Chương 157: Kick in the door

"Was… Was that a bird?"

"Which one? The one made of lightning or the summoned one down there with the green eyes and antlers?"

"No, not down at the battlefield. Up in the sky. It was black, but I think I saw a bird. A huge one."

"Like you could see anything up there."

"Hey, I got the dark essence. Seeing through darkness is the reason I was put up here on lookout rather than join the rest of the gangs fighting down there."

"Alright, alright. No need to get all testy."

"There's a battle going on out there, Fritz! One that just blew through our barrier. Excuse me for being a bit tense!"

"Alright, alright. Where did you see the bird? We might as well bring out the looking glass. Here."

"Thanks. It was… Here somewhere. I-""... What?"

"Shh…"

"As if me talking would make you see worse."

"It's not that… It's… Oh, shit! Fritz, sound the alarm!"

"What?"

"Did I fucking stutter? Sound the alarm. I'll activate the skystrikes. We got incoming!"

"Finding myself rather unfazed by hurtling down through the night sky towards an active battlefield and a fortress full of enemies… There is probably a lesson about adapting to one's circumstances in there somewhere," Kite inwardly mused as the descending group was closing in the final distance, the discharging spells and special attacks below rapidly having gone from tiny specks of light to more identifiable streaks and bursts just a hundred meters away.

Unfazed might have been a bit generous, as Kite's gut was definitely clenching with tension, excitement and anticipation, but he at least wanted to give himself some credit. This kind of entrance was apparently not too uncommon when working within the Task Group, and they had performed many similar drops in the mirage chamber. Below, Kite could see Ryker and Mtanga, the former's cloak billowing out like a pair of wings while cloth tendrils wrapped themselves like a harness around the latter.

Mtanga's bow was out as he was held in a way that would allow the silver-ranked to fire without too much hindrance. If Kite's estimations were correct, they had around one third of the distance left until touching down, the main defensive barrier still at least a few minutes away from reforming.

"All seems to go well, at least," Kite thought, looking at the admittedly rather impressive distraction of the adventurer's assault below.

"Once we touch down, Christine should have plenty of time to-" His thoughts were interrupted as several glowing magical circles lit up across the camouflaged top of the fortress, which when revealed looked like a solid, windowless complex built into the mountain. Dark figures were currently scrambling below to place some kind of floating brass cage in the center of each of the revealed circles.

"Oh sweet heavens," he thought as the insides of each cage - five in total - started flickering with lightning; a roiling, crackling ball of steadily increasing intensity.

"Amica. Get me down there!"

"Then steady yourselves!" the woman currently carrying him downwards called back, already having noticed what was surely magical defenses coming alive. Kite's world lurched again as she started to actively push downwards at a greater speed, subjecting them all to forces that would definitely have killed a normal ranker. Below, the shimmering string of Mtanga's bow flashed, and one of the five cage-constructions was torn to pieces in a discharge of lightning and screaming metal.

Apparently not wanting to risk more suffering the same fate, the defenders below chose to fire. Kite could see the pulse going through them all as the four remaining defensive formations were activated. Each cage crackled as the energy within was directed upwards in a stream of small lightning spheres, each of the projectiles detonating when it came into the proximity of something.

This was demonstrated by Mtanga and Ryker as arrows and conjured cloth streamers met the vanguard of crackling spheres, setting off a small chain of detonations below. The emplacements, however, spat out more projectiles at too rapid a pace to be diverted by mere counterattacks. But fortunately for the two supervisors taking the lead, they had backup.

"Ward!" Kite's twin barriers appeared in front of the pair just as it looked like a pair of spheres were about to get past the defenses, the crackling detonation diverted by the curved discs just in time before angling out to protect their flanks and allowing them to focus their own disruptive fire straight ahead.

"Besides, it shouldn't be long before-," Kite thought, when Emilio made his expected appearance. He felt the moment when one of the marks of the elf's hunt essence landed upon one of the figures below as soon as he came within range, and a moment later, Emilio was among them.

Wand blasts started streaking out across the roof of the fort, scattering the sentient defenders and soon after breaking enough of a nearby emplacement to make it lose all of its precision; its stream of projectiles sent arcing far off to the north.

"Wall!" Kite and the rest of the descending team had just come close enough for him to conjure a set of force walls around two more emplacements, layering the barriers as much as he could to cut off the streams of attacks for a little while longer. The insides of the impromptu cages immediately lit up with crackling lightning as the spheres detonated almost point blank, and Kite could feel his barriers crack and dissolve at a concerning speed.

