead eyes. “Oh, so that explains that tragic getup. Honestly, this place is filled with glitter-covered crap.”

  Derren just smiled and kept walking.

  In a heartbeat, his gauntlet punched down—BOOM—into the centre of a fresh crater just behind where Keira had been.

  He slowly looked up.

  Keira was mid-air, flipping, pulling her sniper around with a terrifying smile.

  He barely had time to react—he shifted to move on her for another blow—

  And Keira fired.

  The shot slammed into his shoulder armour.

  The recoil kicked her back through the air; she landed on her feet, skidding backwards, never once breaking eye contact.

  Derren smirked. “I need to give it to you—you’re quick. But if you haven’t figured it out, you have two glaring issues, and that’s why you’ve already lost.”

  Keira raised an eyebrow. “Bitch, I’m perfect. But I’ll entertain it. What’s that then?”

  He dusted off his armour as if she’d flicked lint at him. “First, you require distance to use a weapon like that, and trust me, you won’t be getting it. And second…” He tapped his chest plate with two knuckles. “…physically, you wouldn’t survive even one hit from me.”

  Keira’s smile stayed in place—but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  Because he wasn’t wrong.

  Two clean hits from those emerald-tier gauntlets and she’d be down. He knew it. She knew it.

  So she did what she always did—she made it a joke.

  “Oh, is that right?”

  The shoulder plate on his right arm shattered.

  Derren stared at it in shock. “How…?”

  Keira nodded at her rifle like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Well, annoyingly, the lieutenant doesn’t allow me to make all my bullets emerald-tier. So I like to play a little game. One round per mag is emerald-tier—same as this gun.”

  She leaned forward slightly, eyes bright. “So the question is… are you brave enough to take one of those on?”

  Derren burst out laughing. “YES! FINALLY! Someone who understands. I’m so hoping the rest of them are even half like you.”

  Keira tilted her head. “Not that you’ll ever find out.”

  She replaced her magazine with a clean, practised click.

  “So what’s it going to be?” she said, sticking her tongue out. “Body it… or dodge it?”

  Derren went to take another step forward—

  Keira fired again.

  The round struck the ground right beside him.

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  He opened his mouth to sneer. “Missed—”

  A blinding flash erupted from the dirt.

  Derren reeled, stunned for a heartbeat, slamming a shoulder into a tree just to keep his footing. His ears rang. His vision crawled back in slow, ugly fragments.

  Keira was nowhere to be seen.

  Only her laughter—echoing through the forest like it was coming from everywhere.

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong about us,” Keira called, voice drifting through the leaves. “And why me allowing you to play this little game with me… sure, everyone you’ve spoken to—or heard about us from—will normally say the same thing.”

  Derren stormed forward, fury snapping his control. He kicked a tree hard enough to tip it.

  “SHOW YOURSELF!” he roared. “I’M GOING TO TEAR THAT PRETTY LITTLE TONGUE OF YOURS OUT!”

  A ruffle of leaves behind him.

  He spun and smashed another tree toward the sound—splinters and bark exploding.

  Keira’s voice came again, soft and amused, from almost the opposite direction. “Oh, you think I’m pretty. Shame about those eye holes in your little armour.”

  Leaves shifted—left, right, behind—movement in almost every direction at once.

  Derren snapped his head back and forth, trying to pinpoint her.

  He took one more step.

  Crack.

  Another shot into the ground.

  Another flash—white-hot—and his world rang like a bell.

  “Are we loud?” Keira continued, cheerful as poison. “Yes. Are we reckless? You bet. Are we the absolute worst people for the jobs? One hundred per cent.”

  “SHOW YOURSELF!” Derren screamed again.

  And then—

  Keira latched onto the back of his armour.

  Her voice slipped in close, almost a whisper through his helmet. “But that’s why you will lose. I was told long ago…”

  Derren tried to ram his back into another tree to crush her—

  But the armour slowed him down just enough.

  Keira’s hand appeared in his vision—she shoved a flash grenade right in front of his helmet.

  POP.

  White.

  She sprang off his back and up to the branch above, her voice dropping like a blade. “The Revolutionary Army won’t fail. As the Master Sergeant, it is my duty to ensure little bitches like you eat gold.”

  Keira laughed again—bright, feral.

  “Now stop fucking around,” she called, “and give me something to actually boast about.”

  Derren screamed and smashed the tree she was on with both gauntlets—

  And Keira was already moving again, laughter skipping through the area as the forest kept dying around him.

  Derren shook it off.

  The sound of Keira’s steps kept moving—fast, circling—until she suddenly ran straight at him.

  She fired on the move.

  Two shots punched the same battered spot on his chest plate.

  A third snapped down into his leg plate—

  and the emerald-tier section shattered.

  Keira flipped over his head, firing a round right beside his helmet—another flash detonating in his face.

  Derren grunted, stumbling through the white. “THAT LITTLE BITCH—THOSE EMERALDS PACK A PUNCH. IF I CAN’T SEE—FINE!”

