The wolves moved first.
Fast.
All teeth and sketch-gray muscle.
One came from the left.
One from the right.
One low.
One high.
One straight at his throat.
Reggie planted his feet.
Flamberge screamed through the air.
One cut.
Clean.
The first wolf's head came off and ignited instantly, the whole thing bursting into flame before it even hit the stone.
The second wolf lunged with its jaws open.
Reggie stepped in and drove Flamberge straight through its mouth.
Fire tore through the paper-born beast from the inside out.
It shrieked once.
Then blew apart in burning scraps of graphite and ash.
But the others were already on him.
One wolf clawed across his back.
Another raked his side.
Then one hit him from behind and bit deep into his shoulder.
Reggie yelled through his teeth.
"Damn!"
The wolf held on.
Snarling.
Tearing flesh.
His face twisted.
He reversed the grip on Flamberge and drove the blade backward between his own arms.
The sword punched through the wolf on his back.
Fire erupted through its body.
The beast convulsed once, then dissolved into flame and scorched paper.
Across the deck, Sofia was already drawing.
Fast.
Focused.
Notebook braced in one hand.
Pencil flashing in the other.
She laughed softly.
"Let's see how you handle my Three Beasts Art."
Aura gathered at her fingers.
"Martial Muti: Muscle Memory."
Her drawing speed jumped.
The lines came out sharper.
Faster.
More alive.
She finished the next two in a blur.
Two cheetahs.
Lean.
Beautiful.
Violent.
They peeled off the page almost instantly, bodies stretching into real form as they hit the deck, circling low with twitching tails and quick hungry eyes.
But Sofia didn't stop.
Sweat ran down her face.
Down her neck.
Soaked her sleeves.
Still she kept drawing.
This one took more.
More detail.
More control.
More aura.
The whole Amphistad seemed to feel it.
Her pencil slowed for just a second.
From precision.
She was building something bigger.
Something worthy.
Something she loved.
The page glowed blue-white.
Lines layered.
Muscle.
Fur.
Weight.
Hands.
Teeth.
Eyes.
She tore the page free.
The paper split with a sound like ripping silk and thunder together.
A massive form stepped out of it.
Ten feet tall.
Five hundred pounds of realized brutality.
Black-backed.
Broad-chested.
Knuckles like hammers.
Eyes full of living force.
The Great Blackback Gorilla landed on the deck with both fists.
Stone cracked beneath him.
Its chest lifted.
Its muscles flexed.
Then it beat both fists against itself once.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The sound rolled across the Amphistad like a drumline from somewhere deeper than the arena.
Sofia smiled through the sweat.
Exhausted.
Proud.
"Art Muti: Three Beasts Art."
The two remaining wolves prowled.
The cheetahs paced low and fast.
And the gorilla—
Zeus—
stood over all of them like a king of the page made flesh.
Sofia raised the notebook with a trembling hand and breathed out hard.
"Look at my babies."
Her voice shook with effort and joy both.
"Witness my art, Margerina."
The Amphistad came apart.
Up in the stands, Laila leaned forward.
"Well," she murmured. "That's lovely."
Rafael folded his arms, eyes on the deck.
"Don't make us look bad, little brother," he muttered. "We're more powerful than this."
Below—
Reggie was bleeding.
A lot.
Down his shoulder.
Across his side.
Over his back.
His grip tightened around Flamberge but even he could feel the weight of it now.
The beasts stood in front of him.
Two wolves.
Two cheetahs.
Zeus.
He breathed hard.
Fuck.
I'm bleeding too much.
His eyes tracked the cheetahs.
Then the gorilla.
Then Sofia.
Multiple opponents. Front and side pressure. This is bad, yo.
His arm twitched trying to lift the sword higher.
It felt heavier than it should.
Damn.
His jaw tightened.
For half a breath the doubt hit him.
I'm about to lose again?
The Black Forest flashed in his head.
The pressure.
The failures.
The way that place had made him feel smaller than he wanted to be.
First in the forest.
Now again?
Then another thought hit him.
What would Bonnie think?
In the crowd, Bonnie leaned forward with her hands clenched together.
Minerva stood beside her, eyes locked on the deck.
Bonnie's voice came soft.
Not for the arena.
Just for herself.
"You don't have to push yourself too hard."
A breath.
"But I always believed in you."
Her eyes sharpened.
"You got this."
Something in Reggie changed.
His head lowered.
Then lifted.
His fingers tightened around Flamberge.
"I didn't come here to lose."
Aura burst out of him.
Orange-red.
Hot.
Violent.
Infused with fire so thick the whole glow looked half-flame, half-will.
The ground cracked under his feet.
Wind moved heavy through the Mercy Deck.
Dust and debris lifted around him.
Loose stone kicked away in spirals.
It wasn't a full Bloom.
Not yet.
But it was close enough to make the crowd go quiet.
A proto-Bloom.
Raw.
Angry.
Hungry.
Up in the skybox, General Rage leaned forward.
"Interesting."
Captain Mars looked over.
Rage's eyes stayed on the field.
"Reminds me of Redd Foxx Flamus Titanus before he was known," Rage said. "When we fought in our Trial by Mercy, we almost broke the whole Amphistad from pressure alone."
Mars let out a breath through his nose.
"I remember watching that from the crowd when I was younger," he said. "That match made me want to be a Seeker."
A pause.
"And seeing Master Elric there made it worse."
For the first time in a while, Rage smiled.
On the deck—
Sofia was breathing hard.
Really hard.
Her arm trembled from the cost of the drawings.
Reggie was in worse shape.
Bleeding more.
More tired.
But smiling.
Because the anger was feeding him now.
The beasts spread at Sofia's signal.
The wolves prowled wider.
The cheetahs lowered themselves.
Zeus rolled his shoulders and let out a deep territorial growl that the front rows felt in their chests.
Sofia pointed.
"Go."
The beasts surged.
Reggie moved first.
The ground exploded under him.
He blitzed straight at them, eyes wild, sword blazing, aura raging.
"COME ON, MOTHERFUCKERS!"