Valerius launched himself. He used the gravity cushions to "skate" across the arena. He was moving at sixty miles per hour, his feet never touching the ground. He was a silver ghost flying over a black glass floor. He pulled his fist back. He aimed for Silas’s chest.Silas didn't move. He closed his eyes. He didn't need his eyes. He had the "Kinetic Haze." He saw the world as a sea of purple mist. He saw the "Static Waste" leaking from Valerius’s suit. He saw the blue threads of the gravity projectors. And he saw the anchors—the two bright orange points in Valerius’s heels.Pulse. Gap. Pulse. Gap.The 60Hz frequency was still there. Valerius was ten feet away. Five feet. Valerius swung. The fist was a blur of silver light and gravity.Silas didn't use The Catch this time. He used The Sync. He vibrated his own iron-grey marrow. He matched the frequency of his skeleton to the 60Hz flicker of the gravity suit.As Valerius’s fist came at his chest, Silas didn't block it. He became it. H

Silas reached up with his iron-grey fingers. He didn't punch. He didn't grab. He simply touched the two brass valves. He used "The Siphon."He didn't take the energy into his body. He was too thin, too empty to hold it. Instead, he acted like a bridge. He pulled the energy from the left boot and pushed it into the right boot. He created a "Short-Circuit."BZZZZZT-POP!The balance of the Aegis-G suit broke. The left boot lost all gravity. The right boot gained double gravity.Valerius’s legs were suddenly pulled in opposite directions. The left leg flew up toward the ceiling, while the right leg was slammed into the floor with the force of ten tons."WHA—!" Valerius shrieked.CRACK.Valerius’s hip joint shattered. The suit’s internal computer screamed a warning.CRITICAL IMBALANCE. GRAVITY WELL COLLAPSING. EMERGENCY VENTING INITIATED.The 100G Death Zone exploded outward. The shockwave of gravity hit the entire arena. The glass walls of the stands finally shattered, raining glitterin

"You brought me back to be your weapon," Silas said. "But you forgot one thing about a blade."Silas clenched his fist. "A blade has two edges. And I am tired of cutting for you."The silence lasted for three more seconds. Then, the VIP box exploded. Not with a bomb, but with sound."GUARDS!" Krov screamed into his microphone. "SEIZE HIM! THE DREG HAS USED ILLEGAL MODIFICATIONS! KILL HIM NOW!"The Black-Guard soldiers at the edge of the sand didn't hesitate. They were professionals. They didn't care about the "miracle" they had just seen. They only cared about orders.Fifty soldiers raised their pulse-rifles. Fifty red laser-dots appeared on Silas’s bare chest."Silas, run!" Elara’s voice screamed from the balcony.But Silas didn't run. He felt the "Rot" in his chest pulse. The purple static waste was building up again. He was tired. He was weak. He had used almost everything he had to beat Valerius. But he had one more trick.He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, blac

The air in the Purge Sector did not just smell bad. It bit. It was a thick, yellow fog that tasted of old copper and battery acid. Every time Silas Kapito took a breath, he felt the corrosive gas trying to melt the lining of his lungs. But Silas was no longer a normal boy. His "Iron-Grey" marrow had turned his ribs into a cage of silver-tempered metal. His lungs were reinforced by the same metallic-synthetic lattice. He felt the sting, but his body did not break.Ren, however, was in trouble. "I... I can't breathe, Silas," Ren wheezed. He was wearing a thin, wet rag over his mouth and nose. His eyes were red and watering. "The air... it’s eating my throat."Silas stopped in the middle of a massive, rusted pipe. They were inside the Sludge Pipes—the giant veins of the Academy that carried the industrial waste down to the Sump. The floor was covered in a thick, black oil that felt like wet glue.Silas reached back and grabbed Ren’s arm. Silas’s grip was not soft. It was the grip of a

The smell in the Sump was always bad, but tonight, it was dangerous. Deep inside the ruins of an old engine room, Silas Kapito stood over a table made of rusted iron. The room was small and damp. Water dripped from the ceiling, making a rhythmic plink-plink sound against the metal floor. This was his laboratory. It was not clean. It was not bright. But for a General who had spent a lifetime fighting in the mud, it was perfect.On the table were three large glass jars. Silas had spent the last six hours scavenging the lower levels of the Citadel to fill them.The first jar contained industrial ammonia, stolen from the laundry vats. It was a clear liquid that made the eyes burn just by looking at it.The second jar held concentrated floor-stripper. Silas had taken it from a janitor’s closet in Sector D. It was a thick, yellow gel designed to eat through years of wax and dirt.The third jar was the most precious. It was a "Rust-Eater" solvent. He had found it in the deepest part of the