The cave was cold, but not cruel. Water dripped somewhere deeper inside slow and steady. The sound filled the silence like a heartbeat that wasn’t theirs.

  Kyo eased himself fully down against the stone wall, Miles still curled against his chest. He pulled a potion from his pack and drank, wincing slightly as warmth spread through his limbs.

  Ava followed suit, uncorking her own vial and swallowing it in one go. The ache in her ribs dulled to a manageable throb, though exhaustion still clung to her bones like wet ash.

  For a few seconds, no one spoke.

  Then

  CHIME.

  The sharp, crystalline sound echoed off the cave walls.

  Everyone jumped.

  Ace was on his feet instantly, bow raised, Sable snarling low at the entrance. Baxter lurched upright, hammer scraping harshly against stone. Ava’s hand flew to Broderick, fingers tightening instinctively against his metal plating.

  Miles whimpered, burying his face deeper into Kyo’s chest.

  “It’s the system,” Kyo said quickly, though his heart was still hammering.

  The words burned into the air before them.

  SYSTEM NOTICE:

  World Event - DREAD WYRM

  Time Remaining: 5:00:00

  The tension didn’t ease.

  Not fully.

  Ace exhaled slowly through his teeth and lowered his bow. “Five hours,” he muttered. “Means it’ll keep pulling people in until then.”

  Ava leaned back against the stone, eyes sliding shut. “At least it ends,” she said quietly.

  Ace broke the silence again, pacing once.

  “We need to move,” he said flatly. “Umbra’s the closest town with real walls. If we put distance between us and this place now, we won't get caught in the sweep. And they won’t find your wyrm friend.”

  Kyo lifted his head slowly, eyes tired but sharp.

  “Moving now is how we get spotted. Not to mention if Umbra doesn’t take red names, we are not leaving Ava out here alone while we walk into a city.”

  Ace turned on him.

  “Sitting still during a world event when the target is right next to you and gods know how many people are hunting him is how you get surrounded and killed. Umbra is a trading city. All are welcome, but there are rules. Rules that keep everyone alive.”

  “Not if everyone’s chasing the timer,” Kyo replied evenly. “They’ll end up killing each other trying to eliminate the competition.”

  Ace scoffed. “You’re basing everyone’s life on an assumption.”

  “And you’re assuming we can outrun them,” Kyo shot back. “Ava’s injured. Broderick’s unstable. Miles is exhausted. Baxter’s banged up. And you’re barely standing yourself. If we move now, we leave tracks, noise, and mistakes.”

  He nodded toward the glowing text still hovering in the air.

  “Five hours. When it expires, the incentive disappears. Most people will clear out or already be dead.”

  Baxter finally spoke, voice heavy. “He’s right. We won’t survive another fight tonight.”

  Ace dragged a hand through his hair, frustration simmering. “And if someone stumbles on us anyway?”

  “Then we deal with it,” Kyo said quietly.

  Silence stretched.

  Miles shifted in his sleep. Broderick let out a faint, tired whirr. Ava’s fingers remained resting against his plating, grounding both of them.

  Ace looked at all of them.

  Then he sighed.

  “…Fine. We stay. But the second that timer hits zero, we move. Night or early morning, no arguments.”

  Kyo nodded once. “Agreed.”

  Ace crouched near the entrance, eyes sharp despite the fatigue. “Umbra’s still the goal.”

  “You got it,” Kyo said.

  The system timer pulsed faintly overhead.

  4:58:32

  They settled back into uneasy quiet. Resting.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Kyo closed the notification unwilling to draw attention, and unwilling to let a glowing countdown gnaw at already-frayed nerves while they waited for darkness.

  Baxter shifted where he sat, his hammer resting across his knees. He watched Kyo for a long moment before speaking.

  “Back there,” he said finally. “That thing you did.”

  Kyo looked up.

  “The spells,” Baxter continued. “The way you rewrote it. That wasn’t normal spell work, was it?”

  Kyo didn’t answer right away.

  He looked down at his hand instead the same hand that had sparked and glitched and somehow known where to strike.

  A soft, almost incredulous chuckle slipped out.

  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’ve been dabbling with the coding here and there. I made a tracker for Miles, Thane, and myself. Little things like that. Nothing like what I did back there.”

  Baxter waited.

  “I don’t know how it happened,” Kyo went on, eyes still fixed on his palm. “I didn’t plan it. I wasn’t thinking..”

  He exhaled slowly.

  “It just came naturally. Like I could see the programs. The coding. Not just my magic, everything. Like armor logic and movement paths. Systems running underneath the world like open files.”

  Ace, posted near the cave mouth, went very still.

