The timer showed five minutes.

Around us, the battle had devolved into pure chaos. The other guilds were no longer coordinating their attacks, instead fighting anyone and everyone within reach. The Sentinels and Phantoms had started targeting each other, while the Vipers and Strikers were engaged in their own private war.

Our strategy had worked. By making ourselves the primary target, we’d forced them to concentrate on us... until their old rivalries bubbled to the surface.

Now they were too busy killing each other to focus on taking our flag.

I couldn’t help but laugh. "These idiots are doing our job for us."

Natalia appeared at my side, her chest heaving with exertion. "Was that part of your plan?"

"Let’s go with yes."

She rolled her eyes, but I caught the hint of a smile. "You’re impossible."

"You love it."

A flash of red caught my attention. Reyna had recovered and was creating new marionettes, these ones larger and more menacing than before. Julian stood beside her, hatred momentarily set aside in favor of a common enemy.

"They’re working together," I observed.

Natalia followed my gaze. "That’s not good."

"Actually, it’s perfect." I keyed my comm. "Skylar, you still alive?"

"No thanks to you," her voice crackled through the earpiece. "What do you need?"

"Julian and Reyna are teaming up. Think you can separate them?"

A pause. Then: "Give me thirty seconds."

I grinned at Natalia. "This should be fun to watch."

Twenty-seven seconds crawled by in the thick of battle, and then Julian’s head whipped up as if he’d been struck by an invisible blow. The motion was sudden, violent—like a puppet whose strings had just been yanked. His face drained of all color in an instant, going corpse-pale, before flushing a deep, mottled crimson that spoke of pure, incandescent rage. His eyes darted across the chaotic battlefield in frantic, jerking movements, searching desperately for something—or someone.

"What in the hell did she say to him?" Natalia breathed beside me, her own gaze tracking Julian’s increasingly unhinged movements.

I couldn’t suppress the grin that tugged at my lips. "Knowing Skylar? Something deeply personal. Something that’ll wake him up in a cold sweat for the next month, minimum." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

And just like that, Julian abandoned his temporary alliance without so much as a backwards glance. He took off at a dead sprint toward a distant section of the arena where Skylar had briefly materialized from the smoke and illusions before dissolving back into nothingness like a ghost. His entire world had narrowed to a single point of obsessive focus, and that focus was no longer on us.

Just as planned.

Reyna stood alone now, her head turning to track Julian’s retreat. For a single, crystalline moment, confusion flickered across her face—genuine bewilderment at being so abruptly discarded. Then that confusion ignited into something far more dangerous. Her emerald eyes locked onto mine across the battlefield, and the promise of retribution in that gaze was as clear as day.

"Incoming," I said flatly, my grip tightening on my bat.

Reyna didn’t just attack. She erupted.

Ten marionettes materialized in the space around her in rapid succession, each one larger and more menacing than anything she’d conjured before. These weren’t the compact, elegant constructs from earlier—these were towering figures of crackling, furious lightning, each one standing nearly eight feet tall and humming with barely-contained voltage. The air itself seemed to protest their existence, crackling and hissing as static electricity built to a fever pitch. My skin prickled uncomfortably, every hair on my body standing on end as if reaching toward the sky.

"This is gonna hurt," I muttered, watching the electrical storm building around her like a gathering hurricane.

Natalia’s fingers found mine, squeezing once—hard. "Don’t die."

"Wouldn’t dream of it, Princess."

The first wave hit us like the wrath of God himself.

Natalia’s telekinetic shield flared into existence, a massive dome of shimmering purple energy that intercepted the initial barrage of lightning bolts. The impacts were deafening, each strike sending visible shockwaves rippling across the barrier’s surface. Most of the assault was stopped cold, but hairline cracks began to spiderweb across the purple energy as the electrical bombardment intensified. Natalia’s face was a mask of concentration and strain, sweat streaming down her temples as she poured everything she had into maintaining our only defense.

"Can’t... hold it..." she gasped, her voice tight with pain and exertion.

"Drop it on my mark," I said calmly, activating [Lightning Rod] and channeling every single ounce of mana I possessed into the ability. I could feel it thrumming through my core, a hungry vortex waiting to be unleashed. "Three... two... one... NOW!"

The shield vanished like it had never existed.

All ten marionettes unleashed their full electrical fury in perfect, devastating synchronization. The combined power converging on a single point was apocalyptic—enough raw voltage to vaporize a normal human being in a fraction of a second, reducing flesh and bone to nothing but ash and vapor.

Fortunately for me, "normal" stopped being a relevant descriptor a long time ago.

