I caught it in the static. Just a flicker in the comms, half-buried under chatter and distortion:
“Starlit… compromised. Love… known.”
That was all it took. My pulse spiked, every nerve snapping awake. Gossip? Maybe. A rumor, a trick? Doesn’t matter. I’ve seen enough battles burn to know when smoke means fire. If the enemy really knows about her, then we don’t get the luxury of waiting for proof.
Hell is on its way.
The Call
“Squad!” I barked, sharper than I meant to. Their heads snapped up. Raven frowned, Echo tilted her head, Mouse muttered something about overreaction.
I didn’t let them stall. I jabbed at the holo-map where a faint chest icon pulsed in blue, tucked in a dead-zone corridor. “Treasure Drop node. Spiral, dash, flip sequence. You know the drill.”
Raven groaned. “That’s just a training relic, ACE. Nobody opens those.”
“Exactly,” I shot back. “Nobody. Which makes it the perfect test. We nail this move now—or we break when the real fight comes.”
They traded looks. They knew better than to argue with me when my eyes were lit like this.
First Attempt
We lined up. The corridor shimmered, long and narrow, silver plates etched with the spiral pattern that demanded precision.
“On my mark,” I said. My voice was steady but my stomach was tight. “Spiral—full front dash—flip.”
We launched. My boots cut the spiral perfectly, but Mouse slipped wide, clipping Raven’s shoulder. The chain collapsed. The dash broke. We skidded out before the flip even began.
Chest still locked.
Second Attempt
We reset. My jaw clenched. The whisper about Starlit kept replaying, louder every second. If she really was exposed, every stumble here meant blood later.
“Again!”
This time Echo faltered. Her flip was late, her boots caught the edge. Sparks flew, the corridor spat us out.
Chest still locked.
The Antagonist
A slow clap echoed. My skin prickled. Veyra, the rival I’d been half-expecting, stepped from the shadows, her smirk sharp as a blade.
“Pathetic,” she drawled. “You think grinding on old training ghosts is going to save your sweetheart Starlit? The enemy doesn’t care how pretty your spiral looks.”
Her words cut deeper than I let show. Sweetheart. She said it to twist the knife, and it worked.
“Shut it, Veyra,” I snapped. “We’re drilling discipline.”
She tilted her head. “No—you’re panicking. Because Starlit’s heart got messy. And now you think you can cover for her by playing captain.”
The squad shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t flinch.
Third Attempt
“On me,” I ordered, fire in my throat. “We finish the sequence.”
We launched again. Spiral—clean this time. Dash—tight formation. Flip—almost synchronized.
The chest flickered, light spilling like it might crack—then it sealed, harder than before. Denial.
Raven cursed. Mouse kicked the plating.
Veyra laughed. “See? Even the chest rejects you. Just like the enemy will. Just like Starlit already has.”
I nearly lunged at her. My fists clenched so hard my gloves squealed. But I forced the rage down, turned it into steel.
The Speech
I faced the squad, loud enough to drown Veyra out.
“We don’t stop because it’s hard. We don’t stop because the chest doesn’t open on the first, second, or third try. You think the enemy will stop after three? No. They’ll hit us a fourth, a fifth, until we break.”
I paced the corridor, every step hammering the point home.
“We spiral, we dash, we flip, because when the strike comes—and it will come—it won’t be a treasure chest waiting at the end. It’ll be a warhead. And if we can’t sync here, we’ll die out there. So we don’t stop.”
The squad’s eyes burned brighter. Even Raven, even Echo.
Veyra scowled, fading back into the shadows.
Aftermath
We ran it again. And again. The chest never opened. But the formation sharpened. The moves grew tighter. We were harder. Faster.
By the end, sweat stung my eyes and my breath came ragged, but my mind was clearer than it had been all day.
The whisper about Starlit still clawed at me, but I’d turned it into fuel. Into discipline. Into resolve.
The chest stayed locked. Fine.
We’ll crack it when it matters. For Starlit. For all of us.
