Ursa’s features tightened with anger as Art continued to advance toward him. His lips pulled back in anger and he snapped his fingers. “Lilly, Ash, step in,” Ursa commanded. “The boy has something that lets him cancel out magical power. Deal with him yourselves.” “Better to reveal some of your abilities than the full extent of mine. You’re not going to need to go all out. It’s a cripple, not a deadly warrior,” Ursa said through a cold laugh. “And I refuse to believe any one man has enough power to cancel out the abilities of every one of us. Every technique has a weakness.” Art’s lips twitched. That was true enough. There was always a way to turn the tides of a fight. There was no ability that was absolute. With enough time, even the impossible could be accomplished. And that was why he had absolutely no plans of giving Starforge’s team enough time to figure out how they could deal with his magic. The greatest advantage he had right now was that absolutely nobody knew how his powers worked. Art planned to keep it that way for as long as he could. Lilly and Ash — the twins — darted out from behind Ursa and dashed for him. The two of them ran in what was clearly a practiced formation, leaving just enough space between them to maneuver whilst they each still covered the other’s blind spots. Neither of them tried to activate their magic. That was clever. By hiding which one used what kind of power, they could save it for the last moment and effectively guarantee a difficult to block attack from at least one of them. A faint scuff on the ground beside Art marked Vix’s presence. She’d slipped into her camouflage and was ready to meet their charge. Art doubted she’d be able to deal with both of the twins at the same time. Vix’s specialty was taking people out that didn’t know she was there, not protecting him. Against opponents , there would be no time for her to isolate ideal moments to strike. She’d be forced to fight on their terms. But even still, he was confident she’d be able to take out at least one of the two. The back of Art’s neck prickled and he jerked his head to the side an instant before a dagger streaked through the air, narrowly missing his ear. His eyes snapped back to Ursa, whose lips pulled back in a smirk. “Attention on me, boy. You got what you wanted. My girls will deal with your man while I deal with you. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Or are you getting cold foot?” “Haven’t heard that one before. I’ll have to remember it,” Art said, starting toward Ursa once more. He couldn’t spare any time wondering what Kien was up to. Something told him that, no matter how improbable it was, the man would hold up his word. Neither of the sisters would get past him. “This is not a wise choice,” Kien said as the twins advanced toward him. Each of them held an identical dagger. Everything down to their movements was practiced and synchronized. The two of them were practically thinking in unison. Impressive. It is evident they have a lot of experience fighting together. It’s almost mesmerizing. There would have been a time when I’d have been thrilled to take a challenge . They seem quite competent. “Oh, is the big man worried about hurting a woman?” Lilly asked, fluttering her eyelashes. “We’ve gotten that one too many times to count,” Ash said. The air between her and her sister turned hazy as magic mixed within it. “Drooling idiots never learn.” A flicker of surprise passed through Kien. Their magic was synchronized. That was actually quite impressive. It was one thing to match your movements with somebody else. There was a certain margin of error that humans just weren’t going to detect — but magic was different. Interweaving abilities with each other was a surefire way to blow up something that you didn’t want to. There were so many minute factors that came with messing with the Mesh… and Kien was pretty certain neither of the twins had somehow gotten a class that relied on the other. There was a chance they had a Title or the like aiding them, but there was probably a much more likely reason. It didn’t take him long to find it. Each of the twins wore a thin metal band around their wrist. It just looked like a normal piece of plain jewelry, but power burned within the metal like heat within a molten furnace. They had magical artifacts helping them synchronize their movements. That can’t be a simple thing to make. A pair of bracelets that allows its wearers to completely link their magical abilities? I have learned how little I know of blacksmiths in recent days, but that is not an easy item to make. They have a very powerful backer. The air between the twins shimmered. For a brief instant, tongues of flame and streams water flowed from the women’s palms. Then it collided together, releasing an enormous explosion of thick steam that rolled past Kien in a thick white wall. “One more to the list,” one of the twins said, her voice muffled by the hot steam. “Just don’t play too long with your food this time. I don’t want to hear too many screams for mercy,” the other said. “We have a schedule to keep.” A loud crunch tore through the air from within the thick cloud of steam that had completely obscured the portion of the arena that Kien and the twins stood in. Ursa’s lips twisted into a grin. “It sounds like my girls got your man. I hope you didn’t like him much. They like to take their time.” “Is that so?” Art didn’t even dare fully turn to look back to assess the situation properly. All he could do was glance at the smoke out of the corner of his eyes. He and Ursa were only a dozen feet away from each other now. Getting distracted could spell his end. There’s no way Kien went down that easily, right?