Just as the rain of molten rock began to batter Penny and Nolan, two enemies became three, and the trio vanished behind a projected energy barrier. At first it appeared that Trinity's Spiked Shell provided complete protection from Frenzy Plant's counterattack, but even as the seconds passed, signs of damage began to appear on her wall. That didn't matter so much to the team atop the aerial tower.
”Sir, looks like one more took the bait. We have the chance to knock Phoenix Wing from five to two in one shot!”Despite his face being hidden behind the mask, Zander's comrades could tell that he wasn't so certain.
”I disagree. Look. The firebird's heating up.” While Nolan destroyed a few of Owen's magic circles, apparently not concerned by the vast array of other ones positioned in a sphere around him and his friends, Penny was intensifying her fire.
”Owen, do you think you should spring the trap?”An annoyed sigh came from the southern fencer. He lowered his blade and replied,
”Nope. If I lay in now, she might melt all my swords. Better t'save my power for a li'l while.” At this, Frenzy Plant's Number Two nodded in approval. The enemies of Fiore's top-rate war guild could afford to waste their attacks, but no such frivolity could be exercised by soldiers manning the Howling Djinn's Keep. Not a single punch had been thrown and not a single spell had been cast between two opposing guilds yet; if all eyes were on Frenzy Plant, they needed everything they could get. Thinking about this irritated Zander. When would the other guilds turn on one another? His strategy banked on the eventuality that one guild would try to take advantage of another by stabbing it in the back as it went after his own guild. Perhaps, in performing such a grandiose act of self-assertion, the army of General Sanders had erred in making itself a target that everyone would team up to take down.
A worrying thought, he reflected as he watched more figures on the move down below.
Being in the air, the soldiers did not feel the tremor of earth, but they heard it, and before long they saw it as well. From the streets of Crocus two massive hands emerged, crumbling cobblestones and heedlessly knocking around whatever had been sitting there as they stretched into the sky to grab the Howling Djinn's Keep. Out of the five, none had an answer to this unique attack, and the tower shook as the two giant mitts latched on. On the bottom floor, Hyun sprang into action. One of the hand's thumbs had found a hold right next to the doorway, so she jumped out onto the limb of earth and pointed her flamberge downward.
”Mundane Surge!” A stream of white distortion surrounded the blade as she plunged it into the earth, and like a hypodermic needle injecting a tranquilizing serum into someone the weapon pumped nullification magic into the arm. Of course, the raw material didn't change at all, but Hyun's work removed Jake's magic from it to render it inert earth no longer under his control. Still, the hands did not budge. Their grip remained strong. Hyun clicked her tongue and made her way back into the tower before shouting up,
”We're stuck fast! Dmitri should use his backup plan!””Dear Hyun...do you lack imagination?”The eyebrows of the normally-stolid swordswoman shot up as she saw Indigo floating toward her. Until now, the sorceress had been practically locked in place, channeling her Whitesky Eye to keep the Howling Djinn's Keep aloft. Abandoning her post meant that the tower would soon drop—or, it would have to anyone else. Hyun knew that to change up the plan meant Indigo had come up with an idea, and she trusted her completely. Nevertheless, she was compelled to beg the question,
”What are you doing?”Indigo shrugged. Such a casual gesture seemed bizarre coming from a woman surrounded completely in wind, her eyes a brilliant off-white and the arcane symbol of a stormy eye on her forehead.
”If our noble opponents want to give me a rest by holding up my tower for me, who am I to say no?” Smiling cheekily, she shouted up the tower to the others,
”Don't attack the hands! This is my chance to even the odds.” As she said this, the sorceress held out her hand, and a book appeared in it. Instantly another Indigo appeared, this one dressed in brown. With the tome in hand, this clone began to summon more books, and in a matter of moments the bottom floor of the tower was cram-packed with Indigos, each sporting a different color and a unique tome. Hyun knew their names: Plum, the holder of
Nosgoth; Scarlet, the holder of
Defense of the Ancients, Vert, the holder of
Wolfenstein, Aqua, the holder of
Subnautica, and Ash, who held
A Tale of Two Songs rather than her usual
The Order. Unlike mindless fakes or throwaway clones, they gave off the eerie impression of alternate versions of Indigo rather than manufactured copies.
Each had a job to do. Scarlet, Aqua and Vert immediately began to climb the innards of the tower, making their way to the top to join Zander, Dmitri, and Owen. Ash seated herself against the wall, waving cheerily as Sepia sealed her in a protective layer of earth. As the cornerstone of the magic that allowed the doubles to exist, she needed to be protected. Plum, Hyun, and the true Indigo made their way outside the tower to take a look at the situation.
