Chapter 53: Outmatched

The talisman in Leon's hand suddenly combusted. The intricate formation flickered once before collapsing into a thin, trailing wisp of smoke.

Leon stared at the blackened remains, his Qi completely dry. He sighed and began circulating his Sage Guidance again, drawing in the surrounding raw Qi as the next cycle began.

"Precise lines are really hard to draw on top of a moving mount," he muttered flatly.

Maya glanced at him from her side of the saddle. "You're surprised?"

"No," Leon looked down at the ruined scrap in his palm. "I'm disappointed."

Maya smiled faintly, adjusting her cloak against the cold wind. Leon ignored the expression, keeping his focus on the steady internal flow. "I have another hour before my meridians are filled again."

"How many cycles have you done so far?" Maya asked.

"Five cycles into the fourth stage."

Maya nodded, tracking their slow progress through the drifts. "I have almost mastered Sage Guidance. Once I fill my meridinas I can start practicing Sage Eyes and progress towards fully awakening my bloodline.....if--......no nevermind."

Leon looked ahead into the whiteout. "I wonder if there is someway I can better use that hour. Every minute can mean the difference between life and death in this situation."

He thought for a moment, but before he could finalize a plan, the snow directly ahead exploded.

A massive beast burst from the white landscape in a flurry of ice, its jaws snapping violently. Maya's expression changed instantly as another beast emerged from the side, followed immediately by a third. The creatures charged toward them, their heavy claws tearing through the deep snow.

Leon instinctively reached for the hilt of Maya's saber, then stopped his hand. His Qi was entirely empty, meaning he couldn't reinforce the steel with his Sage Eyes. True Strikes remained an option, but forcing the technique right now would rapidly consume his own vitality. He didn't want to start burning through his baseline health while Lyra's position toward them remained deeply uncertain—not yet.

Before Leon could make a definitive tactical choice, Lyra moved. She leapt from the mount with explosive force, her silver feathers flaring as her saber flashed through the red twilight.

The first beast was cleanly cleaved apart before its claws could even reach the saddle. She turned mid-air, delivering another blinding strike, and then another. The attackers collapsed into the snow almost instantly, their movements permanently silenced. Lyra returned to her mount and sheathed her blade as though nothing unusual had occurred, her breathing perfectly uniform.

Leon gritted his teeth while staring at the unmoving corpses. "...Too overpowered. The gap is too large. Three grade 1 beasts destroyed in an instant."

Maya glanced at his tense expression as Leon rubbed his temples in deep thought.

"We can't win," he sighed.

Maya frowned, her tone dropping. "Leon..."

"I'm serious," his eyes moved toward Lyra's rigid back. "If we split up and sacrifice the rock people, we might be able to run. But the divination tool has to go. Can I really destroy something in her possession?"

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He looked visibly conflicted, his amber eyes scanning the terrain. "It might be easier to escape and try to make a formation that counters the tool while we're on the run. Not that this option is easy either."

Leon looked toward Adrian, who was still riding beside Lyra and talking to her on the lead mount. "We're screwed in all cases," he sighed. "I still haven't figured out how to get Adrian when he's so close to Lyra."

Maya stared at him in utter disbelief. "You're seriously planning all of this right now?"

Leon looked back at her profile. "I'm trying to think of a way to keep everyone alive."

Maya didn't answer, her attention returning to the long path ahead. Leon closed his eyes and continued circulating his Qi through his meridians. One hour—that was all the time he had before his capacity filled and he could fight properly again. Until he knew what Lyra intended to do with them, he couldn't afford to waste a single second of it.

*****

Ahead of them, Adrian was navigating a considerably more difficult conversation. Lyra remained entirely rigid in her stance, her eyes fixed blindly on the churning blood-blizzard on the horizon as the mount's massive hooves ground heavily into the frost.

Adrian glanced at the side of her face. "I never intended to hurt you. And I definitely didn't intend to manipulate your feelings."

Only the whistling of the crimson wind answered him.

Adrian sighed, letting his shoulders drop slightly against the rear of the saddle. "Leon can be... insensitive."

Lyra finally looked back at him over her shoulder, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "That's one way of putting it."

Adrian laughed quietly, the sound muffled by his high collar. "Yes," he scratched the side of his face, his posture relaxing into a familiar routine. "But he's not doing it because he doesn't care. He's just not very sociable. He doesn't always understand how something sounds to another person until after he's already said it."

Lyra gave him a skeptical, hard look. "That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No," Adrian smiled faintly, his tone serious. "It's supposed to give you context. Let me give you a recap on how he acted back in our home world."

Lyra raised an eyebrow, her silver feathers shifting slightly under her winter cloak. "I'm interested."

"You know how he spent most of his time?" Adrian asked. "Not normal working. I mean he'd spend ridiculous amounts of time learning a single subject until he thoroughly understood every microscopic part of it. If he couldn't figure a problem out, he'd keep going until he did. He wasn't particularly good at resting either; he'd forget to eat entirely if nobody actively reminded him. That's not even an exaggeration; when he's focused he can't feel hungry. He could go 14 hours before feeling faint and then he would think of possible reasons for why he would get a drop in his blood pressure and arrive at the conclusion that he can't remember the last time he ate but probably half a day ago."

Lyra glanced back toward Leon, observing how his hands were still moving through a rapid sequence of talisman structures despite riding through a blizzard. "Seriously?"

"On my life," Adrian smiled. "And when something threatens people he considers his responsibility, he starts preparing backups. "

Lyra's expression hardened, her boots tightening against the beast's ribs. "That's what he was doing with me."

"Probably," Adrian paused, choosing his words carefully. "But there's a distinct difference between calculating what you might do and wanting to harm you. He keeps making backup plans because he's paranoid—not maliciously paranoid, just... Leon."

That blunt analysis almost made Lyra smile. The corners of her mouth twitched slightly before she forced her military composure back into place. Adrian noticed the micro-tic.

"See?"

"Don't push it," she grunted.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

A long, comfortable silence stretched between them, the steady, rhythmic breathing of the mount anchoring the ride. Finally, Lyra spoke, her tone dropping into a quieter register. "Do you trust him?"

Adrian didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. "With my life."

Lyra looked back at him. "Even after what he did?"

"Especially after knowing why he did it," Adrian clarified.

She frowned, turning her head back toward the path. "It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

"Now he knows you better," Adrian looked toward the front saddle. "That doesn't mean he'll suddenly become good at handling people though."

Lyra exhaled a long puff of warm condensation through her nose. "I noticed."

"You'll get used to it."

"I doubt that."

"You'd be surprised." Adrian murmured.