Even though he’d gone nearly twenty-four hours without sleeping, Gray felt the adrenaline hit, and he felt wide awake. His body was exhausted, and so was his spirit, but he had mana to take care of that problem.

  On the walk over to the stadium, Tomi was quiet—silent. No jokes. No smirks. Not even a frustrated sigh. Gray had thought that she’d feel better once she got out of the hole but that wasn’t the case.

  Freek and his orcs made up for it by their taunts.

  In short order, Gray and his team were on the field, under the lights, and even though it was midnight, every seat was filled with cheering fans.

  When Gray lifted his fist, the crowd went wild.

  A few box seats were filled with representatives of the Watchfire families but not many. The orcs were there, of course, to cheer on the Wrath City Raiders. Duke Rabbia looked rather regal in his crown. He was younger than Gray would’ve thought. Poor Freek.

  They were there to see Squad 23 and that pissed Freak off. Even Duskdrop wasn’t happy about it. He, the rest of the fae, and all the squads were on the side, forced to stand, while they watched the match.

  Gray and Freek were led out to the middle of the field to where Crewel stood. For once, it wasn’t raining, but the air was cold. The field itself was a mess of dried mud with splotches of rusty dried blood here and there along with pools of congealed demon’s blood.

  It was a grim place despite the happy audience.

  Magistrate Crewel showed them the coin. “City or dragons. Since you only have your five players, you get to make the call, Grayson Fade.”

  He flipped the coin into the air. “Dragons.”

  Crewel caught the coin and gave it a glance. “City.”

  For some reason, Gray knew thought he was lying.

  Freek barked laughter. “We’ll take the ball first. We have to get ahead so we don’t have the deal with the demons.”

  “Demons enough in your head, Freek?” Gray asked. “What if your father lives to be an old, old man. That must be awkward…waiting for your own father to die.”

  Freek roared and went after Gray, but Fieldkeepers surged forward to tear him away.

  “You’re fucking dead, Fade. Fucking. Dead.”

  Gray just laughed. “For being dead, I’m feeling pretty good.”

  Gray moved with the rest of his squad to their positions on the field. He was with Rynn, Midj, and Tomi on their base field while Ames took her place in their kill strip.

  Freek and Kabe were in their end zone, with the ball, waiting for Crewel to begin. Like the rest of the orcs, they all held bloodless blades, glowing a bright yellow.

  The Magistrate floated above the midline. Above him, in giant numbers made of flame, was the number sixty with two zeroes next to it. It would count down the hour of the game.

  Crewel’s voice echoed through the stadium. “Recruits! Repeat after me! We will take hold of our instincts and trust in the strength of our squad.”

  Gray and the rest of his team put their fists over their hearts. “We will take hold of our instincts and trust in the strength of our squad!”

  Crewel exploded into a figure made of pure light. “Begin!”

  Gray and Rynn moved forward while Tomi and Midj dropped back, all holding swords of their own. It was clear that Freek knew that getting and staying in the lead was the way to win because once demons poured into your end zone, you were at a huge disadvantage, especially when you only had five players.

  “You ready?” Gray threw Rynn a smile as Freek thundered across his base field.

  “Always, Mr. No,” she said before turning serious. “Don’t die.”

  “Not planning on it. You guys need mana…a lot of it.”

  She laughed, and then, Freek crossed the midfield line and into their base field. Kabe and three other works ran with him, ready to block.

  Rynn charged into the middle of the them, venting her core. They were flung away in an explosion of bodies.

  Freek, though, managed to hold onto the ball.

  Gray fed his bonded mana, emptying himself as much as he could, before she exploded again, right in front of the Freek.

  This bloodied his face and knocked the ball loose.

  Gray filled her core up and then scooped up the ball. With his core down, he fed mana into his meridians. His legs swelled. His heart thundered. He felt like he was the wind itself as he sped across the midfield line with Rynn right behind him.

  A wall of flame appeared in front of him, and he raised an arm and ran through it. His skin blistered, his hair smoked, but luckily, it didn’t catch flame—he was going too fast.

  One of the defenders threw fire balls but Rynn flung mana and knocked them away. Another orc tried to bash Gray in the face with his sword, but Gray had his own blade and deflected it. Two other orcs, though, finally came from behind and tackled him but not before he tossed the ball to Rynn—she was a bit behind him. He had to remember there were no forward passes.

