The
need to get the yellow ring is so strong I can
taste it, following up the destruction pulse and closing the gap between Nemesis and I. A large
bat'leth construct in my hands meets the
jaws of a dragon Nemesis has begun making around himself like his version of construct armor. The dragon bites down on the sword, my
need corrupting the dragon constructs head, forcing Nemesis to shear the dragon apart and focus on knocking me away with a
piston construct. The ring corrects my balance mid-air and I hit the ground on my feet in a crouch at the same time Aetius and Violet attack Nemesis from both sides. Aetius is opting for his usual spear, stabbing at Nemesis from the back while Violet is creating a machine gun construct, firing at Nemesis from the opposite but not quite exact angle from Aetius. Nemesis doesn't seem to have an issue with it through, forming a half-dome shield around one side of his body while pushing aside the spear construct with a hand, turning into the strike to smash Aetius in the face with his elbow. Throwing Aetius at Violet he drops out of the air to avoid an attack from Vera, who's hydro cannoning red blood at him.
The attack forces me to duck to the side, grabbing Fela at the same time instead of just trusting that she can get out of the way. She makes a kind of choked squeak, then flaps the wings hard and suddenly we're sixteen meters away and the red blood is hitting the ground where we were, hissing violently and bubbling. She lands beside me, grinning a little.
My head clears a little too, the
need... not lessening, but becoming more focused.
"Quicker than I look."
"Good show." I frown a little. "Actually,
stick close to me when you can? It's... it got easier to think clearly when you used your
wings."
She blinks in surprise, then nods and flares them, spreading the wings out, the intensify of them brightening. The effect becomes even more pronounced. Blue against orange?
Above us, Nemesis is trying to split Vera, Violet and Aetius apart as they present a united front against him. Surprisingly, somehow, he's holding his own. It's not just his construct strength, either. Even as I watch I can see the way he positions himself to make them get in each others way, the way he tries to use their own attacks against them or forces them to fight him one by one instead of all at once. When that does happen he splits, gaining distance and tries to slow them down, forcing them to split up or be pinned down by obstructions. It's only sort of working with Kuri acting as support, working to shield them or back them up or stop attacks from being as bad as they should be.
"Elise said your ring makes hers stronger. If my wings make that orange ring weaker, does that mean your ring can do the same to other rings?"
"I have no idea." Firing myself off the ground again, I come up behind Nemesis, cutting my flight aura suddenly as he slashes at where I
should have been with a yellow blade and grabbing his leg instead. Hope crushes fear, doesn't it? I've known for awhile that I could effect the hopes of those around me, but never really saw the use of trying to manipulate them. Now I do.
Inspire.
I can feel the others as they stand a little taller, get a little more focused. Except for Vera. She actually stumbles in her attack, stopping and shaking herself out, looking confused. Nemesis actually stumbles a little, taking precious seconds before trying to shake me off, starting a destruction pulse and forcing me to break away down and around him, in a wide arc, flying backwards. The pulse just barely misses me and then
I can feel him trying the same thing, the gnawing uncertainty -
"
No.
You won't drown us out." Kuri thumps her staff, the color changing to blue as she backs me up, drowning his fear out in a wash of hope as we both focus entirely on lifting the other.
Behind Kuri, Vera drops to her knees, shakes her head and then withdraws, taking off in the opposite direction.
Nemesis has the same idea, trying to break away across the surface of the desert in a streak as we follow him. Aetius and Violet are really putting it to him, forcing him to jerk and weave to avoid the two of them smashing into or attacking him. A wide circle around the growing anomaly and he suddenly comes to a halt, laughing.
"This has been a fun little chase, hasn't it?
" Aetius isn't stopping for him to talk but he doesn't seem concerned, forming a railgun as Aetius charges him and simply shooting the man in the face, sending Aetius flying backwards and Kuri flying after him.
"You've already wasted too much time, though. The only way to close that tear now is to dump enough energy into it and you don't have a source powerful enough! You're all going t-
"
The sands split apart as a massive, burrowing, worm-like thing - not a sandworm in the Dune sense, it reminds me a bit of predatory sea life, actually - snaps Nemesis down towards the surface almost faster than we can process, the entire area around is visibly shuddering as the thing burrows back down, sand filling the tunnel it leaves behind.
Violet looks at me and Fela awhile Aetius and Kuri rise up to join me. "What the fuck was that?"
I can't help but chuckle. "I met some new friends deep in Psyche. Before I came back to get the rest of you, I brought some here to try and talk to the guards of the temple... took awhile, but I guess they finally got through."
"How are we going to stop it?" Kuri gestures down at the writhing thing encircled by the batteries. "And where are Ren and Emil?"
That stops me. I don't know how to stop it.
I don't know how to stop it.
