"We're under attack!" one guard cried, though there was confusion in his voice. Rix didn't blame him. It wasn't every day you saw a man standing on a wall.

Rix had many questions, but in a moment like this, questions would get him killed. He could think of one explanation for the strange shift — an entropy event, one of the symptoms of this realm's decay. They were said to be unpredictable and take many forms and were notorious for claiming the lives of unprepared divers. Rix was determined not to join their number.

With his cover blown, all that mattered was extricating himself with the prize. His eyes darted to the surface at his feet. It felt wrong to call it a floor, but from his perspective, that's what it was. All the rubbish that had littered the temple nearby had reoriented itself, spilling upward and burying the new 'floor' beneath him, and the pearl alongside it. But he could still feel it nearby with his spirit eye, somewhere to his left. He focused on that sensation and dropped to his knees to dig through the rubble. After a few seconds, his fingers closed around something smooth and warm.

He pulled it free, rose to his feet, and for the second time in less than ten seconds, he struggled to comprehend what he saw. His appearance had clearly distracted the guards, because one of the fades had managed to dash past into the temple itself. But it wasn't closing in on him with those terrifying approximations of human hands. It was in the centre of the room.

And it was floating.

The fade seemed quite rightly confused. Rix stared for several seconds, trying to make sense of the sight. It seemed as though gravity hadn't only shifted in one way. When he looked closer, he realised that towards the middle of the room, everything looked vaguely untethered, like it was no longer held in place by any force at all. The floating fade had momentum, and where it struck other objects, it sent them drifting too.

In the centre of the room, gravity seemed to hold no sway at all.

The room was now effectively divided into three parts: regular gravity at the far end where the guards battled their fades; no gravity in the middle, where the third fade drifted and squealed; and changed gravity at the back, where Rix stood ninety degrees the wrong way, pearl in hand.

It felt like for a moment, everything paused, even the fades. The sheer abnormality of it all was difficult to comprehend. But then everybody leapt back into action, and the room descended into chaos.

In the gap at the far end, behind the two remaining fades, Luna appeared, drawn by the crash or perhaps the guard's cry.

Her brow furrowed as she took in the scene. "What the bleeding hells?" she said, but she didn't have time to stare further, as one of the fades turned to meet her, trying to skewer her on one spindly limb. She blocked with her sword, but the fight was on.

That gave one of the guards an opportunity. Freed from his opponent, he leapt into action, hefting his giant blade and sprinting across the temple towards Rix. As he approached the centre of the room, he slowed, eyeing the ground around him, searching for that invisible border where the world turned on its head. It wasn't clear if it was a hard border or a gradual change, but after a moment, the guard seemed to decide it didn't matter. His eyes darted up, taking in Rix and the nearby fade that was still drifting aimlessly, and then, with a snarl, he backed up, took a couple of massive steps, and leaped.

He didn't time it perfectly, but still, he hit the zero-gravity zone with enough momentum to send him hurtling towards Rix. With no ranged attacks, Rix used what he could. The ground around him was littered with rocks. Stuffing the pearl into the pocket of his robe, he scooped up an armful and began hurling them straight upwards towards the guard. Even throwing at such an awkward angle, his Martial Soul strength was more than enough to lob a rock sixty feet.

And the moment each projectile crossed the threshold to the middle of the room, gravity ceased working against it. They shot through the air like projectiles from a catapult. The guard realised his mistake. Though he was racing towards Rix with speed, in an environment with no gravity and nothing to anchor him, he couldn't change direction. He couldn't dodge.

He tried the next best thing, slashing out with his sword to block the blows. He deflected the first two rocks, but the third and fourth slammed home, crashing into his thigh and then his shoulder. It wasn't enough to disrupt his forward momentum altogether, but it was enough to flare his mantle and send him spinning such that when he flew through to Rix's zone and gravity reasserted itself, it yanked him tumbling awkwardly to the 'floor'.

Rix hefted his staff and moved in to engage, but he staggered as his vision momentarily blurred. The effects of the entropy field were starting to take their toll. He was still close to the very centre of it, and the pain continued to build.

Ironically, that stumble might have saved him. A jet of web from the floating weaver slammed into the wall, inches in front of him. Had he kept moving, it would have caught him square.

He glanced up. The guard had distracted him, and the weaver had used the opportunity to set up. It had shot webs towards both the floor and ceiling of the temple and had one hooked limb through each. It sat suspended there in the temple air, arms splayed like some terrifying religious symbol. It screeched and fired again, two more jets, and Rix cursed as one hit home, wrapping around his shoulder. The creature pulled — apparently it could retract the web on command — nearly yanking him off his feet. Rix twisted, desperately trying to break free, but the stuff had already begun to set around him like hardening tree sap.

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Summoning [Wind Blade], he tried a more direct approach. Though the technique was awkward to use while wielding the staff in one hand, by spinning it above his head, he severed the web and dashed behind a large pile of rubble.

The guard in Rix's zone was on his feet now. His jaw was tense, the strain of the entropy field evident on his face, though he obviously hadn't been surprised by it like Kenzo. These two knew what they were protecting.

