The attack occurred somewhere Rix had come to think of as safe: the mess hall. Normally, the massive room was too heavily guarded to be a place where grievances could be properly aired, but the Iron Hand played the situation well.

Just as the prisoners sat down to begin their dinner, a guard raced into the room and started whispering to his colleagues. Rix would learn later that the Iron Hand had set up a distraction in the training yard. Some kind of working of mana and outside materials that caused an explosion. They left several members there as decoys in need of 'saving'. Apparently, it was convincing because most of the guards raced out to deal with it. They left just a solitary watcher, a grizzled man Rix had seen often but never spoken to.

A minute later, their enemies struck.

Conversation at the Shadow Runner table had resumed by then. Rix had slipped back into discussion with Huan. Despite the distraction, with his enhanced acuity, he was one of the first to pick up the subtle shift in the room's soundscape. It was little things. The scrape of a few too many chairs simultaneously. The sudden drop in chatter from a few rows over.

His eyes were drawn behind him, where he saw that a group of people had all stood as one. An instant later, he realised they were all Iron Hand.

And an instant after that, they were all barrelling towards his table.

"Attack!" he managed to cry, shooting to his feet.

Most of the Shadow Runners were quick to react, spinning to meet the Iron Hand as they raced forward. They came from all angles, leaping tables and toppling chairs in their haste. There would be no techniques or bonded weapons in this part of the prison, but the tether couldn't take their bodies from them.

Most came with fists swinging, but there were makeshift weapons in the mix too — spikes of stone or hardened wood, furniture legs wielded as clubs. Even as the melee enveloped him, Rix found himself wondering if he could craft a staff from something nearby. But the time for that sort of action had passed. Now, the fight was on.

A woman appeared in front of him brandishing something black and needle-tipped that was as long as his arm. She thrust it for his guts, but he danced to the left, throwing a driving punch to her throat. Her mantle flared, and she stumbled backwards, her mouth gasping for air. It wasn't a killing blow, not even close, but it bought him time to spin and engage the man who was currently rushing him from behind — a burly Iron Hand member who had been one of the six who had cornered them in the cave. His attack was a full-bodied tackle, but Rix scooped up his chair and swung it with all his strength. With a little Energy Surge behind it, the attack whipped through the air far faster than the man expected. It struck him across the head with a satisfying thud. Wood splintered, and he was sent tumbling into a nearby table.

For the second time in as many days, he thanked the heavens his qi was still unfettered.

That provided Rix a moment of breathing room. The mess hall was in chaos. All around him, people were wrestling, striking, crying out. It was a sea of flying limbs, punctuated by the occasional sickening crunch of bone or splash of blood. Rix couldn't tell who was winning. There were even some people belonging to neither faction who had joined the fray. It had already turned into a full-blown riot.

To his left, he saw Luna duck a haymaker from a small wiry Iron Hand member before burying her foot in his groin. Despite his mantle, the blow was enough to send her opponent to the ground, his face contorted in pain.

Every so often, people would collapse seemingly without cause. A glance to the side revealed the source. The lone guard was standing wide-eyed at the edge of the battle. Wherever he directed his attention, people fell in agonised knots. It had to be the tether.

But it seemed like it wasn't capable of subduing on a large scale. Or perhaps it was the guard that was incapable. He certainly looked overwhelmed. Whatever the explanation, he could drop groups of people three or four at a time, sending them twitching to the floor, but the moment his focus shifted, they recovered and found their feet once more.

There was no way that he alone could contain this.

Rix's heart was thundering. He'd been in all sorts of danger since arriving here, but this sort of widespread melee was a new experience. And it was terrifying because he knew he was at the heart of it. He could see it in the way the Iron Hand members scanned the crowd for his face. Even in the midst of their own fights, they couldn't disguise the hunger in their eyes when they spotted him. He remembered what the Iron Hand member had said during the heist. There was a bounty on his head.

Another man came at him, swinging a dinner tray with thick limbs. Rix ducked under the blow, driving a knee into his stomach. At Master Zhen's behest, he'd been working on incorporating more unconventional strikes into his combat with mixed success, but this particular attack was effective, causing him to double over as the breath rushed from his body. He followed it up with an uppercut to the chin, sending him toppling back into the melee.

About ten feet away, he saw Wing, who had just sent an opponent flying with a kick to the sternum. She caught Rix's eye and gave a grim nod before moving in closer to cover his back. That, at least, protected one angle of attack, but Rix was far from safe.

As if to give form to his thoughts, from within the turmoil, Han emerged just a few feet in front of him. Something about the brawl around them made him look bigger. A mountain made flesh. His face twitched as he stared into Rix's eyes.

"Told you we'd find you, runt," he growled.

Rix's first thought was to run, but he was at the centre of the room. Glancing around, he saw no clear path to safety. On all sides, people fought.

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Han didn't give him the chance to look further. Rix turned back to find the man's club of a fist hurtling towards his stomach. The only solace Rix could take from the situation was that Han appeared to be unarmed, but he quickly realised that didn't count for much as the attack crashed home.

Rix's mantle flashed, but the blow was clean and straight, so it did almost nothing to stop the air being driven from his lungs. He doubled over. It took everything he had not to throw up. In the back of his head, he couldn't help but appreciate that there was something darkly poetic about the fact that the punch was basically identical to the one Yutaro had thrown at him the first day he arrived. The attack that had started all this. He'd come full circle.

But most of his focus was just on how much that fucking hurt.

It felt like being hit by an industrial piston.

Rix sucked in a short, agonising breath. The pain of it warped his vision momentarily, but he forced his mind to focus. He would not roll over after a single blow.

