A Wizards Misadventures

~~Level Twenty Two~~

'Taylor,' I said telepathically. 'I need the Simurgh. Restrain it and I'll be able to… well it won't be a problem for Earth Bet when I'm done with it. Restrain it and reach out to me when you feel prepared to keep it down.'

'You!… Okay,' she said, rolling with my orders surprisingly easily. I turned my attention from her to the rest of Bet and was able to find the Simurgh. A fifteen foot tall… thing. It looked a lot like a woman except for the completely stoic face and the asymmetrical wings behind her.

I got a short glimpse of her eyes. An emotionless, dull silver… I immediately wanted to gouge them out of her face. Silver eyes weren't supposed to be so emotionless or devoid of kindness. Geez, I might actually have some kind of complex about silver eyes. Something to look into. From what I knew the Simurgh was actually blind, seeing everything through precognition. Considering that I was in a completely different dimension I should be immune to that. All my meddling should be safe from her.

I was able to finish dinner and wash the dishes before Taylor got her skinny butt to Canberra. I already knew the Simurgh was descending there. The evacuation had taken place and half the city was depopulated. The other half were condemned to death or insanity by the Simurgh. Because Bet was a shithole. Worst superhero world ever.

I was able to recline on the couch and watch people do my work for me. Taylor assembled with the rest of the capes at the Endbringer fight and listened to a short speech from Legend as bracelets were handed out to monitor vital signs. They also blew up just in case you went insane. Lovely little function, definitely nothing to worry about.

Brutes, the physically strong capes, would go distract the Simurgh while the blasters, the ranged ones, would throw their projectiles at her whenever they got the chance. The rest were playing search and rescue, though everyone was going to cycle in and out of the field due to the Simurgh's psychic scream, which caused insanity. Yeah, that fight was going to be lovely. Taylor, of course, chose to be at the front line. Irisai was begrudgingly put into search and rescue since she couldn't fly. Poor girl. Taylor was able to use wind to keep herself aloft, though it was a little rocky. Good enough, I guessed.

When the false angel first descended I watched through Taylor's eyes as people touched their temples with groans, as though they had gotten a bad headache. I peered into Taylor's mind and saw how she herself had gotten a headache and was flowing aura through her skull. It wasn't helping much. The Simurgh, and every other cape on Bet, used science and dimensional bullshit to make their superpowers work. Aura couldn't stop things like psychic waves, not unless they were affinity based. It couldn't do much against sonic attacks or low-intensity lasers either. Psychic attacks were just one more weakness to add.

I quietly used mind affinity to fortify her, blunting the psychic scream that twisted her thoughts. I got a little pang of gratefulness from her. Huh, she wasn't being much of a bitch today. Maybe it was the Endbringer. Or maybe Irisai had gotten through to her at some point that I wasn't pure evil.

People flew off from the ground towards the woman and she stared dispassionately at them. Chunks tore off from buildings and flew at them. A few capes were hit and a voice chimed in Taylor's ear, stating a few injuries. She ignored the voice and threw ice at the Simurgh. A field of rubble was flying around the angel, as though in orbit, and most of the projectiles from Taylor or otherwise were deflected. The few that made it through shattered harmlessly against her skin.

The few icicles Taylor landed pierced about a centimeter into the Simurgh. They stayed for a moment before falling to earth. I sighed and shifted on my couch. No use stating my disappointment to Taylor. She was such a newbie to magic that it was hardly fair and nobody liked couch quarterbacks, but still, I was totally disappointed.