(Synchronization)
The chamber beneath the city remained unnaturally still.
Mana lamps cast pale blue light across old transport rails and massive stone pillars that disappeared upward into darkness. Shadows stretched long between the support structures, turning parts of the underground nexus into gaps the eye struggled to measure properly.
Pryan stood near the center path, sword lowered slightly.
Mireya beside him.
The figures ahead had not moved again.
That alone made the situation worse.
Then one of them stepped forward.
Not hurried.
Not dramatic.
Just controlled.
The hooded man.
The moment he moved, Pryan felt it again.
That distortion.
Not mana pressure.
Timing.
The same unnatural rhythm that had nearly killed him inside the mansion.
Mireya noticed Pryan's posture tighten immediately.
"…It's him."
"Yes."
The hooded figure stopped several meters away.
"You adapted quickly," the man said calmly.
His voice still sounded wrong somehow. Too smooth. Too measured. Like every word had already been placed before he spoke it.
Pryan did not answer.
The hooded man's gaze shifted briefly toward the dagger in Pryan's left hand.
"And you corrected your close-range inefficiency."
Mireya frowned slightly.
"…Why does he sound like he's evaluating furniture?"
"I don't know," Pryan replied quietly.
The hooded man ignored the exchange entirely.
"Your growth rate exceeds prediction."
Mireya stared at him for a second.
"…No, seriously. Is he always like this?"
"He gets worse while fighting."
"That's impressive in the worst possible way."
The hooded man moved.
Pryan barely reacted in time.
Steel collided violently in the center of the chamber.
The force behind the strike immediately told Mireya something important.
This man was stronger than the infiltrators from earlier.
Far stronger.
Pryan stepped sideways instead of backward, dagger intercepting the second strike before it fully formed.
Too late.
Again.
The hooded man's attacks didn't feel fast.
They felt early.
Every movement entered Pryan's space before his body fully adjusted to it.
Pryan twisted hard, barely avoiding a strike aimed toward his ribs.
The hidden knife flashed instantly from beneath his sleeve.
The hooded man shifted half a step.
Just enough.
The knife missed entirely.
"…Predictable," the man said.
Pryan's sword moved immediately afterward.
This time the hooded man blocked.
The impact echoed sharply through the chamber.
Mireya entered from the right side at the same moment, blade cutting low toward the man's flank.
For the first time, the hooded man actually turned fully.
His short blade intercepted Mireya's strike cleanly.
Mireya's eyes widened slightly.
Strong.
Very strong.
The hooded man redirected her momentum with minimal movement and forced her backward three full steps.
"Your footwork is academy-standard noble refinement," he observed calmly. "Efficient in open space. Poorly suited for adaptive compression environments."
Mireya blinked once.
"…Did he just insult me academically?"
"He did," Pryan answered.
"That's incredibly rude."
The hooded man attacked again.
This time Pryan saw it slightly earlier.
Not enough.
But earlier.
Sword.
Dagger.
Knife.
Three layers of movement instead of one.
The hooded man's blade intercepted Pryan's sword while simultaneously shifting his own shoulder position to deny the dagger angle.
Pryan immediately abandoned the dagger exchange and drove forward instead.
That was new.
The hooded man noticed.
Interesting.
Pryan's hidden knife cut upward sharply toward the man's wrist—
The hooded figure finally stepped back properly.
Mireya saw it too.
"…You forced him back."
"Briefly."
"That still counts."
The hooded man tilted his head slightly.
"You improve during combat."
Pryan's breathing remained controlled.
Barely.
"I don't have many choices."
"That is usually when humans improve fastest."
Mireya frowned again.
"…I officially dislike this person."
The hooded man ignored her once more.
Then the chamber shifted.
Several infiltrators moved through the outer sections, repositioning around the rail lines and side passages.
Not attacking.
Adjusting.
Pryan noticed immediately.
"They're moving the network."
The hooded man did not deny it.
"Synchronization requires continuity."
Mireya's eyes narrowed.
"What does that even mean?"
