From League forces and from outside. Through the smoke and debris, five figures emerged.

Helena Crimsonfang with her war hammer blazing and uncle Victor, leading two hundred Ravana soldiers, Crimson Spire's headmaster with three dozen mages. Shadowgrove's remaining students also converged. And at the front, moving with impossible speed.....was Victoria Steelheart!

But something was wrong somehow, her aura was no longer silver-white. It was silver-crimson, with light and blood mixed.

She'd changed. Evolved. Become something between resistance fighter and League member. She stopped ten meters from The Huntress.

The two fighters faced each other.

"Victoria," The Huntress said calmly. "You've made your choice, eh,"

"I made my choice days ago." Victoria's voice was cold. "When you offered me power to survive."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I lied." Victoria smiled in a savage and predatory way. "I accepted your power and learned your techniques, absorbed your knowledge. All so I could kill you properly."

The Huntress laughed. "You think three days of training makes you my equal?"

"No, but it now makes me enough of a distraction." With that she attacked. The clash between them was apocalyptic shockwave that rippled the air. And in the chaos, Uncle Victor's soldiers hit the League forces like a blunt hammer.

Helena charged.

The Crimson Spire mages engaged Shadow.

Shadowgrove students coordinated against Venom.

Cipher started to move but Kaeel intercepted him, face full of rage, the arena became a war zone.

"Get them out!" Victoria shouted over the sound of battle. "Evacuate the civilians! I'll hold her!"

Adrian didn't hesitate, she started organizing evacuation, his team, his supporters, everyone who could still move.

I tried to stand and failed. Damian appeared from nowhere, helped me up.

"Young Master. You look terrible."

"Feel worse. Seraphina.... "

"Helena's people have her. They're evacuating to the medical tent." He supported my weight. "We need to get you out of here."

"Not yet. The resistance members....."

"Are fighting, let them fight." He started pulling me toward the evacuation route.

I looked back and saw Victoria and The Huntress locked in combat. Both bleeding. Both relentless. Saw Helena hammer beating someone on the ground. Saw Uncle Victor's soldiers pushing back League forces. Saw Adrian, covered in blood, helping civilians escape.

The hero and the villain's forces, fighting side by side.

It was beautiful and it was chaos, it was war.

And somewhere above it all, the system chimed.

[UNKNOWN OPTION CHOSEN: THIRD PATH]

[RESULT: Cavalry Arrives]

[OUTCOME: SURVIVAL CHANCE 63%]

Better odds than we'd had in days.

"Come on," Damian urged. "We need to get you healed."

"Just... one moment."

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

Six hours later.

The sun was setting over Silvercrest. The arena was destroyed. Thousands of civilians evacuated and League forces driven back. The Huntress had retreated when Victoria managed to wound her. A real wound this time. Shadow escaped. Venom was killed by Helena and Cipher... Cipher was executed by Kaeel, he was given a quick and merciful, necessary ens.

The cost was staggering. Two hundred civilians dead in the initial attack. Fifty resistance members killed in the fighting. A dozen of Uncle Victor's soldiers gone. But eight thousand civilians survived who shouldn't have. The resistance remained intact though.

And the League's attempt to recruit or kill us had failed.

I sat in the medical tent, ribs wrapped, pain dulled by potions I couldn't afford to be unconscious from.

Adrian sat across from me. Similarly bandaged. Similarly exhausted.

"Your uncle saved us," he said finally.

"Victoria saved us. Uncle Victor just helped."

"Where did she learn to fight like that?"

"From The Huntress herself, apparently." I shook my head. "Seems she made a deal and learned a League techniques, then turned on them, Insane plan."

"But it worked."

"Barely."

We sat in silence.

"The tournament concluded," Adrian said eventually. "I won."

"You did."

"But I don't feel like I won anything." He looked at his hands. "I nearly died. You nearly died. Hundreds of people actually died. And for what? A trophy?"

"For the platform. For the chance to wake people up." I met his eyes.

"My father wants to disown me."

"Then you're finally free."

He laughed bitterly. "Free to do what? I don't even know who I am without the hero role."

"Then you get to find out, that's what freedom means."

The tent flap opened. Seraphina wheeled in, leg still injured but she's conscious now.

"You both look awful," she observed.

"Feel awful," Adrian and I said simultaneously.

She smiled slightly. "Good. You should. You fought each other while an army assembled around you."

"To be fair," I said, "we didn't know.....

"

"You should have known. The signs were there." She positioned her wheelchair between us. "But you were too focused on your rivalry to see the real threat."

She was right.

We'd been so caught up in proving ourselves against each other that we'd missed the League preparing their attack.

"What happens now?" Adrian asked.

"Now we recover, and bury the dead we will count the costs." Seraphina looked at both of us. "And then we prepare for the real war. Because this was just the opening move."

"The League will come back," I said.

"The Council will respond," Adrian added.

"And we'll be caught in the middle," Seraphina finished. "Three factions. All fighting for control of the cycle. And we're the pieces they're fighting over."

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

Pain woke me before the sun did.

Sharp, stabbing pain in my ribs every time I breathed. Dull, throbbing pain everywhere else. The kind of pain that reminded you that you'd fought that -rank entity and somehow survived.

The hospital room was quiet. Clean white walls. Enchanted lights that adjusted to natural circadian rhythms. The smell of healing potions and sterile bandages.

Much nicer than the field tent.

I tried to sit up. My body protested violently. Gave up halfway and settled for propping myself on one elbow.

The door opened. Uncle Victor entered, looking like he hadn't slept. Dark circles under his eyes. Uniform rumpled. But he managed a smile when he saw me awake.

"You look like death warmed over," he said.

"Feel like death barely avoided." I coughed. Regretted it immediately as fire shot through my ribs. "How bad is it?"

He pulled a chair over. Sat heavily. "Depends on what you're asking about."

"Start with casualties."

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