Eric, being slightly faster than Megan or Samuel in the water, had arrived just in time to see a Thunder Nexian race up and then down the face of a tall building. He had no way of knowing it was Edward, but he followed. His most important task was to deal with the Thunder Nexus. While Samuel could also keep up with their speed, he was better suited to fighting the other Nexuses. Megan and Grimr would switch between fights as needed. For now, they were still getting to the fight.

Over the past month, he’d been experimenting with his powers. The realization that Hunter still lived inside him and he had his Ancient body added a new dimension to his powers if only he could figure out how to synchronize them. A month wasn’t a lot of time, but he’d figured out a few tricks, taking inspiration from previous fights he’d witnessed or taken part in.

The greatest threat in this battle, obviously, would be the Alphas. Their power, resilience, and experience could very well be enough to put an end to the invaders’ plan. Fortunately, all four of them had the benefit of an Ancient’s body. There was nothing more resilient in Ahya, and it more or less put them on equal grounds with the Condition of the Alphas. The only way in which they fell short was power. They couldn’t use Ancient magicks here on Earth. But there were ways to fight against overwhelming power.

He caught up with the first Nexians quickly. Two from the Earth and one from the Fire Nexuses. He couldn’t recognize any of them, which meant that they weren’t high-ranked. His speed allowed him to slip between them before they even noticed he was there. By the time their minds could catch up to their eyes, they were already falling to the ground, their consciousness slipping away.

Grimr would disapprove of his priorities in this fight, he was sure of it. He attacked the Nexuses, sure, but he did his best to disable them, not kill them. He also wasted no time fighting around Libera Terra and took them out with the same force. They were killing innocent humans after all, and he couldn’t allow them to escape. So he struck them down as he ran along the causeway, effortlessly darting between squads and groups, striking down humans and Nexians alike.

He’d expected to reach the end of the long stretch of road without contest, where he’d run into the Thunder Nexian he’d followed. He did see the crowd of humans that had gathered there to aid in the Water Nexus’ defense, but there was no sign of other Thunder Nexians. Instead, he was confronted with Felix, the gifted martial artist of that Nexus. He saw Eric’s approach and charged forward at once to challenge him.

“I’ve been waiting for this!” He shouted. His eyes were burning bright with hatred, an alarming sight to match the bloody water that flowed around his body. Eric had just enough time to draw one of his batons before a spear of red ice extended outward. He parried the shaft to one side, and his speed continued to carry him forward, where he brought the weapon down.

Damn it all. Felix was nearly as quick as him, even with the speed difference. The baton ricocheted harmlessly off of ice as Felix blocked it, then he felt his feet being kicked out from under him. He hit the ground in a long roll, kicking up a good bit of dust. By the time he’d recovered, he was feet away from the army of human defenders. One of them had a rifle raised, clearly about to shoot him. The human had patches of blackened flesh all over his arms and neck, clear signs of frostbite, but it didn’t stop him.

Eric swayed to the side, dodging the first bullet only by sheer luck. He could actually feel the searing heat of the round as it flashed past his face. He punched the human gunman in the gut before he could fire again. Then, seeing several others also lifting their weapons to fire at him, he flashed among the group, both knocking out his attackers and putting a crowd between himself and Felix.

“No!” An outraged voice broke across the chaotic battlefield, booming louder than seemed possible for a human. Eric turned in time to see another streak of light. A Thunder Nexian. No. The Alpha.

He dove underneath the wide kick that Will sent for his head. He tried to strike back, but the Alpha parried his strike before hitting him in the chest with an iron fist. He was knocked back a dozen yards by the force but was back on his feet in an instant. Will wasted no time on speaking, and was already charging him down. Now or never, he thought.

One thing he’d discovered in his experimentation was that, even if Thunder Nexian powers did replenish his energy, they also did hurt. So the lightning bolt that Will shot at him was enough to knock him into next week. But that energy could still be redirected if he was fast enough. And while he had a limitation to how much he could store himself, any excess could go to Hunter for an immediate boost in power. A trick useful only against the Thunder Nexus, but it was exceptionally powerful in this circumstance.

The light of the lightning strike hadn’t faded by the time the massive white wolf appeared. It was nearly thirteen feet long, and six feet at the shoulder, and its body crackled with electricity as it lunged at its partner’s greatest foe. There was no way Will could have expected this kind of attack, and he had no time to avoid the beast as it clamped its jaws down on his torso. The fangs could not pierce his skin, but the speed and power of the beast’s body slammed him down to the ground.

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There was a third flash of light, even brighter than the others, as Longfang exploded in a blast of lightning. The shockwave threw dozens out across the water, unconscious or worse. He followed up on Hunter’s attack with a charged bolt. Will parried that upward where it could do no harm, and rolled back to his feet.

