I blinked up at the small crowd surrounding me, still half asleep and not particularly bothered by the fact that four armed ninja, one girl, and an elderly man were now standing over the place where I had decided to take a nap. Zane stood closest, looking exactly as calm as when he had left, while the other three ninja were considerably less subtle about staring at me. The red one had his arms folded over his chest and was studying me suspiciously, the blue one looked like he had about twenty questions fighting to escape his mouth at the same time, and the black one was quieter, though his eyes kept moving between me, Silence resting beside me, and Zane. Nya stood nearer to the old man, while Sensei Wu himself had gone strangely still. I pushed myself onto one elbow, yawned without bothering to cover my mouth, and gave them a lazy smile. "Hello there."
Kai was naturally the first to speak. "So you're Jinx?" he asked, sounding less like he was introducing himself and more like he was confirming the identity of someone Zane had warned him about. I looked at him for a second before glancing at Zane, who gave me the smallest nod imaginable, apparently confirming that my name had already been distributed to the entire group. "Apparently," I answered before sitting properly and brushing some sand from my clothes. That didn't satisfy him in the slightest. Kai's eyes narrowed as he gestured around us. "Okay, then who exactly are you? Where did you come from? Why were you here with our ship? And how do you know Zane?" I stared at him through the lingering haze of sleep, processing the barrage before eventually deciding I didn't have enough energy for a biography. "I'm Jinx. I was traveling. I found your ship. Zane found me. We talked. There, mystery solved."
Jay leaned forward from beside Cole, visibly dissatisfied with how efficiently I had murdered the interrogation. "That doesn't explain anything," he complained. "Zane came back saying he found another Elemental Master in the middle of the desert. Another Elemental Master. Do you realize how big that is? We thought we were the Elemental Masters." Cole glanced sideways at him. "You mean you thought we were the only ones." Jay waved a hand as if that was an irrelevant technicality. "That's basically what I said." I couldn't help giving a quiet laugh as I got to my feet, stretching until my shoulders popped. "Well, congratulations. You learned something new today." Kai didn't laugh. "Elemental Master of what?" That question at least deserved an actual answer, so I raised one hand and let a thin spiral of wind gather around my fingers. Sand stirred at my feet as the current curled naturally around my arm. "Wind," I said, then raised my other hand as black mist leaked lazily from my palm and wrapped around my wrist. "And Darkness."
The reactions were immediate. Jay's mouth opened slightly as his attention jumped between my hands. Cole's expression sharpened, his easy curiosity giving way to something more cautious, while Kai instinctively shifted his footing despite trying not to make the movement obvious. Nya looked surprised more than frightened, though her eyes quickly moved to Silence resting against my side as if suddenly reconsidering everything Zane had told them about the weapon. Zane, having already seen both powers, remained perfectly calm. "I observed both abilities myself," he explained. "Jinx possesses clear elemental control over Wind and Darkness, though his mastery of Wind appears substantially more developed." I gave him a sideways look. "You make me sound like a research project." Zane considered that for a moment before replying, "I did not intend to." Somehow, that only made it funnier.
Sensei Wu heard almost none of what followed.
From the moment he had first seen the young man lying beside the Destiny's Bounty, something about Jinx's face had disturbed him. Not because it was threatening, nor because Wu recognized him outright, but because familiarity hovered around his features without ever becoming something Wu could grasp. The shape of the face was wrong. The eyes were different. The hair was different. Yet when Jinx sat up and the light caught him properly, Wu found himself staring longer than good manners allowed. For a fleeting moment, another face surfaced from a lifetime ago—a blonde woman laughing beneath the afternoon sun, someone who had once been a dear friend before years and duty carried their lives in different directions. There was something of her in him. Not enough for certainty, perhaps not enough even for reason, but enough that Wu blinked and looked twice, wondering whether age had finally begun playing tricks upon his sight.
Then Jinx said he was an Elemental Master of Darkness, and the faint warmth in Wu's expression disappeared.
Darkness itself was not enough to condemn anyone. Wu had learned over a very long life that elements were no more inherently moral than the hands that wielded them, yet some powers carried histories that could not simply be forgotten. Darkness invited questions, especially when paired with the strange blade Zane had described to him on the journey back. Wu's eyes dropped briefly toward Silence, studying the sheathed weapon before returning to Jinx. Then the second element was spoken.
Wind.
For perhaps the first time since arriving, Wu's composure genuinely cracked.
The desert vanished from his sight for the span of a heartbeat, replaced by an old monastery courtyard and a boy far younger than the man standing before him now. Black hair moved wildly in a current that seemed to follow the child wherever he went, and the boy's face was twisted between frustration and hurt while wind tore leaves from the branches overhead. Wu had been younger then. He had believed wisdom was mostly a matter of possessing the correct answer and giving it at the correct time. The boy had possessed Wind alone, but he had possessed it with an instinctive brilliance that Wu had rarely seen. He had been Wu's first true student, and Wu had wanted so desperately to guide that brilliance that, without realizing it, he had begun trying to shape the boy into what he believed he should become rather than understanding what he actually needed.
Wu remembered every lesson that had become an argument, every warning that had sounded more like doubt to young ears, and finally the day the boy ran away determined to prove his teacher wrong. Wu had convinced himself that giving him space was wisdom. He had thought the boy would return once his anger cooled. By the time Wu realized his mistake, the trail had already begun to fade, and every year afterward had carried the question of what had become of his first student.
For many years, some quiet and stubborn part of him had refused to believe the worst.
Now another Elemental Master of Wind stood before him.
That should not have been possible while the former Master of Wind still lived.
Wu's eyes lowered for just a moment.
So the boy truly was gone.
The realization did not strike him like surprise. It settled instead with the dull weight of something he had known in his heart for years but had never allowed himself to name. Whatever hope remained had finally been stripped away by the simple proof standing several paces in front of him. Wind had passed onward. His first student had died somewhere beyond Wu's reach, perhaps long ago, and Wu had never been there to find him.
