“Samuel?” Nick blurted out, glancing between the new arrival, Eric, and Megan’s faces, then over into the distance where Jerik and Grimr were doubtlessly still fighting. “Wasn’t that the name of some wizard you three knew in that other world?”

“Ah, good,” Samuel said lightly. Eric couldn’t see his face, but he knew the Archmage would be smiling. “You’ve heard of me. That saves me time on an introduction. I don’t need to know who you are, though, so don’t bother.”

With an explosive shout of rage, Nick rained three bolts of rapidly spinning air down on them, all aimed at Samuel. Eric half-expected him to conjure a strong shield of fire. He’d clearly gotten his hands on the Fire Nexus powers somehow, after all. But instead, he threw his two hands to the side and spun gracefully in place. The air around his body appeared to solidify and spin with his movements, perfectly countering Nick’s attack. As he finished the spin, a third stream of air shot out in an arc, slamming into Nick and sending him several yards away.

“What the-” Megan and Eric couldn’t find the words to express their shock. Had Samuel just used the powers of two different Nexuses? Eric shook his head. No. “That’s not possible.”

“It’s a long story,” Samuel said, finally turning to look at him. “I’ll explain it all later. For now, I just need a little help from you.”

He reached down and lightly touched Eric’s shoulder. Too late, he realized his speed was still up, and electricity was crackling inside his body and along his skin. Before he could voice a futile warning, however, the electricity had leaped onto Samuel’s skin. In the blink of an eye, he was also crackling from head to toe with electricity, except that it didn’t seem to be causing him any pain. Then the pulse of energy seemed to reverse, and Eric felt a new rush of energy flood into his body.

“Who taught you about the Conditions?” He asked, rising easily to his feet once again. Even the pain of the knife wound in his shoulder receded so much that he barely felt it.

“Grimr,” Samuel said simply. “He’s been feeding me information in irregular meetings. I’ve been spending as much time as I could training. It’s a very interesting type of magic, these Nexus powers.”

He glanced down at his hand, filled to the brim with electricity. The pale blueish-white light of it made his face seem even paler by comparison. “Seems I actually have to touch the element before I can use it. Good to know.”

At this point, Eric could only accept that this strange thing had happened, and try to move on. The longer he spent contemplating it, the less focused he’d become. Samuel was clearly thinking along similar lines. “You two rest for now, and I’ll keep our friend busy.”

“No,” Megan said firmly, also getting back to her feet. She had a resolute expression on her face that perfectly matched how Eric was feeling. “Not this time.”

Samuel turned to her, looking perplexed, but it was Eric who finished the thought and made it clear. “This isn’t going to be like when we fought Averin. We’ve been at this longer than you, and we’re not letting you save our asses.”

Samuel met their eyes one at a time, and a slow smile spread across his face. He recognized the stubborn pride that was pushing back to their feet. “Very well. I’ll do my best not to get in your way.”

He extended one backward and shot a bolt at Nick, who had been charging forward. The Air Nexian was caught by surprise with Samuel’s back facing him, and just barely managed to avoid the attack. Then Eric was in his face, slamming one of the batons square into Nick’s back. It wasn’t enough to stun him, but he was driven to the ground for a moment.

Ice sprouted out of the ground - Nick had been unlucky to hit a damp spot of the earth, and the ice wrapped around his leg. He burst the ice with a powerful punch, then took to the air again, veering out of the way of a jet of flames that Samuel released. He couldn’t pause long enough to strike accurately with the three of them attacking, and any attack he launched was easily countered by one of them.

Finally, he seemed to throw caution to the wind. He put on a massive burst of speed upward, then flipped to face the three of them, pushing out a wall of air spears. But Samuel was ready for that, and made one swiping gesture, knocking them all away. Eric flashed past him, and right at the peak of his leap, he spun into a vicious kick that caught Nick in the ribs. That single blow had the entire force of his leaping, twisting body behind it, not to mention the extra speed granted by his electricity. Eric felt the ribs give under his shin, then Nick was sent flying to the side.

Megan caught him with a wave of water as he plummeted back to the ground, and by the time he was back on his feet, Nick had already shot away at top speed. A burst of light over by Grimr let them know that Jerik too had disengaged. The two of them were rocketing away at incredible speeds.

“Should we go after them?” Megan asked, looking at Samuel and Eric. They were the only ones who could have the required speed.

“I don’t think so,” Samuel said. “I’d wager Grimr will want to rest. Of course, that might mean we can’t go after the Fire Nexus.”

“What’s more,” Grimr said, walking over, “Thunder Nexus will know of our presence. Their support will make the fight harder than we can handle at the moment.”

“Are you sure? We’re still in good condition,” Eric said. “We could probably-”

He stopped mid-sentence as he turned and caught sight of Grimr. Megan let out a gasp a half second later, and they hurried over, though neither knew what they could do to help. Grimr was standing, but he sported several bad burns on his body, and one arm had a long gash that was streaming blood over his hand and onto the ground.

“You’re hurt!” Megan exclaimed unnecessarily, moving forward and putting one hand on the gash. Water flowed over the wound, knitting it closed. “I can’t do anything about these burns. Samuel, you’ll have to pull the heat out of them.”

Judging by the Archmage’s expression, he had no clue what that meant. “I think you’d be better at healing than me, Megan. You’ve been training with water much longer than I have.”

“Not with water,” Eric explained. “You can pull the heat out using Fire Nexus powers. It’s how they heal their burns.”

