Elara moved like the fight had already been measured.
Not flashy. Not like the recruitment boards. Her first cut went for the hostile bearer's rebuilt claw, not his chest. He blocked with the new limb, and the blue edge shaved a strip from it instead of bouncing off.
The hostile spoke through his teeth and jumped back.
Elias caught himself noticing the wrong thing. Elara had not overextended. She had made him give ground.
"Sit back and see how far you have to go," she said without looking at him.
"I was already sitting back due to injuries."
"Then commit to the lesson before moving."
The hostile bearer slammed his claw into the road. Elara stepped around the fracture line before it split. Her boots flashed blue at the soles, just enough to carry her past the worst of the break. She cut across his ribs as she passed.
Armor opened. Blood followed.
The dark Ikona above him snapped its head toward the wound. Black threads pulled at the damaged plates and forced them closed.
Elara saw it too.
"Your partner is burning you to keep that shell moving," she said. "You can still stop before it kills you."
The bearer laughed, but it sounded worse this time. "The cage always asks nicely before locking the door."
A voice, probably his Ikona, answered inside him loud enough to leak into the air.
"You do not have enough time for this form, so break contact and leave."
He ignored it.
"Break the cage before they rebuild it," he said.
The words did something to the transformation. Armor rose along his spine in jagged bands. The severed arm stump split and reshaped into a heavy hook. He drove the hook into the tunnel wall beside the road and tore downward.
Concrete cracked. Dust fell from the ceiling.
Elara pressed him before he could widen the break. Her blade struck three times. Wrist. Ribs. Knee. Each cut forced the armor to repair and each repair made the man underneath shake harder.
The soldiers behind her held fire, waiting for a clean angle. Marcus and the other recruits were being pulled back toward the bus by medics. The injured officer had stopped trying to stand.
Elias pushed himself up one inch and regretted it as Dot stirred faintly near the watch.
"Do not pull again through the watch," she whispered.
"I was not planning to pull anything, because I am currently losing an argument with gravity."
The hostile bearer changed tactics.
He stopped trying to hit Elara and attacked the tunnel instead. Hook into wall. Fist into support pillar. Shoulder into the concrete seam. Each strike brought down more debris and filled the road with gray dust.
Elara had to choose between cutting him and moving under falling stone. He needed only one opening.
A slab broke loose above her left side.
She shifted clear, but the movement broke her line. The hostile bearer burst through the dust with the hook aimed at her ribs.
Elias grabbed the flashlight from the road beside him.
His arm shook. The beam wavered. He braced it against the bus step and drove the light straight into the bearer's damaged eye.
"Look at me if you came for me," Elias shouted.
The bearer flinched toward the beam.
Elara used the half second. She dropped under the hook and cut upward across his side. The blade opened armor from hip to shoulder. For a moment, it looked like she had him.
Then a small cylinder rolled from the bearer's remaining hand.
Elara saw it. So did Elias.
The flash charge went off before either could call warning.
White light filled the tunnel. Sound hit after it, hard enough to turn Elias's thoughts into static. When his vision returned in pieces, the hostile bearer was gone.
A blood trail ran through a torn service gap in the wall.
Elara stood at the edge of the opening with her blade still active. Her team covered the gap from both sides.
"Commander Cross, this is a command channel update." the voice in her earpiece said. "Do not pursue the hostile beyond that wall. We do not know his limits, his support network, or what he prepared beyond that wall, so secure the candidates and wounded."
Elara did not answer right away.
Elias watched her shoulders rise and fall once.
"Understood, command has been received and logged," she said. "Mark the trail and lock drones on every service exit within five kilometers. Medical gets priority on the officer and candidates. I want the hostile's blood sample bagged before dust contaminates it."
Her blade shut down. The metal remained hot enough to glow faintly near the edge.
She turned back toward Elias. "You disobeyed every sensible survival instinct available."
"The flashlight part worked well enough."
"The flashlight part nearly blinded my left eye, so add friendly fire to your apology list."
She crouched in front of him and checked his pupils with a small penlight from her belt. The professional focus came back over her face, but not fast enough to hide the concern underneath.
"Where is Dot after that pull?"
Elias touched the watch. "Quiet for now, but not gone."
"Good, and do not make her prove anything else today."
Marcus groaned from near the medics. "Can someone tell me why the old chef got a tiny invisible partner and I got bruised ribs?"
Elias closed his eyes. "I liked him more before he became observant."
Elara stood and signaled the medics toward him.
"Base Alpha can wait long enough for scans," she said. "Nobody moves Elias Kael into training intake until I see what that fight did to his bond."