At first, based on Nicole’s full run of the numbers, Echo Quarry’s overall push tonight was just too slow. They might grab two nodes, maybe even three. But to break at least four and seriously weaken the ritual’s boost on Wilber, making an opening for their third-rankers to win… She’d put the odds at less than ten percent.

  But just a minute ago, that east node got taken by the Quarry side at a speed that blew her intel model right out of the water. Add that to the southwest node already confirmed gone, and another up north where the Quarry clearly had the upper hand in a messy scrap…

  The chances of winning tonight had just done a wild, sudden flip in a handful of seconds.

  “What is… going on?” Nicole’s fingers tapped absently on the slanted tabletop. Her eyes were locked on that new red flag on the model, confusion and calculation churning behind them.

  The intel the Palmfiend sent was too basic—just rough directions and vibe shifts. It couldn’t let her clearly “see” what was really happening on that patch of ground. If she could watch it with her own eyes, her guesses would be sharper, her read on the situation one step ahead…

  That thought was still forming when Nicole caught something strange. The noise drifting through the window—the mix of gunshots, bangs, and faint yells—seemed to shift just then. The change was tiny, nearly lost in the night wind and the echo of far-off fighting. But Nicole’s ears picked out a thread of something unusual in the mix.

  On the wind, there seemed to be a… short, sharp cry?

  This wasn’t the big, pained shout of a battlefield hit. It was quicker. More like a choked-off grunt, smothered before it could fully get out.

  Nicole’s interest sharpened. She moved fast and quiet back to the window.

  She pressed herself against the cold wall, showing only half her face and one eye to the outside, and looked toward where the sound had come from—the southern edge of the garden, a thinner patch of bushes near the outer fence.

  The distance and the mess of overgrown plants and rubble made it just a blur of shifting shadows under the moonlight to her.

  But at the very edge of that shifting shadow, she definitely saw a tiny dot of… Scarlet.

  That scarlet wasn’t super bright under the mix of ghost-blue ritual light and red moonlight; it was actually hard to spot. But that particular shade of “red,” glowing from within, carrying a thread of cold killing intent, and the trail it left when it moved, like a bloody smear…

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Nicole’s pupils shrank to pins the second she saw that dot. She held her breath without meaning to.

  Even from that far, even as just a blurry speck, that feeling… she could never mistake it.

  It was her neighbor from Tsukimidaira.

  “Ember”!

  “How is she here?!” The words almost jumped from Nicole’s throat, but she forced them down into a silent gasp of shock.

  Why would this mysterious neighbor show up here? In a faction fight that should have nothing to do with her?

  Her focus locked onto that distant scarlet figure—leaping, flashing, moving along the edge of the fight like a bloody ghost. Deep in her eyes, reflecting that sharp red streak, a flicker of hard-to-contain excitement and concentration sparked and burned.

  Right then, another thought clicked into place. A murmur mixing understanding with regret escaped her lips.

  “Really… a shame.”

  Her voice was low, like she was talking to herself. If only Pandora had come too. If she had, she could have seen everything about to happen right beside her: Ascension Road’s loss, Blighted Hand Wilber getting wrecked, the heavy hit Aldrich’s crew was about to take tonight… All of it was stuff her friend, who also had a score to settle with Wilber and Aldrich, would have wanted to see.

  But she wasn’t here.

  Nicole gave a small shake of her head. The quick flash of regret in her eyes got swapped out for something else. She didn’t have time to sigh about Pandora being missing anymore. By staring at that far-off scarlet shape, she felt like she was throwing herself into that bloody mess right along with her…

  ………………

  The moonlight seemed to get heavier. The crimson moon hanging in the sky, maybe bored with tonight’s show, shone with a tired, cold light.

  Inside the garden, the brutal tug-of-war between Ascension Road and Echo Quarry over this key resource spot finally… came to an end.

  The final result matched the story told by the red flags on Nicole’s model.

  When the sixth and last key ritual node got wrecked by the Quarry side, the whole complex ghost-blue array covering the garden collapsed like a big beast with its heart cut out. The light guttered and died, then fell apart completely.

  Blighted Hand Wilber, now cut off from the ritual’s constant juice, couldn’t keep up his act of fighting two people evenly. Facing the fierce tag-team from the two veteran third-rankers of Echo Quarry—who worked together perfectly and had tons of experience—he started losing ground fast. In just a few exchanges, he took several deep, bone-biting wounds. Blood soaked his clothes.

  Finally, after a heavy blow that nearly took his arm off, Wilber let out a roar of pure hate and frustration. He used the force of the hit to push himself back in a desperate retreat!

  He didn’t stay to die. Grabbing that moment, he turned and ran!

  He moved like a wounded animal—a few stumbling, fast hops and he vanished into the thick, dark brush at the garden’s edge, fleeing in a panic into the deeper shadows.

  The two third-rank powerhouses from the Quarry didn’t chase the beaten Wilber down for a killing blow. They just stood there, watching his panicked escape coolly, letting him disappear from sight.

  This wasn’t mercy. It was more like an understanding everyone in Eden’s factions had.

  For one, it kept things from ripping apart completely and turning into a no-holds-barred war to wipe each other out. Technically, they were all still “classmates.” The Academy and bigger players were watching from above, and there were more important goals ahead.