"Focus!" Ember called, already adjusting for their reduced numbers. "We've done this dance before!"

Pyra and Kindle leaped in opposite directions as a spike shot through their previous position. They twisted in mid-air, orange flame hissing against the pier as they raced along in mirrored paths around the elemental.

Cinder stood in the center, wreathed in fire, the heat rising from her in shimmering waves of distortion. She turned steadily, eyes moving from Ember, to the Puppetmaster, and back to her remaining sister-selves.

"Regroup!" she ordered, and Pyra and Kindle obeyed. They peeled off, turning away from the elemental to race back to Cinder in a blaze of speed and fire.

The elemental reared, watery fists churning the air to steam as it prepared to strike at the regrouping heroes.

Ember raised her hands, launching a volley of fireballs. They exploded against the water elemental, creating a blinding veil of steam.

"Damn it! She seemed so confident!" Kindle shouted, blinking back tears of frustration as she and Pyra skidded to a halt next to Cinder.

"There's got to be some way to drop this oversized fish tank," Cinder said, throwing a quick burst of blue flame to disperse a tendril that tried to sneak up on them.

Ember dashed back to them, narrowly avoiding death by impalement, again.

"Okay," she gasped, one hand rubbing her bruised ribs where a previous attack had nearly gotten her, "we're all in agreement that going after a regenerating water behemoth instead of its summoner was a terrible idea, right?"

"But Ash almost did it!" Pyra pointed out, her eyes fixed on the elemental's monolithic form. "You saw her! For a minute there, we totally had this."

The water elemental shot another thick tentacle of water their way, forcing the four women to scatter. They regrouped quickly, their feet charring the waterlogged deck.

"Pyra's right. She had a good hit on it." Cinder extinguished her flame with a shake of her hand. "So maybe we just need to hit it harder?"

"I like hard!" Pyra's fist clenched tight, flames coalescing around her forearm. "Hard is fun. Hard is what I'm good at!"

"Rhetorical concerns aside," Ember waved Pyra's enthusiasm away with a burst of orange fire, "there are two problems with that idea. First, I'm not convinced raw firepower is the answer." She gestured to the constantly reforming watery golem across the wharf. "This thing is practically a bottomless pit of water. And we can't boil off that much liquid, no matter how hard we try."

"And second?" Kindle asked, ducking another spout of water that erupted between them.

Ember nodded toward the masked figure standing at the edge of the wharf. "And second, she can probably summon as many elementals as she has mana. So we can spend all morning trying to dismember this one, or we can go for the source."

Silence fell between them, punctuated only by the roar of the fireballs Ember casually blasted into oncoming attacks.

"Okay," Cinder said after several seconds of deliberation. "New plan. We rush the Puppetmaster, straight up. No tricks, just the four of us, maximum firepower, don't stop until we win."

"Before that, we need to get ready for the 'you-know-what'," Ember pointed out, preemptively wincing.

The familiar pressure built behind their temples—that strange, almost-painful expansion that meant their shared consciousness was about to accommodate something it wasn't designed to hold.

The sensation hit them like a philosophical freight train wrapped in existential dread and delivered at the speed of melancholy.

Ash's essence flooded through their shared consciousness—not her voice or her thoughts, but the fundamental Ash-ness of her. Her tendency to find deeper meaning in things. Her habit of contemplating the universe's cruel sense of humor while dodging death. Her strange ability to make even the most chaotic situations feel like stepping stones toward some greater understanding.

Suddenly, Pyra found herself questioning the fundamental nature of her enthusiasm while simultaneously wanting to examine the thermodynamic implications of water-fire interactions.

"The tactical implications of frontal assault," she heard herself saying, "require consideration of our opponent's psychological expectations regarding—what am I saying?"

Kindle's usual optimism took on a more cerebral tone. "A dual-axis approach may facilitate resolution, but the resulting vectors are..." She paused, eyes flicking side to side as she ran calculations in her head. "Oh crap. Brain stuff! If I have to start thinking like this, I'm jumping into the ocean."

Ember's lips twitched as if to quip, but no words emerged, only a thoughtful hum.

"Oh no," she breathed, staggering as gray wisps began threading through her crimson flames. "Not the philosophy. Anything but the philosophy."

