The three figures take formation with Jessy at the centre, Eylin at the rear, and Jack as the vanguard.
They all stay still waiting.
Eylin's eyes shift randomly, waiting for an opening.
Jack's breath stills, shoulders loose, hands tightly holding the shield.
In the middle, Jessy`s eyes move erratically as if following an invincible figure.
Her hands rise slightly, tapping on Jack's shoulder.
"Left..." a whisper leaves her lips.
As if programmed, Jack's figure moves shiels raised towards the left.
BANG
He braces for impact.
Eylin, ever attentive to his surroundings, notices the siblings' movements in the blink of an eye.
His eyes turn towards Jack.
"He's bracing for impact towards the left, so that means…"
He crouches and then lunges towards the right.
STAB
Miss
Empty air greets his dagger.
"TSK…" he clicks his tongue.
"Above…" Jessy`s voice rings once again.
"Terra Aculeus, " Jack reacts instantly. His foot stomps on the ground, mana circles forming at the point of impact.
A single spike forms on the ground, which he picks up, launching it towards where Jessy's finger is pointing.
Dodge.
The monster's agile figure shifts mid-air, dodging the earth spear perfectly.
Eylin`s body moves before he realises it.
"Shield…up…" he shouts towards the stunned Jack.
Jack reacts to his voice; he crouches, one knee on the ground to brace for the weight, the shield pointed skywards.
THUD.
The moment Eylin's foot touches the shield, Jack launches him towards the ceiling.
He lets out a long breath before closing his eyes for a moment.
His figure shifts airborne, both daggers pointing towards the ground.
He whispers, "viper doctrine..first form…"
The shadow stalker, sensing the airborne prey, acts on instinct; its body shifts slightly, targeting the eyeline's falling figure.
A fatal mistake on its part, because the moment it enters Eylin's sensory range, his eyes snap open, his body folding impossibly tight before driving both daggers into its neck.
The daggers find their mark but fail to penetrate since the shadow stalker phases right through the attack.
"Fuck…" Eylin exclaims, his body hitting the ground with a thud.
His eyes move towards his daggers, noticing the slight fresh bloodstains.
"Almost had it.."
His eyes start moving erratically across the room before locking onto the ceiling.
"There's that, it's leverage over us…" he whispers to himself.
"She can track it… Somehow," his thoughts turn towards Jessy, who feels his gaze and locks onto it, noticing his slit-like irises.
Her eyes contract for a second before she hides them behind her bangs.
"Are you okay?" Jessy asks her brother.
"Yeah, not at my limit…yet…" Jack answers.
"Mmmh.. don't push yourself too much.." she adds before focusing on Eylin's back.
"Could he be… a… rogue…" Her thoughts run right on point.
Eylin turns towards them as if he had felt her gaze.
"Can you sense it?" he asks, to which she nods lightly in agreement.
He nods back before turning to Jack.
"You okay, big guy?" he asks.
"Yeah ..slightly…" he answers, rolling his shield arm once, finding the familiar weight.
"You're a hollow, aren't you?" Eylin asks in a tight tone
Jack's figure trembles lightly before relaxing.
"Yes, what about it…" he takes on a defensive tone.
"Nothing, really just an observation I made." Eylin shrugs it off.
"Hehehe… go ahead, mock me, no one's stopping you…" He shouts back.
Eylin looks him straight in the eyes, "Why would I when I'm far worse than you, big guy?"
The siblings are caught off guard by his statement.
"What do you…" Jack begins, but is cut off by Jessy.
"It's circling above us…" she says in a trembling voice.
Her eyes start moving in circles, focused on the top.
"Okay, let's get this done with…" Eylin says before turning towards Jack.
"Get rid of the ceiling, big guy…" he says, astonishing them both.
"Why…" Jessy asks, clearly bewildered.
"Because that's where it's been attacking from," he answers, point of fact.
"Oh.. okay then…" Jack says before stomping on the ground once again.
"Terra Aculeus, " his spell flares once again, but stronger this time.
Instead of one, multiple Earth spears form from the ground beneath him.
He crouches down, arms crossed across his chest, taking two deep breaths before rising, arms wide, chest puffed.
"EXSOLVE"
The spikes detach themselves from the ground before launching towards the ceiling, bringing it down with a rumble.
"Terra praesidium." The spell leaves his lips before the rubble hits the ground.
Right on top of them, an earth dome rises, and in front of them, the silent guardian stands, arms crossed on his chest, breath uneven.
The rumble dies.
Dust settles against the curved earth walls.
Three heartbeats. That's all the silence gives them.
Eylin's eyes move immediately — scanning the dome's surface, finding the grain lines in Jack's spellwork, the places where the earth is packed thin. His mind is already mapping fracture points before the rubble outside finishes falling.
Jack stands with his arms still crossed. Breathe shallow. Uneven.
Jessy watches her brother and sees what Eylin sees from the opposite direction — not fracture points in the dome but fracture points in him.
"Jack…"
"I'm fine."
He isn't.
His legs go first — no collapse, just a slow inevitability, like a structure settling. Jessy is already moving before he starts falling. She catches his weight against her shoulder, the two of them sliding down the curve of the dome wall together.
His earth armour crackles once and goes quiet.
Eylin doesn't move to help. He's watching the walls.
Then — there. A hairline fracture is forming along the left side. Something is testing the surface from outside. Methodical. Patient.
"It's looking for the weak point," he says quietly.
Jessy looks up from her brother.
"I know," she answers. "It's been watching us do the same thing."
"The dome won't hold for longer," he says, his hands searching for something from within his sachet.
"There you are…" he murmurs, holding onto a bone shard different from the others.
"Let's test you out…" he says, dropping the blooddrops from the daggers.