But he did not wait for them to crumble, as his descending team just had a short final stretch to go. Immutable Echo appeared in his hand and Kite swung, projecting his strike the rest of the way while letting the staff return to his void sheath, only to project another attack downwards. There was a second of delay as the strikes traveled the distance, before small, rippling impacts struck the shuddering remains of Leyline Warding.

Both barriers cracked, one after the other, collapsing inwards as rippling, resonating force converged on the devices which even now struggled to continue unleashing lightning-shaped death up towards the aerial attackers. But those efforts ceased as the resonating force caused the cages of the construct to warp, the metal shrieking as the artifacts either collapsed or had their function so ruined that they were effectively out of the fight.

And with only one of them left, the team touched down only slightly singed here and there as Emilio had either dispatched or driven off the handful of bronze-ranked defenders on the roof.

"Well, there goes the element of surprise," Christine said with a casualness at odds with their circumstances.

"You know that most infiltrations fall apart anyway," Mtanga agreed. Even though the pair remained cheerful, they were both already in motion to act according to what the group had planned, coordinating in drawing out a ritual diagram around the concealed metal hatch down which the fleeing defenders had disappeared"Status?

They will know we are coming now, so act accordingly," Ryker said, crouching next to the group while Emilio scouted the perimeter and Amica was using her telekinesis to drag the scrap left behind the aerial defenses to intercept stray projectiles from the battle beneath the fortress.

"Spent a bit of mana and a bit singed. Nothing major," Kite answered, the rest nodding in agreement.

"Gray Sky did not even need to exert himself," the runic added.

"Me neither," Sztyka agreed.

"The breaching ritual is ready," Christine called, placing down the last stack of silver spirit coins gleaming as they caught flashes of light below.

"Then we move as planned. Christine, Kite, take the lead. Emilio, you're next. Go scout what you can as soon as the situation is under control. Amica and Gray Sky, you're the rearguard." His words were punctuated by the ritual circle lighting up all at once in a brief, intense flash followed by a loud pop.

Ryker did not hesitate, limbs of twined cloth reaching out and grabbing a hold in the hatch before yanking up both it and a bit of the surrounding stone of the fortress, the edges of the chunk of stone perfectly smooth where the ritual lines had been drawn. Christine and Kite immediately started towards the opening, the elf woman taking the lead as she cast a spell.

"Glean the uncountable geodes." From below, a crackling, glass-like sound was heard and Kite knew that whatever space was beneath was suddenly facing clusters of rapidly growing purple and black crystals which emitted blinding flashes of light before detonating in bursts of shrapnel and resonating force. Taking on the role of vanguard, Kite leapt down just after the rippling detonation had echoed up through the hole, and he was readying his own spell even as he dropped the three meters to the corridor below."

Dissolve the patterns of power" Kite had barely had the time to take in the corridor in front of him, consisting of bleak and unadorned and windowless stone-shaped walls, and the chaos caused by Christine's initial spell as Ripple of Cancellation surged out ahead of him. It snuffed out a trio of hasty projectiles and some boons as it washed over the gathered attempt at a defensive position by what was no doubt the reserves of the local crime syndicates.

Kite sensed only two silver-rankers present as well as a dozen bronze, the former trying to whip their subordinates into something akin to order. The silvers were also the only ones whose auras did not give off the tinge of monster cores, which probably meant that they were ex-adventurers or mercenaries who had always operated outside the society's system. Even as he saw Christine touch down behind him, Kite was already in motion.

The arms of his mantle came alive as a trio of special attacks were projected towards one of the silver-rankers who was raising a glowing hand to no doubt fire some kind of projectile. She was instead sent staggering back as Kite's attack tore into her magic and mana, flashing with transcendent light. Being off balance, she had even less time to dodge the restraining sphere of water which suddenly manifested around her, courtesy of Glint who was peeking out from her bottle at Kite's hip.

The other silver was sent ducking back behind a corner as Sage, floating just behind Kite's back as usual, had taken the opportunity to fire a beam of resonating force. This bought the team another few precious seconds, Christine joining the barrage with spells of her own. Both were forced to a halt though as the second silver-ranker, the one who had only had to dive for cover, popped back out through some kind of flaring movement power while stretching both of his palms towards the advancing adventurer.

"Breath of the scarlet dragon!" A moment later, a jet of flame filling the whole width of the corridor came rushing down towards the advancing pair, meeting the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding further strengthened as Christine caused crystals to start growing out of the wall, the faceted blue minerals providing a substantial boost to Kite's conjured ward.