"Sensei?" Nya's voice pulled him back before the memory could drag him any deeper. She had moved slightly closer and was watching him with open concern, having noticed that his attention had barely left Jinx since they arrived. "Are you alright?"
Wu blinked once and returned fully to the desert. "I am fine, Nya," he answered, though his eyes found Jinx again almost immediately. The young man was now listening to Jay enthusiastically question Zane about whether having two elements meant Jinx was somehow twice as much of an Elemental Master, while Kai argued that this was obviously not how elemental power worked despite having no evidence whatsoever. Cole seemed content to watch them make fools of themselves. Jinx himself looked increasingly entertained by the whole situation and increasingly unwilling to provide them with any useful answers.
Kai eventually turned back toward me, abandoning his argument with Jay in favor of the original target. "You still haven't explained how you have two elements." I shrugged. "Because I have two elements." His eye twitched. "That isn't an explanation." I raised an eyebrow. "It's the most accurate one I have." Jay immediately stepped in before Kai could continue, asking, "Were your parents Elemental Masters? Did you inherit one from each of them? Can everybody do that? Could I get another one? Because lightning is great, obviously, but if there was an option to add something—" Cole put a hand on Jay's shoulder and gently pulled him back. "Breathe." Jay inhaled. "Right. Breathing. Important." I watched them for another moment before shaking my head with an amused sigh. "Look, I don't know who my parents were. I grew up an orphan. As far back as I can remember, Wind and Darkness were just there. Wind showed itself first whenever I was in trouble, Darkness came after, and that's about as much of an origin story as you're getting because that's about as much as I have."
That finally quieted them somewhat, though Kai still looked like he wanted to shake additional information out of me. Nya, however, was less interested in interrogating me and more interested in the man beside her. She had noticed Wu's reaction when I demonstrated Wind, and she certainly hadn't missed the way his face changed when I mentioned Darkness. "Sensei," she asked carefully, "if Jinx really is an Elemental Master, how does that work? Zane said there are other Elemental Masters, and now Jinx has two powers. You look like you know something about this." The others gradually turned toward Wu as well, even Jay falling quiet once he realized their master might actually answer a question for once.
Wu remained silent for several seconds, one hand resting against his staff as the desert wind tugged gently at the edge of his robes. His gaze passed over Jinx again, lingering just briefly on those features that still carried the faintest echo of a blonde woman he had known in another life, before settling on the currents shifting almost unconsciously around the young man's feet. There were too many questions here, and Wu knew better than to answer any of them before he understood what stood in front of him. "The history of the Elemental Masters is far older and more complicated than any of you yet realize," he finally said, causing Jay to immediately open his mouth before Wu lifted one finger and silenced him without so much as looking his way. "Why Jinx possesses what he does, and what that may mean, is a story for another day."
Kai groaned. "Why is everything a story for another day?" while Jay muttered something about Sensei Wu having an entire library of stories apparently scheduled for unspecified future days. Even Cole smiled at that, and Nya sighed in resignation, but I wasn't paying much attention to them anymore. I was watching Wu. He knew something. Maybe not about me specifically, but the moment I showed Wind, something behind his eyes had broken for half a second before he buried it. Darkness had concerned him. Wind had hurt him. And when he'd studied my face earlier, I'd caught something else there entirely—recognition without recognition. That made the old man considerably more interesting than he had been five minutes ago.
Wu seemed to notice my stare, but instead of acknowledging it, a faint smile slowly returned beneath his mustache. His attention moved from me to Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane, studying his students one after another before returning to me. "There is, however, something I find myself quite curious about," he said, his voice carrying just enough amusement that all four ninja immediately became attentive. Wu rested both hands over the top of his staff as he regarded me. "I would very much like to see how Jinx fares against the four of you."
For several seconds I simply stared at Wu, waiting for him to reveal that he was joking. The old man only stood there with both hands resting over his staff, that faint smile still tucked beneath his mustache, while the four ninja slowly realized he was entirely serious. Kai looked delighted, Jay looked delighted for roughly half a second before apparently remembering that I controlled two elements and carried an ancient sword of destruction, Cole was already studying the terrain around us, and Zane remained composed enough that I suspected he had begun calculating possible strategies the moment Wu spoke. I sighed, pushed myself properly to my feet, and stretched my arms high above my head. My spine arched until I was almost folded backward, one leg extending behind me while my shoulders rolled with the loose, exaggerated stretch of a cat waking from an afternoon nap. Jay stared as I somehow bent farther than should have been comfortable, and I caught him whispering something to Cole about whether I had bones. Rather than answer, I planted both hands in the sand, kicked my legs overhead, twisted through a one-handed cartwheel, and let a small burst of wind catch me halfway through. It turned the movement into a lazy backward flip that carried me several yards away before I landed lightly on the balls of my feet. I rolled my shoulders once more, lifted both hands, and smiled at the four of them. "Well, I'm ready if you are."
Nya immediately looked toward Wu as though expecting him to establish some reasonable boundaries before four ninja carrying the Golden Weapons attacked a stranger they had met less than ten minutes ago. Wu appeared considerably less concerned. He stepped away from the center of the open ground and tapped his staff once against the sand, testing its depth before looking over the wide expanse surrounding the Destiny's Bounty. "This terrain will do quite well," he said, sounding almost pleased. "Stone floors and training yards encourage familiarity. Sand shifts beneath the feet, gives way under weight, obscures movement and punishes poor balance. A ninja should be prepared to fight wherever circumstances demand it." His eyes moved toward his pupils then, and there was something unmistakably mischievous in the smile that appeared beneath his mustache. "And surely my students are prepared for anything."
The four of them recognized the trap immediately.
Kai's expression tightened with determination. Cole sighed through his nose. Jay looked personally betrayed. Even Zane stared at Wu for a moment longer than usual before calmly stepping forward. "Of course, Sensei."
