Experimental Combat [Bonus]

Quinlan's gaze lingered on the vault door as the last of the runes fizzled out in a dying spark.

"They're coming."

Feng snapped from her trance. "What can I do to help?"

He didn't look at her. "There are hundreds of these water cultivators. It's not a battlefield for you."

Her knuckles whitened around her halberd.

"Hide," he ordered in a firm voice.

"What?!"

"Not negotiable."

She hesitated, but then saw the way the four elements coiled around him: unstable, beautiful, dangerous. His qi signature was shifting too quickly for anyone to track, a vortex of potential caught between chaos and mastery.

At that moment, Feng knew she would get in his way if she demanded to fight shoulder to shoulder with him.

So, she nodded once and vanished into the shadows behind the collapsed pillar.

The vault door shuddered.

*BOOM!*

A second pulse tore through the metal. Runes sparked violently before vanishing altogether.