Six tendrils of yellow light surged from Iris’s palm, each thread winding its way through the air toward one of the other magic users across the battlefield. The strand of light that made its way to Adah latched onto her arm and slid along her skin. The light crawled up past her shoulder, across her collarbone, and finally encircled her neck. Like a collar, it settled there.

  The light didn’t hurt. In fact, the light itself didn’t feel like much of anything. Yet, a wave of energy surged through Adah’s body as the light coiled around her neck, similar to the adrenaline-like rush she felt upon transforming.

  A magic transfer of some kind? Iris already had one spell capable of as much.

  “What the hell is this thing?” Ami said as she tugged at the ring of light around her neck.

  “It’s my spell,” Iris said. “And if you want to live, you’ll learn to get used to it.”

  “I get that it’s a spell, but what the hell does it do?” Ami asked.

  The twin gave up on trying to yank the collar off. She needed her hands and her focus to prep her shield once more. The ten hydra heads had finished regenerating and were already on the hunt for prey.

  “Spells have levels, right?” Iris said, flying backward away from the hydra. “All of yours just got one level stronger.”

  Spell levels weren’t a facet of magic that Adah usually thought about—not directly, anyway. She’d seen the labels in the Magiapp, of course. Her [Nightwind Whip] had unlocked as a Level 2 spell from the start, while her [Sparkling Strike] hadn’t reached Level 2 until her FP had increased. The actual level number never factored into her decision making, though. In practice, the power of a spell was something she felt in relation to her opponent.

  A higher level spell could do more damage. If it was a projectile, it could move faster. That was the way she’d learned to think about her spells over the past few months. From that perspective, Iris had just made everyone in this battle stronger.

  “You may be the ones wearing collars,” Iris continued, “but I’m the one at your mercy. That extra level is coming straight from my own essence. I can still afford to shoot my arrows, but otherwise I’m counting on you all to finish this fight before you bleed me dry.”

  Already, there was a noticeable strain in her voice. Merely casting her spell must have started the process of draining her power.

  “So this is how you kneel, huh?” Adah said, sending her words along a private channel between her and Iris.

  “This is not kneeling,” Iris answered, a smile creeping across her face. “This is the queen sending her knights out to slay a monster. Don’t disappoint me, Heartbreak.”

  In the last moment before the battle resumed, Adah had to return that smile.

  “From this moment, I’m stepping ahead of you,” she said. “And I’ll never let you catch up.”

  If Iris said anything in response, Adah didn’t hear it. The hydra heads were upon them, and Adah needed to fight.

  Leveling up everyone’s spells may have helped her teammates, but it didn’t do much for Adah in this fight. Her [Nightwind Whip] was too impractical to use against five heads, much less ten. If the other magical girls and Ekki were ever able to buy her enough space to use it, she’d unleash its full strength to annihilate the Cruelty’s body. Based on how the fight had gone thus far, such an opportunity seemed unlikely to arrive.

  She fired off a few test shots of [Sparkling Strike] as she fled from a pair of heads chasing her. Thankfully, the hydra’s attention was split across all of the magic users again, and Adah didn’t have to outrun the coordinated efforts of the monster’s heads and body. While her spinning stars were certainly faster and packed a bigger punch, they weren’t quick or strong enough to get past the hydra’s defenses. No matter how she bobbed and weaved through the air, one of the ten heads was ready to catch her attack before it struck the Cruelty’s body. Whatever damage she inflicted was healed just as quickly.

  Surprisingly, the spell that benefited most from Iris’s support was [Parietal Perception]. Adah had cast it on a whim, just to see if she’d even be able to detect a change in power for such a passive spell. The difference was immediately noticeable. She set her focus on all ten hydra heads at once, and her mind handled the sensory load without any trouble at all. She could mentally map—without needing to look directly at any of them—the location of all ten serpents on the battlefield.

  Adah had tried to sound so cool before leaving Iris behind, but her own role in this fight could also wind up being on the supportive side. Though, like Iris, she also had a weapon at her disposal. The hydra may have interrupted her the last time she tried to unleash her scythe, but perhaps she could find an opening to use it now that she knew how the monster would react.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Although, why had it reacted that way?

  None of the other attacks her teammates or DreamRise launched against the hydra had gotten such a response. The first and only time the serpents had coiled together like that was when she began to channel the scythe’s energy. Then, the Cruelty’s entire focus went to stopping her.

  Cruelties could learn, and they seemed to understand something about the scythe. If this monster wanted so desperately to stop Adah from using it, that meant two things must be true.

  Her weapon was capable of killing the hydra, and the beast’s body would put itself at risk to stop that from happening.

  Whether her weapon dealt the killing blow or merely provided a distraction for someone else, it was their best shot at finishing this fight. Adah just needed to figure out a way to use it without dying in the process.

