Shawn motioned to Garrett as a torrent of fire almost singed him, but the foe was still being held back by the partially incinerated barricade. Barely.

“Shawn, take a few! Pull the latch, it’s a four-second fuse!” Garrett tossed him the metal-cased explosives that looked like something out of a cartoon, with a simple wire fuse. “He’ll burn the explosive prematurely!”

“Not if I do this!” He focused on the proliferating hoar frost climbing up along his claws, and he gripped the munition tightly. A shell of hardened ice started to emerge, rapidly forming fractal patterns and encasing the metal in ice, growing thicker and stronger. He didn’t know how cold the ice was, but he hoped it would be enough to protect the munition long enough to keep from prematurely detonating. With his other hand, he pulled the fuse, while depressing the safety. “Garrett, cover fire!”

He followed up with an instant volley of rapid fire, with Regia and one of the irregulars firing in tandem. He saw the rounds seemingly melt, and the new foe laughed mockingly.

“Your efforts are futile–”

But Shawn had already removed his hand from the safety, hoping he wasn’t cooking this munition too long in his hand. They needed to get out of this place alive, which meant taking risks.

He tossed the ice-coated munition straight at that leering grin on the foe’s beak, whose eyes widened as the munition refused to melt fast enough, and Shawn heard a click before he dove to cover. The thunderous detonation of metal shards was also accompanied by a hail of razor sharp ice shards that dug into their cover, and he glanced warily at an ice shard that had pierced partway through Garrett’s cover, and he stared nervously at the icicle.

“Damn, that’s impressive.” They both dared to peek to see what remained of their foe, but the coating of ice had turned the room into a steamy mess. At least it had partially extinguished the flames threatening to overtake the hallway. Shawn caught no sight of his foe, nothing but a scorched spot where the explosive had detonated, close to the floor.

“Did we get him?!” He wasted no time in reloading, hearing screams distantly.

“Fall back to the next cover position! Minks, Harvak, on the platform, now!” Garrett barked out orders, and everyone took their cue, with Regia tapping Shawn on the shoulder, trying to get his attention.

“Shawn, hold my hand, I’m gonna try something!” He held onto her clawed hand without hesitation, and she extended her free arm, eyes narrowed as water coalesced. The billowing steam seemingly trailing to her hand, forming an increasingly large orb of water, shimmering and hovering in front of her. It started as the size of a chicken egg, then a baseball, then grew exponentially larger. Her hand was trembling–she was pulling an awful lot of effort, and her beak rattled under the strain. “Focus on using your ice, use it on the water!”

“Trying!” He mentally mapped out that feeling of hoar frost, and he could feel the chill of unrealized power creep along his arm, draining the warmth from it, and frosty traces coated the feathers of Regia’s arm. It felt like his mind was a pressure pump–all that energy needed was direction, and an outlet while it circulated through his body, brimming with unrealized potential. He could feel a spark of a connection where he held Regia’s clawed hand. She held steady as that icy fractal crept along her body, coating her feathers in rime frost, and then jumped the gap to the globule of water, now the size of a humanoid being.

It was taking everything he had to focus on, directing the ice rapidly crystallizing into a sizable mass. He could feel the tendrils of energy take purchase on the charged water, chilling it in a flowing mass of ice that churned and whirled, forming an animated icy ball that spun. She eased out of cover, as did he, and he saw their foe staggering to their feet, fire reigniting in their hands.

The avian monster was shredded with metal fragments and ice that gave way to steam as his whole body became an inferno, and he screamed in rage as his wounds seemingly cauterized. He pointed at them accusingly. “You will fall before the will of Revarik, insects–”

“Let’s just press ‘A’ to skip the monologue,” Shawn quipped, and he felt the energy peak in his body, while Regia shuddered under the combined power.

“Gladly.”

She fired off a stream of ice shards, superchilled to the brink of absolute zero, and perforated the foe with needle-sharp icicles. He could only melt so many of them before one found purchase in his fiery flesh–then two, then five, and then a final round pierced his throat, and he gurgled. Shawn barely saw it as his vision darkened–he was using too much energy, he could feel the strength leaving his body.

“Regia, I’m almost tapped,” he gasped. She kept her aim for a fraction of a second longer before sending out a blast of ice like a frozen shotgun round, coating that opening with ice that encased the entryway.