"Traitor," Jay muttered.
I laughed and settled into a loose stance, though calling it a stance was generous. My knees were slightly bent, my weight resting mostly on the front of my feet, and my hands remained relaxed rather than forming fists. I had never learned Spinjitzu, at least not yet, and I had no intention of pretending I could match four people trained by Wu by playing their game. Wind worked best when I didn't. It didn't resist force if it could redirect it, didn't stand still when it could flow, and didn't commit to one direction when a dozen others remained open. Years of using it had taught me to fight much the same way. Defense could become movement, movement could become attack, an attack could change halfway through into defense, and the moment somebody decided they understood what I was doing was usually the moment they ended up on the ground.
Kai drew the Sword of Fire first, the golden blade catching the desert sun as flames flickered faintly along its edge. Cole brought out the Scythe of Quakes and lowered his center of gravity, while Jay spun the Nunchucks of Lightning once around his wrist with considerably more enthusiasm than caution. Zane's Shurikens of Ice appeared last, one in each hand, their edges already trailing pale frost. Seeing all four Golden Weapons together was different from hearing about them. Even separated, I could feel something linking them, a pressure beneath their individual elements that made Silence stir faintly against my hip as though recognizing an old enemy. I rested one hand briefly over the sheath until the sensation settled, then looked back at the four ninja. "You know," I said, "four against one usually means somebody isn't confident."
Kai's flames flared. "You talk too much."
"And you're very easy to annoy."
"Begin," Wu said.
Kai moved before the last syllable finished leaving Wu's mouth.
He crossed the sand surprisingly fast, the Sword of Fire sweeping horizontally toward my side in a controlled strike meant to force me backward rather than actually cut me in half. I didn't block. Wind compressed beneath my right foot and I simply let myself fall sideways until it looked like I had lost balance, my body tilting almost parallel to the ground before the current caught me. The burning blade passed inches above my chest. I rotated underneath it, planted one palm into the sand and swept both legs around. Kai jumped over them, exactly as I expected, so the defensive movement became an attack before he even landed. I snapped my wrist upward and the same current holding me off the ground erupted beneath him. Kai shot several feet into the air with a startled yell, twisted awkwardly, and landed hard enough to skid through the sand.
Jay was already coming from my left.
The Nunchucks of Lightning cracked toward my shoulder, golden links flashing as electricity crawled over the metal. I leaned backward rather than retreating, folding so far that Jay's weapon passed over my nose while I could practically see the ground upside down behind me. His eyes widened for half a second at the unnatural flexibility, which was all I needed. Wind gathered underneath my back, lifted me before I could fall, and turned my recovery into a spinning kick. Jay barely ducked. The kick missed him, but the wind attached to it didn't. A crescent-shaped blast caught him across the chest and launched him backward into Cole.
Cole caught him with one arm.
"Thanks," Jay said quickly.
Cole deposited him into the sand and charged.
Unlike Kai and Jay, Cole didn't immediately try to outspeed me. He came in patiently, the Scythe of Quakes held low, forcing me to watch the reach of the weapon while he closed the distance. When he finally swung, the attack came from below. I jumped, expecting the blade, and realized too late that the scythe itself wasn't the important part. Cole slammed its haft into the earth instead. The sand bucked beneath me as a shockwave tore through the ground, throwing up a wall of dust and destroying the stable current I had been preparing beneath my feet.
"Oh, clever."
I started falling.
Zane's shuriken came through the dust.
I twisted in midair and the first golden star passed beneath my arm, cold radiating from it strongly enough to frost the edge of my sleeve. The second was already aimed where my body would be after the dodge. I couldn't change direction normally while airborne.
Fortunately, normal movement had stopped being relevant to me years ago.
I pulled both arms against my chest and released a burst of wind from my back. Instead of continuing downward, I shot sideways. Zane's second shuriken missed my stomach by inches, curved through the air under his control, and came back toward me from behind. I felt the displacement in the air before I saw it. My right hand opened, fingers turning gently, and the wind around the returning weapon spiraled with the motion. Rather than stopping the shuriken, I guided it. Its path curved around my body, swept past my shoulder, and suddenly accelerated toward Kai.
Kai's eyes widened. "Zane!"
He barely got the Sword of Fire up in time. Fire and ice met with a violent hiss, steam bursting between them as the shuriken ricocheted away.
I landed softly and grinned. "Thank you."
"I did not intend to assist you," Zane replied.
"I appreciate it anyway."
After that they stopped attacking individually.
That was when things became interesting.
Cole pressured me from the front, forcing me to keep moving with wide sweeps of his scythe while Kai attacked the openings those swings created. Jay stayed farther back, throwing shorter bursts of electricity whenever my movement became predictable, while Zane used his shurikens to restrict where I could safely escape. It was rough, unpolished teamwork, but there was enough instinct between them to make it dangerous. They had fought together before. They knew each other's habits even when they weren't consciously coordinating, and within minutes I couldn't simply dodge one attack at a time anymore.
So I stopped trying.
When Cole's scythe swept toward my legs, I didn't jump over it. I stepped onto the current created by the weapon's movement, caught that displaced air with my own Wind and amplified it. The defensive current became a rotating stream around my body. Kai struck from behind, but I turned with his attack rather than away from it, pulling his fire into the spiral until flames curled harmlessly around me without touching my skin. Jay released a bolt at the same moment, forcing me to collapse the entire rotating current outward. Sand exploded in every direction. Fire scattered with it, and Jay threw himself aside to avoid getting burned by his own teammate's redirected flames.
Cole came through the dust anyway.
I smiled.
He was learning.
The Scythe of Quakes descended. I caught the air beneath the blade, not enough to stop something backed by Cole's strength but enough to push its trajectory slightly outward. Instead of striking me, the weapon buried itself into the ground beside my foot. I stepped onto the shaft, ran two steps up it while Cole was still holding the other end, and kicked off his shoulder. Wind caught my back. I flipped above him, curled my body tightly, then opened both arms while upside down.
