Shawn motioo Garrett as a torrent of fire almost singed him, but the foe was still being held back by the partially ied barricade. Barely.

  “Shawn, take a few! Pull the tch, it’s a four-sed fuse!” Garrett tossed him the metal-cased explosives that looked like something out of a cartoon, with a simple wire fuse. “He’ll burn the explosive prematurely!”

  “Not if I do this!” He focused on the proliferating hoar frost climbing up along his cws, and he gripped the munition tightly. A shell of hardened ice started to emerge, rapidly f fractal patterns and eng the metal in ice, growing thicker and stronger. He didn’t know how cold the ice was, but he hoped it would be enough to protect the munition long enough to keep from prematurely detonating. With his other hand, he pulled the fuse, while depressing the safety. “Garrett, cover fire!”

  He followed up with an instant volley of rapid fire, with Regia and one of the irregurs firing in tandem. He saw the rounds seemingly melt, and the new foe ughed mogly.

  “Your efforts are futile–”

  But Shawn had already removed his hand from the safety, hoping he wasn’t cooking this munition too long in his hand. They o get out of this pce alive, which meant taking risks.

  He tossed the ice-coated munition straight at that leering grin on the foe’s beak, whose eyes widened as the munition refused to melt fast enough, and Shawn heard a click before he dove to cover. The thunderous detonation of metal shards was also apanied by a hail of razor sharp ice shards that dug into their cover, and he gnced warily at an ice shard that had pierced partway through Garrett’s cover, aared nervously at the icicle.

  “Damn, that’s impressive.” They both dared to peek to see what remained of their foe, but the coating of ice had turhe room into a steamy mess. At least it had partially extinguished the fmes threatening to overtake the hallway. Shawn caught no sight of his foe, nothing but a scorched spot where the explosive had detonated, close to the floor.

  “Did we get him?!” He wasted no time in reloading, hearing screams distantly.

  “Fall back to the cover position! Minks, Harvak, oform, now!” Garrett barked out orders, and everyoook their cue, with Regia tapping Shawn on the shoulder, trying to get his attention.

  “Shawn, hold my hand, I’m gonna try something!” He held onto her cwed hand without hesitation, and she extended her free arm, eyes narrowed as water coalesced. The billowing steam seemingly trailing to her hand, f an increasingly rge orb of water, shimmering and h in front of her. It started as the size of a chi egg, then a baseball, then grew expoially rger. Her hand was trembling–she ulling an awful lot of effort, and her beak rattled uhe strain. “Focus on using your ice, use it oer!”

  “Trying!” He mentally mapped out that feeling of hoar frost, and he could feel the chill of unrealized power creep along his arm, draining the warmth from it, and frosty traces coated the feathers ia’s arm. It felt like his mind ressure pump–all that energy needed was dire, and an outlet while it circuted through his body, brimming with unrealized potential. He could feel a spark of a e where he held Regia’s cwed hand. She held steady as that icy fractal crept along her body, coating her feathers in rime frost, and then jumped the gap to the globule of water, now the size of a humanoid being.

  It was taking everything he had to focus on, direg the ice rapidly crystallizing into a sizable mass. He could feel the tendrils of energy take purchase on the charged water, chilling it in a flowing mass of ice that ed and whirled, f an animated icy ball that spun. She eased out of cover, as did he, and he saw their foe staggering to their feet, fire reigniting in their hands.

  The avian monster was shredded with metal fragments and ice that gave way to steam as his whole body became an inferno, and he screamed in rage as his wounds seemingly cauterized. He poi them acgly. “You will fall before the will of Revarik, is–”

  “Let’s just press ‘A’ to skip the monologue,” Shawn quipped, and he felt the energy peak in his body, while Regia shuddered uhe bined power.

  “Gdly.”

  She fired off a stream of ice shards, super chilled to the brink of absolute zero, and perforated the foe with needle-sharp icicles. He could only melt so many of them before one found purchase in his fiery flesh–then two, then five, and then a final round pierced his throat, and he gurgled. Shawn barely saw it as his vision darkened–he was using too muergy, he could feel the strength leaving his body.

  “Regia, I’m almost tapped,” he gasped. She kept her aim for a fra of a sed longer before sending out a bst of ice like a frozen shotgun round, coating that opening with ice that ehe entryway.

