Jacob kneels beside his mother. He shakes her awake, then spits out the breather so he can speak. ‘Mother, stay here!’ Grabbing the sword, he bounds back down the narrow stairwell, returning the regulator to his mouth.

Six of the masked goons bull-rush him as he returns to the playing field.

Swinging the sword with both hands, Jacob feints a blow to the nearest man’s head, then drops to one knee and takes a powerful baseball-style swing at an entanglement of gray silicon-covered knees. The razor-sharp edge of steel heats up as it tears through flesh and ligament like a flaming sickle, amputating several men’s legs with the continuous blow.

Screams and gouts of bluish-tinged blood rend the air as warrior after warrior topples to the ground.

A steel ball hurtles toward Jacob’s face. He ducks, allowing the chained object to spike the demonic mask of another warrior, the six-inch spur burying itself in one of the man’s occipital bones.

Jacob spins around and leaps, launching a forward snap kick into the throat of an incoming attacker, barely avoiding the swipe of steel claws lashing through the smoldering, carbondioxide-laden air. He lands, parries a would-be stab in the heart with his sword, then sidethrust kicks the transhuman in his exposed Adam’s apple, crushing the being’s windpipe.

Six down, six to go …

The skull-ball whizzes past his head.

Jacob spins around and launches a backthrust kick, the heel of his boot snapping his approaching enemy’s head backward, dislocating the man’s cervical spine.

The ball … don’t forget the game!

Jacob races after the skull-ball, overtaking two more warriors, who are batting it between them as they dribble it toward the eastern goal.

One of the warriors wheels around to fend off Jacob’s attack as his teammate prepares to shoot.

Jacob leaps, using his momentum to launch a double-snap kick, the toes of his boots striking the startled warrior in the solar plexus. He lands, then glances up in time to see the skull-ball bank off the eastern wall—

—nearly slipping through the donut-shaped goal.

In one motion, the shooter turns, throwing a needle-sharp dagger at Jacob. The white-haired twin, caught off guard, staggers backward as the poison blade strikes his environmental suit just above the heart.

No blood. You got lucky, the blade didn’t penetrate. Don’t be so careless!

Angry with himself, Jacob yanks out the blade and hurls it at his would-be killer like a fastball. The knife strikes deep, puncturing his enemy’s abdomen clear up to the handle.

The transhuman grunts, then drops to his knees, his stomach drenched in blue blood.

‘Ja—cob!’

Jacob looks up. Fubitch …

Dominique is being forced to retreat over the edge of the eastern wall as the remaining three warriors, now in the temple, stab at her from above with their spears. She lets go, dropping twelve feet before grabbing on to the donut-shaped goal.