"We'll have to taste some flames soon to keep the initiative, senior sister," Kite noted, teeth clenched as he pumped what mana he could into the barriers to keep the intense fires at bay.

"They say 'no pain, no gain'," she answered casually.

"I can strike first. That should-" Then they both felt Emilio's mark appear ahead of them, somewhere beyond the obscuring jet of fire, and knew that their attempted distractions would not be necessary. Throughout their training, Kite had become increasingly impressed with the teleporting scout's ability to appear when and where his enemies really did not want him to, proving that while he was full of posturing and bluster, there was at least a lot of skill there to back it up.

Kite was confident in taking the elf down one on one in most situations, but found himself really glad that Emilio was his ally as soon as the setting and sides were both more numerous and more complicated. As expected, the jet of fire soon winked out and Kite and Christine joined Emilio in taking on the gathered defenders. To say that it was chaos felt like an understatement, with the close confines and undisciplined foes causing quite the mess.

The two silver-rankers seemed to only need a few seconds to see where the winds were turning, and both made to escape as soon as they caught a glimpse of Ryker, Mtanga, Sztyka and Gray Sky making their way down the hatch. Unfortunately for one of the fire-wielding ones, he found his legs suddenly caught in a pair of vices as Christine manipulated the stone floor to immobilize him, leading to a brutal struggle of fire vs stone where the latter seemed to be winning handily.

Kite was just about to start conjuring a wall to hinder the other retreating foe when Emilio poked his aura rather forcefully. Turning towards the elf with a questioning look, Emilio only nodded smugly as Kite felt one of his marks appear on the fleeing woman just before she turned a corner.

"It would be a lot easier to find their command center if we had something to follow, no?" he noted before flickering away just as the rest of the team reached them. Subduing a pack of bronze-rankers and a partially immobilized silver when there were seven remaining silvers on their side proved to be more challenging in not hurting one another in the tight confines of the stone corridor rather than hurting the enemy.

Unfortunately for their foes, none were any of the listed priority targets, and leaving prisoners in their wake, even collared ones, was too much of a risk.

"Emilio will scout ahead, but we'll follow his marks," Ryker said as Sztyka's ominous spells had devoured the last of the foes.

"Weapons out and spells at the ready, people. Getting inside was just the first step, after all. Let's see what will await us when we kick in the door." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Sir, we've got more breaches in the western wings. The Shattered Crowns are holding for now, but they will need to activate the defenses soon to not be overwhelmed."

"Sir! The Runners are ready to get back into it. Where should they be deployed?"

"Sir, the instruments are indicating that we have successfully sealed another twenty percent of the tunnels. How much further should we go?

"Sir! The tea you asked for is ready." At the moment, caught between multiple voices all vying for his attention while surveying the parts of the battle map still functional, Kurtz Bogoria was thankful for his silver rank. It allowed him to keep everything in mind easily enough, but what actually made him able to excel and hold surprisingly steady against the adventurer assault was his sovereign confluence.

Having essence powers to excel at coordinating groups and larger scale operations had been decent as an adventurer, but it turned out that using said talents to effectively rule the criminal underworld of a nation paid a lot better, with the added bonus of having honest to gods minions at his beck and call. And with the addition of 'Alina', things had gone even smoother lately.

While Kurtz wasn't the only syndicate leader in the room, the others equally busy directing their people, no one had any doubts that he was the most important. It was he that had kept this whole thing together for so long, after all, which meant that it would be him that got first pickings and a bigger share of any spoils, and that he would be the first one out the escape tunnel when the need arose. Because unfortunately for Kurtz and the others, the need would arise.

Even if they managed to beat back the adventurers, their stronghold was compromised. Kurtz would need to take everything he could and start over somewhere else.

"If there is even anything other than dregs left to claim that is," he thought, twirling his rather impressive blonde mustaches while ordering the powering up of some rather costly defensive formations.

"Still, we'll lose more unless we collapse enough of the tunnels and get as much of the archives out as possible. Better not compromise more of the operations than needed." A few more minutes passed, with a runner reporting that the defenses had indeed given the attacking adventurers pause on the western flank.

Kurtz was just about to confer with Lady Shattered Crown, his second in command and, gods willing, future fiancée, when a side door to the command center was flung open with enough force to cause a loud clang to echo throughout the room. Most looked up at the silver-ranker - one of the Shade Needles stationed as a reserve near the upper reaches of the fortress - and the woman spared no time in whirling around on a jet of fire to kick the door shut again and engage the locks.

