I scream as my hand, closest to the actual gravity well, comes apart. I leave bone and skin behind as I physically yank my arm away. Then, using the freed stump, I punch Cometgirl in her face even as I fall, my body pulled toward the other gravity well. Skin sears closed, blood boils away even as blood vessels curl up from the flame. Bones crunch, her nose shatters, and she flies backward.
Then, shifting Fates Thread, I yank on her again, spinning the thread around my arm so that she twists like an oversized yo-yo. Into my gravity well near my feet.
She screams, twisting and trying to fly away. But there’s nowhere to fly, and the actual well is so powerful that I had to leave my own hand behind to escape it. I’m still trapped, my foot caught, my body curling in toward the second gravity well, held aloft only by the flames and the other well’s effects, but I figure…
“Thanks!” I shout when they do what I expect.
It takes a certain kind of person to leave your friends to die in your own attacks. And everything I’ve seen—the way the attacks coordinate, the way even now the decayed hands try to block my sight, try to stop my movement, the way more bolts fly toward me, intent on tearing me apart—shows that they’re a good team. A long-standing one.
“Not this time!” Ali flies in the direction of the bolts. He twists his hands sideways, and I feel him pulling and twisting at the air via electromagnetic force. The air flow turns erratic and the bolts are thrown off course, some veering to strike nearby buildings.
Unwary and slow flying vehicles get caught in Ali’s manipulation of reality, some of them crashing into the buildings and falling. Security systems kick in, many buildings closing down, others forming sanctuary shields to protect themselves. Bolts are buffeted, some missing only by inches as they’re diverted by the flowing air. But a little is all that’s needed when you’re shooting from kilometers away. And this time, he isn’t using gravity bolts.
It’s a smart play, leaving only a single player close on hand to keep me trapped. And if Cometgirl had been able to keep her distance, been able to keep flying back and forth to attack me, it would have worked.
Now that I’m freed, I can see her properly. I stare at her Status Screen, drinking in the details, grabbing at what’s important. Grateful that Ali has dropped the Titles.
Cometgirl (Level 13 Enervating Orbital) (M)
HP: 1421/3413*
MP: 843/1818*
Conditions: Lantern of Decay*, Mana Fount, Orbital Flames, Atmospheric Conditions, Anchored Trust, Birth of the Stars
As the gravity wells disappear, as we fall together, I can’t help but smirk. I’ve fought speedsters before, and Fates Thread is perfect for dealing with speedy asses like her. It keeps her close and that’s more than enough, for I’ve realized that they don’t have a friend-and-foe option for their own attacks. That’s the thing about fighting in teams, of being friends like these guys.
It can make you weak, if your enemy knows how to exploit it.
Sia La (Level 4 Lantern of Third Square) (M)
HP: 1230/1230
MP: 2753/4210
Conditions: Sworn to NML, Lord of Decay, Times to Twist, Flame Heart, Mana Manipulation, Reforms
Crossbowperson (Level 11 Weight of One) (M)
HP: 1743/2380
MP: 1347/2530
Conditions: Elemental Affinity: Gravity, Delayed Choice, Focused Point, One Point to Return, Till the Last.
We drop, the gravity well gone, and normal gravity reasserts itself. I pull Cometgirl close with Fates Thread, plunging my undamaged hand into her chest. I squeeze, crushing skin and organ—including a rather weird pulpy thing that twists and throbs like a heart. It might even be her heart, but alien. It might be her stomach for all I know.
“Master Class team?” I’m surprised, I admit. I’ve fought Master Classers before, been ambushed by them, once a long time ago. And knowing that, I don’t understand why they sent such low-powered Master Classes if they truly know who I am.
“Unless the Heroic’s hidden.” Ali sounds busy, his hands weaving together as he dodges the grasping flames, his presence now spotted. He’s channeling a light-based spell, using focused energy attacks to hammer at the spot where the Lantern is hanging out.
Holding onto Cometgirl, her flames eating at my skin even as I twist Soul Shield to protect me, I pull her around to take more of the attacks from the grasping green flames. She twitches and screams as she burns, the decay decreasing her regeneration, her total health and Mana. I feel it too, tearing at me, but my own Skills, my own Classes protect me at a greater level than Cometgirl’s. I wait, picking my time.
“You picked these other guys out easily enough,” I send back, snarling. I’m still holding back, worried about the last member of their team. “Can’t you find him?”
“If it’s a Heroic, no. I’ve got the Levels to deal with Master Classers now but not Heroics.” Ali is technically a Master Class, as far as the System is concerned. “If there’s a fourth, they’re hiding too well.”
My health hits half, Mana still high. I throw a Healing Spell, casting it so that it stays channeled even as I wrap the stump of my hand in the Frozen Blade spell and punch Cometgirl.
I’m pushing the team, pushing to see how far they’re willing to let me beat on their friends. Our fall has halted, Cometgirl’s powers keeping us aloft. For the most part. Each time I punch her, each time I coat her with my spell and slow her down further, we fall.
Meters from the ground, our speed arrested, I sense the threat before Ali speaks. The pair of long-range attackers have focused their attacks, forcing him to pay extra attention to help alleviate some of the incoming damage. Some, since Bolt Boy has shifted tactics and is using more energized light bolts that are less affected by Ali’s trick with air.
“Let my bondmate go!” She slams into me with a spike shoulder, tearing my arm out of Cometgirl’s chest. Along the way, I take the organ too.
I skip across the ground and off the nearby building shields, bouncing around with so much energy that I feel as if I’m playing Pong with my body. I dig in my feet, tearing up the ground, shifting my Strength to stabilize the ground and bleed off energy. As she clutches her coughing, heavily injured bondmate, I snarl at the tiny, two-foot-tall furry rabbitlike creature.
Cunwoz (Obliterating Vector Level 34) (M)
HP: 4478/4480
MP: 3210/3210
Condition: Hasted, Blurred Lines, Two Step, Between the Raindrops, Physics—what physics?
“Enough!” I snarl as I recall Ali closer. I throw up another Soul Shield, feeling my body fight the energy of decay pushing at me. “If you keep pushing, I’m going to stop playing nice.”
Cunwoz’s eyes narrow, then she tilts her head up. Long ears, which I realize have multiple eyes on them, twist about, staring around. Taking in the damage we’ve done—the flames that eat into residential shields, the blood that has rained upon the ground, the twisted wreckage of flying vehicles that smoke. The air is filled with the stink of death and decay, the flames somehow throwing off that smell even further, causing those too poor or too unlucky to choke on the poison.
And then Cunwoz stares at Ali and me. She takes in my health, the flames that still lick at my body and my missing hand where red blood drips to the ground. I watch it do the math, debating if it can win. A part of me worries that I might not. But only a small part.
I give it a grin, and the little rabbit tilts its head. “Enough.”
Silence greets the rabbit as it picks up its friend. Tiny hands expand, gripping the woman, and it takes a careful step back. I watch as blood—slower now—pumps out of Cometgirl’s body, spilling to the ground. But the green flames around her wounded body have died, peeling off to surround me. The rabbit takes another step back, still watching.
And I speak. “Wait.” Tension ratchets up, the flames stilling before bursting into further, angry motion. I can almost sense the targeting carats of the archer, but I keep talking. “We’re going to talk first. Before you leave. All of us.”