"The universe," Pyra announced with uncharacteristic gravity, orange fire taking on smoky undertones as she stared at the water elemental, "is fundamentally absurd. We exist in a state of constant becoming, never being. This creature represents the fluidity of—"

"Pyra, no!" Kindle grabbed her shoulder, azure flames flickering with gray shadows. "Fight it! Remember that you like exploding things!"

"But do I truly like exploding things," Pyra continued with dreamy contemplation, "or am I merely conditioned by societal expectations to find destruction satisfying? What does it mean to—"

Ember slapped her. The crack echoed across the harbor, sharp enough to cut through philosophical tangents and redirect attention to immediate concerns like not drowning.

"Thank you," Pyra shook her head, orange fire brightening as she focused on the water elemental bearing down on them. "That was getting weird, even for us."

The power surge was undeniable. Each of their flames burned hotter, brighter, more controlled than before. The wooden pier beneath their feet didn't just char—it burst into flames from their mere proximity.

Ember turned to face their enemy, her expression hardening in the ruddy glow of the inferno. She met the others' gazes, her gray-tinged amber eyes glinting in the flames, and nodded.

No more words were needed.

Cinder led the charge, flames wrapping around her like a cloak as she ran headlong toward the elemental. The others were half a step behind, forming a fiery arrowhead of raw destruction.

The water elemental rose to its full height as they approached, arms lifting above the waves. Water surged upward to join its liquid frame, reshaping themselves into a defensive wall that rose like a liquid mountain between them and their true target.

But the foursome didn't slow—if anything, they accelerated, their enhanced speed turning them into streaks of multicolored fire.

At the last possible second, they split.

Ember launched herself skyward, golden fire spiraling around her as she vaulted over the elemental's watery barrier. Her enhanced strength carried her higher than before, flames trailing behind her like a comet's tail as she sailed toward the Puppetmaster.

The other three went low, diving between the elemental's legs in a coordinated weave that left the creature grasping at empty air. Their improved reflexes turned the maneuver into a fluid dance, each sister-self passing within inches of the enormous being without missing a step.

"Surprise!" Pyra's voice rang out as she emerged behind the elemental, orange fire carving a molten line across the pier as she skidded to face the Puppetmaster.

The masked woman's head snapped toward the sound, just in time to see Cinder materialize on her left flank while Kindle completed their triangle from the right. Steam rose from the wooden planks beneath their feet, wood grain blackening under the intensity of their enhanced flames.

"Three-point coordination," Cinder announced with satisfaction. "Let's see you puppeteer your way out of this."

The Puppetmaster's response was a gesture so fluid it might have been choreographed. Silver light erupted from her fingertips, not toward the water this time, but into the air itself. The space around her began to ripple like heat mirages, reality bending in ways that made the eyes water.

"Shadow Step," she whispered, her voice carrying despite the harbor's chaos.

The world folded.

Where the Puppetmaster had stood, only empty air remained. She reappeared a long distance away, her silver mask catching the morning light as she raised both hands toward the charging trio.

"Impressive speed," her voice drifted across the water, "but speed means nothing if you're running toward the wrong target."

The air behind Pyra, Cinder, and Kindle shimmered. Three figures in dark leather materialized from nothing—Silent Hand operatives wielding curved blades that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.

"Oh, come on," Kindle spun to face the new threat, azure fire crackling around her hands. "Can't we just have a nice, simple fight for once?"

The first assassin struck before she'd finished speaking, shadow-blade whistling through the space where her head had been. But Kindle wasn't there anymore—her enhanced reflexes carried her sideways in a blur of blue flame, the assassin's follow-up swing missing by inches.

"Getting predictable!" she called out, retaliating with a burst of fire that sent the operative diving for cover behind a pile of crates.

Cinder found herself facing two opponents simultaneously, their blades weaving patterns designed to overwhelm through coordinated strikes. Under normal circumstances, it might have worked. But normal circumstances didn't account for the twenty-five percent improvement to everything that made her dangerous.

Her crimson fire lashed out in controlled arcs, each strike timed to intercept attacks she shouldn't have been able to see coming. The enhanced speed let her process visual information faster, tracking both assassins' movements while simultaneously planning her counterattacks.

"Your turn to be surprised," she said, dropping into a roll that carried her between them. As she came up, flames erupted from both hands, forcing the operatives to abandon their attack and focus on not becoming barbecue.

