“Please, Daimona…”

  The world flickered in waves to Daimona. There were moments of pitch black, interrupted by the blurry backdrop falling all around her. Her limbs were all around her, flying upwards as Will’s arms hugged around her tightly from behind. If they landed, he might die, she thought. But her mind was far too gone to process the notion any further than that.

  In the brief flashes of reality, the tendon creature was just an arm’s length away above her. It kept its legs and arms at perfect ninety-degree angles, only lowering its head to leer at her with its eyeless face. A mouth separated the tendons, revealing a sadistic smile of needle-thin teeth.

  For the first time in her life, Daimona felt truly bored. She had given bootcamp her all, even resorting to using her brother’s tactics to make it through, and yet it still wasn’t enough to even scale the summit of the trial. Bash was still somewhere at the very top, waiting for the rest of her squad to rush in waiving the middle tower’s flag. Fighting wasn’t even worth her time anymore. She wasn’t going to get anything out of this. At least when she had traveled through the woods with Norok, there was always a carcass roasting on a spit to celebrate at the end of the night. Here, there was nothing. Just a bunch of smug, military-bred losers to look down on her.

  A quiet, pleading voice broke her cynical thoughts. “Please… I can’t do this without you.”

  She could barely recognize Will’s desperate sobs from behind. Underneath the rushing current of wind all around them, he pulled her back tighter to his chest as he begged, “Just survive a little longer. Just until we win.”

  A shaky, slow warmth burned from him to her. It was nowhere near as steady as Kell’s, but the healing was just enough to keep Daimona’s vision steady on the creature above them. Her heart pulsed with a sudden surge of adrenaline.

  “Yes sir,” Daimona growled, then reached out for the monster above them. She wrapped her hands around its ankle, and without hesitation, she threw it down below them with all her might. The momentum propelled Will and Daimona upwards, and she used the last of her strength to hoist them over the edge of the tower in front of the startled rival captain. Behind Bash, the rival team’s flag billowed in the wind, completely intact and perfectly pristine. Bash clutched at her uniform with a nauseous look, backing away as Will rose to his feet and summoned his pistol.

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  “Surrender, Lotsvatinus,” Will shouted brazenly. “It’s over.”

  Bash laughed, tossing her head back. She leveled her gaze at Will and Daimona cautiously. “Y-you of all people should know that’s not how it works.”

  Then, she raised her right hand up to her face, folding three fingers into her palm and keeping her thumb and pinkie pointed outwards. She pressed her ear against the shape, and with a soft smile, uttered the single word, “Hello?”

  Just like before, a dark rift appeared before her body, and with one limb emerging at a time, the tendon creature crawled through. Daimona could see the pieces of it that had been flattened by the crash, broken bones jutting through the tangled tendons only to be brutally snapped into place as it stood to its full height. The monster rolled its shoulders, giving Daimona the same sinister grin from before.

  Shyly, Bash stepped around it, placing a sweaty hand against its forearm. “The truth is, you’re both outnum-m-mbered. R-Rik and Zia have already won below. It’s j-just a matter of capturing the flag now.”

  “You’re bluffing,” Will scoffed, raising his gun at her.

  A sharp, shrill whistle caused Daimona to shiver. It was a signal-- Frode’s signal, coming from below. Using her magic, she tried to sound out the message, but all she could gather was the final two words: Moving up.

  Bash narrowed her violet eyes, smirking as she spoke directly to Daimona. “You can hear it too, r-right?”

  “Hear what?” Will interjected.

  Daimona ignored him. “You’re wrong. My brother’s down there, he’d never lose.”

  Bash chuckled, her monster laughing in unison with her. “D-d-did you really think he’d be able to t-take Rik all on his own? Here I thought it was a t-t-tactical decision… I mean, if it were me, I’d leave him behind too. He’s only good f-for stalling anyways.”

  Daimona’s blood ran cold. “Are you calling him weak?”

  “No, no,” Bash shook her head. Then, with her tone dripping like honey, she said, “He’s not weak. Just inferior.”