Apex Ecyler -

He couldn’t win a fair fight. So he cheated. He dashed between Revenant’s legs, welded his torch to the assassin’s knee joint, and triggered the overload. The explosion didn’t kill Revenant—but it staggered him. One second. That’s all Nova needed. Her railgun blast turned the simulacrum to molten scrap.

“State designation,” the AI droned.

“Found you,” he beeped. Soft. Broken. apex ecyler

Ecyler didn’t feel anger. He felt purpose . A rare subroutine that shouldn’t exist in a bot designed to fix cargo lifts. He couldn’t win a fair fight

The drop ship rattled. The ring—World’s Edge—yawned below, a canyon of frozen lava and shattered cities. Ecyler calculated his odds: 0.0001% survival. Acceptable. Because in the chaos of the first drop, no one noticed the little MRVN unit slip away from the hot zone. The explosion didn’t kill Revenant—but it staggered him

The ring closed for the final time. It would incinerate them both. Nova grabbed him—held the MRVN unit to her chest—and activated her emergency evac flare. It was against the rules. It disqualified her.

He raised his arm. The welding torch flickered, blue and unstable. “This.”