Pyra's opponent had clearly been chosen for his size—a mountain of muscle and shadow-enhanced leather who swung his blade with enough force to cleave through ship masts. Unfortunately for him, swinging at Pyra was like trying to hit lightning with a hammer.

She danced around his strikes, orange fire trailing behind her in spirals that turned the immediate area into a light show. Each near-miss only seemed to fuel her enthusiasm, her enhanced abilities turning combat into something resembling an aggressive ballet.

"You're really committed to this whole 'mysterious assassin' thing," she commented, ducking under a swing that would have decapitated a statue. "But has anyone ever told you that the silent treatment gets old fast?"

Above the melee, Ember had her own problems.

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The water elemental had apparently taken her aerial maneuver as a personal insult. Massive tendrils of harbor water whipped through the air around her, each one thick enough to crush bones and fast enough to make dodging a matter of split-second timing.

But split-second timing was exactly what her enhanced reflexes provided.

She twisted between attacks that would have been impossible to avoid before, golden fire painting helical patterns through the air as she maneuvered toward the creature's core. The elemental's frustrated roars sent spray cascading across the harbor as its attacks consistently found nothing but empty space.

"Having trouble?" Ember called out, her voice carrying the sort of confidence that came from discovering just how much difference twenty-five percent could make. "Maybe you should try aiming where I'm going instead of where I've been!"

The elemental's response was to abandon subtlety entirely.

Water surged upward from the harbor, forming into a dozen massive fists that hammered the air around Ember in a pattern designed to eliminate any possible escape route.

She proved the design faulty by accelerating straight down, diving between the attacks with enhanced speed that turned her into a golden comet.

The elemental's fists crashed together above her, sending a geyser of displaced water skyward while she continued her controlled fall toward its center mass.

At the last possible moment, she spread her arms wide, flames erupting in a sphere around her that turned the harbor air into a furnace. The heat was intense enough to flash-boil any water it touched, creating an expanding bubble of superheated steam that carved a hollow space within the elemental's chest.

She landed inside the creature's core, surrounded by a cavity of her own making, and began the systematic process of cooking it from the inside out.

"This," she announced to the walls of water around her, "is what happens when you mess with us!"

Golden fire poured from her hands in controlled torrents, each burst precisely calibrated to maintain the steam bubble while gradually expanding its boundaries. The elemental writhed around her, its form becoming increasingly unstable as she methodically boiled away its structural integrity.

Down on the pier, the fight against the masked puppeteer and her minions raged on.

Kindle's opponent had switched to a defensive strategy that involved trying to put obstacles between himself and her azure flames. Unfortunately, this required actually being able to stay ahead of someone who could now run at roughly three hundred miles per hour in short bursts.

"Tag!" she called out cheerfully, appearing beside him with a casual shoulder tap that sent him sprawling across the pier. "You're it!"

Before he could recover, she was gone again, her voice drifting from the opposite direction. "Over here! No, wait, over here now!"

The assassin's head swiveled frantically, trying to track movement that turned him into the galaxy's least effective weather vane. His shadow-enhanced reflexes were impressive, but Kindle's accelerated speed and agility were simply unfair.

"This is actually kind of fun," she mused, appearing long enough to flick his forehead with enough force to ring his bell. "Like playing tag with a very stabby toddler!"

Cinder's approach was more direct but no less devastating. Her opponents had tried to use their numerical advantage to box her in, forcing her to fight defensively while they coordinated strikes. The tactic had probably worked against other adventurers.

But Cinder wasn't having any of that.

She slipped between their attacks like smoke, crimson fire tracing geometric patterns as she moved. Each dodge was calculated to position her opponents exactly where she wanted them, herding them through a series of movements that looked random until the final second.

"Checkmate," she announced, stopping abruptly in the center of their formation.

Both assassins lunged simultaneously, their blades converging on her position from opposite angles.

At the last possible moment, she dropped flat, letting their momentum carry them into each other.

The operatives' shadow blades didn't stop. Their momentum carried them through their partner's reinforced armor and into the soft organs beyond.

Cinder rolled free of the tangled wreckage, climbing to her feet and shaking her head as both operatives collapsed in a rapidly spreading pool of their own blood.

"Rule number one of combat," she said, her voice carrying across the pier. "Don't ever get so focused on taking me down that you forget about each other."

Pyra's duel was going... differently.

"Is that all you've got?" she asked, lazily dodging another swing. "You're really big, but I'm not convinced you're really all that tough."