“He’s wounded!” A scared human voice shouted. Screamed. Will’s cheek sported a nasty gash that was streaming blood down his face. He touched it, looking surprised. What was more, he had minor burns all over his body from the electricity that Hunter had released.

It was a commonly accepted fact that no lightning could harm the Thunder Nexus Alpha. His Condition made him impervious to that, as well as all other forms of physical damage. But when that energy had been transferred to Hunter, it became natural electricity, the one known weakness of the Thunder Nexus. That explosion and the lightning that coated Hunter’s claws had passed the Condition’s protections and hurt Will.

The battle around them had not changed, but now there was a new level of fear in the minds of the defenders, created and spurred on by the wounds that Will had sustained. If even the Alphas could be wounded, what chance did they have? It was made worse when Eric sensed Edward’s attack as the son appeared out of nowhere, and Hunter appeared once more to rake its claws against his chest, throwing him away. A stream of blood rippled through the air as if in slow motion, appearing to hang much longer than seemed natural.

The fear might have paralyzed other fighters, but Will showed no sign of slowing. Instead, he pointed in Eric’s direction with one finger. Eric tensed, expecting another bolt to redirect. But there was no attack. He paused, confused, wondering what kind of signal it was, for it couldn’t be anything else.

There was a flash of light behind him that barely lasted half a second, but even then he felt the searing heat of it. It vanished almost at once, however, courtesy of Samuel’s Ancient Counterspell. Their experimenting over the past month had taught him that it worked just as well on Nexian powers. Eric couldn’t see the source of the attack but knew its creator had just been struck with his own attack, and probably wasn’t in good shape.

“Keep moving, Eric!” Samuel shouted, flying straight for Will. “I’ll take care of him!”

Will pivoted to face his new challenger. Not one of the Nexians he knew. Was this stranger also from that other world, then? He was clearly an Air Nexian, judging by the air power he was using to fly. He snatched Samuel out of the air before he could make contact, slamming the Archmage to the ground. It seemed to do little to no damage, and Samuel quickly reversed the move, grappling Will and throwing him further away from Eric, into the crowd of defenders behind him.

Eric obeyed Samuel’s order without thinking. He didn’t know where Felix was, so he continued down the causeway, slipping past human and Nexian defenders alike. If Will was being waylaid, that changed his target. Yes, he wanted to avoid killing his opponents if possible, but that was not possible when it came to the Alphas. The power was centered on them, so if they were killed, the Nexuses would vanish. Grimr would steal away the power before it could find a new host.

Up ahead, he could see four Nexians moving toward the sight of the battle. He had no issue recognizing Rachel in the lead with her bright silver hair. She seemed to be focused on something else to the side, however, and couldn’t see Eric coming closer. Glancing in that direction, he saw the small body of Grimr flying toward her, two large rocks suspended in the air above him. He increased his speed, rocketing forward to flank the Alpha.

Mere feet away from contact, Eric was knocked to the side by a blast of air, and just barely missed Rachel. He collided with another of the Water Nexians instead, the tall and broad-shouldered Lieutenant Jose Garcia. Felix’s father grabbed him as they both rolled away down the road and landed a solid punch that broke his nose and nearly blinded him. Rachel, distracted by his near-miss, half-turned to see what the streak of light was before Grimr hurled his rocks forward.

Eric hit Jose back with an elbow to the face, then broke free of his grip and turned back to Rachel the instant his feet touched the ground. The last thing he wanted was to be held up by another Nexian. When he stopped moving, he was dead.

“Warden!” There was someone new beside Rachel, Eric saw. They blasted the two rocks that Grimr had thrown apart with quick jets of flame, then made a wave of water rise up from the ocean and smack the Ancient aside. Eric rushed forward to aid his friend, but when he hit the stranger his skin turned vaguely translucent, as if made from crystal. Every drop of Eric’s strength vanished from his body, and he crashed to the ground without the ability to rise.

A man in dark brown robes loomed over him, holding fire in one hand and a shard of ice in the other. Two Nexian powers, both used at the same time? His face was strange as well. He certainly looked human, but his brows were unnaturally thick, and his face seemed… widener than it should. His lips were so thin as to be non-existent, and stretched nearly from ear to ear. Eric couldn’t shake the uncanny feeling that he’d met this man somewhere, but he was certain he’d never seen him.

“Naturas!” Grimr burst out of the water and marched up the slope of the small shore to the causeway. It was only then that Eric realized who this new person must be. The one that had carried the Nexus powers from his world to Earth. Their true target. The fighting died out around them, and though it still raged in some places, everyone within earshot stopped to turn and watch.

“You cannot kill me, Warden,” Naturas said. “You are but a servant of your Mother. And I will not let you destroy my power on this planet.”