The gate gave way on the third strike.

Not because it was weak — because Kai found the point where the bars joined the frame and applied pressure exactly there, which was different from applying force to the center where the iron was densest.

The door swung inward.

The townspeople came out.

First those closest — three women from Mirfeld that Kai recognized from the fair.

Then more.

Then hunters from Valdris who had been captured during the night Lira arrived, with the expressions of people who’d spent hours in darkness and were still processing everything that had happened the day before.

Eris watched from behind.

When the last one came out, she approached Kai.

"You don’t have to think about them anymore," she said.

It wasn’t a conversation.

It was practical information — the same tone she’d used for everything important since the fight began.

Kai nodded.

---

The last two came out.

Aldric first, with the report he’d probably started hours ago still in his hand — a report that no longer reflected anything that was happening.

Behind him, leaning on his shoulder with one hand on her right side where her clothing had a tear showing a significant wound, was a woman Kai didn’t recognize.

Tall.

Athletic build.

Scar on her jaw.

No sword — Lira had shattered it when she stopped the attack with her hand the other night.

Aldric looked at her. Then at Kai.

"Are you okay?" Kai said.

"Relatively." Aldric looked at the woman he was carrying. "She’s worse."

"Who is she?"

"Vayne. Ruler of the northern territory — that includes Valdris." Aldric adjusted her better on his shoulder.

"She fought Lira when she arrived. It didn’t end well."

Vayne looked up at Kai with the eyes of someone who doesn’t want anyone to see that something hurts.

"Finish her," she said. Her voice was steady despite everything. "And go help Serah."

Kai looked at her.

"Does Serah need help?"

"They’ve been fighting for a while." Aldric started moving toward the exit hallway with Vayne. "And I don’t know Serah well enough, but it’s easy to tell part of her mind has been on you since you entered this chamber."

---

[NocheEterna99: wounded but standing. Or almost standing.]

[StreamerHunter: "part of her mind has been on you" — ALDRIC SAID IT OUT LOUD]

[xSorinx: Kai processed that. I saw it on his face.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ Serah fighting with half her attention ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]

[Deral_Bleattler: Kai now has TWO reasons to end this fast]

[User_7741: (ง’̀-’́)ง HURRY KAI (ง’̀-’́)ง]

---

The hallway was empty.

Only Kai and Eris.

Kai turned toward her.

Eris was already in stance — the integrated stance that didn’t look like a stance, feet apart, hands forward.

"You said the good part would come now," she said.

"Yes."

"And?"

"Right now," Kai said.

---

Eris didn’t wait.

She lunged — full SS speed, without the calibration of the previous exchanges, the kind of speed she reserved for when she’d already mapped enough of the opponent not to need to probe.

Kai moved laterally.

Eris adjusted midair — something the S-ranks couldn’t do, change trajectory mid-movement — and the strike landed anyway, though with less angle.

Kai took it on his forearm.

The impact moved him a meter and a half.

Faster without restriction, he thought. And she adjusts trajectory. The S-ranks couldn’t do that.

Counterattack — side kick to the thigh, the point that had worked before to disrupt weight.

Eris blocked it with her knee without losing her step.

She learned that too.

---

The rank markings on Eris’s hands glowed.

This time different — not the speed activation from before. Something darker. The markings extended from the back of her hands toward her fingers, and the air around her hands condensed into something visible, a dense shadow that wasn’t blindness magic but something else.

She thrust her right hand forward without physical contact.

The shadow shot out.

Kai dodged by leaning back — the shadow passed and hit the wall behind him.

The wall didn’t break.

It froze.

Not ice — something different. The stone turned opaque, without temperature, as if the part of reality belonging to that piece of wall had been temporarily suspended.

Kai looked at the wall.

Suspension magic. Doesn’t freeze temperature, suspends state.

If that touches me...

Eris launched another — this time from the left flank while her body charged from the right simultaneously.

Split attack. Physical and magical at the same time.

Kai dodged the physical.

The shadow grazed his right arm.

His right arm went completely numb from wrist to elbow.

---

[GarcíaFTW: SUSPENSION MAGIC]

[NocheEterna99: KAI’S ARM IS SUSPENDED. HE CAN’T USE IT.]

[StreamerHunter: physical and magical simultaneous. Kai can’t dodge both.]

[xSorinx: now he’s fighting with one arm, damaged left shoulder, and bruised side.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (╥_╥) KAI (╥_╥)]

[Deral_Bleattler: ←←← Kai with right arm suspended ←←← left shoulder damaged ←←← bruised side. HOW IS HE STILL STANDING.]

---

Kai shook his right arm.

It didn’t respond.

He looked at it for a second.

Alright. One arm.

I’ve fought with less.

He lied internally. He hadn’t fought with less. But the thought helped.

Eris launched another shadow — this time direct, without the simultaneous physical, testing whether Kai could dodge with only one functional arm and the left shoulder in the state it was in.

Kai threw himself to the ground.

Rolled.

Got up.

His right arm still wasn’t responding.

How long does the suspension effect last, he thought. If it’s temporary, I just have to survive until it passes. If it’s permanent until she removes it...

Eris launched another.

Kai dodged it by ten centimeters.

I can’t keep dodging indefinitely with the hallway space.

I need something different.

---

[System — notification]

[User has been in continuous active combat for 47 minutes]

[User has: damaged left shoulder, suspended right arm, bruised side, split lip]

[System has a suggestion]

[System rarely has suggestions]

[System requests attention]

Kai looked at the notification between dodges.

"Now?" he said quietly.

[System considers this the appropriate moment to inform the user of a function available since the beginning that the user has never used]

`[Skill Shop — AVAILABLE]`

`[Current Balance: 4,847 Interdimensional Gold Coins]`