Cimerus struck Talos in a blast of heat and wings. She yelled, her face flushing in a mix of bewilderment and pain. Her heels dug into the ground. The flames dancing on Cimerus's Embirite arms melted some of her armour on impact, releasing an acrid scent of burned flesh and charred metal.
Despite the agony she must be in, she pushed Cimerus back. Cimerus moved into to strike again, landing another blow on her burned arms. The flesh bubbled, showing blisters; the skin around them blackened. She swung her spear blindly. He released her temporarily before bouncing back in, long claws extended. He swiped at her weakened armour. Eyes watering, she stabbed at him, grazing him several times but doing little damage. Cimerus grinned, his blazing tongue flicking outwards. Another swing missed by miles; Talos almost dropped her weapon. Panic flashed across her face. Conjuring two fireballs on his hands, he swept in, propelling himself faster with burning wings. Talos's eyes flashed.
Cimerus screeched. Talos's spiralled spear appeared closer than he'd anticipated. He made to swerve, but his momentum carried him forward. The spear pierced him in the abdomen and emerged cleanly on the other side.
He thrashed, his wings flapping wildly. His whole body turned orange like fresh lava, but the silver spear stayed resolute. Dark blood ran along its edge and stained the ground, thick as tar.
His thin fingers turned white. The air surrounding his body swam. The heat that would have melted steel had no effect upon Talos's spear.
"This spear was built for extremes of conditions," said Talos in a soft voice. Her gaze was icy as the Frostite winter, beneath fine arched eyebrows. The panic that had lured Cimerus to attack was nowhere in sight. "No Frostite nor Embirite can break it."
Cimerus fumbled with the handle. His claws slipped off repeatedly. He hissed and threw himself left and right. That only resulted in agony searing up and down hi sbody.
Talos stepped back. Her arms still emitted smoke. Her dark eyes were unblinking.
"You can't shift, can you?" She tilted her head, a calculating expression on her face. "Not like this. Not with my spear through your guts."
Cimerus snarled. Something flashed by his head. Talos flinched. She lifted both hands to shield her face. A forcefield appeared at the last moment, taking the impact. Fire exploded against the forcefield, which shattered. Talos leapt backwards, pale.
With metal clanging at each step, Eildon, the fourth Sentinel, appeared behind Talos. Sweat ran down his face. He was unexpectedly breathless given how unharmed he appeared. He dropped his raised right arm.
"I'm your opponent, filthy Shifter!" he roared.
Piricca swept in, her giant form throwing the other three into shadows. Blazing eyes glared down at the Sentinels. She sucked in a breath.
The blast of steam made even Cimerus's aflame wings and body prickle. The heat caressed over his skin, the force of the explosion pushing him several steps backwards. Flames danced harmlessly across his body and then the ground, leaving scorch marks in its wake.
All nearby creatures vaporised.
Smoke climbed several storeys in the air. Cimerus drew several breaths of black smoke into his lungs of liquid lava. His claws scraped at the spear, managing at last to clamp onto the end, and pulled it out with a shriek.
Bright golden blood poured out of the open wound. Cimerus's head swam. He gritted his teeth and blocked out the pain. His body ached all over. As the familiar black leather skin replaced his flames and the wings melted into his spine, the pain dissipated. Life coursed through again, albeit more drained than before.
"Piricca, stop!"
The huge Dracona paused, another blast of fire at her lips. She looked almost disgusted before turning back into her Shifter form. He hadn't seen her true form in many moons, the long and slender limbs a stark contrast against her typical youthful human form. Cimerus picked up the Lyre spear and hurled it into the Dracona fire.
Piricca breathed heavily. Her arms barely concealed a tremor, try as she might.
"You'll kill all our troops at this rate, Piricca."
She grinned, saying nothing.
"Careless, Talos," grunted Eildon, coming into view. He shielded his eyes against the thick smoke. "Dracona flames—"
"The Shifter escaped," Talos said, furious. "I had him!"
"And I you, scum," said Piricca in a sweet voice. "Pity he interfered."
Talos glowered. One moment, she stood at least ten metres away beside the towering Eildon. The next, Piricca landed on her knees with a cry. Two spearheads lodged deep in each of her legs.
Cimerus shifted into a Spectre. Talos's movements came into clearer view. Her armoured body emitted an abnormal aura, almost separating her from her surroundings.
She barely twitched. Cimerus saw the spearheads tearing towards him. His limbs shot forward in a blink. The diamond tips connected with the metal ends. He swept them back at the two Sentinels. Talos barely dodged hers. Eildon, heavier, had to draw up a forcefield that shattered on impact. He grunted, his face screwing up.
Piricca whimpered on the ground. Cimerus didn't take his eyes off the Sentinels.
"Simple, but so effective against you and your many forms," said Talos, showing the spearheads sandwiched between her long fingers.
"You've been studying."
"Your kind aren't the only ones preparing for today," said Eildon. His deep voice reverberated beneath his helmet. He raised the heavy hammer in his hands. "The time for your undoing has come."
"Tell me." Cimerus cocked an eyebrow. "How did you get these fascinating additional abilities? I'm sure they aren't your own."
"You'll have to find out, mongrel," said Talos, accelerating towards him. Cimerus tracked her movements. Yes – there was a brief flicker with very step where she would briefly disappear from all senses, almost like she'd ceased existing. If he wasn't a Spectre, he wouldn't even know where she was until the moment she plunged something into his heart.
Talos's hands flashed to her waist where the rest of the spearheads were. Her arms disappeared.
Cimerus's arms extended, tearing through the air to where her weapons would be.
At the last moment, his arms glanced off a seemingly invisible surface.
Unfazed, he rammed his spare pair of arms at Talos again.
