“You’re forgetting one very important thing. There’s one other option. We could just leave the system as it is. I’m sure it’s already perfect and my father has done his best to make it burglar-proof. Why do we need to make suggestions about its design? We could contribute to our parents and make them happy in many other ways. Safer ways.” “You should hear yourself talk. Are you really THE genius Slayer of the Babor family? The prodigy who could create arbalests at the age of four? You should probably change your family crest from beaver to chicken.” “I’m no chicken!” Sasha sat up from where he was lying. “Stay down!” Aki hissed and pulled him back down. “OK, if you’re really a Babor, then you’ll help me do this last thing and, that way, you’ll be able to help both our clans keep the Egg absolutely safe in perper… perpi… forever!” “I can’t even!” Sasha said despairingly. “What makes you think they even need our input?” “Because, Mr. Genius, they said they’re gonna be building the

Aki quickly executed the hand seal of Rin, the Diamond Thunderbolt, and chanted: “I am empowered with vital energy.” She projected a dome-shaped cushion of compressed air over Sasha, effectively blocking the second kukri chop of the ice monster. “What is that thing?!” “It’s an ice golem!” Sasha screamed from where he had fallen on his butt on the ice. Aki flicked the rope into a loop around her forearm and tugged with all her might. “Let’s get out of here!” she screamed. The blank-faced and empty-eyed golem pierced through with its other weapon: a trident. Following the principle of daishō, meaning “big-little”, it was armed with one mid-range and one short-range weapon in its upper hands, while both lower hands were empty and served only to support. These were the optimal choices of weaponry for such a four-armed warrior. The lower hand could lengthen and shorten the trident in the heat of battle while the opposite hands could pass the kukri blade up or down. And with th

“Cat’s Cradle?” Sasha asked incredulously. “That’s right. There’s a total of six designs the maze keeps coming back to. So far, I’ve identified, in this order: Eagle’s Claw, Turtle, and then…” She drew a figure on the palm of Sasha’s glove with her index finger. “That’s the Canoe. Well, at least for children in the northern tribes. What else?” “So, Canoe, then Cup and Saucer, then Cat’s Eye, then Lightning. It goes back to Eagle’s Claw after this.” “That’s fantastic, Aki! I never would’ve thought! You’re a genius!” Sasha gave Aki a sudden hug, literally taking her breath away and making her blush again in the dim light. Then, Sasha crouched and drew the layouts by scratching the surface of the ice floor under them. He lined up the cat’s cradle figures in chronological order and erased mistakes with a sweep of his hand following suggestions from Aki, who peered over his shoulder. “It makes perfect sense. Cat’s cradle figures are always the same orientation because the anat

He felt his knuckles connect with the ice. He did not hesitate or slow down in the slightest. He didn’t entertain the idea that the ice was tougher than his hand or that his fingers would break. It was all in the mind, his father had taught him. If he put his mind to it, he was capable of achieving anything. The world was his canvas. He didn’t decelerate his punch against the surface of the ice. More than the snapping shrimp’s shock wave, he imagined his fist as the head of the extinct water dragon Kuma-wani, the Bear-fish, going through the wall as if it was made of liquid. This was the crucial follow-through. In his mind’s eye, Sasha saw the dragon’s massive head ramming the wall and smashing it into a thousand pieces. When he finally opened his eyes, his grave expression turned to dismay, and then horror. He hadn’t prepared himself for the contingency of losing even his last sliver of hope. In reality, he wasn’t able to fully extend his arm. Sasha merely produced a webbed crate

Just like the maze, the pinball challenge was very different from Aki’s expectations. As soon as she stepped into the arched doorway, she was whisked up to a height of a hundred feet. Aki didn’t mind because she wasn’t afraid of heights (she was much more afraid of the dark) and like she told Sasha, she had done bodyflight training countless times. However, and this was what bothered her most of all, she felt something unusual just as she was floating on top of the column of winds. All her powers had been nullified. She could only think of one explanation for this. The whole pinball challenge was enveloped by some kind of Anti-enchantment Spell, which was very bad news for Aki. This meant she wouldn’t be able to perform any ki techniques, including Karamijutsu (body-lightening) or even the unpredictable Teleportation, which she had been counting on if worse came to worst and she was falling down the bottomless pit. Now, she doubted if she could even clear the thirty-foot jump from th