Taboo Online

Behind him, Lauren activated Oracle’s Glimpse. Violet light flashed beneath her closed eyelids as the training floor began to change.

She expected another fixed warning like the vision she had received at the café, one unavoidable event repeating until she understood it. Instead, the scene divided into overlapping possibilities exactly as it had inside the Dungeon of Truth.

The sudden change nearly broke her concentration.

In the first future, Luke attacked immediately. Red Hound caught the spear beneath one arm, twisted it from his hands, and struck him in the chest before he could recover.

Another showed Luke using Quickstep to close the distance. Red Hound moved aside, caught him by the back of his shirt, and drove him face-first into the floor.

In a third, Luke waited for the attack. The hero crossed the distance, stepped around the spear, and touched two fingers to Luke’s throat before Lauren managed to speak.

More possibilities followed. Some ended with Luke on the floor, while others showed the spear leaving his hands or Red Hound reaching Lauren before Luke could turn. Every obvious choice ended within seconds.

Lauren struggled to follow the branching outcomes. She had not known Oracle’s Glimpse could work this way outside Powerforge, and the effort of searching through so many futures caused pressure to build behind her eyes.

Even so, she forced herself to look beyond the quickest failures. Somewhere among the overlapping scenes had to be one future where Red Hound’s polished shoes moved from their original position.

Most possibilities showed him staying exactly where he was.

Then she found something different.

Instead of thrusting, Luke turned the spear sideways and moved in what looked like the wrong direction, leaving his entire left side open. Red Hound stepped forward to punish the mistake, but the future blurred before Lauren could see what followed.

For a fraction of a second, the heel of Red Hound’s right shoe slid backward.

The vision vanished with a sharp breath from Lauren.

Luke glanced over his shoulder. "What did you see?"

"Most attacks won’t work."

"That isn’t very encouraging."

"You lose the spear if you thrust directly. Quickstep is worse."

"How much worse?"

"You hit the floor."

Luke faced Red Hound again. "Anything useful?"

Lauren searched for the strange future, but the possibilities had already begun shifting around his movements.

"Maybe."

The pressure behind her eyes sharpened, and the sensor near her temple gave a soft electronic beep. Beyond the boundary, the medical worker immediately looked up.

Lauren raised one hand to show she had heard the warning. "I’m fine."

Luke’s shoulders tightened. "Lauren."

"It was one warning. I’m not hiding anything."

Red Hound watched them without moving. "You’re wasting time."

Lowering his center of gravity, Luke said, "That’s probably what you want."

"No. I want to know whether you can make a decision before the situation makes it for you."

Luke’s fingers shifted around the shaft, changing the possible futures again.

"Don’t attack yet," Lauren said.

Red Hound’s attention moved toward her, but Luke stayed still.

Searching again, she found that every future where Luke moved first ended badly. The only path that lasted longer began with him waiting.

"Keep watching him."

"I am."

"No matter what happens, don’t thrust."

Luke adjusted his grip.

Red Hound noticed immediately. His eyes dropped toward Luke’s hands before returning to his face.

"Your breathing changed when she told you that. So did your grip," he said. "You’re announcing your intentions before you move. Anyone experienced will see it."

Lauren’s vision shifted.

One moment, Red Hound stood in front of Luke. The next, he was beside him, with no clear movement connecting the two positions.

Her pulse jumped. "Don’t move!"

Luke obeyed, although every instinct told him to raise the spear.

Red Hound took a single step. His polished shoe struck the floor once, and the movement carried him past the spearhead and inside Luke’s reach before the younger man understood how quickly the distance had disappeared.

Luke tried to turn, but the weapon’s length worked against him at close range. A hand closed around the shaft, trapping it beneath Red Hound’s bent arm while his free hand hovered inches from Luke’s throat.

Dozens of outcomes burst across Lauren’s vision, most ending with Luke already on the floor.

One showed the edge of Red Hound’s hand striking his neck. Another showed the hero stealing the spear and sweeping Luke’s legs from beneath him. In a third, Red Hound abandoned Luke and reached Lauren before she could retreat.

Then a thin violet path flashed through the chaos.

Lauren caught it, but there was no time to explain what she saw.

She had shared a vision with Luke once before, but that had been a memory of something that had already happened. She had never tried to send him a future while it was still unfolding, and she had no idea whether their connection could carry one.

Another pulse of pressure struck behind her eyes.

There was no time to hesitate.

Reaching for the connection she had felt between them, Lauren held on to the narrow path and pushed the image out of her mind.

For one disorienting instant, Luke saw himself from above. Red Hound stood beside him with most of his weight resting slightly forward, and a narrow opening remained beneath the arm trapping the weapon.

Luke reacted before the vision faded. Rather than pulling the spear free, he drove it deeper into Red Hound’s hold, rotated the shaft upward, and turned his whole body with the motion.

The weapon jammed into the inside of Red Hound’s bent elbow.

His free hand stopped before touching Luke’s throat, and his right shoe slid half an inch backward across the floor.

It was nowhere near a full step, but Luke and Lauren had forced him to move.

Red Hound glanced down at his shoe, then toward Lauren as the sensor beside her temple released another warning beep.

The medical worker immediately stepped toward the edge of the training floor.

Luke twisted harder, trying to turn the small opening into a real advantage, but Red Hound tightened his grip. The spear stopped as though it had struck a concrete wall, and Luke’s arms strained against the shaft without moving it any farther.

"Another spike from that sensor and the test ends," Red Hound said.

Lauren drew a careful breath behind them. "Understood."

Red Hound leaned closer to Luke.

"That shared vision was better," he said. "You’re both still too slow."

His foot swept toward Luke’s ankle.