Victory was in his grasp.
Havoc watched the crumbling lines on Topoc Hill, certain: the wall would fall. Even with their strange ability to rotate wounded and exhausted soldiers, the defenses had nearly broken in multiple places.
Commander Havoc: All lines—forward. This ends now!
The Zuni battle cry echoed through the valley.
Nearly two full Legions—eight thousand men—charged up Topoc Hill.
Cane brought back the latest wave from the ringworld. Belzi, cap crooked but beaming, gave him a cheery wave. The small gesture cut through his fatigue.
"They're finally committing," Cane murmured. He raised his bracer.
"All outer and mid defensive positions: fall back to the last line."
Davon, watching from the hill, blinked in surprise. "You heard him! Fall back!"
The earth trembled as the charge approached. Screams, hooves, and war drums poured down like thunder. It felt like being dragged into quicksand.
Cane stood at the edge of the last line, watching. The Zuni were no longer posturing—this was the final strike.
Above, Havoc narrowed his eyes.
Why pull back?
A knot formed in his stomach. These soldiers weren't like anything he'd faced. What if… what if it wasn't just a company of fire mages?
He looked west.
Smoke—rising from the ridgeline where Locust had been holding reinforcements.
"No…" His gaze snapped east. More smoke. More fire.
His blood ran cold.
"What have I done?"
Commander Havoc: RETREAT! FALL BACK TO RALLY POINT!
Cane watched from the ridge as the once-ferocious charge slowed in confusion.
He spoke quietly, to no one in particular.
"It's too late for that."
A gust of wind swept the hillside, carrying not just fire and blood—but salt.
The scent. The taste. The shift.
Cane's eyes closed. He reached into the ringworld—deep beneath the sea.
Selene Morva floated still and serene in her mermaid form, coiled in silence. Cane touched her mind.
"I'm opening the way. Send it."
A shudder passed through the air.
Then—impact.
From the base of the last defensive line, a massive doorway opened with a burst of air. The ground buckled—and an ocean column exploded through.
A towering wave of saltwater slammed into the valley.
Rocks. Trees. Weapons. Corpses. All lifted, hurled, swallowed.
The deafening cries of charging soldiers were instantly drowned by the roar of crashing waves.
On either side, gullies and ravines should have siphoned the deluge—but Clara's patchwork of vines and psi-stacked stone held.
The basin filled.
In thirty seconds, the water was knee-deep.
In sixty, horses flailed. Men screamed. Steel dragged them down.
Havoc circled overhead, his voice lost in the chaos. His soldiers—once elite, once organized—were floundering, shoulder-deep in floodwater. Some tore off armor and weapons in panic. Others vanished beneath the churn.
"I'll kill you!"
Havoc dove, silver javelin crackling in his hand.
He locked eyes on Cane and threw.
A jagged bolt of lightning lanced the sky.
Zio. The Queen of Storms.
The blast slammed into Havoc's drake mid-dive. The beast shrieked, wings folding. Havoc and his mount spiraled down—down—into the flood below.
The silver javelin tore from Havoc's hand, a blur of death streaking toward Cane with inhuman speed—
And stopped.
Mid-air.
The javelin hovered, trembling.
Chanzi stood behind Cane, hands raised, her psi-barrier rippling like a sheet of glass through the air. She held it for one breath longer, then released. The javelin dropped, vanishing into the flood below.
Her dark eyes flicked toward him. "Weren't you going to dodge that?"
Cane shrugged. "You said you had my back, right?"
Chanzi gave a curt nod. "Right."
"Captain!" Teek's voice crackled from the command tent. "Commander Terok's troops are closing in from the west! Shouldn't we turn off the water?"
Cane nodded. A moment later, the deluge ceased.
Topoc Hill had become an island fortification.
"Send word to Terok. Warn him about the flooding—and give him a full progress report. Take Moxie, unless you've got a boat."
Then—impact.
A burst of power erupted from the flooded basin. Water and rocks exploded outward as a giant figure in heavily runed plate surged from the depths.
Havoc.
The Field Marshal's roar was inhuman. "DIE!"
He moved like a war god, sword flashing in a blur—too fast to block. Too powerful to stop.
But Cane didn't flinch.
He'd felt Havoc's approach. Felt his armor. Every weapon. Every buckle and hinge.
The blade slammed down—and stopped cold.
