Path of the Unmentioned: The Missing Piece-Chapter 42: Chained Together [1]

[Author’s Note: I have changed the pairing of Cassian with another close-combat user and Sylvie with Lyra.]

The two students stumbled through the rubble-strewn streets, their breaths ragged. The boy with the longsword kept glancing over his shoulder, his grip white-knuckled around his weapon.

"Why the hell did we run into them this early?" he hissed to his partner, a girl clutching a short spear.

Before she could answer, the shadows beneath their feet twisted.

Dark tendrils lashed out like living things, coiling around their ankles and yanking hard. Both fighters crashed face-first into the cracked pavement, their weapons skittering out of reach.

"What the—?!"

A whisper of steel.

A red line flashed across their throats.

For a heartbeat, they lay there, stunned. Then their bodies dissolved into pixels, vanishing from the virtual battlefield.

Kyle slid his tachi back into its scabbard with a quiet click.

"Good work," Eleanora said beside him, her voice calm.

"Same to you," Kyle replied, rolling his shoulders.

Three teams down. All low to mid-rankers. Easy prey.

He studied Eleanora from the corner of his eye. The way she wielded darkness was terrifyingly precise—not just as an element, but as an extension of herself.

Most deviants who possessed clashing affinities (like her darkness and light) specialized in one over the other.

Eleanora had clearly chosen darkness, and she excelled at it.

Before he could dwell further, Eleanora stiffened.

"Someone’s coming."

Kyle’s hand went back to his tachi.

Two teams emerged from the skeletal remains of a collapsed building—four fighters in total. Their auras pulsed with the telltale pressure of high-ranking students.

The first team consisted of two mages—a boy with fire flickering at his fingertips and a girl with water swirling around her wrists.

The second team was close-range: a broad-shouldered boy hefting a massive battle-axe and a lean girl with twin daggers.

’Perfect balance. Long-range and close-combat.’

The fire mage acted first hurling a fireball straight at Kyle and Eleanora to test them.

Kyle didn’t flinch.

He and Eleanora moved together, sidestepping in perfect sync. The fireball exploded harmlessly against the ruins behind them, sending up a shower of sparks.

The axe-wielder grinned.

"Oh, this’ll be fun."

The dagger girl moved first—a blur of motion, twin blades glinting with frost as she closed the distance between them in an instant. The air around her chilled visibly, her breath misting in the artificial cold as she slashed toward Eleanora’s throat.

Eleanora didn’t retreat.

Her shadow surged upward like a living thing, tendrils of darkness coiling around the girl’s wrists. The daggers plunged into the inky blackness—and stuck, as if embedded in tar.

The girl’s eyes widened. She yanked hard, but the shadows held firm.

Kyle didn’t wait.

He lunged at the axe-user, his tachi humming with gathering lightning. The boy barely raised his weapon in time, their blades clashing in a shower of sparks.

"Damn, you’re quick," the axe-user grunted, muscles straining as he shoved Kyle back.

Behind them, the mages were already chanting.

"Aqua Lance!"

A spear of condensed water shot toward Kyle’s exposed side. He twisted mid-step, letting it graze past his ribs—but the chain at his waist pulled taut.

Eleanora had moved the opposite way.

The sudden tension yanked Kyle off-balance. The water mage smirked, already weaving another spell.

"Kyle!" Eleanora snapped.

"I know!"

Instead of resisting, Kyle let himself fall, using the chain’s pull to pivot mid-air. His tachi lashed out in a wide arc, forcing the axe-user to leap back—right into Eleanora’s trap.

At the same moment, Eleanora yanked on the shadows still holding the dagger girl’s weapons. The girl stumbled forward—

—and met Eleanora’s knee.

"Oof—!"

The dagger girl crumpled, gasping. But she wasn’t out yet.

The fire mage snarled. "Inferno Burst!"

A ring of fire erupted around them, cutting off escape. The heat was blistering, even in the virtual world.

Kyle’s mind raced. ’We need to break their formation.’

Eleanora’s voice cut through his thoughts. "Lightning. Now."

He didn’t hesitate.

Kyle raised his free hand, and lightning crackled to life—arcs of blue-white electricity forming into a lance.

"Lightning Lance!"

The bolt shot toward the water mage like a strike from the heavens. The mage barely had time to scream before it pierced his chest, the shockwave ripping through him.

Though she was knocked out, neither she nor her teammate could dematerialize from the VR world until both of them were defeated.

The fire mage paled.

Before he could react, Eleanora yanked on the chain connecting her to Kyle. The sudden force pulled Kyle backward—just as the axe-user brought his weapon down where Kyle had been standing.

The ground shattered under the impact, jagged spikes of earth erupting from the pavement—earth affinity.

Kyle rolled to his feet, catching his returning tachi mid-air. Eleanora was already moving, darkness lashing out to wrap around the fire mage’s wrists.

"Dark Bind."

The mage’s flames sputtered out as the shadows smothered them. He barely had time to gasp before Kyle was on him—

A single slash.

Both the mages vanished.

Only the axe-user and the dagger girl remained.

The girl had recovered, her blades free now that Eleanora’s shadows had shifted focus. She lunged again, this time aiming for Kyle’s blind spot—

But Eleanora was faster.

She pulled on the chain, dragging Kyle toward her just as the dagger girl struck. The blades sliced empty air where Kyle’s neck had been a second before.

Kyle didn’t waste the opening.

He pivoted, using the chain’s momentum to swing his tachi in a brutal arc. The dagger girl barely dodged, but the axe-user wasn’t as lucky.

The blade carved a deep gash across his shoulder.

"Gah—!"

The axe-user staggered, but he wasn’t done yet. He slammed his weapon into the ground again, and the earth rippled, jagged stone spikes erupting toward Kyle and Eleanora in a deadly wave.

Kyle didn’t dodge.

Instead, he grabbed Eleanora’s wrist and yanked her toward him as he leaped backward, using the chain’s momentum to swing her clear of the spikes. At the same time, Eleanora’s shadows lashed out, wrapping around the axe-user’s legs.

The boy stumbled—

—just as Kyle’s lightning-charged tachi met his chest.

A brilliant flash.

The axe-user was knocked out.

The dagger girl was the last one standing.

She hesitated, eyes darting between Kyle and Eleanora.

Eleanora didn’t give her a chance to run.

Darkness shot forward, wrapping around the girl’s ankles and yanking her off her feet. Kyle was already moving, his tachi flashing—

One clean strike.

Silence.

The dagger girl and the axe-user vanished.

Kyle exhaled, rolling the tension from his shoulders. "That could have gone worse."

Eleanora flicked nonexistent dust from her sleeve. "They were careless."

A distant explosion rocked the battlefield. Somewhere, another team had fallen.

Kyle smirked. "Let’s go find the next ones."

Eleanora’s lips curved in answer.

The hunt continued.

***

They moved through the ruins like twin shadows, the chain between them no longer a hindrance but a weapon in itself.

When a spearman tried to impale Eleanora from behind, Kyle yanked her sideways with the chain, letting her counter with a darkness-whip to his throat.

When a wind mage tried to blast Kyle off a crumbling ledge, Eleanora pulled him back mid-fall, using the momentum to launch him into a devastating downward strike.

They fought in perfect, brutal sync—two predators bound by five meters of unbreakable chain.

And the other teams?

They fell.

One by one.