The moment Kasul lifted his hand, the air itself seemed to change.
Dark, snaking chains of black energy coiled around him, moving like living serpents, their links rattling with an eerie hum. The night's torches flickered as if drawn to his power, their glow warping in the shifting air.
"You shouldn't have come here," Kasul said, his voice low, like iron scraping over stone. He was wearing black leather pants and high black boots with a white short-sleeved shirt and a leather pad on his right shoulder his long wavy hair wild and his beard as well.
His stance was relaxed, almost lazy, but Benjamin knew real danger didn't need theatrics. The best fighters didn't posture. They simply ended things.
Benjamin reacted first, instincts kicking in. He raised his crossbow from a cover in the tree line, the energy ring whirring softly as it synchronized with the weapon. A pulse of force surged through his arm as he pulled the trigger—
A searing bolt of energy ripped through the air, its sharp, bright glow cutting a line toward Kasul's chest.
And then—
The chains moved.
Faster than Benjamin's eyes could track, a black chain lashed forward, intercepting the bolt mid-flight, wrapping around it like a coiling python before twisting it into nothingness.
"What the—?" Benjamin barely had time to react before another chain shot toward him, aimed at his legs. He rolled aside, his breath ragged, mind racing.
The Law of Chains.
It wasn't just about binding and restricting. Kasul's chains altered outcomes, redirecting energy, negating attacks—turning cause into effect and effect into cause.
Not at the highest level, not like the legendary Sages that Benjamin read about who could rewrite causality itself, but it was enough to turn their weapons against them.
From above, Atty's thoughts rang in his mind.
"He's fast. Three chains active. Two defensive, one attacking. More waiting beneath him." As Atty was getting acquainted with its new form the thoughts it was transfering to Benjamin were more structured. Atty was learning from Benjamin elevating its own sentience. What this would entail to the duo only time would tell.
Benjamin tensed, ducking another chain strike and relocated as Yu and Dab surged forward.
---
Yu charged in first, his body shifting mid-sprint, his Law of Mass condensing his form into something denser, stronger, his movements becoming shockwaves in motion. He slammed his fist down, the earth beneath him cracking from the force.
Kasul twisted aside, his body moving inhumanly smooth, like a thread slipping through a needle's eye. His chains snapped toward Yu's legs, but Yu shifted his weight, forcing the chains to tighten around empty air.
"Too slow!" Yu grinned.
Dab followed up in an instant, her daggers flashing like silver streaks. She didn't aim for center mass—she knew better. Instead, she targeted Kasul's joints, his tendons, the soft places no armor could protect.
Precision over power.
One of her strikes landed, slicing against his shoulder—but instead of pain, Kasul simply smirked, as if indulging a child's attempt to wound him.
Then the chains flared.
Dab's own momentum turned against her, as if she had struck into nothing, the force of her attack redirected back into her wrist. The shock threw her balance off, and in that moment of hesitation, Kasul moved.
His leg lashed out, striking her ribs, sending her skidding backward with a hiss of pain.
Benjamin, heart pounding, took aim again.
He couldn't use brute force.
Think!
---
"His defense is too tight," Atty relayed from above. "He's baiting attacks to turn them around."
Benjamin gritted his teeth while he was shooting repeatedly trying to chip at Kasu'w defense and support Yu's and Dan's offensive. We need to not attack him directly he conveyed to Atty.
He then shifted his aim, firing not at Kasul, but at the ground behind him.
The bolt exploded against the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust and debris.
Kasul's chains lashed out instinctively—but against what?
Dab vanished into the dust cloud, moving faster than before, her Law of Precision guiding her.
She slid under Kasul's guard, her blade slicing upward—
Kasul blocked it with a chain, but he had been forced to react rather than control.
Yu slammed in next, his fist crashing into Kasul's side like a falling boulder.
Kasul grunted, his first true hit taken.
But Kasul wasn't panicked. He had been toying with them.
"Time to get seriou, kids" said the wild man with a wide feral grin, his oliv-skinned glistening with sweat.
Chains burst from beneath the earth, pre-positioned traps he had set while dodging their first attacks.
One snared Yu's arm, yanking him backward.
Another shot toward Dab, forcing her to flip away or be caught.
The last?
Straight for Benjamin.
"Ben, move!" Atty's warning came too late.
The chain coiled around his ankle, yanking him into the air, spinning his world upside down.
Kasul smirked coldly. "You like to stay at a distance, don't you? Rat!" Benjamin took offense to that, not because he cared about the bandit's opinion, but because he was right and at the moment there was nothing else he could do. Despite improving his martial skills he was simply not at the level of Yu and Dab.
He swung the chain, sending Benjamin flying toward a boulder above the mine's entrance.
Pain exploded through his ribs as he crashed against it, his vision blurring, breath stolen from his lungs.
---
"Not done yet," Yu snarled, ripping himself free, his Law of Mass turning his body into an unstoppable force making him double his normal size. He barreled forward, throwing another crushing blow—
Kasul, instead of dodging, ducked close, twisting Yu's momentum against him.
Then—the trap was sprung.
The chains shifted, their positions forcing the group apart.
Kasul swept his arm, and the very entrance to the mine rumbled.
Dab was already moving, grabbing Benjamin by the wrist, trying to pull him clear—
But Kasul wasn't aiming at them.
He was aiming at the entrance itself aiming to bury Benjamin under the rubble.
A deafening crack tore through the air as the support beams snapped, sending tons of rock and earth crashing down.
"Yu!" Benjamin shouted, but he couldn't see through the collapsing debris.
The last thing he saw before the dust swallowed everything was Yu's blurred silhouette, still fighting, still standing—
Then—darkness.
---
Silence.
Then—dust in his lungs, pressure against his back, the cold weight of rock and earth pressing in.
Benjamin coughed, struggling to move.
Somehow, he and Dab had been thrown deeper into the mine entrance, the collapse sealing them in.
"Atty?" he sent through their link.
The response was faint, like a distant whisper. "Alive. But… the collapse severed the main link. I can barely feel you." Atty could not communicate with You without the help of Benjamin who was worried about the fate of the duo outside.
Benjamin tried to slow his breathing. We're were trapped, dammin!
His crossbow was still intact. His body was bruised, but nothing was broken.
Dab groaned beside him, pushing a rock off her leg, blood dripping from her temple.
"Yu…" Benjamin whispered hoping that by some miracle his voice would reach Yu.
It didn't.
Dab's eyes met his, and he could see the same thought running through both of them.
"Yu is still alive." Said the young Hayawa, not simply to cheer Benjamin up but because her heightened Hayawa senses were perceiving the sounds of battle from outside.
Above them, beyond the fallen stone, the fight was still happening.
But they were separated, cut off from their friend, from their escape.
And now, they had only one way forward.
Down into the Black Flame's mine.
Into the unknown.