Tristan grimaced as he uncorked the mana potion, the sickly-sweet smell wafting up like a sp to the face. He sighed before downing it in one gulp. The glow of magic flickered around his wound, knitting flesh back together with all the grace of a rushed tailor.

  Yvolt stood in front of him, her rapier raised, the ever-present pis in her eyes shining brighter than any sense of self-preservation. “ you hurry up, Tan? I’m ly thrilled about pyi shield tonight.”

  “Almost doristan replied, flexing his newly healed side and rising to his feet with a smug grin. “Good as new.”

  Meanwhile, Ahlgrath roving that even in battle, he was an overachiever in the “gross and horrifying” department. With a satisfied growl, he stalked to the mangled remains of his fallen men and began g through their bodies like a grotesque buffet.

  Bones snapped, ichor dripped, and the sound was enough to make anyone’s stomach turn.

  Yvolt wrinkled her nose. “Oh, great. He’s snag.”

  Tristan tilted his head. “Should we be worried?”

  “Tan, he’s literally eating his friends. What do you think?”

  Ahlgrath licked his lips, his wounds sealing with grotesque efficy. “Round two, little knights?” he rumbled, his grin wider than ever.

  Ahlgrath had seey in his monstrous lifetime—angry mobs, screaming vilgers, and knights who thought a shiny bde and a righteous cause could fix everything. But this? These two were something else entirely. Their fighting style wasn’t just infuriating; it was borderline insulting.

  He’d figured out their little trick quickly enough. Say an endearing phrase, switch pces, rinse a. Predictable, right? Wrong.

  Apparently, they’d decided the old “I love you” wasn’t enough. Now, the battlefield was littered with sickly sweet decrations: “I miss you,” “I like your smile,” “You’re my everything.” If Ahlgrath hadn’t been so focused on killing them, he might’ve vomited on the spot.

  Not to mention, their little feints. Now they had added the delightful little twist of not switg after their cue, just to keep him guessing. Was it going to be a s or a trick? Who knew? Certainly not him, and that was driving him insane.

  He growled, his cws flexing as he tried to anticipate their move. But the so-called “Love Potion Duo” weren’t just fighters; they were chaos ed in pis. Worse still, the potion’s effects showed no signs of wearing off.

  “How much longer are you going to glow like some lovesick fireflies?” he snarled, gring at their annoyingly synized movements.

  Yvolt smirked, her bde gleaming as she darted forward. “Long enough to kill you.”

  Ahlgrath gritted his teeth. Fine. Let them py their twisted little game. He’d just have to make sure they didn’t live long enough to finish it.

  The rooftops shook under Ahlgrath’s relentless pursuit, his grotesque form swelling with bck substahat hardened like armor. Each step he took sent shards of tiles tumbling to the streets below, his monstrous presence filling the narrow skyline like a living nightmare.

  Yes, he knew people around would start notig, but he would eat them all. Food wouldn’t talk or spread stories.

  Tristan and Yvolt darted around him, their glowing pink eyes uerred, but Ahlgrath’s patience for their tricks had long since run dry.

  They struck with their usual uability—an arrow glowing with mana here, a rapier slig through the fog there—but it didn’t matter anymore.

  Ahlgrath barely flihe thied mass of his skin abs the hits with a siing squelch. Even their clever feints, onough to wound him, now only mao chip away at his outer yer.

  He pressed forward, uing, his cws swiping through the air with murderous i.

  “You think you dance around me forever?” he snarled, his voice a guttural growl as he deflected Yvolt’s rapier with a baded swipe. “You’re only deying the iable.”

  Yvolt’s bde barely scratched his shoulder before boung off, the force of the impact sending her skidding back across the slick rooftop.

  Tristan, ever the sharpshooter, loosed another Force arrow, its glowing tip hissing through the fog. Ahlgrath didn’t even bother dodging; it struck his chest and dissipated harmlessly into the bck armor coating his body.

  “Still trying, huh?” he sneered, stepping toward them. His eyes flicked to the satchel at Tristan’s side, the one carrying the stolen dots.

  He couldn’t let them escape with that—not because of some misguided sense of duty, but because those papers represented something bigger. His master’s pns couldn’t be promised.

  But he khese knights weren’t the fleeing type. They weren’t here to run; they were here to kill him.

  Good. He could work with that.

  Yvolt g Tristan, aurhe look with a faint nod. No words passed between them, but their i was clear. They were at a stalemate, and something had to give. A decisive blow was their only ce, and both k.

  Across the rooftop, Ahlgrath growled low, his monstrous form crag with dark energy. The bck substance coating his body pulsed and shifted like living armor, prepared to tank whatever they threw at him. “I see you,” he rumbled, his cws flexing. “Your little pns won’t save you.”

  Yvolt dashed first, her rapier shimmering with mana as she charged directly at him. Her movements were sharp, deliberate—an unmistakable tell of an ining all-or-nothing attack. Ahlgrath crouched low, his hulking frame coiled like a spring, ready to intercept her bde.

  “Predictable,” he sneered, swiping his massive cws in a wide arc.

  But just as Yvolt was within striking range, her form flickered and vanished. Before Ahlgrath could react, Tristan appeared in her pce, bow already drawn.

  “Names,” Tristan said coldly, loosing a Force arrow point-bnk.

  BLAAAAAAST!

  The projectile exploded against Ahlgrath’s chest, sending him skidding back. He roared, swinging wildly, but the duo had already shifted again. Yvolt was now above him, her rapier plunging toward his ne a streak of light.

  No cue?!

  Ahlgrath twisted, his cw catg her bde mid-air, but the sheer force of her strike sent cracks spidering through his bck armor. Before he could retaliate, she flickered, and Tristan was behind him, driving a kifused with mana into his exposed side.

  Where’s the “I love yous”?!

  They attacked in perfect harmony, switg positions without a single word n. Ahlgrath’s monstrous strength gave him the ability to ter any one of them, but their seamless transitio him swinging at air, his cws scraping against tiles as their relentless blows nded faster than he could track.

  How did they know when to switch? How did they synize their movements then?

  Yvolt reappeared in front of him, feinting with a thrust before slipping to his fnk. Tristan loosed another arrow, its crag mana f Ahlgrath to stagger into her waiting strike. She spun, her rapier slig ly through his side, ichor spraying across the roof.

  “You’re not the only one who adapt,” Tristan muttered as he nded another arrow into Ahlgrath’s shoulder, the force bsting him baother step.

  Ahlgrath growled, shaking his head as if to clear it. For the first time, the monster seemed genuinely disorieheir attack had thrown him off bance, his monstrous fidence crag along with his armor. The Love Potion Duo was no longer just uable—they were unstoppable.

  But how?

  No, they didn’t switch pces every time they whispered some cutesy endearment. And no, it wasn’t some fancy spellwork either. That would’ve been far too simple.

  What they had was something more physical, more chaotid far more obnoxiously personal.

  Every time their hearts beat at the same time, their bodies switched pces.

  The trick came after that.

  .

  .

  .

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  ----------------------------------------

  So, Yvolt, Tristan, what do the love potion do?

  Tristan: Ah, there's a lot the love potion do.

  Yvolt: It was awkward when we actally ied it for the first time.

  Tristan: *blushed so hard his entire body was red* Fuck.