Chapter 113: The Night Before Flash
The strategy room inside the Edelhart private dormitory was dimly lit, illuminated mainly by the pale blue glow of a recording crystal resting in the center of a heavy oak table. Above the crystal, a magical projection looped the same five seconds of combat footage over and over—Ivan Baker accelerating into a blur, his heavy sword carving a devastating arc through empty air.
Alex sat at the head of the table, his eyes tracking the projection. Beside him, Lily carefully unclasped the fragile heat-sink bracelet from his left wrist.
"Hold still," Lily murmured, her brow furrowed in concentration. She used a pair of fine silver tweezers to remove the fractured cooling crystal from the center of the device. The crystal had cracked during Ivan’s near-miss in the joint training session, the sudden surge of heat overwhelming its capacity.
"My saturation is at eight percent," Alex said, checking the blue gauge hovering in the corner of his vision. His System balance sat quietly at 130 Lust Points, untouched for days. He flexed his right hand. The blistered burns on his palm from the Spire evaluation were mostly healed, leaving only tender, pink skin. "I’m fine, Lily."
"You are at eight percent because you haven’t been allowed to hit anything," Lily corrected firmly, setting the ruined crystal aside and carefully slotting a pristine replacement into the bracelet’s housing. "This prototype can only bleed off three major thermal surges before it fails completely. If you push past that, the heat fractures around your mana circuit will reopen."
Alex didn’t argue. He let her fasten the cold metal back around his wrist, grounding himself in the reality of the room. He wasn’t preparing for the final alone. The entire table was covered in scattered notes, maps, and anatomical diagrams.
"He isn’t just fast," Emily said, leaning over the table and tracing a glowing line across the projected footage with the tip of her staff. "Look at his movement paths. Ivan uses a series of false starts. He doesn’t commit to a straight line until the last possible moment. If you try to predict him using Vector Sight, he’s going to feed you a dozen false paths before he actually strikes."
Alicia stood beside Emily, her arms crossed, her dark eyes reflecting the blue light. She reached out and tapped a different section of the projection, highlighting the faint orange distortion rippling around Ivan’s boots and gauntlets.
"It’s not just the speed you have to worry about," Alicia noted, her voice all business. "He’s wrapping himself in heated Aura. He knows your Kinetic Resonance can absorb the physical impact of a sword strike, but it can’t neutralize an elemental payload. Every time he even brushes past you, that heat is going to transfer directly into your uniform."
"Knights are trained to disguise their weight," Maya added from the corner of the room, leaning back in her chair with a critical eye. She had spent hours sparring with heavy armor specialists. "He won’t lean forward before he uses his Flash step. If you want to know when he’s actually committing to a charge, you have to watch the tension in his calves, not his shoulders."
"Which brings us to the acceleration surface," Elara said softly, adjusting her glasses as she slid a thick, leather-bound architectural ledger across the table. "I ran the calculations on the central arena’s floor materials. It’s standard compacted limestone over the primary ward grid. It’s incredibly durable and designed to withstand heavy impacts. Ivan relies on that perfect traction to generate the force needed for his Maximum Flash."
Emma stood at the opposite end of the table, her timing ledger closed but resting beneath her fingertips. She looked up, her expression serious.
"There is also a political reality to consider tomorrow," Emma stated, ensuring every eye in the room turned toward her. "Ivan Baker is the recognized prodigy of the Knight Department and the heir to a prominent military household. You cannot afford to maim him. If you redirect too much kinetic force and shatter his spine, the Edelhart family will face an immediate inquiry from the Crown, and the Vanguard guild might void your provisional contract before the ink is even dry."
"No permanent injuries. Understood," Alex said. He looked around the table. Emily, Alicia, Maya, Elara, Emma, and Lily. Each of them held a different, vital piece of the puzzle.
"So, what is the actual plan?" Emily asked, narrowing her eyes. "Because standing in the center of the ring and letting him hit you with heated iron until this bracelet melts into your skin is a terrible strategy."
"I have no intention of catching every attack," Alex said, leaning forward. "Ivan expects me to rely heavily on my kinetic absorption. He’s going to use small, heated impacts and false starts to drive my thermal saturation up without giving me enough raw momentum to redirect."
"So you let him do it?" Alicia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I let him believe it’s working," Alex corrected smoothly. "I let him drive the heat up. I let him think he’s successfully dismantling my defense. But the moment he commits his full Aura to a true charge, I’m not going to attack him. I’m going to destroy the floor."
Silence fell over the room. Elara’s eyes widened slightly in realization. "The acceleration surface," she breathed.
"If he doesn’t have a stable surface to push off from, he can’t execute the Flash step properly," Alex said.
"And how exactly are you going to finish the fight once his momentum breaks?" Emma asked.
Alex leaned back, offering a faint, secretive smile. "I’m keeping the final technique to myself. Surprise matters, even in this room."
Emma frowned, but she didn’t push. She shifted her gaze across the table, her eyes landing on Maya. Throughout the entire planning session, Maya had been watching Alex’s hands and the subtle shifts in his posture, tracking his pain response with an intimacy that went far beyond basic combat observation. Maya knew exactly how badly his hand was hurt, and she knew the precise limits of his endurance from the night they shared in the Spire.
Emma’s mana flared slightly, a faint ripple of possessive instinct passing through the room. She knew about Maya. Maya knew she knew.
Maya met Emma’s cold gaze across the table. Instead of offering a taunting smirk or a territorial remark, Maya simply held her hands open.
"He needs both of us focused tomorrow, Emma," Maya said quietly, her voice entirely devoid of mockery. "We can argue about everything else later. But right now, we just need him to win."
Emma stared at the delinquent for a long, calculating moment. She recognized the validity of the statement. Winning the Champion title mattered more than a hallway argument.
"Agreed," Emma said finally, releasing the tension in her shoulders. She accepted the temporary truce, turning her attention back to the map on the table.
Before anyone could speak again, a sharp, urgent knock rattled the dormitory door.
Alex nodded to Lily, who stepped over and unlocked it. Ren Montclair stood in the hallway, dressed in his casual evening uniform. He didn’t wait for an invitation, stepping quickly into the strategy room. His expression was grim.
"I just came from the Knight Department staging area," Ren said, his eyes finding Alex. "I thought you should know. Ivan’s instructor didn’t authorize his equipment for tomorrow. The approval came directly from the administrative office. Maelor Vane signed it this morning."
Alex’s expression darkened. The southern service tunnel had been sealed, and now Maelor was directly involving himself in the final match.
"What exactly did Vane approve?" Alicia asked, stepping forward.
"A new set of friction-heating runes integrated into Ivan’s combat boots," Ren explained, his voice tight. "They’re entirely legal under tournament regulations, but they’re designed to generate massive amounts of heat with every step he takes."
The room fell dead silent. Maelor Vane wasn’t just letting the duel happen. He was actively equipping the Knight Champion with magic perfectly suited to exploit Alex’s exact, hidden thermal weakness.
Alex looked down at his left wrist. The modified heat-sink bracelet was locked securely in place. He ran his thumb over the small leather pouch resting on the table beside his notes.
He opened the pouch and looked inside. There were only three replacement cooling crystals left. Once they shattered, his body would take the full brunt of the heat.
"Thank you, Ren," Alex said quietly. He pulled the drawstring tight and slipped the pouch into his uniform pocket.
He looked up at the gathered women, his expression shifting from a careful strategist into cold, unyielding resolve.
"Then I end it before the fourth surge," Alex said.