The metallic sound intensified, becoming a high-pitched whistle that echoed across the beach. Lyall and Elara saw the House Aerum reconnaissance aerostat hovering over the cove. Its fuselage bore the winged prism, the symbol of the Aéliths.
"Quickly!" Elara commanded. "They're dropping agents!"
Two figures dropped from the aerostat, landing with unnatural lightness on the sand. The first was a quick scout, his body surrounded by an aura of motion he was clearly using a selithe of aerone, mastering levitation. The second was heavier, his movements stiff, equipped with a selithe of pressa , signifying an active shield. House Aerum had clearly hired a mercenary from House Ferix for support.
Lyall clenched the selithe of Teral in his hand. He felt the nexium flux surge, wild, but he imposed the teral's inertia. He had to fight them not with chaos, but with cause.
The aeliths scout, light as a feather, lunged first, diving toward Lyall, confident in his speed.
Lyall did not move. The aerum agent was swooping in, relying on the aelithe of aerone to dodge at the last moment.
Lyall injected a wave of purified flux into the teral. He did not aim at the agent, but at the environment.
"Density!" Lyall whispered.
In a flash, the sand, shells, and debris around Lyall compressed, their mass increasing exponentially. A wall of inertia of dark, basalt-like matter sprang up between Lyall and the aerum Agent. The scout didn't have time to lighten further. He smashed against the wall, his body, though light, suffering the violence of the impact against the mass suddenly made immobile. He bounced off, the selithe of aerone momentarily discharged by the shock.
Lyall immediately felt the side effect: crushing bodily heaviness. His muscles were rigid, the price of mastering gravity.
Meanwhile, Elara rushed forward. She wasted no time fighting the stunned scout. She charged the Ferix agent, the most immediate danger.
The Ferix Agent activated his selithe of pressa and a yellow force field crackled around him. He swung his arm, a shockwave attempting to push Elara back.
Elara ducked under the wave and struck the voraks agent with her dagger. The pressa shield rejected the blade. The Ferix agent laughed, confident in the stability of his voraks crystal.
Lyall, fighting the heaviness, saw the opportunity. The selithe of pressa is designed to repel external forces, not to resist an alteration of the fundamental cause.
Lyall targeted the ferix agent. He injected the teral directly at the man's body, focusing the gravity element. He nullified his personal mass.
The ferix agent stopped laughing. He felt his body become, in the space of a second, ten times heavier. The pressa shield, still active, no longer protected against the mass. The agent collapsed heavily, his knees hitting the sand, the flux of his selithe of pressa overloaded and ineffective against this internal, elemental force. The stone went dark.
"Now!" Lyall shouted.
Elara struck. Without the shield, the dagger found the ferix agent's arm.
The aeliths scout recovered from his fall, furious. He activated the selithe of aerone and began to levitate, preparing a powerful aerial attack.
Lyall, shaking under the strain of heaviness, pointed the teral toward the house aerum aerostat, which was still hovering.
The aerostat was designed for lightness. Lyall injected all the flux he could muster to impose mass upon it. The effect was immediate and devastating. The ship, suddenly weighted down like a block of iron, slammed down a few meters. The shock disabled the controls, and the engine spewed black smoke.
The aeliths scout screamed, seeing his means of escape immobilized. Lyall had bought them time.
"We leave!" Elara said. She neutralized the scout by spiking the nexium reservoir on his armor.
Lyall collapsed. The victory was total, but the physical price was immense. Every muscle screamed its exhaustion; every movement was a crushing pain. Lyall had manipulated gravity; he was now a slave to his own.
Elara threw an arm over his shoulder and dragged him across the cove, toward the hills. They had proven that the Pyrélans were superior to the Aéliths in the war of the anchor. Their run toward the Lady of the Tide had just begun.