  If they broke that rule, they’d be down a player, and there was little chance they’d win with four players…especially if it was Gray that was ejected.

  It was a good throw, but another orc intercepted the pitch.

  The orcs had the ball now.

  But only for a second.

  Rynn flung a mana blast and it struck him in the leg, knocking his feet out from under him. Rynn, fueled with mana, sped back, grabbed the ball, and tucked it under her left arm. In her right was her sword, and she used it to bash away orcs as she ended toward the kill zone.

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  Gray was right behind her. A burst of fire made him wince—it had come close to exploding in his face but it had just missed.

  Rynn passed the ball to him as they ran over the kill strip.

  He knew what was coming.

  She exploded with mana, knocking the final defender away, and Gray sped into the end zone.

  “Point to Squad 23!”

  The thunder of the crowd was overwhelming.

  Gray and Rynn didn’t wait.

  They ran back to their base field.

  She frowned at him. “You need to get Ames to heal those burns.”

  “I’ll put it on my to-do list, Mrs. Yes.”

  But there wasn’t the time.

  Freek and his squad were racing back toward them.

  It was clear, they wanted to get points for themselves.

  *

  When the second quarter began, Gray’s squad was up by two points, which meant the demons unleashed on the field came through doors in the stadium near Freek’s end zone. Dozens of giant spiders came tumbling out—these weren’t the gluttony spiders that Gray had seen in the Briarblood Collective Chaotica matches. These things were tall, lean, and quick. They had a collection eyes on the front of their faces above mandibles that dripped venom. They dashed across the field and immediately went for the orcish defender in the kill zone.

  A second later, a wall of flame exploded out of the ground.

  The spiders hissed and then turned and other orcs were ready. They used their mana to channel the spiders down the field and right into Squad 23’s base field. Rynn’s sword turned from yellow to red as she started to hack through the incoming spiders. It wasn’t going to be enough, and she vented her core, which blasted the legs off of at least two other of the demonic insects.

  Tomi charged forward to help her, her huge claws raking down the side of the demons. But one leapt onto her back, driving its mandibles into her back. She flung it away, but it was clear she’d been hurt.

  Meanwhile, Freek, Kabe, and two other orcs were crashing down the field with the ball. They had used the demons to their advantage, but Gray didn’t think they’d have the mana to keep doing that.

  Midj slammed her mana hands down in front of Freek, who pitched the ball to Kabe. Gray went for him but ended up slamming into another orc, their sword crossing.

  Kabe ran into the kill strip, where Ames sent him to his knees with her pain touch.

  But he’d already pitched the ball to his final squad mate who ran it into the end zone. He dropped it and all the orcs scurried back across the field while Rynn and Tomi fought spiders.

  Gray tossed the ball to Ames. “Go heal Tomi. When she gets back to the kill strip, we’ll make another run.”

  Ames nodded.

  Ames passed the ball to Midj who joined up with Rynn, and the two made a run into enemy territory but they didn’t get too far.

  Tomi limped back to the kill strip, her eyes hooded.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She nodded but that was a lie.

  Gray fed her mana, and then took off, meeting up with Ames. “Get me the ball,” he said. “Rynn and I can try again.”

  But they didn’t have the chance.

  Again, the four orcs used their numbers to pitch the ball from one player to another to another until they scored again.

  It was tied by half-time.

  Which meant at the beginning of the third quarter, more spiders were let onto the field from both sides of the field.

  The orcs didn’t use their fire walls again but focused on burning through the spiders on their fields until there a few left. Then they ran the ball down the field, across the midfield line, and into Squad 23’s territory.

  Gray charged his bloodless blade until the blade turned from yellow to red. He cut the legs out from one spider and drove his sword into the body of another. Black blood sprayed him as another spiders fragile body exploded thanks to one of Rynn’s mana bursts.

  Midj crushed several others with her mana hand.

  Meanwhile, Ames dodged orcs and got her hands on the fucker with the ball. He shrieked as she took it from him.

  Gray stopped fighting spiders and ran up the field until he was parallel with her. She tossed the ball to him.

  Freek was right behind. “Fucker. I’m going to hurt you, fucker. I’m going to get revenge for Sindara.”

  “You want to revenge or do you want to win?” Gray wasn’t going to be fooled into talking to much, but he had to say that.

  Freek jumped for him, but Gray was too fast. He dodged the attack and followed Ames into the two defenders.

  She put out both hands, touching their chests, and making them scream.