The pressure wave slammed Cole face-first into the sand.
I landed behind him.
Kai immediately tried to capitalize.
I ducked the Sword of Fire, moved inside his reach and placed two fingers against his chest. His eyes narrowed, probably wondering what exactly I expected two fingers to accomplish.
"Boop."
A compressed blast of Wind fired point-blank.
Kai flew backward.
Jay laughed so hard he nearly forgot he was supposed to be fighting me.
Then I turned toward him.
His laughter stopped.
"Oh."
I thrust both palms forward.
Jay vanished inside a miniature sandstorm.
By the time the air cleared, Jay was sitting ten yards away with sand covering his hair, his shoulders and approximately half his mouth. He spat several times and glared at me. "I hate sand."
"Wonderful tactical information."
Something cold touched my ankle.
I looked down.
Ice.
Zane had frozen the sand around my feet.
"That," I admitted, "was actually smart."
"I am pleased you approve."
Both Shurikens of Ice came toward me from opposite directions.
I bent backward between them, but instead of merely avoiding the weapons I twisted my wrists as they passed. Wind caught both, altered their flight paths and slammed them together behind me. Zane's control prevented them from colliding completely, but the distraction gave me enough time to tear my feet free of the ice. I jumped, inverted myself, and landed on my hands. A burst of Wind spun my entire body like a top. My legs swept around in a wide circle while a horizontal ring of compressed air expanded outward from me.
Zane crossed both arms before the blast struck.
He still went sliding across the desert.
When I finally landed upright again, three ninja were down.
Not unconscious. Not truly defeated. Cole was pushing himself out of the sand, Jay was still trying to remove half the desert from his clothes, and Zane had already gotten one knee under himself. But none of them would be interfering for the next few seconds.
Which left Kai.
He stood perhaps twenty feet away, Sword of Fire held tightly in both hands.
The playful irritation had disappeared from his expression.
What remained was anger.
I sighed.
"Oh, that's disappointing."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"You."
That did it.
Fire erupted along the Sword of Fire, far brighter than before. Kai charged with a shout and swung hard enough that the heat reached me before the blade did. I slipped aside, but instead of allowing him to recover I caught his wrist with a current of Wind and pulled in the same direction as his swing. His own momentum dragged him past me. He twisted, recovered faster than expected, and slashed upward. I leaned aside. Another slash followed. Then another.
Every strike became harder.
Faster.
Hotter.
And worse.
"You're letting your anger choose your attacks," I said as I slid underneath another burning swing. "That makes you predictable."
"Stop talking!"
"I would, but watching you prove my point is entertaining."
Kai roared and brought the Sword of Fire down with both hands. I crossed my wrists and released Wind upward. The blade stopped less than a foot above my head, flames whipping violently sideways as the opposing current fought the strike. Sand flattened in a circle around my feet from the pressure. Kai pushed harder, his teeth clenched, and the flames grew.
I stared through them at him.
"You're never going to match me with anger alone."
His expression changed.
Just slightly.
I saw the words hit exactly where I wanted them.
"You don't know anything about me."
"I know you think Fire means getting angry enough to burn hotter."
The temperature around us climbed again.
I smiled.
"And I know that means you don't understand Fire."
Kai's eyes practically ignited.
Good.
I released the Wind suddenly and stepped aside.
His sword crashed into the sand.
Before he could lift it, I finally reached for Silence.
Wu's expression changed the moment my fingers closed around the hilt.
I drew.
The dark blade slid free with that same whispering sound, black-purple crystalline blood seeming to shift beneath its surface while its pressure rolled across the battlefield. Silence met the Sword of Fire as Kai recovered, and the collision sent a deep metallic note across the desert.
The difference was immediate.
This wasn't elemental sparring anymore.
This was swordsmanship.
Kai swung from the shoulder. I intercepted near the base of his blade, turned my wrist and slid Silence along the golden edge instead of meeting the full force directly. Sparks burst between the weapons. I stepped past him, cut toward his side with the flat, and Kai barely twisted enough to catch the strike. He retaliated immediately, Sword of Fire snapping toward my neck. I ducked, pivoted, brought Silence up behind my back and stopped the return strike without even looking.
Kai's anger grew.
So did the fire.
Every clash became louder. Flames began spilling from the Sword of Fire in long streams, and the desert sand around our feet started darkening from the heat. I could feel sweat forming across my skin despite Wind constantly moving around me. Kai attacked faster, but anger was tightening his movements rather than freeing them. His shoulders telegraphed every heavy strike. His grip was too strong. Every time I parried him, he tried to overpower the next defense instead of changing his approach.
"Still angry," I said while our blades locked.
"Shut up."
"Still predictable."
Kai shoved forward.
I jumped backward and let the momentum separate us.
Then I changed Silence.
I gripped the blade just above the guard with my free hand. Darkness gathered beneath my palm, liquid and cold, and I slowly dragged my hand from the base toward the tip. Wherever my fingers passed, strands of pitch-black violet Darkness clung to the crystalline blade. They looked almost like veins of liquid night, purple threads moving inside a substance so dark it seemed to swallow the sunlight around it.
Kai hesitated.
That was the first intelligent thing anger had allowed him to do in the last minute.
I flicked Silence.
The Darkness stretched.
The blade remained solid in my hand, but the coating snapped outward like a whip, extending several yards beyond the sword itself. Kai barely raised the Sword of Fire before the dark lash struck it and wrapped halfway around the golden blade. I pulled. Kai stumbled forward. I released the Darkness before he could use the connection against me, stepped into range and immediately returned Silence to ordinary swordplay.
His eyes widened.
I struck.
He blocked.
I stepped away again and lashed the Darkness across his legs.
Kai jumped over it.
I converted the whip back into the blade's coating before he landed, rushed underneath him and attacked normally again.
That was the beauty of it.
Range stopped mattering.