  Shawn colpsed to his knees, with Garrett screaming about falling back. Regia grabbed him and slung his arm around her shoulder, and he mao stumble to the ptform, whirling with energy in a note rapidly approag a cresdo.

  He wheezed, barely able to stand, and saw Cire binding the injury on her leg, suppressing a scream of pain by biting on her shirt sleeve. Telga was tapping in ands on a metal sole, small lights winking in the air and unig unknown i. Garrett fell back to the ptform before smming a bulkhead door closed, and barrig it with a heavy et. He then leaped onto the ptform, kneeling and shaking Shawn to get his attention.

  “Regia, he’s almost burnt out! That was a dangerous move!” Garrett opened a small gss vial, and Shaed, taking it from his hand. “Drink that and try not to vomit!”

  “I’ll try not to,” he gasped. He licked his tongue inside his beak, and after a sed of p just how he was supposed to do this, Regia tipped it back, holding his hand steady. He recoiled not from the taste, but the feeling like he’d just swallowed battery acid, and he nearly retched. But by force of will, he held down the vile liquid, which felt like it was burning his esophagus in the process.

  “Regia, what the hell was–” Cire was sweating, but had done a proper triage on her leg, which was no longer bleeding.

  “That was aeria potion. He used too much, we use these to restore the ba also tastes awful,” Regia expined. He wasn’t ined to disagree, and tossed the empty vial aside, taking a deep breath. He gazed at her warily.

  “What…what was that thing we just did?”

  “Spliced gestalt. Nice work, by the way!” she beamed. “That feathered fiend had that ing, and there’s no way he survived that.”

  “Don’t jinx it.” He pulled himself unsteadily to his feet, feeling woozy, and gnced down at a deep cut on his arm. Cire tossed him the strip of bandages, and he hastily ed it tight over the injury and tied it off. “So, uh, spliced gestalts. Does it always involve holding hands?”

  “Only for ohat require a special e,” Regia quipped. He put up a cwed finger, sputtered, then chose to say nothing. She kept on smirking. “Don’t read too muto it.”

  “Too te.” He let out a shaky breath, and elga had ed up at the sole, corralling everyoo the ptform. “How long?!”

  “Thirty seds. Everyoays oform!” she called out, and everyoightened up–about twenty-five brave souls, themselves included. Some were g. Others held them to assure them it was going to be alright. Shawn fiopping off his ammo tube, and Garrett gave him a cursory iion.

  “Yeah, you look better. Those potions work fast.” He quickly turned his gaze to the door, where there was a banging noise, aal bug inward. “Oh, these guys just don’t quit. There is no reasoning with these zealots.”

  “Yeah, that seemed pretty obvious.” Shawn still felt awful all over, and Halsey sent him a message.

  Don’t push yourself like that! That was dangerous, for your level of experience.

  Tell me something I don’t know. He tensed as he felt that electric charge building in his hand, and he flexed his fingers, keeping his grip steady on the rifle with his other hand. “Ah, man, this gestalt is ag up.” Those golden sparks kept emerging, and his fingers felt all prickly, like he’d pinched a nerve.

  That was when his danger sense kicked in. The door buckled inward, the metal bulkhead framework melting and boiling away–fragments burst outward, and he reacted in an instant, eling energy to his arms and releasing it with a mental snap and focused on that electrical buzz.

  Whatever this new ability was, he was hoping it was something useful! He kept all his focus as a glow of yellow light formed, ever so briefly, like a protective shield, and deflected the white-hments from the now-destroyed door. He blinked, and that translut barrier around him burst into sparks.

  Oh. That looks like a force barrier. A rather unusual one–

  Halsey, we have a big problem. He gazed forward, a a cold tingle down his spine as he spotted that seemingly unkilble foe again. They had survived two lethal rounds of attacks, bleeding from numerous wounds. Fmes weakly flickering off his red feathers, now stained with blood. A smoky visage surrounded him, shifting and shimmering like a cloud with a life of its own.

  A smoke cloud with eyes that were locked in focus ohered survivors.

  “You ’t run Telga,” the specter called out in a mog to it was from the beak of the dying foe, not the ghost-like being that slowly formed inthly Aveeran shape, and it pointed a half-formed cw at Shawn. Telga’s eyes were wideerrified of the specter before them, and her wings shaking untrolbly.