  Then his voice dropped into something uglier, louder. “I’M GOING TO DRAG THAT BROKEN BODY OF YOURS TO THAT RED-HAIRED BITCH WITH MY TITLE—WHILE I BREAK YOUR NECK AS SHE WATCHES!”

  Keira darted around him at frightening speed, laughing like this was a game she’d already beaten. “You? Lieutenant? What a joke.”

  She flashed past another tree, sliding a fresh mag home with a smooth click. “Pretty cocky for someone who’s only hit his own men this whole fight!”

  As she moved, her brain ran the sequence like a checklist.

  First: chest again.

  Second: emerald-tier round—take the gauntlet next.

  Third: shoot the flash six feet to his left.

  Loop past him while he’s down.

  Final two: hit exposed areas.

  Two more mags and it’s mine.

  Keira sprinted in, vaulted a log, and fired the first shot into the chest plate.

  Derren flinched, teeth grinding.

  Second shot—

  His leg plate gave way further, the broken edge spidering.

  Keira racked the bolt again, tagged the flash charge—

  and she smiled, already about to vault over him again.

  Then—

  midair—

  She saw it in the corner of her eye.

  That unmistakable emerald shine.

  Crap.

  A crack tore across the forest.

  Derren’s emerald-tier gauntlet slammed into her right side.

  On contact, Keira spat blood.

  The swing followed through like a wrecking ball, and Keira went flying—hurled into the trees.

  She crashed through trunk after trunk, knocking them down as she tumbled, bark and leaves exploding around her.

  She finally slammed into the ground hard enough to steal the breath from her lungs.

  Keira lay there winded, in shock, still coughing—still throwing up blood.

  Keira wobbled.

  She leaned on the sniper like it was the only thing in the world willing to hold her up, shaking as she forced her legs to remember what standing was.

  Derren was getting back to his feet.

  …crap. That actually hurt.

  There you go again—running your mouth like you always do.

  Her ribs throbbed in time with her heartbeat. The forest creaked around her like the world was trying to pretend it hadn’t just watched her get thrown through trees.

  I knew trying to break him with that wasn’t going to be enough.

  But that’s what Solara’s always telling you, isn’t it? Stop trying to win with noise.

  Damn… I hate it so much that you always see through what I’m saying.

  But even so, you never stop pushing me to be the person behind it all.

  And Takeshi—

  Damn, I give that nerd some shit… but making all of these flash grenades on top of the million other things?

  …thanks for the toys.

  And you—

  Captain of the Revolutionary Army.

  The first person she pulled in was the one who never asked her to change. Who never left us when it would’ve been easier. The idiot who proudly lets me call him big brother, even with Milo and Aidan standing there looking like they want to melt into the floor.

  You just always got me. You accepted me.

  …so thanks, big bro. I won’t let you down.

  Keira smiled—small, crooked—then spit blood and pushed herself the rest of the way upright.

  Still wobbling, she wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand and lifted the sniper.

  She said it out loud, quiet and rough, like she needed the words to be real.

  “You’re their Master Sergeant,” she breathed. “So you will always stand. Not for me— for all of them. No matter what this war hits us with.”

  Her breathing steadied.

  Her eyes locked onto Derren.

  He was almost hobbling toward her—until he noticed the shift.

  “Is that how it’s going to be? Fine—let’s end this!”

  Keira closed her eyes for a moment.

  In.

  Out.

  Then she stepped.

  Raised the rifle.

  And fired.

  The first shot left the barrel—

  Keira moved.

  Not running away.

  Not circling.

  Straight at him. Because fuck it.

  All she heard was boots and breath and the bolt-click—her heart trying to kick its way out through broken ribs.

  “One Shot—”

  Click.

  “—Collateral.”

  First round aimed exactly where she’d been kissing the plate all fight.

  Keira didn’t stop.

  She fired the second shot on the same path, so close behind the first that it sounded like one gunshot that refused to end.

  In Keira’s head, it wasn’t complicated.

  First round makes the mark.

  Second round stacks the hurt, following through, stacking all of its potential energy forward.

  For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

  Then the whole forest kicked.

  A shockwave ripped through the area—trees shuddering, leaves bursting up like the world had been slapped—and in that same single heartbeat…

  Keira was behind him.

  Both of them just… froze.

  Like, even the air needed a second to catch up.

  A gentle breeze rolled through the wreckage, soft and stupid against all that violence.

  Keira’s knees buckled.

  She collapsed to the ground as her bones had finally remembered she’d been smashed through half a forest.

  Derren sputtered, body twitching, and slowly started to turn.

  “…what was that…?”

  The back of his armour cracked.

  Then the whole section gave up.

  Derren hit the ground—

  and broke down into golden orbs that floated away like someone had opened a fist and let him go.

  Keira lay there smirking, coughing, spitting blood. “Oh crap… that was too far. Shit.” She coughed again, laugh catching in her throat. “Oh, please let it be Elyria… I’m too tired for another ‘I told you so.’”

  Another cough.

  “Maybe just… five minutes.”

  Her eyes slid shut.

  A small smile stayed on her face even as everything started to fade.

  “Worth it,” she muttered.