We've gone over the three parts to a tactical engagement for a squad: the initiation, the follow-up, the finish.

  Now, there is something else that can replace the follow-up. As I told you, the best way to start a fight is with your enemies unaware or beyond an active action radius. If you can do this, then you can choose to decide the flow of a fight.

  But sometimes the best thing to do is not to fight. Sometimes the best thing to do is simply disengage. There are enemies that will be stronger than you, faster than you, or possess greater skills or a perfect counter to you. You are under no obligation to die standing against one of those enemies. Your duty and your life belong to the Path, to the Pathbearers beside you, and belong to the Republic. You are not to waste it, especially in an unwinnable fight.

  The second part of the engagement is changed: Instead of following up, you disengage, you break contact, you sever your trail, and you retreat. You retreat, and you monitor the enemy—you will only return to face them under more favorable circumstances.

  -Captain Harry Irons, Tac-Strat 101

  242 (I)

  Disengage

  Shiv dashed backwards—not fast enough. Jessica Hawgrave struck him three more times, the first blow taking him at the knee, the second sweeping his ankle. Sprays and gashes lined his pillar; it was all Shiv could do to maintain balance.

  He pulled himself upward using his Shapeless Tides, slamming himself against and then partially through the ceiling, but Jessica came for him again. He barely noticed her. She was a smaller glint of red than all the spores drifting through the chamber. She left a pocket in the air as she ripped through all the Biomancy and other spellstuff staining the air.

  At the same moment, Tulveg reacted. He dissipated into a spray of Biomancy, his very being turning into a sprawling miasma of spores that stretched out, trying to locate the threat. Adam fired an arrow thereafter. Adam never missed.

  The Veilpiercer struck Jessica, and a detonation of Dimensionality spilled into the air. But that worked against Shiv. Once more, he lost track of her, and he had no idea where—

  Something smacked him in the side of the head.

  Shiv saw stars as he went tumbling sideways. He blasted through wall after wall. Bars of metal bent and shredded before his body. Something exploded behind him—redness blossomed through the air and folded around Shiv. The force of the blast bent around his Shapeless Tides and launched Shiv further.

  He was like a blade being dragged across carpet. Where he struck, the floor was ripped wide open, and he fell from the topmost floor to the one below.

  He impacted the ground face-first. He felt part of his Voidmantid armor crack, and just then, something else slammed into him. The point of a blade was driven into his lower back, and Shiv gritted his teeth. It didn't pierce through, however. Everything above his ass turned into a massive bruise; he felt a rib briefly snap.

  His Pillar of Orichalcum was all that kept her from finishing him immediately, and it was getting stronger. But he wasn't stronger than her or her blade put together. She struck him three more times, her slashes coming so fast that he couldn't tell which was the first.

  She slammed her blade straight down, but it was wrenched aside, knocked off course by his surging overflow tides. The Deathless turned. The vectors lining his body swiveled clockwise and became a whirlwind. He slashed out wildly, cleaving and slicing everywhere using his Last Morsel. A small whirlwind formed around him, and he bought himself a second to breathe.

  A second that he immediately used. He leapt free from his body with Non-Sequitur, feeling a patch of coldness swell inside of him. She struck his decoy body, and it burst apart in a spray of red and white. That gave away her position again.

  Pillar of Orichalcum 269 > 270

  The momentum of the fight turned.

  Jessica hovered in the air, briefly confused as to where or who her adversary was. Shiv decided to announce himself—by slamming the business end of his frying pan on the back of her skull. He struck her with every single Overflow Tide he had cultivated so far. He struck her with enough force to split a small mountain in half, concentrated entirely on her and nothing else. The room didn't turn to dust, the building did not disintegrate, the air didn't ionize. No. Every ounce of force he had was given unto her.

  Her expression barely even changed.

