A/N: Enjoy the chap! Faster release rates to follow for sure! I also released an original on WN called "Last Hero of the Academy" If you're into my action scenes and world-building, with a pseudo-system, you might find it interesting so check it out!!! Or don't, your choice. (I am holding you at gunpoint).
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The ground shook.
A ring of light shimmered above the conflux, its glow radiating outwards. Space warped and frayed like a poorly knit scarf. Hundreds of lattices gleamed like molten glass, shearing open the fabric of reality.
One by one, Minotaurs stepped through the grids and thudded onto the stone till hundreds of them filled the tunnels in front of the conflux.
Void and Elsie found themselves surrounded.
Obsidian's eye flared hard. "City just issued a planetwide evac order. Spatial distortion off the charts." He paused. "Priority. Immediate."
Void drew his blade the rest of the way, and lightning climbed his arms. "I guess there are still others on Venus aside from us," he said.
Elsie stood at his shoulder and watched the army arrange itself. "Which means we hold the line here," she said. "Anyone close will probably respond within a few minutes. We'll need to hold them back."
"We don't have enough space to move around. Fight smart." He set his feet.
The Minotaurs came.
Ten Minotaurs ran straight for Void, shoulders down, frames shuddering with weight. The rest encircled them both and held their position with raised cannons. The cannons pulsed and gathered energy for a shot as Void stared them down.
Lightning arced in his eyes.
Void rushed forward, and all the cannons fired.
Facing a squall of lasers and ten hunkering Minotaurs, Void raced and slid to dodge their tackles, lightning hissing underfoot, his cloak snapping as he flickered like a bullet, the sheer speed of his movement allowing him to slide on the rugged cavern floor.
Two smoke bombs slipped from his fingers and rolled to the floor. Void danced around the lasers, his figure weaving around the beams with lethal precision.
A beam struck his chest and knocked him back a step. His armour singed, another hit across his shoulder, Void faltered. He was hit once more, again and again and again, till his armour was riddled with burns. The cannons fired at him relentlessly as he struggled to dodge. Void jerked back, spotting a charging Minotaur. He dropped to his knee, ducking under a wild punch as he leaned in. His blade dragged a thin scoring across its ribs.
The line sparked, splitting it into two halves.
Elsie glanced at her watch as she saw the hailstorm of lasers blasting at them from every angle. She took a sharp breath and turned the dial.
Time grit its teeth.
The lasers froze, pulsing as they hung around them in mid-air.
Elsie turned the crown back with two fingers, and the air snapped. Every shot slinging back the way it had come, akin to a spring uncoiling.
The Minotaurs staggered as their own attacks struck them; their shields thumped through the endless barrage that kept being reflected.
Void's eyes gleamed.
[Time's Tempo activated!]
He saw it all happen. The lasers, inches away from him, reeled back towards the cannons. As the ripple in time faded away, Void heaved a breath, and it all seemed to resume.
"Couldn't you have done that earlier!" He barked and dusted off the laser marks. Void grabbed his sword and took a stance.
A Minaotur sauntered, warping forward with a punch that aimed at his head. Void ducked under the fist and came up inside the guard, punching a palmful of Arc into its chest. He flickered and slid back, raising his sword. The shock rattled the Minotaur. But a second Minotaur had already warped in on his blind side.
«Behind you!»
Void spun and barely slid under its shot, as he cut off its leg with one swipe.
«Stop training and kill,» Zamyr cut in, voice cold and close. «This is not the time to play with limits. Use me.»
"Can't you see I'm busy right now? Shut up and watch!" Void said with a smirk. He turned his sword and used the reflections to spot the other Minotaurs. Void kept his eyes on the enemy. With the distance Elsie had created using her rewind, he had enough ground to finally move.
Lightning roared.
Void ran along the walls like a speeding blue bolt, circling behind the Minotaurs with ease. He jumped. Lunging towards their formation with an overhead strike, Void slammed down his sword, channelling his light to create an electric charge that spread through the machines, locking them in place.
Elsie had already caught on.
She pulled the trigger. A barrage of bullets rained on the formation. She pulled again, her shots curved out and then came back again, endlessly ricocheting. Elsie dialled her watch one tick, then another. The bullets that had missed earlier spun back and hit the Minotaurs they had only grazed a second ago.
Minotaurs began warping from one spot to the next, making them impossible to target while they used every chance they got to strike. The battle was utter chaos.
All Void could do was run, darting around looking for a single opening. The moment a Minotaur appeared, he would cut low at the ankles and stab through their joints to disable them.
"Need some help here!" Void called out, frantically blocking three Minotaurs at once.
"I know." She clicked her tongue and shifted stance. Her cloak snapped flat around her legs. The watch on her wrist dialled back once more. The world paused, chains slithered in from tears in the fabric of reality and wrapped around the limbs of the Vex, slowing them down.