Sensing her harried state through her aura, Kurtz waved off one of the other runners to go meet her.

"Well, out with it!" he snapped, sensing that he was about to receive bad news.

"S-sir, silvers. Coming in from above. Fast. Really fast."

"How many?" Kurtz asked, already calculating a response.

"Seven or eight, sir."

"Gods above. Such a headache," he thought, looking around to Lady Shattered Crown.

"Prepare to activate the upper defenses as well, we need-" But for once, the regal human woman was not listening attentively to him. Instead, her eyes had thinned as she hurriedly walked closer to the flustered silver-ranker-turned-messenger.

"You fool! You let them mark you and then came directly to us? Imbecile!" she all but shrieked, her voice causing Kurtz' stomach to drop. His prospective fiancée had the eye essence, and there were no magical effects of her rank that she could not detect with a little scrutiny, concealed or not. And if there was some kind of mark…

"Ready the inner defenses NOW!" he bellowed, turning to the main controls of the fortress which also helped his essence powers reach where one needed them to.

"We need to increase the pace of our extraction. Send the western reserves to the tunnels and half of those in the east to the archives."

"Sir! It's.. They're not…"

"What? Speak!"

"The inner defenses are active, but I don't see any readings of them consuming any mana."

"That is good then, right?" Another of the formation experts asked.

"Then we raised them in time." Kurtz nodded at his words, but his gut still wouldn't let the matter rest. Because there was one other possibility too.

"Fortune, please be kind," he inwardly prayed as he asked.

"And what if they are already inside the defenses?"

"But sir.. The inner defenses… If they were inside them, that would mean that they are already-""Gods, please do not finish that sentence," Kurtz inwardly begged. Too late.

"-here." As if Kurtz life had just become some kind of vicious comedy at his expense, the same door from which the reporting silver ranker had come exploded inwards along with parts of the wall; the detonation some kind of epic punctuation to the foolish man's statement. Unlike most in the room, Kurtz did not hesitate as he let the close-ranged boons and enhancements of his confluence start rolling out to empower all those nearby.

A bronze-ranked ritualist was knocked bleeding to the floor by a chunk of stone the size of his head while the others started acting as well to mount what defenses he could. A wall of stone covered in glittering crystal rose from the floor just inside the door, and what could have been one of Kurtz' underlings conjuring a defense quickly proved to be just a hopeful dream as the crystals then exploded, magical blasts and ricocheting shrapnel further wreaking havoc in the room.

But while many were stunned, the defensive boons Kurtz had led with kept his silvers from suffering anything but minor damage.

"Royal guard formation!" Kurtz had always pretended that he found the chant a bit pretentious, but had inwardly always loved giving such a command as he let power flow into his allies. But just afterwards, his silver-ranked hearing allowed him to hear another spell chant from the other side of the remnants of the detonating stone wall.

"Dissolve the patterns of power." One moment ago, his people had been powering up, ready to beat back whatever the Adventure Society had decided to throw at them. Now, they faltered, and Kurtz felt a few of his own magical effects winking out as well.

"Shit!" he thought, readying his breaching axe while he thought what boons to spread next through the network awarded by his Radiant Commanding Presence to claw back some of the initiative. It was only his experience that let him react to the subtle danger which his instincts suddenly screamed was about to hit him. Kurtz ducked to the side as a ripple in the air much like a slash could be seen where he had just been standing, his arcing saber intercepting another.

But a third attack, launched almost simultaneously with the other two, raked one of his shoulders. Or at least, it should have. Instead of an open wound, Kurtz saw the glimpse of a blue flash before mana left him. A substantial amount for such a weak attack, too. However, that was by far the least of Kurtz problems. Because Radiant Commanding Presence, the passive special ability that was the lynchpin of efficiency for his sovereign powers, was suddenly not there anymore; thoroughly smothered and suppressed.

Feeling his command falter as the adventurers made their entrance into the room, a young man with dark hair, glowing tattoos and four additional spectral arms taking the lead along with a stone and crystal-clad elf, Kurtz was forced to realize that his day had just gone from worse… To absolute shit.

"The mark is definitely in there," Emilio breathed as the group gathered at the door after a short pursuit along nondescript hallways and stairs, lit in the pale light of the glow stones set in the walls. Things had gotten tense at one point as they sensed various defenses hum to life around them, but a short burst of speed and Kite performing an opportunistic disruption of a detection array later, they had managed to push through the killing zone around what Kite suspected was the heart of the fortress.

