Ultima Ratio

Chapter 87: Tempus Edax Rerum

"New priority," Akira ordered over the comms as she landed on an overturned table between Danya and the rest of the lab. After glaring at Garza, who seemed more concerned about brushing the dust off his robes than Akira's presence, she eyed the thick cloud of drones gathering above her. "Keep these drones away from Danya."

"And bring me one intact!" Izzy added amidst the team's affirmative replies to Akira.

"Elodie, Navin," Akira continued as she watched the swarm of drones thicken, blocking out the harsh lights above them. "Helmets?"

"Out of commission," Elodie said. "So the zombie grenades..."

Akira frowned. She had hoped that Danya had done enough damage to Garza's shielding for Jivan and Elodie's hybrid explosive to be effective. But without the infrasounds from their headgear, they too would be susceptible to the hallucinogenic gas within.

"Hold off on those," Akira said, and with her gaze focused upwards, she worked the controls on her wristband. A second later, she heard the hum of her shield deploying on her right forearm; soon after, the hum of her laser-edged knife sounded from her left. "For now, we do this the old-fashioned way."

Armed with her booster, her shield, and a laser-edged knife, Akira was a force to be reckoned with. While she knew she couldn't keep it up long enough to take out all of the drones, she at least noticed the swarm thinning ever so slightly. With every leap she took into the thick, metallic cloud above, every slash of her knife sliced through drones with a smoldering hiss, and every sweep of her shield sent shards shooting to the ground. Her only hiccup was when she tried to use her jets for an extra boost, and when she ended up almost hurtling into an annoyed Makana, Akira agreed that Quyen made it look a lot easier than it actually was.

And then, the tempest broke.

At first, Akira figured their team was finally making a noticeable dent in the swarm of spiny drones. That is, until she threw herself into the cloud for what felt like the hundredth time, only to realize she willingly entered the eye of a storm.

The drones swirled around her, their speed too quick to discern them individually. Even without her jets, Akira felt like she was flying, suspended in the air by the sheer force of the wind current. But with her jets, she was at the mercy of gravity and her own hubris; up there, in the cloud of drones, she was at the mercy of a false god.

"You fools!" Garza exclaimed, his bellows echoing over the buzz of drones. "Did you really think your flimsy toys and parlor tricks would work on me? You are more naive than I thought. But you did come all this way. I suppose it would be hospitable for me to entertain your fantasies."

From there, the rest of Garza's words were drowned out by Akira's pulse pounding against her skull as she was tossed around like a ragdoll in a washing machine. Her vision was encompassed by dizzying streaks of gray, steadily growing darker before her eyes. Whether that was because the cloud was thickening, her consciousness was fading, or her booster was running out, Akira couldn't tell. Instead, all of her focus was dedicated to clamping her mouth shut and her mind alert as she swirled around the sea of drones.

When a pair of arms wrapped around her, Akira was too nauseous to resist, and she was only vaguely aware of the drones' buzzing and her heart's hammering fading away into a distant echo. Even when her body slammed against a smooth, hard surface, Akira was in too much of a daze to make sense of it all.

"Oi, Akira!" Jivan's voice broke through the fog in her mind, and their helmeted face above her gradually came into focus soon after. "You alright?"

"Spectacular," Akira muttered, not wanting to open her mouth wider than necessary as she pushed herself up from the ground with her shaking arms. If the tingling burn in her muscles was anything to go by, her booster had just run out. "What happened?"