As Draumur vanished into the blizzard, Tay called out to everyone. “Hands!”

Quickly, the group all linked hands.

“Where is he?” Tay asked, using her mythos to obtain the answer and pass it on to her allies.

A bright outline appeared just in front of Tay. Draumur emerged from the blizzard, having dive-bombed out of the sky toward Tay, claws outstretched. Before Draumur could eviscerate Tay, Ada intercepted the attack, knocking Tay to the ground in the process.

As his claws scraped across Ada’s shield, Draumur planted his feet on the ground. His wings and claws vanished, and his eyes began to emit a sickly pale yellow light. Ada felt her feet become frozen in place and glanced to see them begin to turn to stone.

Then suddenly, the stone fell apart, Ada glanced up to see Draumur now in wolven form, his newly formed maw about to sink into her neck. However, before he could make contact, from deeper into the blizzard, streaks of green flew out at Draumur.

Before Lou’s bullets could make contact, Draumur reverted to his human form. The bullets passed straight through Draumur, as he altered his form to become wind. He sensed inside the blizzard Ada lunging toward him, though given his current form, he dismissed her assault. That would prove to be a mistake.

Ada’s spear, capable of piercing through anything, even wind itself, embedded itself into Draumur’s chest. Draumur’s head whipped around toward Ada. Ada looked to see that the pupils in Draumur’s eyes had shifted to blood-red circles. Suddenly, the whole world around her began to spin.

Draumur shifted back to a wolven form and struck out toward Ada, who was unable to defend herself due to the hypnosis. However, before he could make contact, Draumur sensed something in the blizzard approaching him rapidly. He turned just as an orange blur apparated mere inches from his face.

Lya kicked high, but Draumur managed to block the attack. He tried to rip out Lya’s throat with his claws, but she dropped low to avoid the attack. Lya tried to sweep Draumur’s legs, but Draumur kicked off into the air, shifting from a werewolf back to a more draconic form.

Hearing the flapping of wings, Lou unloaded as many bullets as he could toward the sound. As Draumur crested above the blizzard, he could sense the bullets streaking through it, but suddenly they disappeared from his senses.

A cavalcade of impacts blasted into Draumur’s back, as the bullets left the blizzard--and consequently Draumur’s radar--connected with their target.

As Ada, still hypnotized, continued to fumble around to try and maintain her footing on the icy ground, she felt a hand on her back.

“What’s real?” Tay asked.

The answer to Tay’s question was passed onto Ada, clarifying reality for her, thus ridding herself of her hypnosis.

“Thanks,” Ada said.

Before the infiltration team could re-group themselves, an immense force pulling them toward the center of the room knocked them each onto their backs. At the same time, the blizzard disappeared to reveal Draumur high in the sky, his wounds fully healed.

Thinking quickly, Ada stuck her spear into the ground to keep herself rooted; meanwhile, the rest of the group, unable to catch themselves due to the ice the blizzard had formed along the ground, slid along the ground right underneath Draumur.

With Lya, Tay, and Lou, all grouped up right beneath him, Draumur unleashed a massive breath of fire.

“Tay!” Ada screamed out.

In a flash, Ada’s shield disappeared from her arm and reappeared on Tay’s. Tay raised the shield into the air. The stream of flames fell around the shield, encasing the three avatars in a cocoon of flames--though at the very least they were safe for now.

Knowing the flames prevented Lou from peering out and shooting Draumur out of the sky, Ada took action. She pulled her spear from the ground. Immediately, she began being pulled toward the pillar of fire her allies were trapped under. However, as she slid along the ground, Ada raised her spear toward Draumur, took aim, and launched it.

A shine of silver appeared in the corner of Draumur’s vision. Instinctively, he dropped his wings, and the fire stopped. From his back, a serpent shot out and caught the spear in its mouth.

Noticing the flames had vanished, Tay lifted the shield, just in time to see Draumur begin to fall. Glancing upward, time began to slow for Lou. He wouldn’t have enough time for more than one shot; it was a good thing that was all he’d need.

Lou fired, yet Draumur was able to easily evade the attack. However, Lou was never aiming for Draumur. Lou’s bullet sliced off the head of the serpent that was holding Ada’s spear; with her spear no longer in its grasp, Ada resummoned it to her hand.

As Draumur crashed into the ground the 3 avatars gathered underneath him each rolling out of the way in different directions. Seeing them all split up, Draumur decided to cut them off completely. Another howling blizzard filled the room.

Lya knew this was bad. Tay’s mythos had just worn off, meaning no one other than her knew where Draumur was, but he knew where each of them was. Given what she had seen, Draumur would have no trouble picking them off one by one. She needed to think fast.

Re-running the fight in her head, Lya realized something. Draumur could call on other mythoi, similar to Saxon. According to Saxon, the reason he simply didn’t use all the mythoi he could copy all at once, was because while the energy needed to use two mythoi back to back was additive, to use two simultaneously the energy needed was multiplicative.

That’s when it hit her. Throughout this fight, Draumur has constantly been shifting between mythoi, even when it didn’t favor him to stop using one. Lya reckoned there must be a limit on the number of mythoi Draumur can use simultaneously. So although Draumur could counter each of them individually, Lya knew if they all were coordinated they could overwhelm Draumur.

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There was just one problem. Draumur knew this, hence why he cut them off with his blizzard. Even worse, Lya didn’t know if it was the snow or fire, but something had fried her comms--and likely everyone else’s as well. If they couldn’t re-group, Draumur would pick them off one by one.

Lya needed to send them a message. Then, a crazy, borderline insane, idea popped into her head. Lya closed her eyes, and in her head, asked a question. “Can you guys hear me?”

For Tay, Lou, and Ada, time seemed to freeze, as Lya’s voice filled their minds.