When Kai was close, Silence remained a katana. When he tried to create distance, the Darkness flowed from the blade and became a whip. Every defense could become an attack before he finished responding to it. Every missed sword stroke could continue moving, extend, and strike from a completely different angle.
Kai was furious now.
Which was exactly why he didn't notice Jay getting back up.
Unfortunately, neither did I.
There was a crack behind me.
My eyes widened.
"Oh—"
Lightning hit me.
There wasn't time to dodge.
Jay had raised the Nunchucks of Lightning and unleashed a continuous stream straight at my back. I managed to turn at the last possible moment and throw both hands in front of me, but electricity didn't care that I had gotten my guard up.
It slammed through me.
Every muscle in my body locked.
"G-G-G-GOD—!"
My teeth clacked together hard enough to hurt. Lightning crawled over my arms, across my chest and down my legs while my body spasmed violently against the current. Silence dropped from my hand and buried itself point-first in the sand beside me.
This should have been horrible.
It was horrible.
It hurt.
A lot.
But beneath the pain was something else.
I stared at the lightning crawling over my hands.
The sensation was incredible.
My nerves screamed. My heart hammered. Every muscle contracted at once, and somewhere behind all that agony was an almost intoxicating rush that sent adrenaline flooding through me.
Why does this feel exciting?
Another surge hit.
My body jerked.
Oh no.
For one deeply concerning second, the thought slipped through the pain.
Am I a masochist?
That sounded like something I should probably investigate later.
Preferably after I stopped being electrocuted.
Then another memory surfaced.
Iroh.
Lightning redirection.
My eyes widened.
The technique I had studied in Fountainhead Palace had been based on the same principle, but practicing the pathway with tiny amounts of generated electricity was very different from having one of the Golden Weapons dump actual elemental lightning through my body.
There was no time to think.
Only move.
I forced my right hand forward despite every muscle fighting me and extended my index and middle fingers together. Lightning immediately concentrated toward them. I could feel the current trying to scatter through my body, and with sheer will I dragged it into the pathway I remembered.
Fingertips.
Down the arm.
Shoulder.
Across the chest—
Not the heart.
My body screamed as I twisted my torso.
Down.
Around.
Through the other arm.
For one terrifying fraction of a second, the lightning gathered inside me instead of leaving.
Then I thrust my left hand toward Jay.
The world flashed white.
Lightning exploded from my fingertips.
Jay's eyes widened.
"Oh, come on—"
The redirected bolt struck him directly.
Unfortunately for Cole, he had only just gotten back onto his feet and was standing close enough to Jay that the lightning immediately jumped from one ninja to the other.
Both of them lit up.
Jay screamed.
Cole screamed considerably deeper.
Their bodies jerked in perfect synchronization before the current finally vanished and both toppled backward into the sand, thin trails of smoke curling from their clothes.
Silence fell over the desert.
I remained standing for approximately three seconds, arms still stretched in front of me, smoke rising from my fingers while tiny arcs of electricity snapped through my hair.
Then my knees almost gave out.
I caught myself, breathing hard as I stared at my trembling hands.
It had worked.
Not cleanly. Not safely. Definitely not in any way I would recommend repeating without significantly more practice.
But it had worked.
I slowly looked toward Jay and Cole lying in the sand.
Jay twitched.
Cole groaned.
I couldn't stop the grin spreading across my face.
"Oh," I breathed, still feeling electricity dancing through my nerves. "I am absolutely learning how to do that properly."
The grin barely had time to settle on my face before a shadow passed over me.
I looked up just in time to see Kai coming down with the Sword of Fire raised above his head.
"Seriously?"
I threw myself backward as the golden blade crashed into the sand where I had been standing, fire erupting from the impact in a broad orange wave that rolled across the ground. Heat washed over my face while I hit the sand on both hands, let my momentum carry my legs over my head, and kicked myself back upright with a burst of wind beneath my shoulders. My muscles still twitched from Jay's lightning, little involuntary spasms running through my arms and thighs, but there wasn't time to wait for them to stop. Cole was already moving again despite having shared Jay's redirected shock, while Zane had recovered completely and was circling farther to my right. Jay was still lying on his back with smoke curling from his clothes, staring at the sky like he was reconsidering every decision that had brought him here, but even he was beginning to move. "Okay," I breathed, shaking out my numb fingers while Kai dragged the Sword of Fire free. "You people are annoyingly durable."
"You redirected my lightning!" Jay shouted from the ground, sounding far more offended by the principle than the actual pain. "You can't just do that!"
"I didn't know I could until about ten seconds ago."
"That makes it worse!"
Cole hauled him upright by the back of his clothes before Jay could continue complaining, and I noticed immediately that their approach had changed. They weren't charging blindly anymore. Kai was still angry—extremely angry—but Zane had moved closer and said something low enough that I couldn't hear it, and whatever it was made Kai reluctantly stop advancing. Cole shifted left. Jay moved farther right. Zane took the center while Kai remained slightly ahead of the others, and for the first time they actually looked less like four talented people attacking the same opponent and more like a team.
That was going to make this considerably harder.
So naturally, I smiled.
Cole struck the ground first. The Scythe of Quakes sent a tremor racing through the sand, not strong enough to destroy anything but more than enough to ruin my footing. Instead of fighting to remain planted, I gave up on the ground entirely. Wind exploded beneath both feet and threw me upward just as the sand rippled beneath me. Zane had apparently expected that because both Shurikens of Ice were already flying toward the space above my head. I tucked my knees against my chest, twisted sideways between them and extended one arm toward the ground. A concentrated blast of air struck the sand below like an invisible fist and exploded it outward, propelling me in the opposite direction before Zane's weapons could curve around for another pass.
Kai met me there.
Of course he did.