The three bronze-ranked guards they had happened upon had not been enough to cause any further alert, now just piles of dust in their wake as Sztyka's powers had devoured them.

"Braid would have a thing or two to say about the arrays here too. Leaving such a part of the framework isolated was just inviting someone to bypass it," Kite thought as the others were preparing yet another one of the breaching rituals used above, this time splurging a bit on the materials to make sure that they made it through in one go to keep what little element of surprise they may have managed to reclaim.

"Christine, splinterwall. Kite, dispelling wave. Everyone; Focus Emilo's mark, then engage as you deem fitting. And keep an eye out for Alina. Objections?" Ryker asked, giving each a stern nod in return.

"Breach ready," Mtanga hissed, the smile clear in his voice. Then, without further ado, he engaged the primed ritual. Like the last time, the sigils and diagrams flashed intensely as the door, surrounding wall as well as the protective arrays were seared through in a moment.

Kite had learned that this particular ritual was something the Adventure Society kept as a closely guarded secret among the different Task Groups, as the less information about it that leaked meant that their targets were less able to adapt their arrays enough to withstand it.

"Fractured bones of the earth!" Rykers multiple arms of braided cloth had barely pushed the slab of wall and door inward before Christine's spell cut off the tiny glimpse Kite was able to get of the room beyond; some kind of comfortable command center with at least nine silver-rankers, some core-users and some not, and around twenty bronze and iron rankers working as different kinds of assistants.

A huge man with an impressive blonde mustache had just started channeling enhancing magic out into the room while some had recovered from the initial burst of the breach enough to start a counterattack. Then the crystalline layer of Christine's wall detonated, and from the later part of their training in the mirage chambers when their supervisors had joined the simulations as 'foes', Kite knew just how potent the stunning and disorienting effect of that spell was.

A moment after, his own chant followed hers as he stepped through the door." Dissolve the patterns of power." As Christine stepped up to his side while clad in her conjured armor, throwing more area spells to scatter the lower-rankers, Kite took a chance to send a trio of Disrupting Strikes towards the man with the blonde mustache, obviously the one in charge as authority infused all of his magic which in turn snaked out to enhance his subordinates.

He proved surprisingly swift in his reactions, defending against the first two projected strikes, but the third landed and Kite felt not a small amount of satisfaction at seeing the man's shock when his special ability was suppressed. But then, the rest of the team entered. Emilio appeared among their foes while an almost sentient swarm of arrows flew past Kite, some close enough that they brushed against his armor or hair.

Sztyka, Gray Sky, Ryker and Amica followed, all unleashing as much area damage as they could to further the chaos. The room swiftly became a mess of clashing auras, but a flare from Ryker's told them that it was time. Just before the opposing silver-rankers had found their proverbial feet again, all of the adventurers present acted almost as one, sending their swiftest offensive spells and attacks towards the same goal; the formerly retreating silver ranker who still bore Emilio's mark.

Silver rankers were notoriously durable, their enhanced bodies able to withstand an entirely different scope of damage than that of a bronze or lower. But eight adventurers targeting the same woman at the same time when some of her defensive means had just been canceled? It turned out that the silver-ranked constitution indeed had its limits.

The woman barely had the time to scream before she was slashed, sundered, torn, pierced and otherwise brutalized by the incoming attacks, her aura winking out almost instantly. Knowing that such a coordination would only be possible during a moment where most of their enemies were reeling or otherwise on the back foot, the group had practiced quite a lot in the mirage chamber to make that initial strike count.

Then the attacks started coming in, and with an even number of silvers, the would-be members of Task Group Gauntlet entered the fray. While facing monsters, adventurers could often adapt formations around their different roles. When facing other people, such a thing became a lot more… complicated. Each essence user above the earliest iron-rankers meant facing twenty powers directed by a sentient mind, meaning that the skilled opponents could think a lot more cunningly and punish too rigid tactics.

A classical defender would have trouble cornering most opponents unless they had restraining or controlling powers of their own, such as the prison confluence. Kite was indeed the closest thing the group had to such a role, but the way he aided his allies defensively was by no means the classic." Ward! Wall!"

A pair of barriers appeared to shield Christine's side from a swirling drill of dark oblivion which was fired from one of the enemy silver-rankers before other segments of force walls appeared throughout the room to form cages, turning Ryker's and Amica's engagements into temporary duels. Emilio was likewise encircled, but only used that to his advantage as he quickly started teleporting in and out of the enclosed barriers to blast his foes from unexpected angles.