Void darted, sliding into a stance. With a quick step forward, he deftly cleaved the torsos of five Minotaurs with a clean cut. Void rolled over as a Minotaur hunkered with a slow punch to catch him off guard. As it missed, it immediately used its cannon.
Facing its cannon, Void felt the heat of the charging laser radiate across his face. He slid left and let the shot drill through the air, barely grazing his hood.
Elsie stepped up and fired past his ear. The round struck the Minotaur's shield, rebounded off the walls, and tore through the same Minotaur's core. It lurched and slumped down.
Void pivoted. His legs burned as he flickered back, barely taking a punch on armour that seemed to hurl him to the side.
Then his senses snapped.
A deep violet light bloomed in a tunnel mouth to their right. It was fast and heavy. The air pulled toward it like a tide, and the stones shook.
"Brace!" Void pulled his arms over his head.
Elsie's eyes widened, she grabbed her rifle and jumped into a corner. Minotaurs tracked the same light and raised their shields to the max.
The violet light drilled through the tunnels like a burning comet, unstoppable and unescapable.
Void set his feet.
Even the Vex in sight braced as if that would matter.
-
A Novabomb hit the tunnels and erupted.
A seismic ripple tore through the ground, splitting ledges and throwing the Minotaurs back into each other. Shields flared and screamed. Void and Elsie skidded, boots carving white arcs through clay before they steadied. Dust rose in a single wide sheet and hung there with nowhere to escape.
A breath passed.
Void's arms lowered, sizzling with a decaying light. His stance loosened, a chill ran down his spine, his eyes instantly snapped to the tunnel entrance, and he hastily raised his arms again.
"Son of a-"
A second nova bomb hit the tunnels.
The blast punched the first shockwave flat and then layered another on top. The floor pitched. Ribs of rock cracked. Minotaurs went heel over heads, as they slammed into the wall.
Through the chaos, two warlocks flew into the tunnel, robes fluttering in the hot air.
The human warlock whooped, voice bright and uncut. "Look at them. Look at that conflux." She laughed, breathless and a little wild. "We found a goddamn nest. We really did."
The exo flicked her wrist, and the dust funnelled back out of the mouth.
She dropped to her feet and glanced around, spotting Void and Elsie bracing their backs against the wall. Her helm angled once, sharp. "Apologies for the fireworks, thought you guys were in trouble."
Void nodded and slowly dusted himself off, "All good, appreciate the help." He glanced at the two warlocks, his eyes turned a pale blue.
[Taeko-3]
[Gallida Tuyet]
Their names flashed over their status, and Void took note, but he couldn't recall where he'd seen those names before.
He walked towards the centre and yanked his sword out of the ground to unsheathe it.
"You." Taeko-3 looked at the sword and paused.
"You're, Ghost sword!" She exclaimed.
"That I am." Void smiled, "You?"
"Taeko-3," She announced, "We were just poking our nose through the Vex forces here on the surface."
"This Conflux is ANCIENT!" Gallida roared while examining the conflux "Like super ancient. This must be no, this has to be, the core vault on Venus."
"And that's Gallida." Taeko-3 sighed. Her gaze slipped to Elsie. "You?"
"She's...a friend, a bit shy though." Void chimed in.
Elsie gave the smallest of nods and turned her rifle to the lanes.
"Huh. Well, nice meeting you." Taeko's hands lifted. Light pooled in her palms and rolled down her forearms like ink that had decided to burn. Her eyes snapped to Gallida, "Can you stop drooling over that and actually help out?"
The Minotaurs that were toppled were immediately bound by tendrils of light.
Gallida laughed again, not unkind. "Fine. Relax."
She traced a circle in the air and speared it with a finger. Lances of light fell through it like rain called by a drum. Shields buckled under the rhythm. With the Minotaurs bound, there was no way for them to dodge.
Gallida snapped her fingers; the lances stopped. Instead, the circlet of light slammed down and pulled everything towards itself. With a flick of her hand, spikes of light pierced upwards from the circlet and drilled through the Minotaur cores.
A spark broke out, and the cores pulsed, ready to erupt.
Taeko clasped her hands, and a well of light bloomed underneath the quivering mess of radiolaria. Everything slowed to a halt as the light began to eat away at it, breaking it down one piece at a time.
"You guys have got some real skill doing all that." Void nodded, impressed.
"Us?" Gallida laughed with a sigh, "Nah, you deal with Vex your whole life, you kinda get around knowing the best way to put them down."
"She's right. Don't think anyone's hunted more of these than us." Taeko cut in.
"With that said, I didn't know you were into Vex." Gallida shot Void a perplexed look. "I thought you were all about the Hive and their weird spells. But I guess you've got taste." She gave him a nod of approval.
Void raised a brow and looked to Taeko, but the Exo's slow blink and sigh told him it was best to ignore whatever he had just heard.