A splotch of ink radiating blood. That’s what Charblaine looked like as he arced through the air and coated his rock-skinned body in flame. But he wasn’t just a solid meteor. When he hit the carpet, he melted in, a shadow puddle. Then leaped out again, coming for Nyx. Though he hadn’t looked agile or streamlined standing still, now his arms stayed flat at his sides. His jaws remained open, and smiling as if shadow swimming was all he lived for.

Burning a dotted-line trail through Nyx’s prized imperial floor, he phased in and out of shadow, practically daring Nyx to do the same.

No! the demon lord thought, though they were staring right at what should’ve been his final leap before eating Nyx’s face.

Shadows were his element. Never play your opponent’s element unless you know you can do it better! As he’d just demonstrated, Charblaine could twist shadows like balloon animals. Nyx hadn’t even known that shadow handling was possible. Agi sure couldn’t do it, and Urrich sure hadn’t taught it.

But Nyx had an arsenal of skills for a reason. If Charblaine chose to blaze with fire, then Nyx would blaze with light. For the first time, they ignited their whole body and sustained the burst. Relishing the Super Saiyan-like burst of power but knowing that this was not enough (and also knowing it would last a fraction of the time and give a fraction of the strength), they transformed too.

A shape like a three-meter swordfish arced past Charblaine, scratching his hide with the slightest graze of light-charged sharpness. Nyx wasn’t a fish, but an abstract shape in the approximate form of a fish. They’d taken one of those inorganic, mind’s-eye forms not meant to be sustained, not meant to be anything but a temporary blade.

Instead of melting into shadow when they hit the carpet, they slimified for the briefest moment. Then they sprang again, in a seemingly random direction. Charblaine sprang after them, but not straight behind. Nyx was itching to get to Agi’s shadow faster, but didn’t go right for it—they didn’t want their opponent catching on too soon. Until then, the two would leapfrog and Nyx would try to use the sensory info from every scratch across the black demiwyrm’s hide to judge how strong he was.

Nyx bounded above him, sending a hook-limb across his forehead—

And damn, realized the solution was obvious from the start.

Nyx changed tack. Their nightmare saberworm body sprouted frog legs and made one amazing longitudinal bound, carrying them as far as possible from Charblaine—and their ally’s shadow.

In midair, shedding the last of the light like a comet, Nyx transformed into their normal self, pawed their body in brief forgetful desperation, and then latched onto the lockbox that held Nightfall Castle (what was left of it).

Their massive leap ended when they rammed their skull directly into the cracked bottom half of a Dorian column, but that was okay because they’d reinforced their skull with morph-concrete a second before. Still hurt, though. They’d get a nosebleed from this three hours later.

Curious and eager, Charblaine followed, not in arcs but with a lightningbolt-fast streak of flaming shadow across floorboards.

Good! Then he wouldn’t be able to interfere with Nyx’s hand sticking through a portal that hung in mid-air directly above Agi’s pretzeled shadow. Nyx reached in, snatched Agi up, and—

Bad! Charblaine had rather intelligently put himself in the exact right place to destroy both Nyx and Agi in a single blow. His shadow was a Mack truck headed straight for them—

Phew. Good. Nyx thrust their arm deep into the lockbox again, so it and the shadow were far from Charblaine.

Nyx then tunneled their own body through the portal by briefly shrinking and wormifying. Turning back, they watched as Charblaine, officially overeager, overshot his target and slipped onto the wall.

A smirk, involuntary but welcome, brightened Nyx’s face.

Okay, but now they had an unknown quantity of half-seconds for untying Agi. And they didn’t even know how to do that. Frankly, they weren’t at all sure how they were even touching such a thing as a shadow right now. It was brainbending! Nobody wants to have to learn brainbending new magic in a high-stress environment.

They slapped both hands on either end of the shadow, took a deep—no, there wasn’t any time for deep breaths -- took up the shadow like they would two handles, then pulled, pulled, and pulled harder for all they were worth.

The shadow wasn’t unraveling, but it was snapping. Fibers smaller than electrons and more crucial to the nature of universal balance were coming apart between their fingers.

Possibly Agi was projectile vomiting in there.

A blaze of madder-colored fire from Charblaine’s mouth rolled straight for Nyx, and they didn’t even bother moving out of the way. It filled their view, so hot that even being close seared their flesh and brought out hellsmoke.

Nyx didn’t even bother to notice the pain, let alone react. Things could’ve been different if Agi hadn’t responded. But he did. His wings tore free from the knotted shadow, and soon they were enfolding Nyx.

The ball of fire rolled over a shadow and plowed through the bodies of many innocent, thieving demijellies.

When the room’s interior was shorn of everything but rubble, bodies, and a healthy dose of smoke, Charblaine watched for traces of a mobile shadow. He found none.