Tanisha was on alert but she had just regained her balance when the S-19 Shadowmaw appeared in front of her. The moment seemed to be frozen in time as her mind rushed for solutions. All she had time to do was raise her arms. If it thought she would be easy to kill it was wrong. Out of everyone on the team she was the most durable.
Her mind went back to the first technique she was taught by Joha. She remembered being in the merchant caravan and spending nights learning the power of maya, of breath. It was then that she started the path to power. A path she still walks to protect those she cares about. It was then she learned form three AgniKavach, the Flame Armor.
She had come a long way since her time with Joha, Helina, Owen, Wyatt, Calab and of course Sabec. It had been over two years since that first day in the field Joha showed her the power of this form. And she had trained, fought and bled to master everything she was taught. One thing she knew for a fact was that she was strong enough to survive.
She screamed not in pain but in defiance as the beam hit her. The world went white as her armor defences flared to their maximum. Her aura, her fighting style, her Chain Breakers Mantle everything came into play. When the armor was overloaded and protections failed, metal melting onto skin, she persisted, she stood. She roared louder.
What felt like an eternity was only a moment. Then she teleported under the shadowmaw, her bardiche in hand and glowing with power. The aetheric energy her aura stole turned the weapon into an instrument of divine retribution. No longer red with arcane lightning, or glowing with plasma, it was white gold with the fury of a Cernunnos on the cusp of becoming something greater.
The strike was decisive, the blade cutting a clean arc through whatever internals these machines had. The creature tried to jump. Only its front legs responded as its rear end went dead.
Fuyumi didn't let it get much further before her sword once again found the creature's neck. It didn't have time to react as it's head came cleanly.
Tanisha stored her armor into her inventory. The cuirass and helmet held strong but the gauntlets weren't so lucky.
She dropped to one knee as she took out three potions. One healing, one rejuvenation and one stamina. She dumped the contents of the rejuvenation potion over her body and it steamed with the heat. She then drank the other two.
There was a cracking sound in the distance as the fight between Aurelius and the S-17 continued. Fuyumi ran over to Tanisha.
"You good?" She asked.
"Go help him. I will be fine." Tanisha growled out.
Tanisha gritted her teeth against the pain as skin reformed. Her aura was still brilliant with the power of the aether her body was absorbing. After a few moments she stood. She wouldn't give herself more time, not while her friends were fighting. She summoned her armor again feeling the familiar weight as the hud flared back to life.
[Third Activation Initiated: Aether Draw 20 per/mins]
She rose to her feet, her eyes glowing with power as she ran to join them.
***
Another four days passed, dropping a skyscraper onto the S-17 damaged but didn't disable it. The wards were weak and over the course of that time they finally broke down. The days had been spent fighting, retreating, recovering and doing it all over again.
Tanisha was on the fourth iteration of her armor. This one had greater integration with her aura which meant she could absorb even more surrounding energy empowering not only herself but the armor in a new Fourth Activation which was temporary but impressive.
Fourth Activation
Channeling 50 Aether per minute activates the system overclock. This activation uses excessive ambient power to activate. Warning prolonged usage can cause internal system failures. This tier also replaces the previous bonuses with significantly increased attribute enhancements:
Attribute Enhancements:
Vitality: +14
Restoration: +17
Constitution: +70
Strength: + 44
Dexterity: +24
Stamina: +44
They were on the final stretch now. The S-17 was damaged, many of its weapons disabled all that was left was to finally end it. It really felt like a siege against a city but instead it was one machine. One machine that refused to die.
The underground city had once pulsed with life. Now, it was just bones, an iron graveyard. Towers like snapped spines of long-dead gods jutted from the cracked titanium earth, their gleam dulled by battles long fought.
She stood among the rubble, the Fourth Activation burning through her veins like lightning made flesh. Her armor harmonized with her aura. Power flowed into her from every direction. She could feel the energy humming through the air. Around her old machines dyed, aether scarred the skyline, heat lingering like breath after a scream.
Then came the explosion. It was blinding, violent, and too damn close.
She didn't flinch, she moved like someone that had trained for years for this very moment. The golden blast lit up the shattered skyline.
The S-17 Siegebreaker was no longer a machine of war. It was a wounded animal struggling before the kill. It dragged its ruined body through the streets like it hadn't been dismembered piece by piece over nearly two weeks. Four legs hissed with coolant and leaked aether.
Tanisha could feel the charge building before it fired its main cannon.
"It's getting ready to shoot again!" She yelled.
"Got it." Fuyumi said.
"Don't group together." Aurelius ordered. "Move."
The beam sliced through the battlefield like it was trying to cut the world in half. A skyscraper behind her split with a shriek. Concrete, steel, and glass collapsed in slow-motion ruin.
She didn't stop to breathe. She ran. Teleported. Slid under falling debris as the cannon seared past her. A hair slower, and she'd have been vapor.
Aurelius was gone in a Flash Step. He was too fast for Tanisha to keep track of but she saw the result of his speed. Aurelius's blade flashed, severing one of the behemoth's legs in a scream of metal and fire. Killing Intent screamed forth in the form of blood red primana.
Fuyumi's voice was calm but deadly as she cast. Ice spread from her hands like it had a mind of its own. She was on top of the S-17 her mana wrapping the primary barrel in a web of frost. It groaned as it sputtered and locked up. Vents hissed, energy bled from the machine like arterial spray.
Tanisha didn't wait for an opening. She was the opening.
[Fourth Activation: System Overclocked]
She was already airborne, descending like judgment. Her bardiche sparked in both hands, runes glowing white-hot across the head of the weapon. Plasma and lightning coiled around her in furious harmony. Every cell in her body screamed with force as the Fourth Activation pushed her beyond the redline.
She landed on top of the thing hard.
The impact exploded like thunder. The bardiche punched into its chassis, cut deep into the core, and discharged a god's worth of rage. Energy surged, melting through armor and igniting internal systems. She felt the S-17 stutter beneath her, limbs spasming, code unspooling in real time as its mind went dark.
The machine hissed once. Silence followed. The kind that hits after everything breaks. Smoke curled into the air, ash falling like fake snow. Sparks danced in the shadows, dim and dying.
Tanisha stood on top of the ruined Siegebreaker, chest heaving, armor scorched. The bardiche in her hand still thrummed with residual power. Her body ached, but her eyes stayed sharp.
Then there was movement, not from the Siegebreaker but in the distance. Her eyes snapped up. Then she felt it. In the Familiar Bond and in her soul. Her eyes widened as she saw the outline of a figure step from the rubble into view.
Bjorn.
There he was her familiar. Her baby. Her Big Man. Her Bjorn after two years apart. She stared down at him. Her thoughts scrambled to catch up with her racing heart.
He was bigger now… of course he was bigger. His scales were golden brown, claws large and dangerous. Two heads looked around but the other two were locked on to her. He had been alone longer than he'd known her. Part of her had feared he wouldn't be the same. That he had outgrown her. That the bond would feel… different.
However, with him right in front of her. With their emotions laid bare through the bond. What she felt wasn't the distance of someone that had grown apart. It was a relief that she was fine. It was tension, wrapped in love and longing. It was Bjorn as he had always been.
Her visor hissed open just enough to reveal her eyes. They still glowed with Seiðr, but were wide with something else.
"Bjorn," she said.
Not a question. Not even a statement. It was a prayer that this was real.