Dawnlight hung from the Azureblood Octopus like a moth pinned to wet glass, its iron-slick cups clamped tight, her breath ragged and soul cold.

Her stamina and Mana had bled away resisting the Black Flame, like water seeping through cracked stone after winter.

Her light shots stung the beast, but its recovery surged like spring sap, knitting flesh faster than frost could bite.

She’d heard the Azureblood Octopus’s name whispered in Order Keeper scouting teams, rumors like wind through reeds.

They said a severed limb could flower into a new octopus within hours, a tide of flesh rising from a single cut.

Fresh-grown ones lacked a Magic Stone, their cells dull as ash, too faint to split again for a while.

This octopus felt weak, yet its true body screamed Cantata Two, a storm behind a husk.

With her current Mana and strength, Dawnlight couldn’t wrench free alone, so she held still like prey in snow, saving every spark.

Zhao Qingsnow must be worried sick, a raincloud over embers.

Tch—who asked for her concern?

“What’s the situation now?”

Lu Jin and Lu Shi questioned the surviving soldiers as Black Flame burned inside like a night sea.

Cold pushed from every side like a glacier, ice elements smothering the blaze until embers choked.

“Miss Dawnlight got grabbed by the Monsters. Dr. Zhao already gave chase. We’ve sent a helicopter to follow the octopus.

This is the walkie-talkie… please, bring our comrades back.”

“Mm. I’ll try.”

Lu Jin and Lu Shi took the walkie, its voice a thin wire, reporting the Azureblood Octopus’s movements in real time.

Lu Shi borrowed a police car, slammed the pedal, and the engine answered like thunder under iron hooves.

“Tsk, a vacation turns into another mess. Can those underground groups stop throwing stones into our pond?”

Lu Jin lay on the back seat, the jolts like rough waves that kept her eyes from closing.

She drew the Rosefire Pistol like a dawn bloom, wiped it with clean cloth, and grumbled at the shadows that stirred all this chaos.

“Still, sister… you’ve got no Magic Stone. Your true body tops at First Symphony…”

“I know. I’ll support you. Your Mana’s low, but we planned for accidents like this.

We’ll run low-frequency Mana to stall the Azureblood Octopus’s steps. Our goal isn’t a kill—it’s rescue.”

“Got i—”

Lu Shi cut the turn, tires skimming like ice skates on black glass.

Cars leaned aside like reeds in wind, and the sisters flew through the street, two swallows chasing a storm.

Soon, the octopus’s shadow loomed, huge as a collapsed moon, its escape speed fast as a river burst.

“See Dawnlight and the other soldiers?”

Lu Jin raised her white Rosefire Pistol, her gaze a blade of light.

She spotted Dawnlight curled in a lower-left tentacle, a pale star inside kelp.

The octopus moved too fast. Lu Jin could hit the beast, but not spare the hostage wrapped by those coiling ropes.

“Careful!”

The octopus slid across facades, suction cups kissing glass like dark blossoms, climbing fast.

A tentacle flipped a signboard and smashed toward the rising helicopter, a falling gate against the rotors.

The rotor jammed, and the chopper dove toward a street thick as a beehive, Order shattered like a spilled lattice.

Lu Shi stomped brakes and sprang from the car, a hawk loosed.

Lu Jin knew her intent; she shot nearby light sources, glass bursting like cold stars.

Darkness poured from Lu Shi’s palm, a night tide wrapping the falling helicopter.

Without a Magic Stone and with only thin Mana, she strained like a swimmer under ice, easing it down until skids kissed the street.

“You alright? Can you move?”

The soldiers nodded, faces pale as ash; without Lu Shi, their lives would’ve been coins sunk in a well.

“Then pass the word. Seal this area. Evacuate whoever’s left.”

Lu Jin staggered from the car, a reed in wind, and conferred with Lu Shi.

Lu Shi chose to clear the mall, while Lu Jin joined the soldiers in the helicopter to track the Azureblood Octopus.

Zhao Qingsnow moved like a winter arrow, arriving as Lu Jin lifted off and Lu Shi turned back.

“Where’s that damned Monster?”

Anxiety furrowed Zhao Qingsnow’s face like frost lines; Lu Shi understood—Dawnlight was her precious niece.

Their story had spun through the Twelfth District branch like lantern gossip.

To spare a niece from harm, Zhao Qingsnow still hadn’t retired from the Magic Maiden line at thirty-plus, a candle holding back wind.

The older a Magic Maiden gets, the harder it is to lock Mana in the body; skills stay sharp, but flesh dulls like old steel.

When they draw Mana, a large portion spills like water from a cracked jar.

For a Seeker or the Mutual Aid Society, that’s manageable—they rarely fight.

But Order Keepers live on watch, blades unsheathed day and night, always ready.

