Riseth teleported Alistair out of the line of fire as they switched positions. There had been a short pause as Shaxes hesitated before short bursts of plasma beams shot through her ethereal body and effortlessly cut through one of the concrete buildings below. Alistair was teleported to her initial positioning, which was on top of the structure that Shaxes had broken out of.
"Don't try to restrain her with your chain; she is too powerful! We need to wait for her supercharge to run out," Alistair called out to Riseth over the Akashic Link.
"We have to suppress her ability to teleport. It's too dangerous to let her jump us; energy expenditure be damned," Alistair said as he activated his disruption aura. He sensed multiple dispelling auras pressing down on Shaxes, preventing her from teleporting close to them.
A sharp cold rose from below; Alistair could sense that his sister was manhandling the Nugan Nexus with the help of their mother and James. This drew Shaxes' attention. Her wings unfurled, and her boosters ignited as she surged toward them, using Flash Step mid-air. Although they successfully disrupted her ability to teleport, it only slowed her down slightly. Alistair was astonished that she could use Flash Step in mid-air and had to teleport between them to intercept her. His Kinetic Grappler strained to stop her, and Alistair was pushed back rapidly. He was forced to convert the energy of the push and all four stored spheres into power to stop her and throw her off course. Alistair could sense surprise coming from the Synth Lord, but it was short-lived as a barrage of missiles and slugs impacted her. Jessica had pulled out the Zephyr and was firing at Shaxes from a safe distance.
Alistair did not have the luxury to gawk. He summoned his Razor Aegis and King before he unleashed explosive blasts at Shaxes, who was shielded by a barrier. Notably, King and Fluffy both underwent evolutions. King stayed mostly the same but grew significantly more powerful as he became a Grikad Wyvern Lord. The most notable change was in his intelligence. While he was still a showman in the arena, Alistair quickly noticed in training that King understood explanations much better and could follow everything they said. However, he still lacked the ability to communicate.
On the flip side, Fluffy had undergone a much more intriguing transformation, adopting many of Riseth's inherent abilities as a succubus. Though the Quetzalcoatl's species name remained unchanged, Fluffy could now grow significantly larger and sprout wings. The snake gained power with each level, still unable to match King, but showing promise to eventually rival him. Alistair suspected Fluffy was one of those species that were vulnerable as juveniles but became formidable as they matured. He had expected species like that would exist and was glad they had reached a point where Fluffy could fend for herself. However, Fluffy was still much more keen on being spoiled by Riseth and everyone else than fighting and was usually found on somebody's lap. But not now. As her enlarged head poked up from behind a building, a stream of lighting arced out of her opened jaw and hit the barrier of the Synth Lord before slithering back into cover.
Meanwhile, everyone not occupied with the nexus unleashed ranged attacks on the Synth Lord. The supercharged buff was straining to maintain the barrier under the assault, but Alistair could tell it would take much more to deplete it, as Shaxes still radiated immense power. Fortunately, Melissa was nearly done with the nexus below, meaning they could soon withdraw from the danger zone and provide ranged support. Alistair hadn't expected the trial to throw a Grade 8 at them, especially a high-tier one.
Alistair was, however, quite confident that her power mostly stemmed from her transformation into a Synth Lord, as Shaxes wasn't an experienced fighter. She lacked the grit and decisiveness and hesitated at crucial moments, though perhaps that might also be her species' hangup. From the description the system provided, it seemed like they had just put an old politician in charge of the faction into a powerful synthetic body.
Shaxes' annoyance flared as missiles streamed past her barrier, arcing toward all her attackers. She flash-stepped next to Alistair, lashing out with an energy blade that smashed through his barrier and armor, leaving a deep gash in his side. He managed to accelerate just in time to avoid being cut in half. As Shaxes swung again, Alistair swapped places with Riseth, and the blade passed through her harmlessly. Alistair then absorbed the explosions from the tracking missiles, filling another two spheres. He had come to trust Riseth's judgment on which attacks would affect her and which wouldn't.
From below, turrets started firing steams of plasma bolts at Shaxes. James and the others had managed to kill the Nugan Nexus, and James was busy placing his turrets across the compound, shooting relentlessly at the Synth Lord above. The Zephyr had to halt its fire whenever anyone other than Riseth or Alistair engaged in close combat to avoid catching them in the crossfire.
Shaxes, who had not spoken a single sentence so far, spoke up. "You filthy invaders will pay for your transgression. I will kill you all and earn my freedom from this prison!"
Her words shook Alistair; she was even more intelligent than he had feared, and what exactly did she mean by freedom? He teleported next to her, absorbing the kinetic energy of one of the slugs fired by the Zephyr, using all his stored kinetic energy to smash his poleaxe into her. This time, her small barrier smashed, and he hacked into the metal plating of her arm, though not by much. Her supercharge was waning under their relentless assault. Nessyra had noticed and called out that her mind attacks were highly effective against Shaxes. This had marked him and Nessy as her primary targets. Fortunately, Nessyra had a good assortment of defensive and evasive skills as she kept her distance while the rest of the clan disrupted Shaxes from reaching her. While they had barely scratched her, they were making good progress on her energy reserves, and Alistair hoped the battle would maintain its current pace.
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"What do you mean by Freedom?" Nessyra inquired as she teleported out of another attack.
