Nex sucked in a ragged breath and forced his wings steady. Pain tried to make him small. He refused.

  "That is it," Nex said. "We unleash the technique I was saving."

  Viz blinked, still dangling from Nexs grip, still half stunned. "The one meant for her?"

  Nex clicked once, sharp. "Yes."

  Viz's eyes went wide, his ears twitched in shock. "Nex, no. That one is dangerous. And to use it in our first match…"

  Nex bared his teeth and kept flying. "You think I do not know? Look at him."

  Yasuya hovered in front of the storm wreckage, calm as a shrine statue, then his horns glinted again. The air around his face tightened, like the world held its breath for him.

  Nex felt the pressure and his pride burned hotter. He glanced toward the stands without meaning to. His mother was there, expecting nothing, believing anyway. KiAera was there too, like a weight on his back. This was supposed to be his secret.

  KiAera did not matter to his heart. His mother did. He had wanted her to be the first to taste it. Now she was going to see it. Now the whole arena was going to watch him unveil it, and that vile vampiric woman was going to memorize every angle.

  Nex clicked a hard phrase to Viz. "No choice! We win!"

  Viz swallowed and answered with a shaky ping. "Then you better not miss."

  Yasuya launched, and the dragon became a straight line of light, a hot needle punching through the sky. Nex felt his fur lift from the static of it, and he snapped his head toward Viz.

  "Fly like you mean it," Nex shouted, tossing his brother forward, like a hatchling thrown from the nest.

  Viz's wings flared and his fear turned into speed. He surged through the sky, then cut, then surged forward again, and Nex matched him with an arrogant snap of acceleration. They became two fighter streaks weaving through a sniper line.

  Yasuya pierced after them. Each charge came clean and perfect, no curve, no drag, only a brutal straight line that arrived too fast. Nex dodged by inches, then corrected, then dodged again. Each near miss rattled his ribs and made his vision spotty, yet he kept his grin alive.

  Viz clicked in rhythm. "Left. Up. Drop." Nex answered with his own clicks. "Now. Now. Now." Their echolocation turned into a metronome for survival.

  "Let's start," Nex said. He formed it first, a compact sphere with a shuriken like edge. It was not metal. It was sound. A spinning knot of threads pulled from Nexs throat, from the edge of his wings, from the pressure of his flight.

  He tossed it to Viz.

  Viz caught it with his claws and did not stop moving. He fed it a jolt from his wings, electrical current riding on a vibrating pulse. The sphere brightened, then screamed softly, a tight whir that cut through the storm noise.

  In Nex's echolocation vision, he could perceive Yasuya lining up again. The dragon straightened and the sky in front of him tightened into a corridor of glare. He became a solid straight line of light and punched forward.

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  The pillar streaked past where Nex had been, close enough that Nex's fur flashed white from the heat.

  Nex dove, Viz climbed, then they crossed paths and traded places like blades in the same sheath. Another light line snapped through the cloud shelf and carved a perfect tunnel behind them.

  "Again," Nex said, and he clicked a quick map of the space ahead. Every glint, every pressure change, every cloud density shift formed a route in his mind.

  Yasuya launched again.

  Nex pulled Viz into a hard bank and they slid along the edge of the attack, so close that the light hissed against their wings. Nex felt the technique tug at his body like a straight wind trying to yank him into the line.

  Viz snapped, "He is faster each time!"

  Nex snapped back, "Then we get cleaner each time."

  They dodged again, then again, their turns getting tighter, their timing sharper. Each escape had a reason, it kept them alive and it kept their hands free.

  Nex clicked a single syllable to Viz. "Orb."

  Viz answered with two clicks. "Ready."

  Viz understood. He tossed back the small orb of crackling sound and charge into the air between them. It looked like a black pearl with white edges, and the rim shimmered like a shuriken blade.

  Nex caught it with a claw tip and did not hold it. He slapped it forward with a wing flick and fed it more spin. The orb screamed with a tight whine, and its edge sharpened as it twirled.

  Viz took it next and punched it onward with a electrical pulse. Lightning-sound wrapped the sphere and laced it with a twitching current. The orb grew louder, heavier, hungrier.

  They kept passing it while flying at top speed, as Yasuya pursued them ferociously like the living embodiment of heaven's verdict. Nex to Viz. Viz to Nex. Every exchange kept its momentum alive, and every exchange added another layer. The shuriken edge sharpened into a spinning ring. The center churned like a storm trapped in glass.

  Sound and electricity braided together and refused to unwind.

  Yasuya shot forward as another line of light.

  "Left," Nex shouted.

  They split around the attack and still kept the orb spinning between them. Nex felt its pull on the air, felt the way it drank wind and pushed back with a cutting hum.

  Viz panted, "It looks wrong."

  Nex grinned through the pain. "It's perfect."

  They passed it again, faster now. Each catch was a flap, each throw was a wingbeat, each beat added torque. The sphere began to resemble a whirling star with a bladed halo, a spinning orb with a shuriken rim, a violent spiral contained by discipline.

  Yasuya charged again, a pillar of light coming straight for them.

  "Do not break tempo," Nex snapped.

  "I am not breaking," Viz shouted back, breath ragged.

  They dodged together. Yasuya missed by a wingbeat, then ripped past like a white spear. The wake of his light shook the orb, but Nex slapped it back into line and forced the spin to stay true.

  The technique kept forming while they ran. It was insane. It was beautiful.

  Nex felt it pulling at his throat and wings, like it wanted more than sound, like it wanted his life in exchange for power. He fed it anyway, careful, measured, proud.

  Viz stared at it for a half second as he received it. "This is really it?"

  Nex laughed once, short and sharp. "This is the one!"

  Another light line surged forward.

  Nex and Viz split apart, then crossed back, then rejoined, and the orb stayed between them like a third partner. They passed it again, again, again, each time faster, each time tighter, until the sphere screamed with a steady, bloody pitch.

  Nex felt the air vibrating around it. He could hear the shuriken edge humming, layered with electricity, layered with sound strings twisted into a spiral. It looked like a swirling razor star, like a storm you could throw.

  Suddenly Yasuya slowed. Not with fear. Attention.

  Nex saw the dragon's eyes lock onto the forming sphere. That look made Nex's stomach tighten, then it made his confidence flare. "Good. Watch close."

  Viz panted. "When do we release?"

  Nex narrowed his eyes and timed the next light charge by its pressure in the air. "On his next line. When he commits."

  Yasuya glinted, then the sky split as he launched again.

  Nex snapped the orb into his palm and the spin howled. Viz flew at his side and poured one last surge of lightning sound into the core. The sphere swelled, razor rim shimmering, vortex screaming, a storm shaped like a shuriken.

  Nex and Viz flew in sync, shoulder to shoulder for one breath, and the orb between them roared like a caged engine.

  Nex felt the technique strain to escape, and he welcomed it.

  He looked up at the oncoming light and spoke with a confidence that dared the sky to argue. "Come on then, Yasuya. Let us see what breaks first!"