  “For a second,” Kyo added, “it felt like being back in the real world. Debugging something that shouldn’t exist. Finding the flaw and knowing exactly where to hit.”

  Baxter’s brow furrowed, not impressed, not afraid.

  Concerned.

  “I’m gonna say something,” he said slowly, “and you don’t have to like it.”

  Kyo glanced up. “Okay.”

  Baxter met his eyes. “It looked like it was taking a toll on you. Physically.”

  “You were shaking,” Baxter continued. “Bleeding. Barely standing.”

  He paused, choosing his words carefully.

  “And for a second there… it didn’t look like you were in control of that power.”

  The cave felt colder.

  “It looked like the power was driving you,” Baxter said quietly. “Like it had you by the throat.”

  Kyo’s fingers curled slightly.

  Baxter finished, voice low but steady.

  “Almost like watching a rabid dog, strong, dangerous, and burning itself out because it doesn’t know when to stop.”

  The words hung in the air.

  Ava inhaled sharply but didn’t interrupt.

  Kyo swallowed, jaw tight.

  “…Yeah,” he admitted. “That’s what scared me too.”

  He closed his hand into a fist, resting it against his knee.

  “It felt right,” he said. “But it didn’t feel safe.”

  Broderick’s optics flickered softly.

  “Assessment aligns,” he murmured. “Power surge exceeded host tolerance thresholds. Risk of catastrophic failure… high.”

  Ace muttered from the entrance, “That’s comforting.”

  Baxter leaned back slightly.

  “I’m not saying don’t use it,” he said. “I’m saying if you do, you need to learn how to hold the leash before it snaps.”

  Kyo nodded once, slow and thoughtful. “Yeah,” he said quietly.

  Kyo looked over at Broderick the worn-out robotic wyrm barely holding his head up, the dimness in his optics unmistakable.

  “How are you doing, buddy?” Kyo asked softly.

  Broderick nodded once. “I am ready when you are, Kyo.”

  Kyo smiled faintly. “You’re alright. Just rest until we leave later tonight.”

  Broderick shifted closer, curling beside Ava who had fallen asleep, one hand clenched in Kyo’s cloak.

  Baxter watched them for a moment before speaking again.

  “I’ve never seen someone’s familiar so attached to anyone besides their master,” he said. “And since when do you make deals with world bosses?”

  Broderick remained coiled near her, optics dimmed but alert a silent sentinel.

  Ace broke the silence before Kyo could respond, drawing both men’s attention.

  “So,” he said, voice low and controlled. “We’re not strangers anymore.”

  No one answered.

  Ace didn’t look at Kyo at first. His eyes stayed on the cave entrance, where faint moonlight brushed the stone.

  “We ran together. Fought together. Nearly died together.”

  He finally turned.

  “That buys you time,” Ace said. “Not trust.”

  Baxter shifted slightly, his hammer still resting across his knees, but he didn’t speak.

  Ace nodded toward Kyo.

  “You don’t fight like a normal mage,” he said. “You don’t move like one either.”

  His gaze flicked briefly to Ava still asleep, wrapped in Kyo’s cloak, her breathing slow and steady.

  “That woman,” Ace continued, voice lower now, more thoughtful than accusatory, “isn’t a normal red.”

  Kyo stiffened slightly but didn’t interrupt.

  “She fights like a soldier,” Ace said. “Training. Discipline. Instincts you don’t fake. I’ve seen plenty of reds swing wild. She doesn’t.”

  His eyes narrowed not at Ava, but at Kyo.

  “Which is why I don’t get this,” he added. “Because by all rights, she should’ve shredded you the first time you crossed paths.”

  Baxter shifted, glancing between them.

  Ace gestured toward Kyo with two fingers.

  “No offense,” he said flatly, “but you don’t exactly scream Red Zone survival. You were hauling a kid, running calculations in your head, acting like you were smarter than everyone else and in that place? That gets people killed.”

  Kyo’s jaw tightened, but he stayed silent.

  Ace exhaled through his nose. “So yeah,” he said. “I know she’s not some mindless red. She’s one hell of a fighter.”

  His gaze dropped briefly to Miles.

  “What I don’t understand,” Ace continued, “is why she stayed. Why she didn’t walk away when you became a liability.”

  His eyes lifted again, steady and unblinking.

  “Because to me,” Ace said, “you are one.”

  The question hung there.

  Not cruel or mocking, just raw honesty.

  Baxter watched Kyo closely now.

  Kyo didn’t answer right away.

  He looked down at Miles first, adjusting the boy slightly so his head rested more comfortably against his shoulder. Only then did he lift his gaze back to Ace.

  “She didn’t meet me in the Red Zone,” Kyo said quietly.