  Her tiny form went tumbling through the air, embedding in the wall. A spiral-web of cracks spread out, and Shiv re-emerged into context. A spray of red and white shrouded him, and he glared his adversary down, posture combat-ready. Jessica returned to her normal height—which meant he still towered over her—and she blew a strand of strawberry-blonde hair out of her face as she glared back at him from within the visor of her tessellating helmet.

  Rusty was resting over her shoulder, that length of black static trembling with mana.

  Shiv extended another tendril of subconsciousness. His Bifurcated Processing was applied to his Aegis of Assimilation as well. It was time for him to use his Biomancy in tandem. The first thing his subconscious did was rip away some of his injuries, and once more, he felt fresh. Fresh and ready to re-engage.

  "Well, well, look who it is," Jessica said with a casual tone, rubbing her chin with her free hand. "Didn't expect to run into you here, kid. And so soon. But seems that a bit of bad blood’s developing between us, isn't there?"

  "And whose godsdamned fault is that?" Shiv spat. "I was kind of hoping Udraal put you down.”

  She sighed dramatically. “No such luck, I’m afraid. Proper Legends aren’t easy to put in the grave. Speaking of… That Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides?” She whistled. “I was wondering how you managed to almost break my nose through my armor just now.”

  Sage of the Enkindled Heart: Don’t let her distract you.

  “Where's your grandson?" Shiv asked just as a length of titanium rebar plunged through the ceiling and tore past them.

  "My grandson? You think I'm going to tell you where he is?" Jessica, instead of responding with anger or offense, simply shook her head. "Let me guess: This is about the whole Abyss thing, huh? Well, I'll tell you something. That's war, kiddo. You shouldn't take war so seriously. War’s just a series of events. And if you’re being paid for his life, well, let me tell you another thing: whatever they promised you for his head, it wasn’t enough.”

  "And Blackedge?" Shiv shot back, a bit of heat slipping into his voice. "Was that war? A series of events? Was the fact that you were willing to let the Inquisition torture one of your family members war? You don't even view Heather as family, do you?"

  Jessica went unnaturally still. "What the hells are you talking about? How the fuck do you know my—”

  A Veilpiercer promptly slammed into her head. She took a step backward, and Shiv took the opportunity to launch himself into her. He barreled into her small form, clutching her tight as they crashed through wall after wall. He sapped her vitality and heard her gasp in discomfort for the first time. But before he could capitalize further, he noticed a gleaming life signature approaching dead ahead, and he suddenly wrenched them upward. They exploded out of the top of Last Chance Sanatorium into the sky, and he held her in the air as he rained blow after blow.

  Elbow and frying pan slashed and sparked against the rival Legend’s Inertium armor. His twelve-headed mana hydra extended out from him, curled around his body, and slammed down upon her back. Blooming blasts of red mana flooded the atmosphere, mingling with the beam of Biomancy cleaving straight up into the sky to part the darkness. Darkness that boiled with incandescence. Harlock was surely aware of this engagement already, and Shiv needed to finish this fast.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He seized Jessica as much as he could, yet his Magical Resistance was dashing itself against her Inertium as well. Her armor was something that simply wouldn't be broken or budged by magic. So he applied what brute force he could. He slashed his Last Morsel up as an uppercut, seeking to cleave her from groin to neck.

  She parried the blow—vanished; struck him in the same instant. Rusty twisted, and the blade's shape became unnatural, like a whip. It coiled around and slammed into the back of his head. Spots flooded Shiv’s vision. And then Jessica slipped around and dropped him straight down in a piledriver as she suddenly grew to twice Shiv’s size.

  They were going through Last Chance Sanatorium again.

  The two Legends wrestled. He used his Shapeless Tides, and he wrenched her aside, breaking out of her hold. To his surprise, he found himself barely stronger than her. And then that barely became "not at all" as he was grappled into an impasse. She was getting heavier, denser. Her armor refused to bend to his magic or Magical Resistance, and soon they crashed down on the top floor once more, but they didn't go further beyond it.

