After the first watery tentacle shot into the sky, countless others joined it. Saint Vorn's transformation allowed him to make limbs that looked like waves of the sea but still gripped with all of his Transcendent strength.
Coupled with some strange power that his son possessed, the Saint had traveled from the wet, smoldering wreckage of the safe house to directly below Noble in a blink. It had taken everything in Noble to get the group clear of the first attack.
As more columns of water filled the sky, Child of Promise struggled to keep everyone out of harm's way. She summoned her sword as she looked around for a clear path.
'Which way is Valor's mansion again?'
Noble didn't make a habit of flying over the NQSC, and with the smoke and altered view, she was completely lost. Add to that the attack by the possessed Saint from below, and Noble was at her limit.
To Noble's right, a long arm of water wrapped around Ralia, and she let out a stifled scream. Flying on its own, the Zenith sliced through the arm of water with killing intent. The water parted before the sharp blade, and the end lost its form and rained down on the world below. Ralia gasped and sputtered, but seemed otherwise unharmed.
Noble was relieved to see the strange half-solid-half-liquid appendage did not have a mind of its own. That would have been extra problematic. Having a sea monster chasing them through the streets of the NQSC was bad enough. If Vorn had been able to make minions of his watery extensions, they would have been in serious trouble.
The next assault missed Rhode's torso, but managed to take hold of her ankle. Without a thought to himself, Naeve turned upside down in the air and ripped apart the tentacle with his bare hands.
Already, weapons were forming in all of the Awakends' hands, but the mundane humans had no way to defend themselves. As the barrage continued from below, Noble knew something had to change.
She didn't dare lift Saint Vorn or his compatriots from the ground. If Mordret was like Skinwalker in possessing bodies, then he could also possess other similar qualities. If that were the case, then any attempt by Noble to connect with him could easily backfire.
'I'm not taking that chance, but I do need to do something.'
Being in the air was no longer safe, but neither was the path to the ground. Noble needed to clear the way, or at least break the momentum of the attackers.
This wasn't the first time she had been chased by an enemy from the ground. Since the limbs could be broken by the blades, they just needed a way to cut them over a wider area, or at the very least, contain tentacles long enough for the members of the House of Night to reach the ground.
'A net!' Noble's eyes opened wider.
"Aether! A net of starlight!"
She didn't have a good way to contain the mass of limbs, but she knew someone who did.
The polite Saint raised his eyebrows, but nodded. He turned just in time for Noble to send him to the back of the group. Ather's body began to glow with an incandescent light.
Strings of starlight wove across the sky in the daylight, knitting together behind the company of fleeing fugitives. While not as strong as it would have been in the night, the Saint put all his power into making the mighty tapestry.
The net spread far and wide, ripping through some of the watery appendages and trapping others. The net of starlight sailed to the ground, encompassing Saint Vorn and his son and momentarily pinning them to the ground. A second net followed the first, flying from Naeve's hand as he tossed the Memory to reinforce his clansman's trap.
The two vessels of Mordret struggled against the restraints. In barely two heartbeats, Vorn found the edge of the enclosure and flung the Memory aside as he tore through the fading beams of Aether's starlight.
But that respite was just enough for Noble to set the group down in the middle of a luxurious park. There were no people other than them in the entire square, giving the spot an eerie, lonesome feel.
'The evacuation notice was taken seriously.' Noble could feel that there were very few people inside the buildings, and those that were seemed to be hunkering down in specially designed bunkers.
Touching the ground, Neave gathered his wife and daughter up in a hug. He had come too close to losing them.
However, they weren't in the clear yet.
"There will be time for that later!" Noble urged. "I don't know the way to Clan Valor, and the sky isn't safe!"
Already new columns of water were forming in the air behind them.
At least on the ground, the survivors were below the dense smoke. And now that they regained their footing, people were once again able to control their own bodies.
"I know where we are. This way!" Naeve motioned for the group to follow him.
Noble nudged them with a sense of urgency, pulling them from the fear and uncertainty of everything going on around them.
"Go!" Dawn called, taking Rhode's hand and bolting after her husband.
At the back of the group, the young boy whom Aether had saved tripped and fell.
"Mom!"
Hearing the boy's cry, Noble doubled back and flew over the group. "Keep going, I'll get him!"
Noble scooped him up in her arms, only to nearly bump heads with Aether, who was doing the same.
"Forgive me," he blurted, though his eyes betrayed his own frustration at being second.
"I've got him," Noble assured him with a smile.
Aether's brow unfurrowed. "You rescued us, but you don't have to stay."
However, the floating woman shook her head as she cradled the child.
"It's only polite to finish what I start. I am only done when you are somewhere safe."
Aether studied her for a moment before a torrent of water exploded in the street behind them.
"I'll hold them back. You get going, please!" Aether turned, already forming another net out of strings of starlight.
Clutching the boy, Noble took off after the rest of the group.
"Mom!" The boy called out as they floated closer.
"I'll take him," the Awakened man beside the tall, thin mother offered with outstretched arms.
The boy accepted the embrace, and Noble left to catch up to the front of the group.
Naeve seemed to know where he was going as he left the park and turned up the wide, empty street.
A crash sounded behind them as Vorn broke free of Aether's confinement even faster than before.
Noble checked to make sure Aether had escaped the attack. And was glad to find he was catching up to the group.
Unfortunately, so was the pair of possessed Mordret vessels.
'Faster!' Noble stopped one of the limbs racing toward them by levitating an uprooted tree from the park. The collision caused a building to collapse, sending rubble to block the street between the fugitives and their pursuers.
It wasn't much of a barrier, but it could be just enough time to…
At that moment, a flash of sun rebounded into the street as a figure appeared from thin air.
It was Neris. The third vessel was blocking their path.