  Gray thought to run right past the orc in the kill strip, but then the spider launched itself out of nowhere. He felt those mandibles pierce him, and then, he couldn’t breath, as it tried to eat him. His whole body had gone numb.

  An orc grabbed the ball, laughing. “Looks like the end for you, mate.”

  He then went running with his buddy.

  Gray managed to drive his sword into the spider’s body. It shuddered, shrieking as it soaked Gray in its black blood.

  It was still alive when Ames arrived, and she killed it, before bending down. Her touch made everything better, but he had not time to enjoy.

  It was four against three back on their base field.

  The orcs scored, but then, so did Gray, which tied the game up again.

  At the start of the fourth quarter, there were even more spiders, but this time, they were let out at both end zones and the middle door.

  The field was black with spiders.

  The orc’s team was running out of mana, clearly, because they were throwing less and less fireballs and their walls of flames were few and far between. They did keep using their mana to keep the speed and agility up.

  Freek, at one point, hurled himself over Rynn entirely at one point.

  Both teams had to fight spiders, and yet, because they had two more players, the orcs were the first one to try and make a run.

  Freek and Kabe, alone, charged into enemy territory, swords glowing red. This time, Kabe was the ball carrier and Freek was ahead of him, swinging his sword and clearing spiders.

  They two reached the kill strip and Ames was there, but no one else.

  Freek swept his sword back, still red, and swung at her neck. It was a lethal weapon at that point, and if Ames hadn’t parried it with her golden sword, she would’ve lost her head.

  Gray felt the fury fill him, along with a ton of mana, too much for him to use his meridians.

  But that wouldn’t be a problem long.

  He filled Ames, and she stepped in and touched Freek, who screamed. “Fucking don’t touch me! Argh!”

  And then she kicked the feet out from under Kabe. She had the ball now, and she raced to the edge of the kill strip. Gray was there, he grabbed the ball, and then hooked up with Tomi. “We need to make a run. Rynn can take care of those spiders. It’s you and me, Tomika Ka.”

  She nodded but Gray could see the doubt in her eyes.

  There was no one else. Midj was clapping her hand down on spider after spider. She had her work, and they had theirs.

  He and the cat girl crossed over the midfield line.

  Like in Sixblood, she was in front of him, but when the wall of fire appeared, she shied away, and then Gray was tackled, and the ball went rolling away.

  Freek picked it up and other orcs joined him.

  They were running out of time…less than two minutes.

  Tomi wasn’t getting up. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  Gray couldn’t calm her. There wasn’t time.

  But he did give her as much mana as he could which let him super-charge his legs. He blasted forward and tackled Freek at the midfield line, and he had the ball, but Rynn and Midj were blocked from doing the run with him. They had to stay in the base field in the same way that Ames had to remain in the kill strip.

  Gray kept his legs moving, and he raced over to the cat girl. “Get up, Tomi. Get the fuck up. You have to block for me.”

  Tomi rose to her feet, but he could see the fear on her face. It wasn’t the fire, no, it was the weight of the week in front of him. It was her dreading a return to the basement.

  Gray flung his sword, and it struck the face of an orc coming for him.

  A ball of fire struck his back, burning through this clothes, and nearly knocking him off his feet. If his meridians hadn’t been charged with mana, he would’ve tripped and fallen. He didn’t have a sword, so he grabbed Tomi’s which was still on the field.

  She rose just in time to get in the way.

  The orc struck her as she threw an elbow, right into the face of the orc.

  That allowed Gray to streak by.

  He was in the kill strip, with one defender left.

  Gray again tossed his sword, right into the orcs face, but not enough to hurt him but just enough to knock him off balance.

  It worked. And Gray was in the end zone.

  They’d won, barely, and it didn’t feel like that much of a victory.

  Tomi had come through in the end, but it hadn’t been pretty. They needed to fix that, but how?

  Crewel wasn’t going to help them any.

  “Squad 23 is the winner! As their reward, they can lead the rest of the squads on a run around the First Field track. It’s a nice night for a long run, don’t you think?”

  The crowd laughed and changed about Testing and Tests.

  It was going to be at least three miles, but in his heart of hearts, Gray knew it was going to be more.

  The final insult came from the Magistrate. “Of course, for winning both Downtime and their Chaotica match, Squad One, the Winners can return to Third Barracks.”

  The fae cheered.

  The squads started running.

  It was going to be a long night.