  Jessica held him in place, and he realized she was trying to keep destruction limited as well. Good. He was on board with that. Best that they reduced collateral damage to a minimum.

  He swung the blunt end of his frying pan. She dodged. He'd expected that and committed to his real attack. He shot low, seeking to grip her ankle and knee to drag her down to the ground and return this to a grapple, but she slipped out, and then she sprawled on top of him.

  It felt like a metal bat was being dropped along the length of his shoulder. Shiv grunted as he fell to his right knee. Part of the ground shattered, but he pushed his Shapeless Tides up. He tried to fling her off of him, but she rolled over, and then she shrank. What followed was a flurry of blows that made him fold and flinch.

  The first hit came underneath his armpit. It was a perfect strike, slashing deep and true. A wound opened up along the length of his upper rib. Then a dozen more wounds followed; chips of his Voidmantid armor sprayed into the air, accompanied by the wetness of blood. It was all Shiv's Pillar of Orichalcum could do to keep him intact, to stop her from cleaving him all the way through.

  To Shiv's surprise, he felt a few of her cuts teleport, blinking from one end to another. He parried a blow, and his Frictionless Vector briefly triggered until it found nothing to push against, and the same cut manifested behind him, slashing against the top of his head. A small piece of his helmet went missing. Something clashed hard against his Last Morsel as he deflected a blow out of sheer luck. His pillar was lined with so many scratches that he was a mess of oozing blood, but he was still standing. He could keep fighting.

  Frictionless Vector 93 > 95

  Sage of the Enkindled Heart: No, you can't! The Ascendants know where you are! The Prismatic Guard will be responding! And you'll be dealing with more than just one Legend soon. You need to break contact, NOW! We cannot win this fight!

  Something whipped through the air. Shiv moved on pure instinct. He held his Last Morsel up, and he barely managed to block Rusty from cleaving him in half along the middle.

  "He's gotten stronger, much stronger," the sword declared. "You were right. He is a Legend. But how?”

  Jessie scoffed. "Deathless fuckery. Still fights like an Adept, though. System can't blow anything up your ass that's a replacement for actual combat experience."

  Something slammed into Shiv’s lower back. The blade continued wailing on him, striking blow after blow, forcing him to expend his Shapeless Tides to ward off the magic. Yet every crashing slice and skewer delivered by the blade took more of him, and he couldn't keep up with Jessica well enough to absorb her force to cultivate more Overflow Tides. He was being beset on both ends by a rival Legend and her Legendary-Tier weapon.

  Jessica slammed her knuckles into his throat. Shiv choked. Rusty twisted through the air, vanished in the darkness, and fell on the back of his neck. He was sent sprawling to all fours once more.

  Only a desperate roll that sent him tumbling through a wall spared him from being beheaded entirely.

  Inertial Overdrive 190 > 191

  Groaning, Shiv shot back to his feet and started unleashing his Creeping Void. There was a lesson being learned here. That lesson was that not all Legends were equal. Andra was one thing, but Jessica Hawgrave was a nightmare and a half. He didn't know how many Legendary Skills she had, but it was certainly more than two, and her combat prowess was far beyond his.

  Something whizzed by his left. He swung blindly. That was a mistake. Jessica took advantage of the opening—drove her blade deep into his sternum. Yet, his Pillar of Orichalcum grew harder. The blade ground to a stop, and Shiv's Overflow Tides were matched against the dimensional blade. He held Rusty at bay, wrenching the blade along the middle.

  A gasp of surprise escaped from Rusty, and a crack followed. A crack that spewed static and black, like spilling blood, into the air.

  But before Shiv could show the dimensional blade his might, Jessica came from behind him. She punched him in the back of the head, and his vision turned into exploding fireworks, but before she could finish him, he felt another impact expand around him—the pressure of a bursting Veilpiercer, followed by another. The weight of Rusty was wrenched free from his chest, and as Shiv stumbled back, he felt someone brace against him.