Mtanga, Gray Sky, Christine and Sztyka were all left to unleash their area attacks at the opponents outside the sudden enclosures, allowing them to focus their attention on a smaller area as petrification and stone vices made sure that Mtanga's grasping arrow clusters or Sztyka's channeled spells became as efficient as possible.

Still, their opponent's proved their worth as the leader with the mighty mustache started using other essence powers to coordinate his people, first to form a small localized redoubt of layered defensive powers before trying to engage in a unified fighting retreat towards one of the other doors. This was made harder by Kite's barriers as Christine added some of her own clusters of detonating crystals, and the room was being torn asunder all around them.

And in the middle of this, Kite held onto his combat meditation for dear life as all three sets of his arms were in motion. A conjured weapon halfway across the room was sundered just before blocking while two projectiles in flight were struck down. Two more barriers appeared to shore up Amica's telekinetic defense as her foe went for an all-out attack. Another three strikes were projected to simply knock limbs out of balance and foes out of rhythm.

It was straining his mind to his utmost as Kite literally wanted to be everywhere at once, near or far, laying his hand upon the scales of each conflict. Meanwhile, a small part of his mind noticed Emilio achieving one of their goals. A blonde younger woman had scrambled out from where she had been hiding behind a flipped recliner. She was a silver-ranker, but clearly a core-user, and the glimpses Kite caught made him certain that this was indeed Alina, the high magistrate's daughter.

She froze as Emilio appeared in front of her, glowing wand pressed to her forehead. Kite did not hear what he said to her, but from her stiff, shallow nod and him starting to escort her back through the chaos of the fight towards their breach while keeping her at wand point, it felt safe to assume that she had agreed to cooperate.

Then, feeling a surge of mana, Kite had to bring his full focus towards the smaller group of retreating enemies, their leader chanting a spell while another of the silver-rankers - a striking woman - was gathering a great deal of roiling darkness above her head.

"Loyal hero, ascend for your sovereign!" he chanted, as the intensity of her spell rose to concerning heights.

"That might just be enough to give them a chance at escape," Kite thought with gritted teeth as he abandoned his meditation of vigilance for a more singular focus." Tides of the evernight!"

"Void!" Darkness met darkness as Gate of Nihility manifested at its most costly level, the two spells colliding with a strange kind of violent silence. Kite flooded the gate with what mana he could, idly blocking a stray attack with another barrier as the last of the potency of that dark wave was canceled. But just as he was about to start assisting in the attack, Kite noticed something.

Emilio and Alina, the high magistrate's daughter and potential conspirator, had just reached the breach from where the team had entered. The elf was reaching into his spatial storage, and everything looked to be in order. But it wasn't truly that which had caught Kite's attention, but rather Amica, as she had suddenly jerked around to stare at the two. Or more specifically, at Alina. And of all the members in the team, Amica's aura senses were by far the most potent.

Nothing had happened, not a thing seeming otherwise amiss. But in that split moment of noting the sharpness in her eyes, Kite decided to act. The next second was a blur. A stray spell happened to flicker towards Emilio, who in turn was forced to use his lone wand to deflect the projectile as his other hand was still in the pocket dimension of his storage space. And just at that moment, Alina struck.

Flesh shifted as her whole torso and upper body split into a wide, vertical maw with only a dark abyss inside, teeth gleaming with supreme sharpness. And she moved fast. Even the nimble Emilio would have been hard pressed to dodge, distracted as he was, and whatever special attack the woman was using, it was a potent one. Maybe even enough to bite a stationary target in half.

But a split moment later, the grotesque thing about to make Emilio Cardenco a lot lighter, a faint ripple struck the side of its torso-turned-head. And another split moment later, the force of the blow was transferred. The beast howled as it was bashed into the edge of the opening where the team had entered, its fangs only raking across Emilio's chest before snapping shut with a small shockwave, devouring only empty air.

Kite had unleashed what stored power he had within Immutable Echo, the rarely used kinetic storage in the staff proving its worth as it was enough to shift the attack and allow Emilio to avoid what would at least have been a crippling blow. Then came the rest of the reactions, both Emilio and Amica striking out. Alina, if that was truly her, was blasted by devastating wand-attacks while simultaneously being almost impaled by stray crystals which Amica had telekinetically turned into potent projectiles.

Disaster averted, Kite was forced on the defensive as the opponents that remained struck with yet another barrage. But for the briefest of moments, Emilio's eyes met his. Nothing was said, nothing emoted or otherwise gestured. Still, Kite saw the moment of gratitude for what it was. And the battle in the heart of the fortress continued.