The forcefield in front of her shattered. Eildon cried out in the background. The grim focus on Talos's face disappeared. The deadly Spectre tips perforated her armour, ripping through her body. Her spearheads clattered to the ground.
A huge grin would have spread across Cimerus's face had he any facial features. Instead, his neck elongated and he closed the distance between his face and Talos's, enjoying her laboured, painful breathing on his cheeks. He raised her higher in the sky, making her legs dangle. She choked. Her arms and legs twitched. Blood seeped through the broken shards of her armour.
"H-how...?" she croaked.
"Did you really think you can even touch me with such a cheap imitation of my own ability?"
Behind Talos, Eildon clutched his head, his shoulders trembling.
Cimerus withdrew his limbs as he shifted back to his normal form. Talos's body began to fall – and then halted.
He turned her body around with his telekinesis, rotating her like some display ornament and admiring the puncture wounds between her shoulder blades, under the ribs, and into each flank. Blood oozed and dripped, pooling at the bottom of Cimerus's invisible forcefield and highlighting its spherical base.
Cimerus's hand trembled ever so lightly. Bright golden eyes met Talos's drained dark ones. The fiery colour had dulled. Her breathing was shallow, her limbs almost lifeless.
"I tell you this now, because you won't live to leak this," said Cimerus slowly, a smile growing on his face. "Lilitha isn't the only one with her gift. And—" His eyes narrowed. "—trying to use this laughable excuse of a forgery against me was your greatest mistake."
He closed his fist with a crushing grip. The bloodied forcefield constricted. Fear flitted across Talos's chalk-white face. Cimerus's forcefield pinned her arms and legs together. Blood rushed to her head, paradoxically reviving her for a moment.
Her armour rattled, barely withstanding the spressure. Talos whimpered. Cracks spread all over her body.
With a sickening crunch, the forcefield snapped to a tiny ball of crimson and then disappeared. Talos's pulverised remains showered onto the ground.
"I would have thought that armour would be more durable since you did acquire it via the Artefact." Cimerus raised an eyebrow at Eildon, who raised his hammer in front of him in response. But even his macho stance couldn't fool Cimerus. "I suppose my mistake was forgetting how weak your kind were – and still is."
Talos's leftover, bloodied spearheads lifted from the floor.
Cimerus licked his teeth with a forked tongue, grinning from ear to ear. "Let's see this imitation go against the original."
Lining in a perfect formation, the gleaming weapons pointed at Eildon. The Sentinel took a step forward and swung. His heavy hammer connected against the closest ones and slammed them to the ground, sending a shudder through the earth. He left an indent; the heads lay bent out of shape amidst the dirt. He tugged, breathless.
The remaining airborne ones whizzed past him. Under Cimerus's influence, they changed trajectory.
Unable to lift the hammer up in time for another smash, Eildon flung an arm out. Two spearheads bounced off the forcefield, which then shattered again. He grunted, his gauntlet-covered hand clutching his head, his other dropping the hammer. The spearheads bounced off his metal armour, leaving several cracks behind.
"Hurts, does it not?" said Cimerus in a pleasant voice. "Where are the other Lyre weapons you stole?"
Eildon grabbed the hammer handle again, fighting off tremors.
"Come, now. You can only catch us out once. Where are your other toys?"
The chaos around them wore thin. It was as if the soldiers could feel the powers emanating from the Shifter generals and Sentinel Lords and stayed away.
Eildon roared. With renewed strength, he raised the hammer and sent it into the ground with a smash.
Piricca reverted to her normal form and healed in time. In a blink, she took to the air as a Fae of the Greens. A shudder rumbled the Earth. Cimerus threw out a forcefield. The shockwaves rammed repeatedly against his shield. His smile dropped. He grimaced in concentration. Around him, creatures in a ten metre radius fell, screaming and clutching their skulls.
Piricca disappeared in a puff of dust. Cimerus smirked. The battle was taking its toll, but no doubt she wanted to finish things with Kerela.
The air resonated with the shockwaves from the Lyre hammer. Panting, Eildon dropped it and took off his helmet. Sweat poured off his tanned face. Murderous grey eyes glared at Cimerus. Blood trickled from his ears.
Cimerus straightened. His ears still rang from the attack.
"Let me give you a tip, Sentinel. Your friend may have managed to create this forgery of abilities, but it's too early for you to use alone in practice, let alone in combat."
Eildon collapsed onto one knee. His eyes jerked from left to right rhythmically. He groaned.
"You see, forcefields drain energy. You made that first mistake with being so arrogantly flamboyant with your use."
Cimerus picked up the Lyre hammer. A dull tone resonated within its core. How interesting.
He passed it to his dominant left hand. The vibrations resonated to his bones; the insides of his ears burned. He dropped it. The burning ceased. A double-ended blade. Its permanent pulsations were so strong that it damaged the user's nervous system.
"Are you surprised by how much it wore you out?"
Eildon started to vomit. Blood trickled out of his nostrils.
"I must admit, wielding that for so long was impressive. Either you actually used my ability well or you were excellent at hiding the damage it had done." Cimerus winced, the last of the ringing in his ear dissipated. Eildon was on all fours by this point. Cimerus raised a hand. An abandoned spear rose from the ground.
Fear shot across Eildon's face.
Just as Cimerus made to throw the spear, a movement caught his eye.
He leapt backwards.
His spear went far off-course.
Arrows embedded at the spot where he was a mere split second earlier. He danced backwards, never staying in the same spot for more than half a second. The arrows followed but half a step behind. Each crackled with electricity. Two skimmed past his left arm, sending pain and paraesthesia tearing down to the tips of his fingers.
Cimerus skidded to a halt with a coy smile.
"I didn't think I'd see you wield Moorin's weapons, Kerela."
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