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Incoming attackers bombard the arena, and Glowing Eyes orders a response. The ember soldiers’ bracers activate, dropping them, but Nomad shapes Aux into inner bracers linked by a rod to insulate his skin, avoiding paralysis. A bomb shatters his ship; he survives the fall but is pinned under wreckage.

With Aux shaped as a jack, Nomad lifts the debris and rolls free while firefights rage among low-flying hovercraft. He attempts tools to break his manacle, but the Torment forbids weapons. Two raiders arrive, ignore him, and seize an ember woman as their prisoner. As embers begin to recover, Glowing Eyes returns and snipes the male raider, forcing the woman into cover.

Nomad bargains for help; she struggles to pry him free until Glowing Eyes targets them. Nomad converts Aux to a shield, then convinces the woman to toss him her rifle. He fires at the lock, blasts it open, and regains mobility. Despite Aux warning of dwindling Investiture, Nomad eyes stealing the hovercycle but instead helps hold off Glowing Eyes while the woman pilots.

Spotting the gap-toothed man half-buried in mud, Nomad abandons cover to haul him out and loads him onto the hovercycle opposite the manacled ember prisoner. Nomad expands Aux into a large shield while the woman starts the vehicle, grieving her fallen partner as enemy fire intensifies and ember troops rouse.

They lift off low over the grass, trailing other raiders who have already evacuated captives. Glowing Eyes, now steady on his podium ship, organizes pickups for the reawakened ember soldiers. The raiders ahead escape, but Nomad’s craft lags behind and is singled out; multiple ships converge to capture them.