Chapter 48: BAD ANGLE’S

The broad bounty hunter moved first, snapping one hooked cord toward Sio’s face while the second stayed looped around his wrist. Sio opened a portal in front of the hook, shifted the exit beside the man’s boot, and sent the weapon into the sand hard enough to pull him off balance.

That single exchange ended whatever hesitation remained in the market. The woman beside the Voolah rushed Angle, the rooftop hunter dropped with his spear, and two more people pushed through the scattering crowd while Arch raised the Siphon Aegis.

Sio reached inside his coat and touched the baby creature curled beneath his collar. "Stay there for once. Papa would like to survive without discovering another thing you can do."

Several eyes blinked up at him, and for half a second Sio thought he had been listened to. Then the broad hunter ripped his hook free and came in behind the returning cord, hiding a punch beneath the line.

Sio shifted the same portal exit instead of making a new pair. The hook vanished again, but the fist came through underneath it and drove into his forearm hard enough to knock him sideways.

The baby hissed and spread across Sio’s shoulder just as the second hook swept back. Metal scraped over its dark surface and slid away instead of catching flesh, and Sio used the opening to move.

He planted one foot beside the portal entrance and shifted the exit behind the hunter’s knee. His kick disappeared at the ankle and came out from the wrong direction, buckling the man’s leg while Sio remained safely out of reach.

"Oh, that felt unfair," Sio said as he recovered his balance. "I’m definitely doing that again."

The hunter didn’t answer. He shifted his weight and began watching the portal instead of Sio’s body.

Across the street, Angle drove a burning heel past the woman’s shoulder and forced her away from the stalls. Arch had less room to be gentle; a stone-armed Riven slammed one heavy fist into the Siphon Aegis, and the gauntlet swallowed the impact with a metallic shudder.

The Riven swung again, but Arch refused to block with the Aegis. He slipped outside the punch, kept the stored force and drove an elbow into the man’s ribs.

A glowing thread snapped around Sio’s wrist before he could watch longer. The woman controlling it stood behind a water trough with two more shining lines already stretching from her fingers.

Sio opened a portal against the first thread and slid the exit behind the stone-armed Riven. The line reappeared around the man’s waist just as he charged Arch, and the thread-user jerked instinctively when she felt resistance.

The Riven’s balance broke at exactly the wrong moment. Arch stepped aside and released the force stored in the Aegis with one compact strike to the chest, sending the man backward through a stack of empty baskets.

Sio grinned until the broad hunter’s cord wrapped around his calf and yanked his leg out from under him. He hit the ground hard, but the baby creature burst from his coat before the hunter could drag him closer, one tentacle wrapping around the taut cord while another anchored against the ground.

Sio saw the answer in the stretched line between them. He opened a portal beneath the cord, shifted the exit above the man’s shoulder and kicked the trapped section through.

The direction of the pull changed instantly. The hunter had braced to drag Sio forward, but his own cord hauled upward and backward across his shoulder, breaking his stance while Sio rolled free.

The baby released the line and slapped two tentacles against Sio’s chest. Sio pushed himself upright and muttered, "I had that handled," while the creature clicked loudly enough to make the lie embarrassing.

The rooftop spearman came in from Sio’s blind side, but several of the baby’s eyes turned first. Sio caught the movement, opened a portal between himself and the thrust, and sent the spearhead out beside the thread-user instead.

She recoiled and lost control of every glowing line. Sio kept the same entrance open and slid the exit again, this time beside the spearman’s head.

His fist went through before the man realized what had changed. The punch caught him across the jaw and snapped his head sideways. Before pulling his arm back, Sio slid the exit beneath the spearman’s chin and drove the same fist upward.

The spearman stumbled, suddenly unsure which side of Sio mattered. Sio finally understood he didn’t need more portals; he needed to make the one people were watching become the wrong one.

He pressed forward with three short portal punches from three different angles, forcing the spearman back without chasing him a single step. For several seconds, the hunters around Sio were the ones trying to create distance.

Then the broad hunter stopped looking at Sio. His attention moved to Angle, then Arch, then back again, and Sio recognized the expression because Arch wore a quieter version whenever he noticed something everyone else had missed.

"He’s learning us," Arch said while turning away another attack.

The broad hunter snapped his fingers. Two hunters nearest Angle caught the signal immediately and shifted with him, while the others kept pressing Sio and Arch for their own chances at the bounty.

The spearman abandoned his retreat, the thread-user moved left, and the broad hunter stepped into the opening they created between Angle and the others.

"Angle, stay close," Arch called, but a glowing thread struck the ground between them while the spear forced Angle to turn the opposite way.

The broad hunter moved in the moment Angle looked toward his father.

Angle blocked the first hook with a burning forearm, then glanced toward Sio before checking Arch again. A second hunter struck him from behind at the exact moment his attention moved.

The broad hunter noticed. "You keep counting them."

Angle’s fire brightened around his fists as he turned back. "You talk too much."

The hook came high, then curved around his guard instead of striking it. The cord wrapped around Angle’s wrist, and another hunter drove a shoulder into his ribs while he burned through the line.

Sio opened a portal toward him, but the spearman had learned to watch the entrance. He drove the shaft across Sio’s path before Sio could step through, forcing him back while the thread-user sent another line toward the baby on his shoulder.

Sio’s irritation sharpened. He left the entrance where it was, shifted only the exit and punched through without moving his feet.

His fist appeared beside the spearman’s ear and snapped the man’s head sideways. Before pulling his arm back, Sio slid the exit beneath the spearman’s chin and drove the same fist upward.

The spearman reeled, but Sio didn’t enjoy it for long. Angle hit a wagon hard enough to shake the frame, dragging Sio’s attention across the market.

The broad hunter and two others had driven him farther from Arch. Angle’s flames still burned, but they were thinner now, clinging closer to his skin while every attempt to move back toward his father or Sio was cut off.

"You’re strongest when they’re beside you," the hunter said. Angle pushed away from the wagon and raised both hands, refusing to answer this time.

The next exchange was ugly. Angle blocked one strike, took another across the shoulder, burned through a cord before it tightened and still caught a kick in the stomach that bent him long enough for a third hunter to strike his back.

Sio opened a portal again, but the thread-user forced him sideways before he could cross. By the time he recovered, Angle was already standing, though his breathing had changed.

His fire flickered around his fists as he looked past the hunters toward Sio and then toward Arch. Whatever he saw there tightened his jaw more than the blows had.

The flames disappeared, and Sio’s stomach dropped until he realized the heat hadn’t gone anywhere.

It had collapsed inward.

The air around Angle warped so violently that the wagon behind him blurred. Sand beneath his boots darkened, then began to glow grain by grain while pale light gathered beneath the skin of his hands and crept toward his wrists.

The broad hunter stopped advancing. Angle looked down at his fingers as smoke curled from his sleeves, and the first small flames caught on the fabric while the light beneath his skin grew denser and brighter.

Sio nearly missed the spear coming toward him because he was staring. The baby hissed and dragged his collar sideways in time for him to duck, but Sio’s eyes went straight back to Angle as every hunter nearest him began giving ground.

For the first time since the fight began, even Arch stopped moving, his eyes fixed on the light gathering under his son’s skin.

"Angle, what are you doing?" Sio called, but Angle didn’t answer. He raised his head slowly while heat rolled outward without visible flame, and both sleeves began burning toward his elbows.