  A blind guess told him that it was Adam, and he reached out with his Psychomancy, sweeping the air around him blindly before he finally found the Gate Lord's mind. Adam triggered Commander's Foresight, and they gained a moment of respite.

  Bifurcated Processing 57 > 59

  “Fuck!” Shiv snarled. “She's been waiting for us! This was an ambush. She knew we were coming! Or at least she knew Tulveg was coming!”

  "We were damn fools to miss that possibility," Adam replied. "We were so focused on Tulveg that we didn't consider why the top part of Academy Hospital's mana core would be so warded. It's an important place, but important enough to justify wards that can hold off a Legend for an extended period of time? That doesn't make any sense. But, Shiv, did you see anyone else inside when you breached through?"

  "No," Shiv replied. "Didn't even have a chance. She hit me immediately. She was waiting to rip into anyone who stepped through. Guess it's a good thing it was me. Broken Moon, she hits godsdamned hard. Her damned sword is also bullshit. Costs me Overflow Tides to soak her magical damage—can’t keep track of her, either. She’s kicking my ass here.”

  "We can't stay and fight her. Not now, not with Harlock coming, not with the Prismatic Guards certainly preparing to respond. We need to drive her back. We need to break contact and find a way out. I think we have two choices: having Tulveg and me dive into your cape after you avoid Jessica's attention for a while. Then you should bury yourself under some debris and put on that mask of yours. The second is my Veilpiercer. I can make a pathway, but I don't think I'm going to fire it back at the Coliseum. If things go wrong, our safehouse could be compromised, and everyone we're hiding would be exposed."

  Shiv considered their options. "We need to get out of here first. Javelina and Vice 8 are also coming up, and I don't think we can fight both Jessica and what's probably two High Heroes at once. Hells, I don't think we're doing that good against Jessica right now. Can't keep track of her, and every time she manages to block one of my attacks, it's like she gets a free hit in."

  The Sage of the Enkindled Heart chimed in to massage his wounded ego. “She's also just more experienced in fighting in general.”

  “I've only managed to land a hit with my Non-Sequitur, and that barely did anythin—ah! Fuck!”

  Pain, searing pain, spread through the base of Shiv's skull.

  "Shiv, are you alright? Is it the Foresight?" Adam asked. His consciousness was stained with worry.

  "Probably that, and the fact that I'm forcing my subconscious to do a bunch of different shit for me at the same time. Holy shit, it feels like my skull is on fire! Never mind that, though. I think I have something of an idea. You know the magical library on campus, right? Well, there are unmonitored spatial planes for magic experimentation there. And I've been building up one hell of an inertial discharge for a while."

  "Oh, gods," Adam muttered.

  "I'm gonna try to distract her. You go get Tulveg and see what support he can provide. Wait, where the fuck are the Morbomancers?”

  “In her sword—she cut them out of existence and booted Tulveg through a wall after she sent you flying. I don't know where he is right now.”

  “Fuck, I didn't even notice any of that. Alright. Find him. After that, we go into a plane, and we try to break contact. But I'm also going to leave a temporal echo here. I think that when we go across, you guys should get inside my cape. I'm going to blink back. I'm going to put on the mask. And then I'm going to pretend to be Marcus. Should be a good enough alibi to keep my cover. I hope. Godsdammmit, everything has gone to shit again! Again!”

  "Betrayal is uncertainty," the Gate Lord replied. "They'll be bringing in Investigators, Hunters, people who are dedicated to tracking these things. Diviners. They'll be able to gain a trace of what you've done. They know what kind of Chronomancy you have. They are going to be thorough, and they're going to be paranoid."

  "Yeah, well, Veronica and Cripple can cover for us. Best we can do right now."

  "Alright, back into hell on three?" Adam asked.

  Shiv sneered. "Three."