“Guys?” Lya asked again.

“We can hear you,” Ada said, “though not entirely sure how.”

“Figured Hermes is a messenger god, and I needed to send a message, so I thought I’d just try to do just that,” Lya replied, shocked her idea had worked.

“First of all, congrats on unlocking a new aspect of your mythos,”' Lou said, endearingly. “Second of all, are things moving slower for anyone else?

“Hermes can move at superspeed,” Tay said, “so naturally, he can send and receive messages at that same speed.”

“Cool,” Lou remarked.

“You said you had a message for us Lya?” Ada asked.

“Before that, anybody had eyes on Draumur,” Lya inquired.

“Right in front of me,” Ada answered.

“Perfect,” Lya said. “Think figured out Draumur’s weakness, and a plan to take him down.”

“Well, you’ve got me excited,” Lou remarked.

“We’re all ears,” Tay replied.

Lya took a deep breath in. “Alright, here’s the plan …”

----------------------------------------

Even without any support, Ada was able to hold back Draumur--though that was about it. Ada was constantly on the defensive, unable to find an opportunity to strike; Draumur always held at least two serpents back to drive Ada away if she tried to close the distance.

Six serpents emerged from Draumur’s back and lashed out toward Ada. Ada stepped back and raised her shield as it expanded into a phalanx shield. Surprisingly, the serpents still shot forward. However, before they came in contact with Ada’s shield they split, and slipped around her.

At the same time, Ada felt a hand press against her back.

“What’s his next move?” Tay asked. With her hand pressed against Ada, Tay passed on the answer to her question.

Just before the serpents sank their fangs into Tay, six streaks of green shot out from the blizzard. Lou fired off six shots through the snowstorm, given sight of Draumur by Tay, who had previously made contact with him before rushing to Ada.

The bullets each stunned the serpents, allowing Tay to safely tumble backward, out of harm's way. Seizing the opportunity granted to her by her teammates, Ada rushed toward Draumur.

Ada saw the spectral visages of two serpent heads--images of their future selves--rush toward her. Thanks to the future Tay had divined, Ada was able to maneuver through the serpents.

With Draumur now within striking distance, Ada lunged out with her spear, piercing Draumur’s chest. Immediately, the serpents vanished as wings sprouted from Draumur’s back. He managed to wrestle the spear out of his chest and begin flying into the air.

Ada struck out recklessly toward Draumur again, purposefully telegraphing her attack. Draumur easily dodged out of the way. Clutching his wound, Draumur crested above the snowstorm. As he began to relax Draumur sensed somebody vanish from the blizzard.

Without a second to spare, the blizzard beneath Draumur disappeared, and he shifted into a wolven form. Using his enhanced smell, located who had left the blizzard. He spun around to see a blur of orange race across the vault’s walls, spiraling upward toward him.

Once Lya was close enough to Draumur, she leaped from the wall toward him, pulling a pair of underworld cuffs from her pocket. However, Draumur had sensed Lya and thus had a moment to react. Her surprise attack had failed.

Draumur looked at Lya. “A while ago, this would’ve worked, but unfortunately you made the same mistake everyone else did.”

As Lya was about to impact Draumur, she felt herself pass right through him, as his body shifted into the wind. Draumur turned around to see Lya fly through him. “You underestimated me. I increased my limit to 3 a while back.”

Lya laughed. “And here I thought it’d be 4.”

A sharp pain ripped through Draumur’s chest. He looked down to see a silver spear embedded in his chest. Looking down at the ground, Draumur saw Lou with an ethereal green smoking rifle in hand.

The moment Draumur had dismissed the blizzard, Lou summoned his rifle and aimed. Meanwhile, Ada transferred her spear to Lou, which had shaped into the size of a bullet. Once Draumur transformed into the wind, Lou fired the spear at Draumur, and just before impact, Ada shifted the spear back to its original form.

Lya noticed that throughout the entire fight, Draumur had feigned only being able to use 2 mythoi at a time. However, he had already tipped his hand at the start of the fight.

When Draumur rushed Tay at the start of the fight, Lya noticed his wound had vanished, a wound that was still bleeding when he ascended into the air and summoned the blizzard. Lya knew that meant Draumur had healed that wound while maintaining his wings and the blizzard, thus he must be capable of using 3 mythoi simultaneously--in this case the Hydra, the Dragon, and the Yeti.

Draumur grasped the spear to pull it out. He knew Lya was in free fall, and so he should be safe so long as he maintained his flight. However, a long bang, like the striking of a gong rang out.

Draumur looked toward the source of the sound to see Lya flying toward him. Confused as to how she re-directed herself mid-air, Draumur looked down to see a silver shield cascading through the ground.

Ada had given Lya her shield so that she could kick off of it she could alter her momentum toward Draumur.

Caught off guard, the pain overwhelming his mind, Draumur was unable to react. In a flash, Lya slipped the underworld cuffs on Draumur. She crashed into one of the vault walls, as both she and Draumur fell to the ground.

“I gotcha!” Ada called out, managing to catch Lya before she impacted the ground.

“Oh, me too!” Lou called out, grabbing Draumur before he hit the ground.

“Don’t knock him out, we need him awake for questions,” Lya said.

“Too late,” Lou said, holding an unconscious Draumur. “After all that he deserved a hit or two.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need him awake,” Tay replied.

“Someone let Saxon and Herman know it’s time to leave,” Lya requested. “Tay, you mind checking on the sea serpent?”

“No problem,” Tay replied. “Who's out there?”

As Tay received the answer to her question, her eyes narrowed with confusion.

“Everything alright?” Ada inquired.

Suddenly, Tay’s eyes went wide with surprise, and she screamed out to everyone else. “Get down!”