“Hey,” Kael said, glancing toward Aiko. “Mind stepping toward me for a second?”

  Aiko raised a brow, but didn’t question it. She took a few slow steps forward, her posture still light, controlled.

  Kael focused inward, fingers twitching slightly at his sides. He found the rhythm of breath again, dipped into his soulcore, and willed his essence forward.

  The response was immediate.

  He couldn’t see it—not with his eyes—but he felt it. The way the spell took form, the way the air compressed and flattened itself into a disc, thin and sharp, about two meters ahead of him.

  A strange weight settled in the back of his mind—the tether of connection. He could sense its shape, its presence, like holding something invisible between his fingers.

  Three meters, he estimated. Beyond that, the form weakened, frayed. He pushed a little further, trying to move it.

  The disc twitched slightly, shifting like a breath caught in hesitation—then broke apart without warning.

  Kael frowned.

  “Okay. That won’t work.”

  Movement didn’t seem reliable. But placement—that he could control. So instead of trying to move the disc, he focused on creating it directly where he needed it.

  Aiko was still walking.

  Kael reached for the air and willed a disc into existence—just in front of her face.

  The effect was immediate.

  Her expression twisted the moment the disc made contact—an invisible force slamming lightly into her face. She flinched back hard, upper body recoiling, one arm snapping out for balance as her boots scraped against the floor.

  Then her eyes locked on him, sharp and narrowed.

  “What did you do?!”

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  Kael blinked, startled. But the image of her usually calm face twisting in surprise stuck in his head—and before he could stop himself, a low chuckle escaped.

  “I—sorry. That was—” He snorted and tried to hold it in. “That was not on purpose. Okay, it was, but I didn’t think it’d work that well.”

  Aiko’s glare tightened for a second longer.

  Then her shoulders relaxed.

  Her mouth twitched.

  “You’re impossible,” she muttered, the edge of a smile ghosting across her lips. It didn’t reach her eyes, not fully—but it was there, brief and real.

  Kael wiped his grin down to something neutral, even if his eyes were still bright.

  For a moment, the ruin around them seemed distant. Less choking. Less cold.

  Aiko’s expression shifted again, this time to something more serious.

  “Seeing as you don’t have a weapon,” she began, “and my ability leans offensive, we’ll work like this: you draw attention. Bait. Your air disks can disrupt, distract. I’ll use that window to strike from the side or behind.”

  Kael nodded, his expression tightening as he ran mental calculations.

  She continued. “How many can you create?”

  He took a breath, considered.

  “Three at a time,” he said. “In a range of maybe two to three meters. Any further and they don’t hold well. They don’t last long either. A few seconds, tops. So I need to time them right.”

  He rubbed his neck, thinking aloud. “I can cast them pretty fast though. Not sure how many times yet before I burn out, but… we’ll figure that part out as we go.”

  Aiko nodded, quietly absorbing the information. Then:

  “If more than one opponent shows up, we run. No hesitation. If we can’t escape, we balance each other.”

  She spoke with a commander’s tone now—still calm, but shaped by urgency.

  “We’ll use language as a tool. Monsters shouldn’t understand us. That gives us an edge. If you see a gap, call it. If I say shift, you break their stance. You create chaos. I’ll look for the strike.”

  “Got it,” Kael said.

  “You keep their focus,” she added, “until I take them down.”

  They talked a while longer, working through different angles—how to signal mid-fight, how to reposition, how to read each other's momentum. Then they acted it out in the empty room, just enough to build rhythm. It wasn’t smooth, but it started to feel like something.

  After that, they rested.

  Simple. Direct.

  It wasn’t a perfect plan. But it was a plan. And that was more than they’d had yesterday.

  Then—

  Snap.

  A sharp crack echoed from the hall.

  The tripwire had been triggered.

  Kael’s eyes flicked toward the door.

  Aiko’s fingers were already drifting toward her hilt.

  Neither moved.

  Yet.