My body became a living lightning rod in the truest, most literal sense of the word. Every single bolt, every arc of electricity, every fragment of Reyna’s elemental wrath bent mid-flight and slammed directly into me in a spectacular, blinding display of raw elemental domination. The electricity didn’t just enter my body—it flooded into me, filling my mana channels to bursting and then beyond. My veins glowed an eerie, pulsing blue beneath my skin, the light visible even through my clothing as power surged through me like a living, writhing thing. It felt like swallowing a star.

The crowd fell into a stunned, breathless silence. Twenty thousand spectators collectively held their breath as I stood there, arms outstretched, absorbing enough raw electrical energy to power half of Valoria for a solid week.

Reyna’s expression underwent a dramatic transformation. The confident smirk melted away like wax under a flame, replaced by dawning horror as her most powerful assault did absolutely, categorically nothing.

"Impossible," she whispered, the word barely audible over the dying crackle of dissipating electricity.

I grinned, my teeth glowing blue with stored energy. "You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means."

The timer showed three minutes.

I released the stored electricity in a focused beam that cut through all ten marionettes at once, reducing them to scattered sparks. The remaining energy arced outward in a circular shockwave, knocking down everyone within twenty feet of me.

Everyone except Natalia, who stood beside me unharmed, protected by my control.

The arena went completely silent.

Then someone in the crowd started chanting: "STRAY DOG! STRAY DOG!"

Others picked it up until twenty thousand voices thundered in unison: "STRAY DOG! STRAY DOG! STRAY DOG!"

I raised my bat, basking in the moment. This—this was what I’d wanted. To be seen. To be acknowledged.

To have them chant my name.

Natalia’s hand slipped into mine, squeezing tight. "Show-off," she said, but her eyes shone with something like pride.

The timer showed two minutes.

The other guilds made one final, desperate push to take our flag. They came at us from all sides, throwing everything they had into a last-ditch effort.

But we were ready.

My team moved like a single organism, covering each other’s weaknesses, amplifying each other’s strengths. Raphael and Hikari smashed through the front lines. Marco and Malachi guarded the flanks. Juan and Isabelle provided tactical support from the rear. Skylar appeared and disappeared like a ghost, striking from impossible angles.

And at the center of it all, Natalia and I stood back-to-back, her telekinesis and my absurd stats creating a fortress that none could breach.

When the final buzzer sounded, we still held the central flag.

Just one flag—but it was enough.

Maximus Hype’s voice boomed across the arena: "UNBELIEVABLE! THE ONYX HOUNDS HAVE DONE IT! ONE FLAG AGAINST FOUR, AND THEY’VE STILL COME OUT ON TOP!"

The scoreboard flashed our victory: Onyx Hounds - 100 points.

The crowd erupted into the loudest cheer yet, a wall of sound that physically pushed against us. Signs with my face and name waved frantically throughout the stadium.

My team gathered around me, battered and bloody but triumphant. Raphael’s eye was swollen shut. Hikari was limping. Juan had lost his jacket somewhere. Skylar’s hair was singed at the edges. Marco’s knuckles were raw and bleeding. Malachi was so exhausted he could barely stand.

But they were all smiling.

"We did it," Natalia said, her voice thick with emotion. "We actually did it."

I looked at my guild, my pack, my people, and felt something unfamiliar swell in my chest. Pride, maybe. Or belonging. Whatever it was, it felt... nice.

"Was there ever any doubt?" I said with my trademark grin.

Natalia punched my arm, but there was no force behind it. "Always with the ego."

"You love it."

"Unfortunately."

I scanned the arena, taking in the defeated looks on our opponents’ faces. Julian’s rage had transformed into something colder and more calculated. Reyna’s expression was unreadable, but her eyes followed me with intense focus.

They’d underestimated us. They wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Good. I wanted them at their best when I crushed them completely.

Natalia tugged at my sleeve. "Stop plotting their destruction and come on. Braxton says we need to regroup before the next event."

"Was I that obvious?"

"Your face gets a certain look when you’re planning someone’s demise. It’s disturbingly attractive."

I laughed and pulled her close, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. "Only you would find murder plans sexy."

"What can I say? I have unique taste."

We walked off the arena floor together, the crowd’s chants following us like a physical presence. As we passed through the exit tunnel, I caught sight of Veronica Cabana watching me from the VIP section. She raised her glass in a mock toast, her smile promising trouble.

Natalia followed my gaze and her temperature dropped ten degrees instantly. "Don’t even think about it."

"Think about what? I’m completely innocent."

"You’ve never been innocent a day in your life."

Fair point.