The man glanced between Rix and the weaver, sizing up the situation before hefting his sword and dashing forwards. He had to dodge two jets from the hanging fade, but he was nimble enough. As the guard got within range, he unleashed a devastating technique, a series of overhead strikes that caused his blade to ripple with purple energy. Rix caught them on the middle of his staff, his fists balled on either side, though his knees nearly buckled and he felt his weapon shudder in his hand. Hells, that technique had some power behind it.

When the man's blade dulled, Rix countered, a testing series of strikes designed to get a read on his opponent. Though he'd been a High Whisper for that first arena fight, it hadn't really challenged him. This was the first fight against another Martial Soul where he really got to feel the power of his latest improvements. Improved acuity was such a strange sensation, tiny yet with huge ramifications. Everything about his opponent's movements came through just a little sharper to his senses — the flex of his muscles, the darting of his eyes.

The extra agility was noticeable too. Rix felt light on his feet, his movements whiplike and graceful. This close, he could feel the man's strength through his Spirit eye. He judged them evenly matched — the first time he'd really fought someone on his level. While the Iron Hand member had the strength advantage, there was no doubt that Rix was faster.

The man managed to parry his initial volley, and they separated momentarily.

"Xu Han put a price on your head, you know," he hissed. "Five heartstones for any Iron Hand who takes you out. And here I was thinking I had no shot at it."

Rix shot him a grim smile. "I'm not sure you do." And then he launched himself forward in a blur.

Letting his style take root in his mind, he unleashed a barrage of [Wind Blade] infused strikes with both ends. While the guard's single massive weapon would be devastating if it landed any attacks, on defence against someone quick who could come at you from multiple directions, it was actually a liability. Rix pushed a little qi into Energy Surge to further drive home the disparity.

Panic flashed on the guard's face as he whipped his blade desperately left and right, trying to turn Rix's blows. He caught some of them, but two got through — a raking combination that left a slash down one bicep and the opposing thigh. This was why he loved the staff so much. With clever use of momentum, you could turn a block into another attack.

The man let out a hiss, blood spilling to the stone below, and he staggered backwards. The rubble that they were fighting behind was almost head height. It protected them from being webbed by the hanging fade. But Rix's intention had not been to simply wound. He'd had a secondary goal. He'd driven the guard back far enough back that he was now exposed.

And moments later, a strand of web shot out, catching him right on the top of his head. Rix expected the fade to try and reel him in. Instead, apparently sick of trying to steal the pearl from range, it released its anchors and used the thread to pull itself forward. The guard barely had time to register alarm before the fade crashed into him, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

Rix took the opportunity to step around the rubble and check on Luna. Both she and the other guard were still embroiled in their own fights, but as he watched, Luna unleashed a [Deflecting Palm] to send her fade stumbling awkwardly off to the side before finishing it with a [Falcon Slash] that left it in pieces on the ground.

Now free of her opponent, she raced forward, stopping awkwardly before the no-gravity zone.

"Did you get another technique you didn't tell me about?" she called, glancing around.

He managed a laugh, though it was through gritted teeth. "If I could do this, you think I'd be running from Han?"

"Fair. Is the egg in the nest?" Judging by her wince, she was feeling the entropy field too, now.

Rix reached down to where he'd stashed the pearl and lifted it up for her to see. "You could have said, 'Is the pearl in the oyster?'"

Luna made a face. "That's a bit obvious, isn't it? It's meant to be code," she said. "Anyway, should we get out of here?"

Rix glanced around. "Easier said than done."

The problem was that with his world spun ninety degrees, he had no easy way to escape. The only path out was up from his current orientation. If he could reach the middle of the room, he'd slip into zero gravity and could drift his way free, but getting there was tricky. He couldn't jump high enough, even with Martial Soul strength.

There was a stack of rubble to his left that would give him maybe fifteen feet if climbed, but he wasn't sure it was enough. Then his eyes landed on the weaver's leftover strands. When it had launched itself at the guard, it had left its two pieces of web hanging from the floor and the ceiling in the centre of the room. The one that hung from the ceiling was long enough that he might be able to reach it with a little help.

"I'm going to climb that," he called, nodding to the tower of rubble. "Can you get that web to me?"

Luna didn't even blink. "Can do." With a quick glance around her, she launched herself forward. "Bleeding hells," she cursed as gravity suddenly fell away, and she began to drift.

As Rix began to climb, the guard near the door apparently decided he needed to do something. He tried to disengage from his opponent, but as he turned to bolt towards the centre of the room, the weaver caught him with a jet of web around the leg, pulling him off his feet. The man let out a startled cry and struggled to wrestle himself free, but two more jets followed, pinning him to the stone.

Now unguarded, the weaver's eyes locked to the pearl in Rix's pocket, and it began to scuttle forward. Meanwhile, Luna had somehow perfectly timed her jump and had reached the strand. Gripping it in the middle, she swung it upwards, flinging it perfectly at the spot Rix was climbing to. With no gravity, it hung there above him parallel to the temple floor like something possessed.

At that moment, there was a commotion near the entrance, and two more Iron Hand members appeared in the gap.

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