Cane's hand was raised, fingers open.
Havoc's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Nice sword," Cane said calmly. "Unfortunately, I'm a metallurgist. And metal?"
He pressed a single finger against Havoc's chestplate.
"Metal doesn't hurt me anymore."
The armor sealed with a grinding shriek—runes fusing, joints locking, enchantments crushed into silence. A single, seamless shell.
"Join your men," Cane said, then kicked.
His boot slammed into Havoc's chest, launching the Field Commander backward—into the deep waters below.
Cane activated the bracer.
"All units—back into the ringworld. Rest and recovery. We're done here."
One by one, the Fury troops disappeared. Within minutes, only Cane remained atop the hill.
He looked out over the flooded basin—the battlefield that had become a graveyard, a lake, a symbol.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Fury Bay," he whispered. "Sounds about right."
Moments later, Teek returned—soaked, muddy, and grinning—leading Moxie and Legion Commander Terok.
Terok's face was streaked with soot and sweat. He held out a hand.
Cane clasped it.
"Fury Bay," Cane said again. "What do you think?"
Terok chuckled, shaking his head. "I think it suits."
He exhaled, eyes darkening. "We finished off Locust. Tough bastard. Took longer than expected."
"Casualties?" Cane asked quietly.
"Twenty-eight," Terok replied. "And you?"
"We lost four."
The numbers settled over them like ash.
They stood together on the hilltop, gazing out over the dark waters—where two entire Zuni legions had vanished.
What would come next?
The wind carried no answer.
Only the distant sound of waves against rock.
Kra'lor City – Zuni Empire
General Tulus Pox stood atop the battlements, flanked by Zuni's two most powerful mages—Archmages Lago and Sera Fen.
The general's shoulders were heavy with dread. He knew how this would go. He would be blamed. He would hang.
"Can't you do anything, Archmage?" he asked, his voice hollow.
Lago's bald head glistened under the midday sun. His dark eyes fixed on the skyline—on the presence looming there like a stormcloud barely held at bay.
Telamon.
"Archmages do not involve themselves in the wars of men," Lago said quietly.
A lie, of course. He had intervened more times than history recorded. But not now. Not while he was watching.
"What do we do?" Pox whispered. His confidence—infamous across the Empire—was gone.
The Allies had turned their own strategy against them. One Legion left behind to defend. Four sent to crush the enemy. The difference? The Allied Legion hadn't just held… they'd wiped out the Zuni invasion force.
And the stories had begun. Of the Fury Legion—soldier-mages who fought with sword and flame. A force that never tired. That could not die.
Where had they come from?
"You surrender," Lago replied.
He exchanged a look with Sera Fen.
Then both mages vanished.
In the aftermath of the dual victories, King Hellion accepted the unconditional surrender of the Zuni Empire.
All territories belonging to the Allied Realms were returned.
All prisoners of war were released.
The Zuni Navy was dissolved—merchant vessels only, and even those limited to four cannons apiece.
The army was reduced to a single Legion, its battalions distributed to defend major cities. No more. Never again.
Cane and Fergis stood with Commander Terok, shaking his hand in the shadow of what had been a war camp—and was now a monument.
"What will you do now?" Terok asked.
"Back to the Academy," Cane said.
"We're just first-year cadets," Fergis added with a grin.
"Heavens…" Terok chuckled, shaking his head. "Fury Legion will always have a place for you."
Nearby, Davon and Teek waited.
The oldest sergeant in the Legion had fought long enough. He was going home.
Teek… had made her decision. She was going with Fergis.
"In you go," Cane said, sending them into the ringworld with a final nod.
"Good luck, Commander."
Terok nodded back. "See you at the parade."
Fergis blinked. "Parade?"
"There's always a parade," Terok muttered.
"Captain!"
Runner Belzi skidded to a halt.
"Just Cane now," he said, smiling. "Turned in my commission."
"Oh…" She hesitated. Then: "Good."
She launched forward, hugging him tightly. "If you ever need a fast runner, you know where to find me."
"I'll remember," Cane said, laughing softly.
Belzi pulled off her cap and placed it in his hand. "A keepsake."
Then—without another word—she rifted away.
With Tazi and Moxie leading the way, Cane and Fergis rode out of camp.
Back toward the Academy.
Back to where it had all begun.
Back to where the next chapter waited.