Nex did not see the charge build. He only felt the shock wave slam into his ribs and twist his wings. He spun, coughed, and forced his eyes open through burning vapor.

  "What was that," Nex yelled. His wings throbbed and sparked from the cloud's residue explosion.

  Viz answered with a frantic burst of echolocation, then words that cracked with fear. "He is inside it. He is still thinking. He has taken the cloud back under his control."

  Inside Viz's the hijacked storm cloud, Yasuya went still. Nex could hear it now, the dragon was not struggling, he was meditating now. The thunder inside the cloud quieted, then tightened into a single point.

  Nex clicked hard. "Viz move your cloud!"

  Viz tried. His pulses pushed, the cloud shifted, then stopped as if a giant hand held it in place.

  Yasuya turned his head inside the storm and the light around his horns focused. The cloud swelled, then exploded from the inside out.

  The blast punched Viz out of the sky like a thrown stone. His body tumbled end over end, stunned and limp, his echolocation collapsing into a weak stutter.

  "Viz," Nex shouted, and his voice finally sounded like panic.

  Yasuya spilled out after him, coiling through the air with calm violence. One thrash of the dragon's body clipped Viz and sent him spiraling faster.

  Then a blur of wind cut in.

  Gamuikaze arrived with a howl and a grin, his scythe arm sweeping toward the disoriented Viz. "Look at that, a free prize."

  Nex felt rage spike hot and clean. He shot forward and his claws sang.

  "Hands off," he barked.

  [Sonic Claw] landed with a sharp crack of condensed vibration. Nex parried the scythe swipe and the sound burst made the air ripple. In the same motion he hooked Viz with his foot and dragged him into his slipstream.

  Gamuikaze skidded backward through the sky, vortexes and wind fighting to keep him steady. He laughed like it was fun.

  "So the Nexburst heir plays bodyguard. I thought you were the star."

  Nex bared his teeth and adjusted Viz's weight with a grimace. Viz was heavy now, dead weight and warm blood. Nex hated how it slowed his roll, hated how it made his turns wide.

  "I am the star," Nex snapped. "You are the noise around me!"

  Gamuikaze flicked his scythe arm and spun two tornado funnels at once. "Noise that will cut you. I will carve your ego into ribbons."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Nex surged forward anyway. Confidence was his fuel, and anger sharpened it. He clicked a quick phrase to Viz, 'stay alive, stay quiet.' Viz answered with a weak ping that meant he heard.

  Satisfied by the response, Nex darted between the tornado funnels and let the winds scrape his fur. He used the pressure to pivot, then slapped Gamuikaze aside with a shoulder feint and a tight claw swipe. Gamuikaze dodged with a smug twist and tried to hook Nex's legs.

  Nex lifted, but Viz dragged him lower. The stagger allowed Gamuikaze's claw to scrape Nex's thigh, and Nex grunted but forced the climb.

  Giving chase, Gamuikaze grinned wider. "That lump is your leash. Drop him."

  Nex's eyes flicked left, then right. In his peripheral, Yasuya watched them.

  The dragon did not rush. He observed, silent, as if studying Nex the way a storm studies a mountain. The look made Nex curious, then it made his stomach tighten.

  Nex snapped his focus back to the weasel. "You talk too much for a rat!"

  Gamuikaze hissed. "I talk while I win!"

  He whipped a cyclone blade toward Nex's face. Nex slid under it and rammed forward, then opened his mouth and let power out. Nex's [Sonic Scream] exploded across the air.

  The wave slammed into Gamuikaze and blew him backward through his own winds. The tornadoes wobbled, broke apart, then scattered into harmless gust. The weasel tumbled and cursed. Nex took the tiny victory and tried to stabilize Viz against his chest. Viz groaned, then his eyes widened.

  "Nex," Viz said, and he did not need echolocation for the warning.

  Yasuya moved. Nex turned and saw a line of brightness, then impact. The dragon's head struck Nex in the chest like a meteor. The force stole Nex's breath and turned his vision white. His ribs screamed and his body nearly went limp in midair.

  He would've blacked out if Viz hadn't reacted on instinct. Viz threw an electrical barrier from his nose, a trembling shell of crackling sound and charge. It flared between Nex and Yasuya and it gave Nex one thin moment to slip away.

  Nex tore free, but the barrier shattered and the damage stayed, heavy. His chest burned, his wings shook, and every inhale tasted like metal.

  "What the heck was that," Nex rasped.

  Yasuya hovered, then coiled again, light gathering along his body in a straight alignment. Nex tried to analyze it, tried to keep his pride louder than his fear.

  One conclusion struck his mind. The speed that Yasuya had accomplished, that acceleration was like light.

  Lightspeed was ridiculous. Nothing moved like that. Still, the technique looked like a single forward burst, no curve, no warning, no wasted motion. A straight line attack that turned the sky into a runway.

  Viz coughed and spoke with weak clarity. "He… he compresses his body into light, and he rides it forward into a single line..."

  Nex clenched his fangs. The dragon couldn't possibly be faster than him. No one. "He should not be able to do that."

  Yasuya answered maddeningly without words. His horns flared and his body tightened, then he launched again. In Nex's perception, the dragon became a taut streak of light piercing through the sky. Yasuya was a living pillar of light, a spear that erased distance.

  He couldn't evade that!

  Nex made a split second choice that tasted like shame. He dropped Viz.

  Viz fell, still conscious, still stunned, and he flashed a look of surprise that cut Nex deeper than any beam. Nex pushed his guilt into motion and dove after him, trying to split his path, trying to make more afterimages, trying to give Yasuya more lies to chase.

  Yasuya did not bite. The pillar of light corrected with terrifying ease.

  Nex twisted at the last moment, gritting his teeth as the light and air scorched his back.

  He powered through the blasted pain, dove downward, and caught Viz again with one claw, but the catch cost him speed. His wings strained, and the air around him felt thinner, as if the dragon stole oxygen along with distance.

  "Nex," Viz gasped. "We cannot outrun that."

  Nex stared into the glare coming for them once more and forced a grin that felt cracked. "Good. Then we stop running."