Nex led the way, accelerating through the clouds, the wind whipping his fur, while his brother Viz trailed behind as Yasuya pursued. He might not have seen the shenlong himself trailing behind them, but his periodic echolocation barks allowed him to perceive Yasuya's monstrous shape.

  Bank to the left, his mind screamed. He went left; Viz went right, just as Yasuya fired a beam of light from his jaws, the dragon's blast slicing through the sky.

  Nex's ears rang from the tumultuous shriek reverberating from the sheer force of the beam as it streaked toward the heavens. He wondered if the dragon intended to kill them in a non-fatal tournament, but judging by the output of Yasuya's attacks, that seemed entirely possible.

  Nex rolled his shoulders in the air and let the ringing fade into a useful hum. If the dragon wanted to turn the sky into a weapon, then Nex would treat the sky like a training floor. He clicked a tight burst of echolocation and watched the world redraw itself in clean lines.

  Viz answered with a softer set of pings. The rhythm meant he was still with him, still thinking, still fast enough to live. Nex smiled into the wind, his brother always looked shaky in the face, then he moved like a blade.

  Yasuya surged through the cloud shelf and the light around him thickened. The glow was not just bright, it had weight. Nex felt it pressing on his wings, as if the air wanted to harden into glass.

  Nex snapped two quick clicks toward Viz. Spread, climb, bait. Viz replied with three clicks. Under, hook, strike. Their language was sharp and private, and it let Nex keep his pride intact while the dragon tried to turn them into ash.

  A beam tore past Nex and carved a clean tunnel through the clouds. The blast heated the mist into a screaming vapor, and the sound slapped Nex in the skull. Nex twisted with a lazy roll, he let the beam miss by a wing length, he liked the margin.

  Viz cut across Nex's wake and threw a ripple of lightning sound. It was not normal electricity, it rode on a vibrating pulse from his maw and it snapped through the cloud water like a whip. The shock wave crackled over Yasuya, then faded as if the dragon wore storm skin.

  Nex clicked once, hard and proud. "Not bad."

  He formed sound derived strings from his throat and wings, thin cords that sang at a pitch the clouds could carry. The strings whipped forward and wrapped around Yasuya like a net that only existed in vibration.

  Yasuya pushed through it. His coils flexed and the net screamed, then snapped into harmless noise. The dragon did not slow, he only brightened, and the clouds around him churned into a darker ring.

  Nex felt the weather answer him. The arena sky turned mean. Wind shifted into cross currents and thunder gathered like an audience that wanted blood.

  Nex clicked again and built a second set of strings, thicker, layered, tuned to harmonics that could lock a body in place. He did it with the calm of a prodigy, his hands did not shake, his mind did not ask for permission. He threw the trap wide and then tightened it like a fist.

  Yasuya flared his jaw and light poured out. The light did not only burn, it erased. Nex watched a section of his strings vanish, the sound simply stopped existing where the beam passed. Nex narrowed his eyes, then laughed under his breath, "The dragon is cheating with physics, fine."

  Viz darted low and sent another unorthodox wave. It dove under Yasuya and climbed through his belly scales, a nerve hunting pulse that should have made even giants spasm. Yasuya twitched once, then steadied, then slammed his tail through the cloud bank.

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  The impact birthed a gust wall. Nex hit it and felt his wings buckle for a heartbeat. He corrected instantly and used the pressure to slingshot upward, as if the dragon's tantrum was a gift.

  A lightning bolt struck near Viz. The flash blinded the cloud edges for a second and the thunder tried to swallow his clicks. Viz wobbled, then righted himself, and his next echolocation ping came out ragged but determined.

  Nex answered with a clean burst that cut through the noise. "Hold. Follow me."

  When Viz heard the command, Nex surged ahead and pulled Yasuya into a chase line, the way a pilot drags a missile into empty air.

  To his delight, Yasuya took the bait. The dragon drove forward and the clouds parted for him like they feared him. Light gathered in his jaws again, heavier, steadier, aimed not at where Nex was, but at where Nex would be.

  Nex saw the prediction and felt a thrill. That meant the dragon respected him. That meant the dragon could be tricked.

  Nex split his flight into afterimages. His speed made echoes of fur and wings, false bodies painted on the mist, each one carrying a faint sonic signature. He scattered them left and right, and the sky suddenly held twenty Nexbursts, all smug, all real enough to fool anything that hunted with eyes.

