Chapter Text
Harmony’s thin black blade of shadow sliced through the area Lindon had been standing in only a moment before. He was saved only by the last minute shout of Dross.
Okay, so that was a close one, try to disrupt his footing now.
Lindon shot a bar of blackflame at his attacker's feet, but Harmony dodged easily and brought his axe to bear, forcing Lindon to lurch backwards in order to keep his head attached to his body.
Okay, so that was a close one too. I just need a little more time to finish processing the Ghostwater. Try letting him hit you in ways that aren’t fatal for a bit and maybe that will delay our inevitable deaths a little longer.
Lindon didn’t think that was a good idea, but that opinion was irrelevant as Harmony’s fist sent him flying through a wall into a small side chamber and he found himself involuntary following Dross’s advice, landing in a tangle of shelves and strange objects.
Oh I know these things, this project was overseen by Northstrider himself. Artifacts carrying latent time authority. He hoped to slow relative time in order to give himself extra moments in which to formulate plans. It didn’t work like he thought, but I’m surprised the artifacts are still here. Oh look, Harmony is here too.
The Akura stood at the hole Lindon’s body had made, the disc of pure black framing his head from behind. He was preparing the thin blade of shadow that had split Renfei in half, and Lindon had nowhere to go, no room to maneuver in.
“Dross!” he shouted in his mind.
There! In his left pocket, a gatestone
Lindon’s moves were mapped out only half a moment before he made them, a blast of Dragon’s Breath to Harmony’s right and a Burning Cloak enforced kick to the rubble in front of him. Harmony dodged both gracefully, spinning out of the way of the striker technique, and batting the rubble away with his hand. But Dross’s model worked, and a single piece of rubble made it through, crushing the gatestone and sending Harmony vanishing away.
Whew, that was very difficult. On the brightside, I think I’ve finished processing the Ghostwater, so next time we fight him I am certain I’ll have a passable model of his fighting style.
“If there is a next time,” Lindon thought, staring at the gap in the wall and the mass of rapidly spreading spatial fractures separating them from Orthos and the exit.
Hmm… That is… less than ideal. We could… No that would never work. Maybe if we…? No that would just kill us faster.
Lindon just closed his eyes as Dross attempted to think their way out of this. More than anything else he regretted the waste. He had advanced so far in Ghostwater, it just didn’t seem fair for it to end here.
Dross was still running through ideas when the cracks reached Lindon and the damaged artifacts all around him.
The world flashed a blue so vibrant he could see it with his eyes closed, and then all went black, and Lindon opened his eyes to the roaring of a crowd and the purple and white banners of the Wei Clan.