When the follow-up came, Rix was ready. Dodging to the right and ignoring the deep stab of pain that radiated through his torso, he unleashed a blow of his own, a perfect gut punch honed through thousands of repetitions. It was as good of a strike as he could deliver, full-bodied and with every ounce of his strength behind it.

It bounced off Han's stomach like he'd hit a tree.

Rix had wondered how tough the man would be without his [Stoneskin] technique, and now he had his answer. Han's expression didn't show even the vaguest hint of discomfort as his mantle flashed and Rix's fist found flesh.

Han sneered. Now that Rix was close, the big man lurched forward to grapple him, but that was certain death. Calling up Energy Surge, Rix slipped under his hands, surging behind him to unleash a further flurry of attacks. He'd grown more confident with such combinations in recent weeks. He struck quickly and precisely: the neck, the kidneys, the back of the legs. Such blows would have knocked Luna to the ground, but Han took them all in stride.

Desperation mounting, Rix ducked under a vicious backhand and scooped up another chair from the floor nearby. They were flimsy things made of cheap wood, but they still had mass and length. As Han's blow carried him around to face Rix once more, Rix brought the chair crashing down towards his head.

But the attack didn't land.

Han punched the chair as it fell, a devastating uppercut that shattered the wood and sent Rix stumbling awkwardly to the side. He tried to regain his footing quickly using Energy Surge, but he was too far off balance and Han's follow-up was surprisingly fast — a powerful front kick directly to Rix's chest.

Rix went flying backwards, slamming into a nearby table. His head snapped back, colliding with the surface and sending his vision spinning and his ears ringing. Adrenaline surged in his veins, and with it came a pulsing hot sense of danger. If he let Han get on top of him while he was prone, that would be the end.

But Han never came. As Rix's awareness returned, he dragged himself up to find the man now engaged with Luna. The size difference between the two was almost comical. Luna barely came up to the Iron Hand leader's chest, and the battle reflected that disparity. Han's attacks were heavy and powerful, devastating if they were to connect. But Luna wove between them with incredible grace, sometimes dodging, sometimes turning the blows with deft little blocks or thrusts of her hands. Rix had fought her plenty of times, and he knew firsthand how infuriatingly difficult it was to hit her.

But for all of her impressive skills, she didn't seem to actually be causing any more damage than Rix had. Despite finding all manner of inventive angles of attack with fists and feet alike, Han never reacted more strongly than the occasional wince. The man was a walking fortress — utterly impregnable.

The battle seemed almost a stalemate, but then from his vantage on the floor, Rix saw someone emerge from the melee nearby: Yuri, the Iron Hand woman who'd butchered him in the arena the previous week. While her bonded weapons were obviously stowed, she did carry a broken piece of chair leg in one hand, its wood jagged at one end in a way that would comfortably pierce a person.

Her eyes were locked to Luna's back. Engrossed as she was trying to find some weakness in Han's body, Luna didn't notice her.

But Yuri also hadn't noticed Rix.

Ignoring the way his body protested, he hurriedly dragged himself to his feet, scooping up a chair leg of his own. His wasn't edged enough to be a stabbing weapon, but it would serve just fine as a club.

As Yuri stalked towards Luna, Rix deployed everything he had. Energy Surge was a given, but with Luna in danger, he wanted more. He needed to be certain. And he had one card left to play.

The array tattoo on his chest.

In his initial shock at the attack, he'd forgotten that he had it, but he could still feel it there, a tingling bundle of possibilities against his chest. Huan had said it was for emergencies only. If this didn't qualify, he wasn't sure what did. Also, if he was being honest, he really wanted to know what it felt like.

Pushing a little of his qi into Energy Surge, he simultaneously reached out with his mana and made a connection with the mark on his chest. With techniques blocked, he wasn't sure it would work, but the tattoo's crude nature seemed to work in its favour, because it activated without issue. The effect was immediate and almost disorienting in its intensity. Power flooded Rix's system, shooting through every part of him from the soles of his feet to the tips of his fingers. The sensation was like nothing he'd ever felt before, a sort of unrestrained kinetic heat that took root deep in his muscles and radiated through him with an almost painful energy.

Rix had never moved so fast in his life. When layered with the effect of his nascent Wind Gate, it gave Rix a cataclysmic burst of speed. He shot towards Yuri like a ballista bolt.

Even with everything Rix had going, she was almost fast enough. At the sound of his feet, she whirled to meet him, attempting to raise her own makeshift weapon to block his, but all the power coursing through him was too much. His club crashed home with staggering power. It felt like a miniaturised [Force Hammer]. Like most Martial Souls who focused on speed, Yuri's durability was lacking. Even with the protection of her mantle, the blow saw her eyes go glassy and her body collapse to the floor. It wasn't a killing blow, but she was out of the fight.

Luna glanced backwards, her eyes widening slightly as she processed the sight. "Thanks."

Rix stepped up next to her, nodding to Han. "Right back at you."

The Iron Hand leader gazed at the two of them in contempt. "Always hiding behind your friends, runt."

"Says the man who brought six people to hunt me," Rix replied.

Han let out a growl. "I don't need anyone else. Tell your sect bitch to step aside and I'll tell my people the same, and we can have it out right here. Just you and me."

Rix briefly considered it. The power of the tattoo was ebbing now that he'd cut off the connection, but there was still more mana left in the ink. He felt like he'd used maybe a third.

The problem was, he didn't know if it would be enough. The tattoo was a significant boost, but Han had been all but invulnerable. With his current capabilities, it might not bridge the gap, especially unarmed.

In that moment of hesitation, the decision was taken from him. From off to the side, Rix heard the sound of racing footsteps, and then a group of guards emerged into the room. At their head was Scarface. Without a word, they fanned out, and then all around the room, prisoners started collapsing.

Han opened his mouth to yell something, but that was the last thing Rix saw as the world went white and he passed out.

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