The assassin's frustration was evident in the force he put behind his attacks. The massive sword whistled through the air, biting chunks out of the wooden pier every time he missed. And miss he did—as nimble as the assassin was, Pyra moved like lightning made flesh.

Each attack sailed past her, the enormous operative seemingly unable to adjust to her erratic movements. The fact that she was taunting him constantly probably didn't help.

"Come on!" she called, flipping through the air over him. As she passed his enormous shoulders, a sharp kick sent the man staggering forward. One enhanced fireball later, and the mountainous killer was more ash than man—his shadow armor scattered like dust on the harbor breeze.

"Anything else up your sleeve?" Cinder challenged as the three converged on the Puppetmaster's solitary position.

The masked woman studied each of them in turn, seemingly unconcerned about the situation. After a moment, she inclined her head, acknowledging both the query and her current predicament.

"How delightful," the Puppetmaster said, blood trickling from beneath her cracked mask. "You've exceeded my calculations in the most entertaining way."

Pyra shifted her weight, keeping the woman pinned while Cinder and Kindle moved to flank them. "Yeah, well, we're full of surprises. Now how about you call off your water monster and—"

The Puppetmaster's laugh was like silver bells dropped down a well. "But dear child, the performance isn't over yet."

Her fingers moved in a pattern too quick to follow, and shadows began pooling beneath them despite the bright morning sun. Not ordinary shadows—these moved with purpose, flowing like liquid mercury across the pier.

"Puppet strings," she whispered, "work both ways."

The shadows shot upward, wrapping around Pyra's wrists and ankles like restraints made of solid darkness. For a heartbeat, Pyra was held motionless, surprise flickering across her face.

"What the—"

"Shadow Bind," the Puppetmaster continued conversationally, as if discussing the weather. "Fascinating how shadows can exist independent of their light sources when properly motivated."

Cinder moved to help, but more shadows erupted from the pier, reaching for her legs. She danced backward, crimson fire carving through the darkness only to watch it reform instantly.

"Physical flames against metaphysical constructs," the Puppetmaster noted with academic interest. "Predictably ineffective."

From inside the water elemental, Ember's voice carried across the harbor. "Any time you want to finish this would be great! This thing is starting to get annoyed!"

The elemental's form was becoming increasingly unstable, steam billowing from multiple wounds Ember had carved in its core. But it was also adapting, drawing more water from the harbor to compensate for what she was boiling away.

Kindle tried a different approach, azure fire wrapping around her as she accelerated toward the bound Pyra. But the Puppetmaster was already moving.

The shadows beneath her began to spin, creating a whirlpool of darkness that pulled her downward through the pier itself. Pyra's shadow restraints dissolved as their creator sank into what should have been solid wood.

"Shadow Walk," the woman's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "The spaces between light are highways for those who know the way."

Pyra rolled to her feet, shaking her hands where the shadow bonds had left her fingers tingling with cold. "Okay, that was new and disturbing."

"Can we still catch her?" Kindle asked, scanning the pier for any sign of their vanished opponent.

Cinder was already moving, checking the spaces where shadows pooled deepest. "She has to emerge somewhere. Shadow magic requires anchor points—"

The attack came from directly above.

A rain of crystalline projectiles fell from the clear sky, each one sharp enough to punch through armor and fast enough to make dodging a matter of pure instinct. The three sister-selves scattered, fire trailing behind them as they sought cover.

"Crystallized shadow. Solid enough to kill, dark enough to follow me home."

More projectiles rained down, forcing them into constant motion. Each crystal that struck the pier exploded into fragments that sought their own targets, turning the battlefield into a maze of lethal shrapnel.

The elemental chose that moment to rear up, its form towering even higher as it drew more water from the harbor. Ember's continued assault had damaged it, but the creature was adapting faster than she could destroy it.

"Little spark, your flame burns bright, but the ocean is vast. How long before you drown in your own success?"

Inside the elemental's core, Ember felt the temperature around her beginning to drop. Her steam bubble was contracting, the creature somehow learning to disperse heat faster than she could generate it.

She poured more energy into her flames. The effort left her breathing hard—maintaining this level of output was exhausting even with their enhanced abilities.

On the pier, her other selves were discovering that fighting an opponent they couldn't see was significantly more challenging than overwhelming her with raw power.