  Shawn fired a rifle round at the specter to get his attention, and cycled a new round in. The smoky figure reformed in a sed, and gred at him. “I pest.”

  “Aiming to please, you murderous psycho.” He drew aim on that staggered Aveeran, still dripping blood. “What’s this, a ‘kill them ohey e back strestalt?”

  “You look new, fledgling, I don’t reize you. I feel the power of the Etteria freshly boo you, feeble as it is.” That g, mockery of a voice grated on his ears oozed fidence.

  Shawn locked eyes with the apparition, which barely registered in his top ten craziest things he’d witnessed in the past couple of hours. All the fatigue in his body dried up, adrenaline supplementing him for just a few seds longer, as the ptform charge built to a peak. “It’s rude to crash a party without introdug yourself. Who are you?”

  The specter ughed, and that future corpse of a man staggered, riddled with wounds too fatal for him to heal from. It was like he was being used like a meaty marioe doll, the limbs responding with jerky motions, the way the eyes rolled back. Even that wound in his throat had yet to catch up to him. Blood seeped from his throat and beak, and the specter tio speak through the wounded man.

  “I’m the rightful ruler of this world. Telga is a fading memory, even as she tried to spread enlighteo the teitis.”

  Shawn gnced out of the er of his eye to see her golden eyes widened, her beak slightly agape, and her limbs trembling. The specter tinued, bright red eyes arched in delight. “Thank you for paving the way for me, dear sister. I just wao say goodbye. I owe such a formality to a beloved family member.”

  “Go to the chasms, Revarik,” she stated, beak chatting lightly, but her eyes alight with fury. “You are no brother of mine.”

  “You ’t ge me being your brother, any more than you ge the stars in the ic traverse.” Shawhat twitch of energy in his arm again, golden sparks emerging as if signaling him on something.

  Halsey, why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?!

  Because it is! I think he’s building up for a pyrrhic bst, you might be able to deflect it!

  With what? The power of determination? He was going to die right here, he k in his hollow bones.

  That energy barrier that arking from your hands, Focus every bit of everything you've got in your core, or we’re not going to live through this!

  While this frantic discussion occurred inside his head in the span of about a sed, his foe was now glowing molten. The specter of Revarik ughed and gave them a dismissive wave. “You’ve done well, my disciple. Finish the job.”

  Everyo standing fired a estalt at the foe, riddled with injuries. But they did nothing to stop his body fr white, as the charge of the ptform reached a peak. There were only a handful of seds left…infioo long a time.

  Shawn dropped the rifle and focused on that spark of energy running through his veins, direg it in the same way he’d done so before, but bigger, straining to el that power from his core, down his limbs. , please, please, PLEASE hold this back!

  Golden motes coalesced and formed into impossibly this of etched hexagons of energy, f an arc around the survivors. The impossible heat that had been building, leaving him feeling sunburnt, now felt muted.

  It came without a sed to spare.

  The dying Aveeraed in a bst of white-hot fmes that bounced off the barrier, iing everything in their path, and burning a hole through the orbital ptform. He staggered from the impact, cws digging into the smooth stone in narrow trenches, and bia and Garrett braced to keep him upright. The fiery moook out a k of the ptform, just as the charge peaked around them, golden light surrounding them.

  He squinted past the intense gre–then bess swallowed the light. The white fme gave way to the green-blue nebu, and the pale stars of the os–the eructure around them had been ripped apart. The horizon of one of the massive, floating tis was beh them.

  He felt the bottom of his stomach drop, as what was left of the ptform fell out of orbit, in free fall. He saw a few humans and Aveerans that had tumbled to the fragmented edge of destru, ging on for dear life, just ihe teleportation circle.

  He g Cire, screaming out of fear. Telga, head hung in resignatiia and Garrett, gripped each other for dear life as if they khis was the end.

  The ptform sang a high-pitched note, and his world turned white.

  We’re not do, Shawn. We have moo fight.

  Revarik's zealot. He scary. (Also stay tuned, another annou)

  Spoiler

  [colpse] AnnouAlright guys, that's the ! The premiere week is plete, but for those of you who hate the fact that I threw our heroes off an orbital cliff and don't want to wait until Monday, I've got great news:

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