I'd cleared three of the eight rods when Sizec came up with the rune we needed. The fact that it was his fifth attempt worried me, but beggars couldn't be choosers. I was glad to see it was a pretty simple symbol: three straight lines inside a circle and an angled strike through.

"Remember this is an hour on top of what it takes you to enchant them," he warned. "We want to be long gone before your mana's drained. We'll need your power for the next shields, or for defending if this doesn't work."

"Don't worry. I'm fully aware," I replied, trying not to voice my irritation. "It's just—if I get this wrong then we've got way bigger problems."

"Hard to believe," he said, looking wryly at the Xeo stalking the perimeter.

"Yeah, well, this is going to be tense, whatever happens. When these go off and I drop the shield, we will be exposed. I was thinking we should leave an extra gap between the bombs in the direction we need to run."

"As long as none of them decide to stand there when the bombs go off."

I shrugged. "We can try and distract them away. Stand on the other side of the shield maybe?"

"I think when the time comes, we'll need to be covered ourselves. This is going to throw a lot of debris in the air. with blankets and shields for the blast."

I winced. "Yeah. This is not going to be nice. We'll have to keep a tight count. I'll try to drop the shield the moment the bombs are set to go off. Hopefully, we can catch them up in some of the blast."

"That would be very tight timing indeed. Then we can run like invincible metal based monsters want to rip us apart."

I smiled. "Can't wait. I was thinking everyone carry a flare as well as their weapon."

"I'll let the others know." He looked at the two Unalaran digging machines. "I'll help with these holes, too. Or we'll be here till shield failure."

I watched him walk off, and then doubled down on my own work, trying to speed up a little.

It took over half an hour to blank them all off, and another hour to complete all the new runes and that was with a level-up to Enchanting halfway through, which sped up the process.

By the time I was done, my three team mates had showed every inch of their high levels by completing the eight holes and a deep trench we could all hide in. They'd even gotten shields and blankets ready to pull over ourselves.

"Amazing, guys. If this doesn't work and we're all slaughtered here, it wasn't for lack of trying."

"It'll work," Oro said. "And I don't want to hear any different."

I smiled at the big Unalaran Corporal, appreciative of his words. "Now shall we go through exactly what we're doing?"

"I'd say activate the rods first," Sizec interjected. "Then cover them up. Then we can talk."

He wasn't wrong. I handed out the altered rods so we each had two.

"Get familiar with them in your hands," Sizec suggested. "Let's work out the best way to do this as quickly as possible."

"I'd say one at a time in quick succession." Enil said. "I think I'm more likely to make a mistake if I try to do two at once." Then he dropped to a knee and placed one of the rods on the ground before practicing putting it down, and picking the next one up in quick succession.

His hands moved like lightning, and I agreed it looked a more realistic way of doing it even if there was the slightest of delays.

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The more I thought about it, a slight delay might even serve us well. If I dropped the shield as soon as the first lot went off, the second would definitely hit the Xeo. With any luck, it would blast already airborne debris higher into the air and give us better cover.

"Okay," Sizec said, looking as if he thought he could do them both in one go. "Remember which one you do last, and we'll alternate them in the holes we put them in."

Everyone nodded as we all kneeled on the floor.

"Ready?"

"Ready," came the unanimous reply.

"I'll count back from five to one, then I'll say go. We go on go, yeah?"

They all knew the script, but it was worth hammering out, so there were no cock-ups.

I started counting.

My heart was in my mouth as I reached, "Go."

As I turned the second rod, there was a detonation. I was flying back. Crashing into the ground. Ears ringing. Eyes throbbing. Somehow, nothing was broken. I scrambled up and back to where we'd all been kneeling. Men groaning. I searched out our pile of rods, disoriented, but determined to help anyone if they were injured.

"Everyone alive?" Oro shouted.

"Yes!" I shouted back.

"My hand!" Enil yelled.

"Yes," Sizec confirmed.

Fuck. Fuck.

I pulled out healing rods, quickly snapped one for myself, then ran over to Enil.

His hand was a mess. Blood-covered and fingers bent at a horrible angle.

"I'm so sorry. I don't know how—"

"No time for sorry," Oro said, dropping down beside me. "Let's get those fingers straight and get that rod active."

Enil, pale-faced, nodded. He took the rod in one hand.

"I'll break it for you," I said, as Oro gently held his mangled hand in his palms.

"Ready?"

Enil didn't have a chance to reply as Oro gripped the hand, pushing everything straight and back the way it should be, or at least as close to it as our situation allowed.

Once he was satisfied, he shouted over Enil's screams of pain, "Now, Adam."

I snapped the rod, waited a second for the blue healing energy to soak into Enil, then yanked out the spent rod and slotted in another.

I was about to snap it, when he gasped out. "Wait!"

I paused, uncertain what was happening as Enil pulled his still mangled hand from Oro's.

"The thumb. It's not set right. Heal it like that and I won't be able to grip anything."

Oro nodded. "Brave call, lad. And you're right." He adjusted his hold on Enil's hand and met his eyes again. "This is going to hurt. Are you ready?"

Enil nodded again. Oro glanced to me, then forcefully reset the thumb. More screaming, followed by quick relief as I snapped the next healing rod and replaced it with another. As that one did its work, Enil fell back with a sigh of relief.

I felt awful and looked away, trying to figure out what I'd done wrong, though it was a fruitless endeavor. The rod was detonated. I'd never know my mistake. I ground my teeth together, determined not to let it eat away at my resolve. Not yet anyway.

Oro grabbed one of the rods and snapped it himself. For the first time, I realized he was in pain. Sizec had already healed from my fuck-up.

As I looked over at the trembling Archon, Enil put a hand on my shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."

"It was. And that's fine. What hurts the most is that I don't know what I did wrong."

"That's because you were under time pressure and you're not an enchanter," Oro said. "Now don't get all mopey from this. We're all still alive and doing our best."

"Exactly," Enil added flexing his healed fingers. "Though you either need to learn to enchant properly when we get back home or never do it again."

Oro laughed. I wasn't ready yet and neither was Sizec as he cast a dark look at me.

"And!" Oro said, scooping up the remaining bombs. "We know these all work now!"

"It means one less," Sizec said, speaking for the first time since the explosion.

"Looks like we'll have a wider route out then," he said, tapping his temple as if he'd said something smart."

Sizec scowled. "Won't that just give us away sooner?"

The minutes passed by at a snail's pace. The Xeo continued their lazy swiping at the shield, waiting for its inevitable fall. It was like they knew it was better to wait than waste their energy attacking it, which showed a remarkable amount of sense.

As time petered away, Oro made sure everyone had a weapon in hand, apart from me. I wanted my hands free to throw a Spirit Blast or Strike if I needed to.

We all carried concussive blasts to throw if needed, and a flare each. It didn't feel like nearly enough.

Hell, it wasn't enough, but it was all we had.

"Ten minutes left," Sizec said. We were all very grateful that he had taken charge of counting down, despite the explosion drama.

"Time to go in?" Oro asked, though it had already been agreed.

"Time to go in," I repeated. "Is everyone straight on the plan? The moment I hear the ground tremor, I'll drop the shield.

"As soon as the heaviest shit has hit our cover, we run in a straight line." I pointed at the gap we'd left.

They all nodded, even though we'd been through it several times.

"And remember, even if you're faster, we're going to need a second shield. If you're not close by, you won't get in, and there's nothing I can do about that."

"We'll stick," Oro said. "Just make sure you're running those little legs of yours as fast as you can."

I offered a sarcastic smile in reply as we all climbed into the trench.

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