Frowning slightly, Samuel knelt next to his fellow Ancient and put a cautious hand on one of the worst burns. Grimr winced at the contact but didn’t attempt to pull away. The air around them grew slightly colder, and relief washed over Grimr’s face. Only then, once he was sure his wounds weren’t going to kill or disable him, did the strength in his legs fade. He flopped down onto the hard earth, letting out a groan. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, and he lay perfectly still, letting Samuel and Megan work on his wounds.

“I haven’t seen you this beaten up since we fought Neratas,” Samuel remarked as the air grew colder. “You’ve regained a lot of your strength over the years. I didn’t think you could be wounded this badly.”

Grimr didn’t reply at once. Either he was too weak, or he couldn’t think of the words. Finally, he spoke in a raspy, tired voice. “I had to leave most of my power in Gitna. It wouldn’t have fared well here.”

“What about the Corruption you held in your body?” Megan asked, her lips pursed. “Who’s watching over it? If it’s not monitored, it could spread.”

Grimr waved a lazy hand, dismissing the concern. “Arwinn has it handled. He could keep it contained for years if required.”

The Ancient lifted his head slightly to peer over Megan’s shoulder at Eric. “I saw that last kick of yours. How did you break through his Condition?”

The same question had occurred to him, but he hadn’t given it much thought just then. So he shrugged. “No clue. I know he’s stronger in the air, but I must have had enough force.”

“Ehran taught him well,” Samuel said with a smile. “I could have been forgiven for thinking it was him fighting beside us just then.”

Eric shifted his feet, uncomfortable at the praise. Truth be told, he didn’t like being honored or thanked for doing no more than what he considered to simply be his job. “Actually, it wasn’t Ehran that taught me that. That was Will.”

An awkward silence fell over them. They couldn’t escape the thought that if it weren’t for the Alphas from which they’d all learned, they wouldn’t have the strength required to complete their mission. Even Grimr, the most pragmatic among them, couldn’t ignore the small feeling of guilt that sprang up when it was considered. They’d all been doing their best to avoid thinking about it, but the sudden realization had hit them just as hard as any punch or kick.

“I mean, Ehran taught me how to maneuver my body so that I could do things like run down walls and avoid attacks in mid-air. But if it weren’t for Will and Kenta, I wouldn’t have been able to make my body keep up with the speed. I’m just an ordinary human here.”

Megan nodded her agreement. She’d suffered her own weaknesses when she’d started her training. Being able to keep her balance and fight off the nausea of moving with the currents of water she produced wasn’t something she’d been able to do at first. The humans of Earth thought that all the Nexus powers came naturally and without a cost, but that simply wasn’t the truth.

“You’re not ordinary,” Samuel said, surprising them. “You still have your Ancient bodies.”

“What?” Eric asked, blinking and turning to meet the Archmage’s eyes. “How? I thought I wouldn’t be a true Ancient until we got back to Ahya.”

“That is true,” Samuel said. “I don’t know what the Mother promised you exactly, but your body is still the one I created for you when I summoned you back to Ahya.”

“But…” Eric couldn’t match that with the loss of things he could ordinarily do in Ahya. “That can’t be true. I’m wounded too easily here.”

He gestured vaguely at his shoulder, where the knife had pierced him. Grimr shook his head. Much of the Ancient’s color had returned to him, and he seemed to be able to sit up without struggling too much. “I’m wounded too, young Eric. Our resilience is only that high when we’re surrounded by the Mother’s influence. In other words, we’re just as feeble as any mortal.”

“Okay, I can accept that,” Eric said, gesturing at Grimr’s still badly burned body. “But you still have your Ancient trait. Judging by how Samuel dispelled Nick’s last attack, he does too. But I don’t have any of the powers that I had in Ahya. I don’t have Hunter.”

“I tried telling you this during the Nexus Games,” Grimr said with a snort of laughter. “Remember when the Earth Nexus nearly had you trapped? I saw what you did there, running down that wall and bursting through the rock. Hunter helped you there.”

Eric opened his mouth to refute that claim, but Samuel spoke before he could utter a single word. “It’s true, Eric. You might not feel him as strongly as you did in Ahya, but he is within you. You’re both fueled by the Mother’s life, so you’re both weakened in this world. But he’s not gone.”

He extended one arm, beckoning Eric closer. Frowning, he obliged. Samuel put one hand in the center of his chest, and a wave of energy passed between them. Samuel appeared to slump a little as if that simple action exhausted him, but Eric felt revitalized. Better than he’d done since he first came back to Earth. And, deep inside his core, he felt something else awaken, reacting to the presence of Ancient energy. Hunter! The wolf, a shard of the power born from Longfang, devoured the Ancient energy hungrily. For just a moment, he felt as prevalent as he’d ever done in Ahya.

“You just assumed that you’d have no Ancient reliance when you came here,” Samuel continued. “The truth is, you never asked him for help, so he never awoke. Have you forgotten the conditions in which you summoned him before?”

Slowly, Eric shook his head. He didn’t have to speak, because he understood. Whenever he fought in Ahya, Hunter had responded to his every whim. It captured any excess energy he didn’t need and used that to fight alongside him when required. But Eric had only been relying on the powers that the Thunder Nexus gave him. He hadn’t given one thought to the unique techniques that Master Ehran had instilled hin him. He had, in essence, weakened himself considerably, the moment he left Ahya.