The hooded man's gaze moved briefly toward the old tunnel routes branching deeper beneath the city.
"Communication is flawed because humans delay," he said calmly. "Fear. Emotion. Pride. Hesitation. Every structure eventually collapses beneath human inefficiency."
His eyes returned to Pryan.
"So systems must become synchronized."
Pryan suddenly understood part of it.
Not everything.
Enough.
"The leaks," he said quietly.
The hooded man remained silent.
That was confirmation enough.
Mireya stared between them.
"Would either of you like to explain things normally?"
"No," Pryan said.
"Apparently not," the hooded man agreed.
Mireya looked deeply offended by how naturally that happened.
Then the fight resumed.
This time the hooded man stopped holding distance.
The pressure changed instantly.
Close range.
Tight movement.
No wasted space.
Pryan blocked once.
Twice.
Third strike—
Too late.
Pain exploded through his side as the short blade pierced shallowly beneath his ribs before Pryan forced separation again.
Internal damage.
His breathing immediately destabilized slightly.
Mireya moved in aggressively to create space.
Her swordsmanship adapted faster now, tighter movements replacing academy formality.
The hooded man intercepted her cleanly again—
But this time Mireya changed rhythm halfway through the exchange and forced him off balance for a fraction of a second.
Pryan saw it.
Used it instantly.
Sword downward.
Dagger upward.
The hidden knife remained concealed.
The hooded man avoided the sword.
Redirected the dagger.
Then his eyes sharpened slightly.
Because the hidden knife appeared again from beneath Pryan's sleeve at the exact blind angle created by the other two weapons.
The blade finally cut across the hooded man's shoulder.
A shallow wound.
But real.
Silence hit the chamber briefly.
Mireya blinked.
"…You actually hit him."
Pryan stepped back immediately instead of pressing.
Learning.
Again.
The hooded man touched the wound lightly.
Then looked at Pryan differently.
Not surprise.
Reevaluation.
"You are becoming dangerous."
Pryan's chest tightened painfully again.
Internal damage worsening.
The hooded man noticed that too.
Of course he did.
"You cannot maintain this pace much longer," he said.
"Probably not."
Mireya looked sharply at Pryan.
"…What does that mean?"
"Internal damage."
Her expression changed instantly.
"How bad?"
"Manageable."
"That answer sounds fake."
"It probably is."
Elsewhere in the tunnel network, Lucien's group moved silently behind the estate guards.
The deeper sections looked worse now.
Bodies.
Collapsed passages.
Signs of combat everywhere.
One guard swallowed hard near a tunnel wall marked by deep impact fractures.
"What even caused this…"
Lucien crouched near one of the damaged sections after the guards moved ahead.
"…This wasn't done by normal fighters."
Nyra looked toward another corridor.
"No."
Jorn's expression remained calm.
But tighter now.
"They're deeper than we thought."
A sudden scream echoed somewhere far ahead through the tunnels.
Then silence.
Lucien slowly stood.
"…I'm beginning to miss classes."
Meanwhile, Kaien walked alone through another branch of the underground network.
Three infiltrators rushed him simultaneously from a narrow corridor intersection.
None of them reached him.
Kaien moved once.
Not quickly.
Precisely.
One infiltrator collapsed instantly against the wall.
Second strike.
Another dropped silently.
The third tried to retreat.
Kaien caught him by the shoulder.
Not violently.
Almost casually.
"Where is the relay chamber?" Kaien asked.
The infiltrator froze.
Then his expression twisted immediately.
Poison.
Kaien released him before the body fully hit the ground.
"…Unfortunate."
Then he continued walking deeper into the tunnels as if nothing had happened.
Back inside the underground nexus chamber—
Pryan's breathing worsened.
Not visibly enough for strangers.
Enough for Mireya.
The hooded man stepped forward again.
No hesitation.
No wasted movement.
Pryan met him head-on anyway.
Steel clashed once more beneath the underground lamps.
And this time—
The hooded man smiled faintly beneath the hood.
"You're learning," he said calmly.
Then his next strike broke through Pryan's defense completely.