It wasn't good. Even though only a moment had passed, worrisome new developments were aplenty. A truly extravagant amount of miniature ash drills swarmed straight for the tower. Indigo pit a finger to her mouth, calmly thinking about the situation.
”I can see every single one of them,” she told Hyun frankly, as if admitting something.
”Since we're being held up, I expanded the Whitesky Eye and lessened its attack power. The atmosphere within a fifty foot radius of the tower is mine.” She waited for the drills to approach.
”I wonder...would we be able to combine our magics to create nullification storms? That's something to try out another day. For now, I'm going to whip up something wipe away the ashes. Please disable one of them.” The air surrounding her began to pick up.
”Hrah!”Instantly a tide of air crashed into the oncoming fusillade of ash drills. Lightning suffused the windstorm as well, its crackling energy messing with the cohesion of Nolan's many projectiles. With a final yell, Indigo caused the gale to explode outward. By her calculations, the enemy's attack should have been destroyed and left to sprinkle harmlessly on the city below, but she couldn't say for certain until the dust cleared. Behind the rushing storm came a single pinpoint of brilliant white—a Mundane Spark, headed straight for the trio of Penny, Nolan, and Trinity. It homed in on them, ready to indiscriminately strike the first magical signature it came across. That tiny mote of light came with a promise: one minute of total inability to use magic on whoever allowed their ethernano to come in contact with it first.
At that moment, however, Indigo's other comrades were also at work. Three on top of the tower had become seven, and each double raced to do her duty. Scarlet constructed six stone statues of pilgrims evenly spaced around the tower's edges. Each pilgrim's lantern contained a red crystal that would automatically shoot explosive bursts of red fire at enemies that got too close, just like turrets. Sapphire prepared her water magic to heal if necessary, but Vert opened her tome and underwent a hair-raising transfiguration into a werewolf, becoming a canine monster in ragged green robes with a mane of platinum-blonde hair. When she howled, waves of green magic surrounded Owen, Dmitri, and Zander, heightening their magical power.
”I feel...powerful! What a lucky turn of events that Mrs. Afina got to break away and summon her doubles so soon. Whaddya want gone first, commander?”Zander pointed his ruby arming sword straight down over the edge of the tower. Down below, but rising with decent speed, was a platform with three Dragon Fang wizards on it.
”We've got uninvited guests. Let's give them a warm welcome, and a stern reminder: we are not to be trifled with. In fact, let's make it plain to everyone. Cut loose.”Owen and Dmitri glanced at one another, knowing just what that phrase meant. The southerner grinned.
”Hell yeah! Cut Capers gonna give 'em what-for!” Penny's blazing light and Nolan's vast dark stared at them from across the sky, but Owen and Dmitri smiled.
”Don't matter if the rumors are true and they got Second Origins. We got somethin' they don't.”The pair each took a deep breath.
”Don't make it weird this time, bro,” Dmitri muttered as the two performed a bro-fist, then clasped hands. Owen looked at Dmitri as though he were crazy, but not for long. Magic began to flow through the two soldiers, evidenced by waves of silver and orange power flowing between them, and it coalesced into a single point between their palms. Together, they declared,
“We dedicate this victory to Xyster, the heart of our team. Unison Raid: Tectonic Blades!”They held out their hands. A massive, two-layer magical circle blossomed in front of them. It hung in the air, blazing with a steely, fiery sheen, for a moment before it exploded into thousands of shards. These shards shot straight down toward the earth, where the Dragon Fang wizards had placed themselves as they ascended. The little sparks, however, didn't do much, and mostly went past them into the ground. After the sparks buried themselves there, however, the ground began to shake. It suddenly cracked open, and from the seams a field of gargantuan sword blades sprouted at impossible speeds. Made of black, igneous rock and surrounded by fire, they rose to obliterate the Dragon Fang wizards from below. However, they did not stop there. More blades shot up like a wave traveling across the ground, erupting from the streets like titanic weeds. They attacked the Phoenix Wing fliers as well, and in their heedless path even threatened the grounded members of Dragon Fang, Phoenix Wing and other guilds', who could very well be caught in the firing line.
With the great fields of Tectonic Blades on the assault, Dmitri and Owen drew apart, and both collapsed, panting. Even with their boosted magical power, the drain of a Unison Raid combined with the effort exerted already meant that neither felt particularly good. All the same, Tectonic Blades was a Unison Raid attack with tremendous power and speed, enough to decimate the competition with a little luck. Zander observed them warily, then turned his eye back to the scene of destruction currently facing Phoenix Wing and Dragon Fang in particular. To weather this attack would be a ludicrous feat, but if they did, Frenzy Plant would be in a bad situation.
