“You weren’t kidding,” Abi gasped. “That was something else.”
The instant I’d activated my technique, all the water aspects had been pulled out of Abi’s aura and into the rat’s. They then flowed through the bond I shared with the rodent into my aura, and the rodent’s cycled breaths refilled the charm’s jinsei reserves.
“We’ve got this,” I shouted. “Everyone gather up as many elemental aspects as you can hold in your aura. Let me know when you’ve gathered your element.”
While my friends worked on their part of the challenge, I put my Army to work. The rodents scampered across the stone, their whiskers twitching as they mapped out the terrain for me. In a few minutes, the rats had formed rodent pyramids at the base of each of the pillars. Individual rats had also reached my friends. We were so close to winning this thing.
“I’ve got the wood,” Clem called. “And there’s a rat on my shoulder. Please tell me it’s one of yours.”
“Mine hasn’t gotten to you yet,” I teased.
“Jace!” my friend shouted.
“Just kidding!” Where my rat’s aura overlapped with Clem’s, I felt the wood aspects she’d gathered. It was an impressive number for an adept. “Good work, Clem.”
A few moments later, the rest of my team announced they’d all stuffed their auras with elements. It was time to put my theory to the test.
“Brace yourselves,” I called out again. “You’re not going to like this part.”
The jinsei from the rats’ cycled breathing had refilled the vessel that contained the Thief’s Shield technique. I drew in a deep breath, held it, and activated the technique.
The Borrowed Core combined my core with all of the rats’ cores. But, because auras and cores were so closely related, it also bound our auras together. Each of my friends had a rat perched on their shoulder, and that meant that all of our auras were overlapping.
The instant I triggered the Thief’s Shield, the technique stripped the elemental aspects from my friends and distributed them through my aura and the aura of the rats. It also stole jinsei from the channels nearest the rast, which had to feel awful. Fortunately, because I’d activated the Shield through a vessel, all that jinsei rushed into it rather than into my core.
“Ugh,” Hagar moaned. “That was awful.”
“Please don’t do that again,” Clem groaned.
“No such luck.” I pulled all the rats away from my friends, except for Clem. “Sorry, Clem, I need the metal aspects from you.”
“Give me a second,” she said. “I need to cycle and restore my jinsei. No wonder Rafael was afraid of you after your duel.”
That was a name I hadn’t thought of in a while. Rafael had decided I was his nemesis during my first year at the school, and he’d challenged me to a formal duel during my second year. I hadn’t seen him at all this year, though.
Weird.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Clem called.
“Sorry!” I shouted and activated the technique again.
“Yuck,” Clem said. “That is just awful.”
“You’ll be fine,” I promised her. A quick inventory of the aura I shared with all the rats showed me we didn’t have nearly enough aspects yet. “Which is awesome, because we need to do this at least three more times, everyone!”
They all groaned at that but had already started gathering more aspects. Five minutes later, I couldn’t hold another element.
“Rest,” I said. “It’s time to finish this.”
The rat at the top of each of the pyramids stood up on their hind legs and rested their front paws on the baskets. An electric thrill ran through me at the contact with the inanimate auras.
My Army and I held hundreds of aspects within our auras. I could taste the power at my command. I savored that moment and marveled at the implications of my abilities. Some day, I would be able to control a vast swarm of rats. Not hundreds, but thousands, tens of thousands. And everywhere those rats went, I would go as well.
It was amazing and terrifying.
And something I’d have to think about, very hard, when I had more time.
Right now, I had to win a challenge.
The vessel on the left side of my chest vibrated as I unleashed the Eclipse Transplant technique. Elements flowed out of my Army’s combined aura, filling each of the baskets with a single type of aspect. It took only seconds to fill the containers to overflowing.
I’d arranged the elements with opposing elements on either side of each pocket of darkness aspects. When the baskets were filled, water would douse fire, fire would melt metal, metal would cut wood, wood would sunder earth, and earth would bury water.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Fountains of light shot out of the baskets and plowed through the bundles of darkness aspects. When the elemental interactions consumed the aspects in the baskets, they also consumed the pitch black that had blinded all of us.
Silver light crawled through engravings on the walls of the arena to form images of humans and dragons marching and flying in a circle around the room. Their formations moved faster and faster, the dragons soaring near the ceiling while the humans strode along the arena’s floor. Color flooded the engravings, adding dimension and detail to the already intricate carvings. Soon the sounds of marching boots and flapping wings filled the arena. It all seemed so real, as if the dragons and human soldiers were in the chamber with us.
“Jace!” Clem shouted. “The ceiling!”
The alarm in Clem’s voice pulled my attention away from the vivid display on the walls to the stone dome above my head. Demonic faces leered and gibbered from within a storm of shadows that boiled above the arena. That had to be what the dragons and men were marching to fight. I didn’t know what the arena was trying to tell us, or why the challenge hadn’t ended. We’d won and should have been safely back in the School by now.
Suddenly, the dragons and men froze in place. The flying beasts roared, and the soldiers