  Yasuya fired. The beam sliced through two afterimages and the clouds screamed again. The real Nex dipped under the blast and cut behind a cloud ridge, and his heart stayed steady, this was not panic, this was practice.

  Viz clicked twice, tight and urgent. The meaning was clear. He had an angle. Nex answered with one click. "Do it."

  Viz turned toward a swollen storm cloud that hovered like a loaded fist. He sent a low rolling echolocation pulse into it, not to see it, but to push it. The cloud shuddered and shifted as if it had muscles.

  Yasuya noticed and dragged the weather with him. Wind snapped around the cloud, and light spears stabbed down, trying to shred it apart. Viz held the cloud with repeated pulses, each one a command hidden inside sound.

  Nex carved a wide arc above them and watched the dragon lock on. Yasuya aimed at the real Nex again, then swung his head toward Viz and the cloud, as if deciding which prey deserved worship.

  Nex made the choice for him. He unleashed a brilliant chain of afterimages straight at Yasuya, all of them screaming with confident, sonic lies. The shockwaves were true; potent, boisterous booms that rippled through the air. He allowed the dragon to taste the shrieks of the false Nexes in every direction, then left one gap: a corridor that led directly into Viz's cloud.

  Yasuya lunged. He did it with authority, as if the sky belonged to him and Nex was a stain to erase. He drove into the corridor and opened his jaws for a point blank blast.

  Viz yanked the storm cloud sideways and wrapped it around Yasuya like a cloak. The dragon entered his own weather and the world went dim for a breath. The cloud swallowed the light and scattered it, the beam fizzled inside water and static.

  Nex dove straight down into the cloud and snapped his strings into place. The sound cords anchored to the storm mass and tightened around Yasuya, not to hold muscle, but to bind senses. The cloud amplified the vibration and turned it into a cage that rang from every angle.

  Yasuya jerked and the cloud answered with thunder. Lightning flashed inside it, not wild, not random, controlled by Viz's pulses. The bolt struck Yasuya from within his own storm, and the dragon finally made a guttural sound that was not confidence.

  Nex felt it through the air. A stagger. A real one.

  Nex clicked once, proud and sharp. "Now."

  Viz sent one last lightning sound wave through his mouth and nose and into the trapped storm. The pulse hit Yasuya where nerves met scale, and the dragon convulsed, just enough, just long enough.

  Nex burst out of the cloud with a grin that the wind could not steal. He circled once, slow on purpose, like a victor taking space. He could hear Yasuya thrashing inside the cloud, but the thrashing had desperation in it now.

  Nex sent a short echolocation phrase to Viz. Clean trap. Perfect bait. Viz answered with a shaky ping that still carried triumph.

  Nex narrowed his eyes on the cloud prison and felt his confidence sharpen. The dragon could power through pain and tricks, but even a king of the sky could be stunned by his own storm. Nex drew in a breath and let his next plan form, his mind moved faster than thunder, and he was done playing defense.

  Nex drew a fresh breath and clicked a tight scan. The cloud prison hummed with Viz's pulses, and Yasuya thrashing inside sounded slower. Nex let himself enjoy it for half a second, then a cold prickle crawled up his spine.

  A cloud to Nex's right shivered. It was not part of Viz's storm.

  Yasuya's horns and eyes glinted through the mist. The shine hit Nex like a signal flare. Nex turned his head, then the air snapped.

  The cloud beside him detonated with starlight.

  They’ve been drinking my future like it’s corp-subsidized coffee. I’m about to make them choke on it.

  I’m Dash. My great-grandfather was one of the Fifteen who saved humanity during the System Apocalypse, founding the corps that rule the solar system. That legacy should’ve been mine. Until my father was disinherited and died, leaving us with nothing but a single building on Earth 2.0.

  My compatibility tested at 17%. Failure. While classmates advanced to System Academy, I got mining school, fighting bugs for drops. But the 17% compatibility score was a lie. A rival corp has been draining my power.

  When a broken System finally manifests, it grants me Hoqalo, a trait to forge gear better than anything factory-made. Now, armed with my tools and my corporate grandmother’s dangerous resources, I’m done fighting for scraps.

  They stole my future. I'm stealing it back with interest.

  | LitRPG | Cyberpunk | Magitech | Underdog | Book 1 Written |