  As if on cue, an arrow from Iris’s bow pierced the neck of one of the serpents chasing Adah. Its partner wasted no time in trying to yank the thorny stem out of its neck. Adah took the opportunity to fly high above the battlefield, where she could watch her fellow magic users as easily as the hydra heads her magic was tracking.

  Clair and Ekki were still taking an evasive approach on the right side of the battle. They now had four serpents to contend with, but Ekki’s spells had sped up dramatically thanks to Iris’s enhancement. His portals spawned instantaneously now, and he gained improved control over his foggy steed that allowed him to take sharp turns on a dime. At the very least, he could keep a few members of their side out of danger.

  Clair’s spells were more difficult to get a read on, for obvious reasons. She seemed to be chanting no differently than usual, and the outcome was as fruitless as it had been. That is, until she suddenly shouted in everyone’s ears.

  “I got one!” she said. “I fucking got one!”

  Sure enough, one of the serpents pursuing her dropped to the ground as soon as she declared her victory. The head fell without grace or ceremony. It simply flopped onto the street below like someone had unplugged its power source.

  “One down, nine to go,” Rika said from the left side of the intersection.

  “Mind taking out one of these assholes next?” Ami said.

  “Start with this one,” Emi added.

  She punctuated her point by smashing the hammer form of Mercury’s Majesty into the side of the hydra head that was chasing her. She must have been experimenting with her own improved spells, since the smack of her hammer was accompanied by a series of waves that rushed out in all directions from her weapon’s impact point. Using the weapon as an extension of her magic, she had initiated her [Raging Ripples] directly against the serpent’s head. The added force of the waves crashing against the serpent sent it hurtling across the battlefield.

  “Not bad,” Ami said. Her sister gave no reply, instead moving right on to another head that was harassing Rika.

  “My regular shots are almost as fast as my railgun now,” Rika said in between dodges. “I’ve landed a few on the body, but they only hurt it for a second. With this much power, I’m just pissing it off more than anything.”

  “Maybe I can distract the heads long enough for you to fire a real bullet,” Adah said.

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  Adah was forced to explain her idea in pieces, as the serpent that Iris had injured earlier had returned with a vengeance. In between intense bursts of flight, Adah spoke to everyone across the battlefield.

  “This thing goes crazy over the scythe,” she said. “I’ll take it out again. Then it’ll throw most of the heads at me. If not all of them.”

  “My spells are stronger,” Ami said, “but I dunno if I can cover you against this many heads at once.”

  “Last time, I aimed for the core,” Adah said. “This time, I’ll be ready for the heads. I’ll use the scythe to protect myself. While Rika goes for the core.”

  Clair hadn’t been wrong earlier—they had a chance to kill the hydra instead of saving Adah. Adah wasn’t thrilled by the idea of dying, but if she could predict the hydra’s actions this second time around, then she might not have to. All that power stored in the scythe had to be capable of stopping a clump of hydra heads. Even if Adah had to sever them, it wouldn’t matter once the Cruelty’s core was destroyed.

  This monster was overwhelming at first glance, especially now that so many heads had spawned. But Adah had discovered a way to bait it into a straightforward attack. In some ways, one giant serpent was easier to deal with than ten smaller ones.

  Keeping track of so many heads was almost impossible, even with the assistance of magic.

  That’s why—in her rush to dodge the regenerated serpent—Adah had forgotten there had been two serpents pursuing her. Not one.

  The second serpent had never rejoined its partner. It had set its sights on a weaker target than Adah, one whose magic essence was being depleted by every single spell cast in this battle. One who had only a bow and arrow to defend herself. One who was too stubborn to call for help.

  “Iris!” Adah shouted.

  In the same moment her name left Adah’s mouth, the twins were already rushing toward the DreamRise captain with a speed that surpassed even their fiercest races. But would that speed be enough?

  The serpent was closing in on Iris. The drain on her essence seemed to slow her flight as well. She had struggled to stay ahead of the hydra heads earlier in the battle, and now she wasn’t able to at all.

  A direct hit from her arrow should have put a stop to the serpent’s pursuit, and yet the head was on top of her. Had she missed an earlier shot? In any case, she didn’t have the time to line one up now.

  Adah looked to Rika, hoping she could save Iris with another shot from her railgun, but Rika was in the same position as Adah herself. Both of them were fleeing from the serpents that threatened their own lives.

  A final hope appeared next to Iris: a streak of fog.

  Of course Ekki would have her covered. He was her knight—a proper one. He was willing to fight for her. To follow her on any journey.

  To die for her.

  Ekki rode to Iris atop his steed of fog. With his spell’s speed, he made it to her before either of the twins. He even made it before the serpent and its opened jaw. He shot across the battlefield, leaving a ghostly trail of thick, gray mist in his wake.

  He reached out to Iris, leaning against the neck of his horse, his arm stretched as far as his body would take it. He pushed her out of the path of the hydra head and its closing jaw.

  Instead, that jaw closed upon his arm, and he fell out of the sky.