The Sword of Fire swept across my landing point, but this time I didn't dodge away. I snapped both hands together and compressed the air directly between us. Kai's blade entered that pocket and immediately slowed as if he had swung into deep water. I twisted my wrists, causing the compressed current to spiral around the sword, then opened my hands violently. The air pocket detonated. Kai's arm was thrown wide, taking his blade with it, and the same motion spun me underneath his extended arm. My heel came toward his ribs, but he brought his elbow down to protect himself, so halfway through the kick I changed my mind. Wind burst from the bottom of my foot instead. Kai expected physical contact and braced for it; the blast caught him without ever touching him and sent him skidding sideways across the sand.
That was what I loved about Wind.
Almost nothing had to remain what it started as.
A dodge could become an attack. A missed kick could still hit. A retreat could become acceleration. Even an opponent's movement gave me something to work with, because every person moving through the world displaced air whether they wanted to or not.
Jay whipped one nunchuck forward and lightning snapped across the distance between us. After what happened last time, I had absolutely no intention of testing my new redirection technique again while my nerves were still trying to remember how limbs worked. I swept my arm from left to right, forming a broad wall of moving air between us. Wind couldn't simply stop electricity, but it didn't need to. The wall struck a curtain of sand upward at the same time, filling the space between us with thousands of grains. Jay's bolt ripped through it, scattering tiny flashes everywhere as the path broke apart long enough for me to twist out of the main discharge. I came out of the dust already moving, one foot touching the ground only long enough to redirect my momentum before another burst carried me toward him.
Jay's eyes widened. "Why are you coming over here?!"
"You're ranged!"
"That is not a reason!"
"It is to me."
He brought the Nunchucks of Lightning around to defend himself, but I didn't actually close the last few feet. I thrust my palm forward instead. The air between us compressed so quickly I felt it push against my own arm before releasing with a deep boom. Jay disappeared backward, feet leaving the ground as the blast struck his entire body. Cole caught him again, though this time the force carried both of them several steps before Cole dug his heels into the sand.
"Stop using me as a shield!" Jay complained.
"I caught you."
"You keep catching me where attacks are happening!"
"You keep flying toward me."
I would have laughed if two golden shurikens hadn't suddenly crossed in front of my face.
I recoiled, felt frost brush the tip of my nose, and immediately threw myself into a backward somersault. Zane pursued without giving me room to recover. The Shurikens of Ice kept curving through the air, one high and one low, and instead of wasting energy blowing them away every time, I started moving with them. I ducked beneath the first, placed my palm against the passing current behind it and pushed. The wind altered its return path just enough that Zane had to move. I stepped onto the small ridge of sand created by his dodge, launched upward and let the second shuriken pass beneath me, then hooked my foot through the air behind it. Wind curled around my ankle and followed the kick, turning the movement into a crescent-shaped blade of compressed air that raced toward him. Zane crossed his arms and generated a slab of ice before himself. The air blade struck it hard enough to carve a deep groove through the surface, and before the ice fragments finished falling, I was already above him.
Both palms pointed downward.
"Hi."
Zane looked up.
The air blast drove him into the sand.
Not violently enough to injure him, but certainly hard enough that he disappeared beneath a huge cloud of dust. I landed beside the shallow crater, only for the ground under my feet to suddenly fracture. Cole's scythe hooked around my ankle from inside the dust and yanked.
"Oh, you sneaky—"
I went down.
Cole emerged through the cloud and swung the Scythe of Quakes toward my side. With no time to stand, I slapped both palms against the ground. Air erupted beneath my back and launched me horizontally across the sand like somebody had kicked a puck across ice. The scythe missed by inches. I continued sliding, turned onto one shoulder and deliberately let the wind accelerate me rather than slow me. Cole chased after me, expecting me to eventually have to recover my footing.
I didn't.
I curled my body, used a concentrated current beneath my spine, and started rotating while still sliding. My legs swept outward and the Wind followed them, expanding into a low circular wave barely a foot above the sand. Cole jumped over the first rotation. I reversed direction halfway through the second.
His expression changed.
The returning blast caught him behind the knees.
Cole flipped backward and landed flat on his back.
I finally let myself stop, lying there for a second with my hair full of sand. "I could get used to fighting like this."
A fiery glow appeared above me.
"Maybe stop getting distracted!"
I rolled.
Kai's Sword of Fire buried itself where my head had been.
Again.
I stared at the blade, then up at him. "You really like that move."
Kai ripped the sword free and attacked again. I twisted around the blade, sprang onto one hand, let his second slash pass under my torso and pushed myself upward. Wind gathered around my waist and held me there for a fraction of a second, my body nearly horizontal above his sword. I rotated in midair, brought my legs around and used the motion to generate a spiraling gust directly into Kai's face. He staggered backward, and I landed facing him.
Then I heard three separate movements behind me.
Bad.
I didn't bother looking.
Instead, I crossed both arms tightly over my chest and pulled.
Wind rushed toward me from every direction.
Sand flattened beneath my feet. My clothes snapped violently against my body as the currents compressed closer and closer, spinning around me faster until I was enclosed inside a dense cocoon of air. It wasn't visible except for the sand and dust caught along its outer edge, but I could feel the pressure surrounding me like a second skin.
Zane's shuriken struck first.
The rotating air caught the weapon and dragged it sideways instead of allowing it through. Jay's electricity followed, breaking apart across the moving debris without finding a clean path to me, while Cole's scythe hit the outside of the cocoon with enough force that the entire shell shuddered.
Kai's fire came last.
That was when I realized something important.
Wind fed fire.
The moment his flames touched the cocoon, they spread around its rotating surface, following the oxygen-rich current until I was suddenly standing inside what looked like a tornado made of fire.
My eyes widened.
"Oh."
From outside, Jay shouted, "Did we get him?!"
I looked at the flames roaring around me, felt the heat growing rapidly, and smiled.
"Not exactly."
I opened my arms.
The cocoon exploded.