Shawn collapsed to his knees, with Garrett screaming about falling back. Regia grabbed him and slung his arm around her shoulder, and he managed to stumble to the platform, whirling with energy in a note rapidly approaching a crescendo.

He wheezed, barely able to stand, and saw Claire binding the injury on her leg, suppressing a scream of pain by biting on her shirt sleeve. Telga was tapping in commands on a metal console, small lights winking in the air and communicating unknown intent. Garrett fell back to the platform before slamming a bulkhead door closed, and barricading it with a heavy cabinet. He then leaped onto the platform, kneeling and shaking Shawn to get his attention.

“Regia, he’s almost burnt out! That was a dangerous move!” Garrett opened a small glass vial, and Shawn gasped, taking it from his hand. “Drink that and try not to vomit!”

“I’ll try not to,” he gasped. He licked his tongue inside his beak, and after a second of pondering just how he was supposed to do this, Regia tipped it back, holding his hand steady. He recoiled not from the taste, but the feeling like he’d just swallowed battery acid, and he nearly retched. But by force of will, he held down the vile liquid, which felt like it was burning his esophagus in the process.

“Regia, what the hell was–” Claire was sweating, but had done a proper triage on her leg, which was no longer bleeding.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“That was an etteria potion. He used too much, we use these to restore the balance. It also tastes awful,” Regia explained. He wasn’t inclined to disagree, and tossed the empty vial aside, taking a deep breath. He gazed at her warily.

“What…what was that thing we just did?”

“Spliced gestalt. Nice work, by the way!” she beamed. “That feathered fiend had that coming, and there’s no way he survived that.”

“Don’t jinx it.” He pulled himself unsteadily to his feet, feeling woozy, and glanced down at a deep cut on his arm. Claire tossed him the strip of bandages, and he hastily wrapped it tight over the injury and tied it off. “So, uh, spliced gestalts. Does it always involve holding hands?”

“Only for ones that require a special connection,” Regia quipped. He put up a clawed finger, sputtered, then chose to say nothing. She kept on smirking. “Don’t read too much into it.”

“Too late.” He let out a shaky breath, and noted Telga had wrapped up at the console, corralling everyone to the platform. “How long?!”

“Thirty seconds. Everyone stays on the platform!” she called out, and everyone tightened up–about twenty-five brave souls, themselves included. Some were crying. Others held them to assure them it was going to be alright. Shawn finished topping off his ammo tube, and Garrett gave him a cursory inspection.

“Yeah, you look better. Those potions work fast.” He quickly turned his gaze to the door, where there was a banging noise, and metal buckling inward. “Oh, these guys just don’t quit. There is no reasoning with these zealots.”

“Yeah, that seemed pretty obvious.” Shawn still felt awful all over, and Halsey sent him a message.

> Don’t push yourself like that! That was dangerous, for your level of experience.

Tell me something I don’t know. He tensed as he felt that electric charge building in his hand, and he flexed his fingers, keeping his grip steady on the rifle with his other hand. “Ah, man, this gestalt is acting up.” Those golden sparks kept emerging, and his fingers felt all prickly, like he’d pinched a nerve.

That was when his danger sense kicked in. The door buckled inward, the metal bulkhead framework melting and boiling away–fragments burst outward, and he reacted in an instant, channeling energy to his arms and releasing it with a mental snap and focused on that electrical buzz.

Whatever this new ability was, he was hoping it was something useful! He kept all his focus as a glow of yellow light formed, ever so briefly, like a protective shield, and deflected the white-hot fragments from the now-destroyed door. He blinked, and that translucent barrier around him burst into sparks.

> Oh. That looks like a force barrier. A rather unusual one–

Halsey, we have a big problem. He gazed forward, and felt a cold tingle down his spine as he spotted that seemingly unkillable foe again. They had survived two lethal rounds of attacks, bleeding from numerous wounds. Flames weakly flickering off his red feathers, now stained with blood. A smoky visage surrounded him, shifting and shimmering like a cloud with a life of its own.

A smoke cloud with eyes that were locked in focus on the gathered survivors.