"Be ready," Jessy says to Eylin while standing in front of her brother, no longer shaking.
WHOOSH
The shadow stalker arrives faster than anticipated, but…
"Ventus telum.."
A windbolt straight to its hind left leg greets its arrival before it realises.
Grrrrrrrrrr…..
It is thrown back, its leg completely blown off.
"Hahahah… bullseye…" Eylin laughs, already in motion.
His hands fly in an arc, bone shards forming a circular field closing the two of them within.
His body drops down, forming a low arc chest almost touching the ground, daggers one facing the skies, the other the ground.
His eyes focused, locked onto the beast ahead.
The beast gets onto its three legs, fury written on its non-existent eyes.
"Angry, huh…come at me.." Eylin taunts and responds by lunging at him at full force.
Eylin shifts his feet slightly, grounding himself before twisting his upper body, clearly avoiding the sharp claw coming for his head.
His left hand flicks faster than the beast can track, taking a stab at it.
CLEAN HIT
Fang lodges itself within its thick skin, Leylin taking advantage by wrenching it sideways — not to kill, to hold.
His legs kick off from the ground, twisting before hooking themselves onto its abdomen, before the dagger Viper draws across its exposed skin.
The visual of the action itself leaves Jessy speechless.
There, right in front of her, is a kid tangled on a shadow stalker with daggers lodged in its skin.
"So cool…" the words escape without her noticing.
Eylin holds tightly, but his body fails him, leading to him dislodging himself from the shadow stalker.
His body hits the ground before rolling three times.
"Curse this weak shell…" he says, wiping the blood from his mouth.
His eyes move towards the beast, clearly struggling to stand due to the injuries.
The shadow stalker stabilises itself before lunging at Eylin, who dodges it cleanly.
The lunging and dodging continue until finally the beast remembers that it can phase through reality.
The beast lunges at Eylin, vanishing mid-lunge. Eylin smiles at this, holding onto the red bone shard.
"Time to shine…" he runs the little mana he has into the shard before throwing it towards one of the others on the ground.
"Vinculum liga."
The red shard disintegrates into ethereal chains that lung into an empty spot right beside Eylin.
As if on cue, the other shards also react, forming earth chains slithering towards the bound figure as if following a beacon signal.
The beast's body reappears completely bound by ethereal chains that seem to be feeding on its blood.
Totally spent, Eylin turns towards Jessy.
"Oiii sniper girl…" and Jessy acts on it, casting her spell.
"Ventus telum.."
The shadow stalker's head is blown off cleanly.
"Whooooo…remind me not to mess with you…" Eylin says, finally giving in to his exhaustion.
Suddenly ..clap…clap…clap…clap….
"15min.. that's how long you took to take it down."
A familiar voice rings, sending a shiver down Eylin's spine.
His body sits upright, back straight, arms raised in surrender.
"Believe me, these guys abducted me; I wanted none of this," he says, eyes searching for the source of the voice.
"Tch… I leave you for a minute, and you crash an evaluation test…" the voice answers before a figure appears behind Eylin.
"But thanks to that, you just got yourself an anomaly for a comrade," the voice continues before crouching in front of Eylin, his dull eyes meeting a pair of round glasses.
"E …evaluation test….I knew it…eeh…what do you mean, comrade?" he asks, looking towards Jessy.
Kaelin rises from her crouch, heading towards Jessy. She grabs her chin, directing her eyes towards hers.
"Bet he didn't introduce himself, huh…" she says, pointing towards Eylin, "that kid there is the new aspect you were all fighting for a chance to join his team for."
Jessy's eyes dart to Eylin's dumbfounded face before answering.
"I'm willing so long as my brother is with me…" she says politely.
"Okay, it's done, welcome to the team, I'll be your handler from today onwards."
Jessy nods in acknowledgement before standing and bowing towards Eylin.
"Please take care of us from now on."
"Wait, what…I haven't agreed to any of this…" Eylin exclaims, waving his hands in denial.
He looks at Kaelin for help, but she just ignores him.
"Now we just need one more, and your team would be complete," she adds mechanically.
Eylin scrambles to his feet before lunging at her wide hips," desperation" written all over his face.
But alas, his attempt fails as Kaelin dodges it cleanly before…
BWOING
Hitting his head, driving it into the ground.
"Tsk gonna grab those one of these days…" Eylin mutters while nursing his now swollen head.
"Ahem, beware of him… he's a total perv…" Kaelin says, turning towards Jessy, her warning clear.
Jessy`s cheeks flush red instantly.
"SLANDER….pure slander…how dare you…" Eylin shouts towards Kaelin, trying to salvage the little dignity he has left.
Mid-dusting himself, Eylin remembers what Kaelin had just said.
"What do you mean by one more…" he asks Kaelin.
"Exactly what it implies…" Kaelin answers while storing the shadow stalker and feeding Jack a healing portion.
Her gaze then lands on the bind construct shards on the ground, her eyes widening slightly in recognition before retrieving them too.
"Can I pick the next one?" he asks, genuinely curious.
Kaelin turns towards him, eyes locked on his "What, looking for a more accessible version of me?" she asks, half-teasing, half-serious.
Eylin's reaction catches her off guard.
"What nooo…I would never do that…what are you even implying?" Eylin responds, his eyes failing to meet hers.
"You can't be serious…you know what, let's get out of here…" Kaelin says before raising her arm ready to chant.
"Transitus magnus."
WHOOM
Two interlocked spell circles spring up to action, one rotating clockwise, the other anti-clockwise.
In the middle of it, a crack opens up, forming a door.
Kaelin steps in first for assurance, followed by the siblings, then at last Eylin.
On the other side, they all appear inside Eylin's room.
"Finally home, sweet home."