"Fools, you have been here for so long but do not know the rules?" Shaxes shot back
"Then enlighten us," Alistair retorted, using vicious mockery as he tried to impale her with his poleaxe, assisted by his razor disks from his aegis skill. He was deflected, and his blasts fizzled out after grinding against the barriers. She spin-kicked him into one of the concrete buildings, and more spheres popped out of him, which clearly frustrated Shaxes, but she remained silent.
Alistair grunted in pain as he pulled himself out of the rubble. "We can't be that foolish if we manage to give you such a hard time," Alistair teased as King soared past using his sonic beam, which impacted another conjured barrier.
Shaxes raised her rifle, aiming at King, but he shielded himself and swiftly disappeared behind nearby buildings, evading the attack. Simon rushed forward with a flash step, attempting to impale Shaxes as Alistair joined him in the assault. Despite breaking through her defenses, both of their weapons were seized by Shaxes. "Ah, fuck," Simon and Alistair cursed simultaneously as Shaxes spun rapidly. Alistair tried to disrupt her momentum, but her power, combined with dispelling magic, proved overwhelming. Although Alistair managed to siphon off some kinetic energy in each exchange, Shaxes effortlessly shrugged off his efforts due to the significant disparity in power and grade. Simon summoned spears of obsidian from the ground, piercing Shaxes's shield and striking her, but his efforts were futile as he was hurled across the road and into a nearby building, losing his grip on his spear. Meanwhile, Alistair persisted, channeling kinetic energy and time magic through his weapon, inflicting damage on Shaxes and depleting her energy reserves as she resisted the effects of the time magic.
Alistair was confident that he could hold on and waste her time. "After all, what's the worst she could do other than feeding me kinetic energy from the momentum and impacts of crashing me into the nearby walls?" He thought.
Shaxes came to a sudden stop, pointing her rifle directly at Alistair. Alistair, who was still clinging to his poleaxe, could only manage a surprised 'oh' as Riseth quickly swapped positions with him. The beam from the rifle harmlessly shot through Riseth as she turned ethereal, disappearing into the damaged building beyond. Reacting swiftly, Riseth rendered Alistair's weapon ethereal as well, then teleported away, reappearing next to him and casually tossing the poleaxe back to him.
"Take better care of your toys. I won't always be around to retrieve them," Riseth scolded, her tone half-joking.
Alistair caught the poleaxe looking down at Shaxes, who was still being fired upon by everything that had a line of sight on her. Riseth proceeded to heal his latest wounds as they observed the Synth Lord below.
"Her Supercharge is running low. If we keep this up, it should run out soon. Maybe she'll become easier to deal with after that," Alistair remarked to Riseth as he prepared to re-engage. Meanwhile, Melissa was tending to Simon's injuries sustained in the last crash.
His heart sank as he observed Shaxes approaching them, her bloodlust leaking out like a wild stream. Just as she was about to reach her quarry, a portal materialized between her and the target. Unable to halt her momentum, she flew through the portal and emerged high in the sky above them as it closed behind her. Juliana's timely portal had successfully intercepted Shaxes, buying them a moment's time. While they could disrupt teleportation to a degree, only Juliana could do it at such a large distance, even though it drained her resources rapidly.
A cacophony of turrets, missiles, and ranged attacks soared into the sky toward Shaxes as Alistair's mother provided them all with an opportunity to open fire. In retaliation, Shaxes unleashed a barrage of missiles and beams from her rifle, tearing through the city and destroying some of the emplacements. Without hesitation, she even targeted the Zephyr before anyone could intervene. The VTOL was clipped on its back side. Its shields flickered and then shattered before it was pierced by the beam. The Zephyr crashed into the nearby forest, much to Shaxes' satisfaction.
"Jessy, are you okay?!" James yelled in panic over the Link.
"I'm fine, just a bit banged up. But the Zephyr will need a lot of repairs," Jessica replied.
James let out an audible sigh. "Forget the Zephyr. Just store it. Do you need help?"
"I got potions, and they fixed me back up. I'll continue to support you with my railgun from a distance," Jessica assured him.
There was a slight lull when the Zephyr was shot down, and Shaxes, after a short pause, seized the opportunity to rush back down to the surface, her shield now visibly straining under the attacks. Despite her attempts to zigzag out of the line of fire, the sheer number of attacks directed at her made the effort futile. James infuriated, pulled out the big guns, a massive anti-air emplacement that acted like a shotgun. It unloaded on the Synth Lord, finally tearing through her shield and impacting her. Despite the spread-out projectiles failing to fully pierce her, they managed to dent Shaxes' body and slow her momentum. Melissa had supplied her mother with mana, and Juliana had quaffed a mana potion. However, even with their combined efforts, Juliana only managed to disrupt Shaxes' teleportation for roughly 12 seconds before running out of mana, forcing her to hide and recover while clutching a crystal in her hand.
Just as Shaxes was about to return to the fray, her supercharge finally ran its course, and she lost the Grade 8 quality like Alistair had hoped. However, she was still in the high tier at the peak of Grade 9. He did not even want to think about what would have happened if they had not brought all the elites of their clan. Perhaps now the Synth Lord would be more willing to talk as she had lost most of her advantage. Alistair quaffed a restoration potion to fill his Qi as he prepared to teleport back in.