Air burst outward in every direction, carrying Kai's own flames with it. The fire stretched into a huge expanding ring before dissipating above the sand, forcing all four ninja to retreat at once. Jay actually dove onto his stomach. Cole crossed both arms and endured the blast. Zane formed ice beneath his feet to anchor himself. Kai stabbed the Sword of Fire into the ground and held on while his own flames whipped harmlessly past him.
Wu watched from beside the Destiny's Bounty without saying a word, though the increasingly pleased look in his eyes told me he had noticed exactly what I was doing. I wasn't simply throwing Wind around. I was treating every current as part of the fight. The air displaced by weapons, the sand lifted by movement, the oxygen feeding Kai's fire, even the spaces opponents expected to be safe could all become something useful. Wind didn't need to overpower an attack when it could change what that attack meant.
Unfortunately, the ninja were adapting too.
Kai pulled his sword from the ground and glanced toward the others. Cole nodded. Jay grinned despite being covered almost entirely in sand. Zane rose from behind his ice.
Then all four started spinning.
I blinked.
"Oh, right."
Spinjitzu.
Kai became a tornado of red and fire, Cole one of black and earth, Jay blue and crackling with lightning, and Zane white with shards of ice swirling through his vortex. Their elements gathered around them as the rotations accelerated, and the pressure change alone hit me hard enough that my clothing snapped backward. Sand began racing toward the four spinning forms in spiraling rivers.
I took one involuntary step back.
"That seems unfair."
The four tornadoes came at me.
My Wind met Kai's first.
For half a second I actually tried redirecting him.
That was a mistake.
The rotating force ripped the current apart almost instantly, and I barely managed to throw myself sideways before the fiery tornado passed. Jay curved toward me from the opposite direction while Cole cut off the ground behind me. Zane remained farther out, tightening the area I had to maneuver through.
I bounced backward on Wind, changed direction, then changed again.
They followed.
I fired a broad blast toward Cole. His Spinjitzu tore straight through it.
"Okay. Air isn't stopping that."
Time to use something less polite.
Darkness poured from my hands.
It didn't spread as smoke this time. I forced it into the denser liquid state I had discovered with Silence, and black-purple strands rolled from my fingers like ink suspended underwater. I snapped my right hand outward.
One strand lengthened into a whip.
It wrapped around the mast of the Destiny's Bounty behind me.
I pulled.
Instead of trying to outrun the Spinjitzu tornadoes, I let the Darkness rip me off the ground. My body shot sideways just as Jay tore through the place I had occupied. I released the mast, twisted in the air and formed another tendril from my left hand. It struck the ground, hardened for a fraction of a second and bent like a spring, throwing me over Cole's spinning form.
"Oh, I like this."
More Darkness flowed from my arms.
One tendril became two.
Then four.
They weren't limbs exactly, and controlling each independently was considerably harder than moving Wind, but they didn't need to be elegant. One wrapped around a rock and pulled me out of Kai's path. Another struck the sand and launched me upward. A third lashed across Zane's Spinjitzu, failed completely to stop it, but pulled sharply enough against his rotation to shift his direction by several feet.
That was enough.
Zane nearly collided with Cole.
Both broke out of Spinjitzu to avoid crashing into each other.
I immediately attacked.
The Darkness changed from anchors into whips before my feet even touched the ground. One snapped toward Cole's scythe, wrapped around the shaft and pulled it sideways. The other swept low toward Zane, who jumped over it. I flicked two fingers upward and the same strand curved after him like a living tentacle. Zane twisted in midair and threw one of his Shurikens of Ice through it. The golden weapon cut the Darkness apart.
Interesting.
I retracted what remained and immediately formed another.
Jay's Spinjitzu came screaming toward me.
I planted one foot, waited until he was almost on top of me, then shot a tendril past him rather than at him. It wrapped around a boulder behind his spinning form. I pulled myself directly toward Jay.
That sounded suicidal.
It almost was.
At the last instant, I dropped flat and slid beneath the edge of the tornado while the Darkness continued dragging me forward. Lightning crawled so close above me that every hair on my body rose. I emerged behind him, released the anchor and snapped both hands together.
The two strands of Darkness wrapped around Jay's spinning vortex from opposite directions.
I pulled.
His rotation stuttered.
"Wait—wait—wait!"
Spinjitzu collapsed.
Jay came flying out of the tornado.
He hit the sand, bounced once, and rolled until Cole stopped him with one boot.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Kai was already coming.
I raised both hands and Darkness surged outward in a mass of writhing tendrils. Instead of attacking him directly, I struck the sand all around his path. Each tentacle buried itself into the ground and ripped upward, throwing curtains of sand into the air. Kai's fiery Spinjitzu tore through the first two without slowing, but every wall obscured his vision a little more. I moved between them using Wind, disappearing from one side and appearing somewhere else before he could correct his path.
Then I felt Zane behind me.
I ducked.
An ice shuriken sailed through the place my head had occupied.
"You're getting really good at that," I told him.
"Thank you."
The second nearly hit me in the stomach.
I twisted around it. "That wasn't permission to continue."
Cole came from my left.
I jumped over the scythe, but instead of using Wind to carry myself away, I threw a Darkness tendril around the weapon's shaft. Cole immediately planted his feet and pulled back.
I grinned.
He was stronger than me.
By a lot.
Which was why I didn't try to win.
I let him pull.
The sudden force ripped me through the air directly toward him. Cole's eyes widened when he realized what I had done. I curled into the momentum, passed over his shoulder, placed both feet against his back and released a concentrated Air Blast.
Cole flew forward.
I flew backward.
Perfect exchange.
Until I collided with Zane.
We both hit the sand.
For one second we stared at each other.
"Hello again."
"Hello, Jinx."
Then we both attacked at once.
Zane froze the sand beneath me while I fired a point-blank Air Blast. He slid backward across his own ice, absorbing enough of the force to remain standing, while I tore one leg free before the frost could trap the other. Jay's lightning came in from the right. I bent so far sideways my shoulder nearly touched my ankle and let the bolt pass over me. Darkness snapped from my hand toward Jay, forcing him to interrupt the stream and block with his nunchucks.