So, most Magic Maidens step away after thirty. Zhao Qingsnow didn’t.

“The Azureblood Octopus’s vitals are rising like a tide. Soon, it’ll recover its true strength.

Then its regeneration will be a storm none of us can weather. It’s a nasty one.”

Lu Shi sifted the reports, a hand through grain, then sent conclusions to Zhao Qingsnow and the branch commander, Blade.

“It’s local—born to this coast—so it fears thunder and high heat.

Low temperatures help, but not much.

Bad luck: last week, our only thunder specialist at Cantata Two joined a scouting team seeking a path to Cantata Three.”

“How’s Dawnlight?”

Lu Shi knew Zhao Qingsnow saw only her niece, a single moon in a dark sky.

“Stable for the moment. Walk with me—upstairs.”

Lu Shi briefed Zhao Qingsnow on Dawnlight’s condition as they moved.

They traded quick notes and learned both had crossed blades with the Magic Maiden called Night Frost, their words like mirrors.

Without the Black Flame, Night Frost fought like a fresh Cantata Two, techniques diverse but wasteful of Mana.

Counting that strange Black Flame, she could beat any ordinary Cantata Two in a duel, a raven wing over a campfire.

They reached their mark, the mall’s top floor, where the sky pressed low like cold iron.

Above lay the rooftop, the Azureblood Octopus’s lair.

“Here. In a moment, Lu Jin and I will draw it here and lock it down.

The villa district barrier was a general ward; this one’s built to bind Monsters.”

“What can I do?”

Lu Shi thought like water settling in a basin, then asked Zhao Qingsnow to restore her Mana.

When the barrier blooms, they’d strike together, three blades under the same moon.

Qianchun and Eye Orb skimmed the empty streets toward the high-rise, soles whispering like silk.

They’d flagged a ride, but the driver dumped them—news said a Cantata Two Monster was near the mall.

Citizens were urged to evacuate in Order, a tide flowing from risk.

“It’s ahead, but Magic Maidens and authorities have it sealed.”

Eye Orb swept the corners and found a spot a soldier just vacated, shadows like a doorway.

Man and orb slipped into the building, a cattail through a fence.

They took a service elevator from the underground passage, rising to a floor shy of the top.

While planning, Lu Shi and Zhao Qingsnow heard the elevator stop, a bell like a drop into a still pool.

Cantata One forces wouldn’t gather so fast; the mall was cleared; civilians wouldn’t come to the roof.

So whoever arrived was likely the enemy, rats under pantry doors.

The elevator didn’t reach the top.

Lu Shi reported to the branch; Blade told the soldiers to tighten the net and not let a few mice break the loom.

The Azureblood Octopus sprawled on the rooftop like a barnacle god, breath heavy.

It had sprinted miles on land after waking, muscles grit like overused rope.

It felt tired, but in its grasp lay delicacies, ten fingers of flesh-light.

If it ate a few, it would recover, like a fire fed with oil.

A surprise pleased it—a certain captured scent felt remarkable, a sweetness like ripe fruit under rain.

It decided to save the most fragrant for last, a miser with a single pearl.

Night Frost woke inside the sticky coils, a fly in syrup.

Suction cups latched onto her wounds, tugging with bull-tide force; pain pricked like thorns under skin.

Keep this up and the wounds will rot, turning to dusk.

She tried to struggle, but her Mana was ash at the bottom of a brazier.

“Mana?”

Night Frost remembered the Magic Stone shard she palmed from a lab, a thief’s memory like a glint.

If she absorbed it, she could hold out a while, a candle stealing one more hour.

But she needed to escape the tentacle’s cage; endurance alone was a slow drowning.

“You’re awake? Can you talk?”

The voice was soft as silk over snow, and Night Frost heard the girl’s gentleness like a small bell.

“I’m Dawnlight. Yeah, the one who beaned you with the light ball.”

At the word “holy light,” Night Frost’s lower belly throbbed; being skewered by a lance wasn’t a memory that fades, a bruise in winter.

“I can talk. Spit it out. I don’t like you, sis—my wounds are still singing, y’know?”

She’d lost the upper hand, so her tongue tried to win it back, a fox flicking its tail.

“If you’ve got energy to snipe, your injury’s not as bad as I feared.

I don’t like it either, but right now, neither of us can escape alone.

So, how about we work together?”

“Sure, if you’re not scared I’ll stab you in the back.”

Dawnlight fell quiet, a hush before dawn.

She was close to burning out, the octopus’s cups now sipping her Mana like leeches in a river.

The drain was small but constant; time would leave her empty, a well gone dry.

She didn’t know when rescue would find them, clouds over a map.

For now, she could only trust herself—and the girl trapped with her.

In this coil of danger, Night Frost likely wouldn’t kick her when she’s down, two swimmers tied to the same rope.