“You can’t run Telga,” the specter called out in a mocking tone–but it was from the beak of the dying foe, not the ghost-like being that slowly formed into a roughly Aveeran shape, and it pointed a half-formed claw at Shawn. Telga’s eyes were widened, terrified of the specter before them, and her wings shaking uncontrollably.

Shawn fired a rifle round at the specter to get his attention, and cycled a new round in. The smoky figure reformed in a second, and glared at him. “Insolent pest.”

“Aiming to please, you murderous psycho.” He drew aim on that staggered Aveeran, still dripping blood. “What’s this, a ‘kill them once, they come back stronger’ gestalt?”

“You look new, fledgling, I don’t recognize you. I can feel the power of the Etteria freshly bonded to you, feeble as it is.” That cawing, mockery of a voice grated on his ears oozed confidence.

Shawn locked eyes with the apparition, which barely registered in his top ten craziest things he’d witnessed in the past couple of hours. All the fatigue in his body dried up, adrenaline supplementing him for just a few seconds longer, as the platform charge built to a peak. “It’s rude to crash a party without introducing yourself. Who are you?”

The specter laughed, and that future corpse of a man staggered, riddled with wounds too fatal for him to heal from. It was like he was being used like a meaty marionette doll, the limbs responding with jerky motions, the way the eyes rolled back. Even that wound in his throat had yet to catch up to him. Blood seeped from his throat and beak, and the specter continued to speak through the wounded man.

“I’m the rightful ruler of this world. Telga is a fading memory, even as she tried to spread enlightenment to the tectonic continents.”

Shawn glanced out of the corner of his eye to see her golden eyes widened, her beak slightly agape, and her limbs trembling. The specter continued, bright red eyes arched in delight. “Thank you for paving the way for me, dear sister. I just wanted to say goodbye. I owe such a formality to a beloved family member.”

“Go to the chasms, Revarik,” she stated, beak chatting lightly, but her eyes alight with fury. “You are no brother of mine.”

“You can’t change me being your brother, any more than you can change the stars in the cosmic traverse.” Shawn felt that twitch of energy in his arm again, golden sparks emerging as if signaling him on something.

Halsey, why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?!

> Because it is! I think he’s building up for a pyrrhic blast, you might be able to deflect it!

With what? The power of determination? He was going to die right here, he knew it in his hollow bones.

> That energy barrier that was sparking from your hands, Focus every bit of everything you've got in your core, or we’re not going to live through this!

While this frantic discussion occurred inside his head in the span of about a second, his foe was now glowing molten. The specter of Revarik laughed and gave them a dismissive wave. “You’ve done well, my disciple. Finish the job.”

Everyone left standing fired a weapon or a gestalt at the foe, riddled with injuries. But they did nothing to stop his body from flaring white, as the charge of the platform reached a peak. There were only a handful of seconds left…infinitely too long a time.

Shawn dropped the rifle and focused on that spark of energy running through his veins, directing it in the same way he’d done so before, but bigger, straining to channel that power from his core, down his limbs. C’mon, please, please, PLEASE hold this back!

Golden motes coalesced and formed into impossibly thin sheets of etched hexagons of energy, forming an arc around the survivors. The impossible heat that had been building, leaving him feeling sunburnt, now felt muted.

It came without a second to spare.

The dying Aveeran erupted in a blast of white-hot flames that bounced off the barrier, incinerating everything in their path, and burning a hole through the orbital platform. He staggered from the impact, claws digging into the smooth stone in narrow trenches, and both Regia and Garrett braced to keep him upright. The fiery monster took out a chunk of the platform, just as the charge peaked around them, golden light surrounding them.

He squinted past the intense glare–then blackness swallowed the light. The white flame gave way to the green-blue nebula, and the pale stars of the cosmos–the entire structure around them had been ripped apart. The horizon of one of the massive, floating continents was beneath them.

He felt the bottom of his stomach drop, as what was left of the platform fell out of orbit, in free fall. He saw a few humans and Aveerans that had tumbled to the fragmented edge of destruction, clinging on for dear life, just inside the teleportation circle.

He glanced at Claire, screaming out of fear. Telga, head hung in resignation. Regia and Garrett, gripped each other for dear life as if they knew this was the end.

The platform sang a high-pitched note, and his world turned white.

> We’re not done yet, Shawn. We have monsters to fight.