Kai finally abandoned Spinjitzu and came straight through the dust with the Sword of Fire burning.
I caught the blade with Silence.
The collision rang across the desert.
Cole approached behind him.
Zane circled left.
Jay was already gathering electricity again.
I looked between all four.
My breathing had gotten heavier.
My arms were beginning to ache from maintaining the Darkness. My legs still occasionally twitched from the earlier electrocution, and using Wind continuously for movement had begun draining me more than I wanted to admit. The ninja weren't fresh either. Jay's clothes were smoking in several places. Cole had sand sticking to half his face. Zane's white clothing was covered in dust, and Kai was breathing hard enough that his flames rose and fell with each breath.
But none of them were staying down.
"Persistent little bastards," I murmured.
Kai heard me. "Getting tired?"
"Yes."
His grin widened.
I smiled back.
"So let's stop wasting time."
I shoved his sword aside with Silence, kicked Wind into the sand between us and blinded him with the resulting explosion of dust. Before he recovered, I sheathed Silence and threw both arms outward.
Darkness erupted around me.
Not into one or two neat strands this time.
Dozens.
Black-purple tentacles spilled over the sand, some thin as ropes and others as thick as my arm, writhing low across the battlefield. Jay jumped away from one only for another to snap toward him from the side. Cole hacked through two with the Scythe of Quakes, but the severed Darkness dissolved and reformed closer to me. Zane froze three against the ground before a fourth curled around a chunk of ice he had created and hurled it toward Kai.
"Hey!"
Kai sliced the ice apart.
I laughed.
The tentacles weren't strong enough to overpower the Golden Weapons or restrain the ninja for long. That wasn't their purpose. They pulled ankles, redirected weapons, obscured vision, anchored me to distant surfaces and forced everyone to keep dividing their attention. Wind moved through the gaps between them, turning every opening into another problem. A tendril forced Kai to jump and an Air Blast caught him while airborne. Cole blocked a whip only for the wind displaced by his own scythe to be amplified and thrown back into his face. Zane froze a path toward me and I used the smooth surface myself, Wind pushing me across it faster than running before I dropped beneath his guard and blasted him upward.
Jay tried Spinjitzu again.
Darkness wrapped around a nearby rock.
I swung myself completely around his tornado.
Once.
Twice.
Then released.
The stored momentum sent me flying across the battlefield.
I passed Kai upside down, slapped the flat of his sword with a burst of air that knocked it away from my body, rotated over Cole's scythe and landed behind all four of them.
They turned.
I exhaled.
My hands lowered.
The tentacles dissolved back into black mist.
Kai immediately raised the Sword of Fire. Cole tightened his grip on his scythe. Jay spun the nunchucks. Zane brought both shurikens forward.
They were ready to come again.
I wasn't interested.
I raised my right hand.
Wu's eyes sharpened.
The wind changed.
Not merely around me.
Everywhere.
The loose sand stopped moving for one strange heartbeat as air began rushing inward from every direction. My clothes flattened against my body. Dust spiraled toward my feet. Kai's flames leaned toward me, and even the ninja instinctively braced as the pressure dropped around us.
Jay looked around. "Uh… guys?"
I pulled my right palm back toward my chest.
Air compressed around me.
Not into a blade.
Not into a current.
Not into a cocoon.
Every direction at once.
Kai realized first. He lowered his stance and drove the Sword of Fire into the sand. Cole planted the Scythe of Quakes beside him. Zane crossed both arms while ice began forming around his feet. Jay looked at what everyone else was doing and hurriedly hooked his nunchucks around Cole's arm.
"Oh, that is not encouraging."
I grinned.
Then slammed my right palm downward.
The desert erupted.
A massive Air Blast exploded from me in every direction at once.
There was no narrow current to evade, no blade to block and no single direction from which the attack came. Air struck the ground beneath me and expanded outward in a violent sphere, flattening the sand before ripping it upward into an enormous circular wall. The sound came a fraction of a second later—a deep, concussive BOOM that rolled across the desert and rattled the Destiny's Bounty behind us.
Kai's flames vanished instantly.
Zane's ice shattered.
Cole's boots carved trenches through the sand.
Jay lost his grip.
All four ninja went flying.
Kai ripped the Sword of Fire free along with himself and tumbled backward through the sand. Zane was thrown through his own broken ice before twisting enough to land on one knee several yards away. Cole managed to remain upright longer than anyone else, digging the Scythe of Quakes into the ground and dragging it behind him, but eventually even his strength lost against the expanding pressure and he was ripped off his feet.
Jay had no such heroic resistance.
He flew past Cole.
"COOOOOLE!"
Cole turned his head just in time to watch Jay sail over him.
Then Jay disappeared into a dune.
The wall of sand continued racing outward before gravity finally reclaimed it. Dust rose hundreds of feet into the air, forming a broad ring around the battlefield before slowly collapsing. For several seconds I couldn't see anyone through the haze. Wind curled back toward me as the pressure equalized, tugging at my hair and clothes before finally settling.
I remained where I had struck the ground, right palm buried slightly in the sand, breathing considerably harder than I wanted anyone to notice.
Slowly, I stood.
Silence hung at my side. Black wisps evaporated from my fingers, and the last traces of dark lightning still occasionally snapped across my skin.
The dust began clearing.
Kai was sprawled on his back with one arm thrown over his face. Cole had landed several yards away and was already groaning as he pushed himself onto an elbow. Zane sat upright in the remains of an ice formation, blinking sand out of his eyes with considerably less dignity than usual.
Jay was nowhere to be seen.
Then one blue-clad arm rose weakly from the dune.
"I'm okay!"
A pause followed.
"I think!"
I stared at the arm for a moment before laughing, letting my shoulders finally relax as the remaining Wind died around me. "Well," I said, brushing sand from my right palm, "that was fun."