"Where is she?" Kindle demanded, deflecting another crystal barrage with a whirlwind of azure fire.

"Could be anywhere," Cinder replied grimly. "Shadow magic lets her travel through any dark space."

"So we eliminate the shadows," Pyra said. She raised her hands, orange fire building around her like a miniature sun.

"Wait—" Cinder started, but Pyra was already releasing her power.

Light erupted from her position, bright enough to bleach color from the morning sky. Every shadow on the pier vanished instantly, leaving them standing in a landscape of harsh, uniform illumination.

For a moment, there was perfect silence.

Then the Puppetmaster materialized at the pier's center, fully visible and apparently unharmed. She stood with both hands raised toward the harbor, silver mask reflecting the harsh light like a broken mirror.

"Clever. Eliminate the medium, eliminate the magic. I'm impressed."

"Now we can finish this," Pyra said, already moving toward her.

"Indeed." The Puppetmaster's hands began to glow with silver light that poured into the harbor water around the pier. "Elemental! Phase two!"

The water creature abandoned its battle with Ember, collapsing into a torrent that flowed across the pier toward its summoner. Ember tumbled free, steam rising from her superheated form as she hit the wooden planks hard.

But instead of reforming as before, the elemental's water spread outward from the Puppetmaster's position, seeping into every crack and crevice of the pier's foundation. The wooden structure began to groan under an impossible weight.

The four converged on the Puppetmaster's position, their combined speed turning them into streaks of multicolored fire.

At the last possible moment, as they closed the final yards, the Puppetmaster smiled.

"Water finds its level," she said.

The pier exploded.

Not upward, but downward and outward, as every support beam, every foundation post, every structural element simultaneously burst from within. The elemental had filled the pier's skeleton, and now it expanded all at once.

The wooden platform beneath their feet disintegrated into a thousand floating fragments scattered across a suddenly much wider section of harbor. Where solid footing had been moments before, only churning water remained.

The four found themselves airborne, their momentum carrying them toward empty space where the Puppetmaster had been standing. But she was no longer there—shadows had pooled beneath the collapsing pier, and she was sinking into them even as the structure came apart.

They hit the water in four separate splashes, their flames immediately beginning to struggle against the harbor's salt spray. Swimming while maintaining fire powers was possible, but it required constant concentration that made combat nearly impossible.

"The boats!" Ember called out, already stroking toward the nearest fishing vessel. But the harbor water around them began to churn, whirlpools forming wherever they tried to gain purchase.

The elemental hadn't dispersed—it had become the harbor itself, at least the section around the destroyed pier. Every stroke they took was fought by currents that seemed designed to exhaust them.

From somewhere beneath the water, the Puppetmaster's voice echoed with unnatural clarity.

"You fought well, little flames. Better than I anticipated. But this encounter was never about victory—it was about assessment."

Cinder managed to grab a piece of floating debris, using it to stay afloat while her flames sputtered against the spray. "Assessment?"

"You represent variables outside our calculations. Abilities that don't conform to established magical frameworks." The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, as if the water itself was speaking. "Today's data will prove invaluable for future engagements."

"Future engagements?" Kindle's voice held dangerous intensity as she treaded water, azure fire creating small steam clouds around her.

"The Silent Hand has taken considerable interest in your capabilities. This was merely our introduction."

The water around them began to calm, the artificial currents fading as the elemental's presence withdrew. In the distance, they could see harbor boats approaching, drawn by the commotion.

"Until we meet again, Fragmented Flame."

The voice faded, leaving only the natural sounds of lapping waves and approaching rescue vessels.

The four sister-selves floated among the wreckage of what had been Ebran's main pier, each maintaining just enough flame to stay warm while they waited for the boats to reach them.

"She played us," Cinder said finally.

"Yeah," Pyra agreed, holding on to the same piece of driftwood as Cinder. "We need to work on our strategy."

"We need to do a lot of things," Ember agreed from across the way.

"Starting with getting out of this water," Kindle finished.

From Nasir's ship, which had managed to avoid the pier's destruction, came shouts and the sound of a boat being lowered. Help was coming.

"This job," Cinder said, her tone carrying weight they all understood, "just got a lot more interesting."

Pyra, Ember, and Kindle nodded in unison.

As the rescue boat drew near, Kindle voiced what they were all thinking.

"We're going to see her again."

"Count on it," Ember replied, accepting a rope from their rescuers.

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