Daphne stepped in front of the incoming blades, shielding both Sam and Mark. Without any other option, Mark attempted to pull Nathan toward them with the cord of force he had attached to him, but the spell couldn’t handle the strain and snapped, leaving Nathan to fend for himself.
Grinding his teeth Mark took a step toward him, but by then it was too late.
The wave of destructive Aura arrived as a torrent of ghostly blades and crashed through Sam's barrier, washing over and around all of them.
Mark already knew what it was like to experience Jonathan's Aura firsthand, but he was unprepared for its current overwhelming strength and relentless bite.
The Aura manifestation was not like a spell; in that, if it missed, then you were safe. No, the Aura had rules of its own and it would make sure to follow them. Blades that cut into Daphne’s Aura faded, but those that missed curved around and went seeking another target. Mainly Mark, as he was the next in the line. Without any Aura of his own, the lacerations opened up across his whole body at once, only to instantly close again. Mark's mind spun trying to hold his body together.
Sam was next, and a goldish-red suit of armor sprung up around her form, rebuffing the strikes.
Mark’s stance began to slip with each cut, coating the concrete in bright red, as the force began to knock him off balance. Trying his best to cover his throat he attempted to lower his body to the floor, but the blades followed. Sam’s automatic shield was already dulling.
Just before Mark lost his footing, he felt Daphne’s Aura move to encompass him and Sam.
The cuts didn’t stop coming, but they no longer had any effect on Mark. He could feel them just as they touched his skin but then nothing more. Daphne on the other hand was quickly covered from head to toe in smaller lacerations.
Her Aura made her more resistant, but the volume of attacks she was now blocking quickly made up for it.
Mark increased the Prana going to her, as the cords going to Jonathan and Chloe had been severed almost as soon as Oscar had released the Aura.
Daphne's wounds began to close, but Mark had to push himself as the throbbing migraine made itself known by way of blurry, zigzagging lines flitting across his vision.
By the time all the Aura had passed, both of them were exhausted. Mark glanced over at Nathan and saw he’d wrapped himself in a cocoon of green muck. It was littered with holes, but Mark could see the guy was still alive beneath it.
Turning to look over at the other Mark searched for Chloe and Jonathan.
He found them pretty quickly as Jonathan stood out in the open, covering Lieutenant Nole with his Aura, his stance tense. Chloe had taken refuge behind the device, as it seemed Oscar had avoided hitting that entirely.
Deep cuts in the concrete lead to the nova’s origin point like the trails in a crater. Oscar stood there relaxed, his Aura still swollen with Jonathan's power coursing through it.
“Look at how much trouble you’ve caused everyone, Jonathan. All because you want to be a big man. And honestly, it doesn't even matter anymore, because I wouldn’t forgive you for betraying the family.”
Oscar laughed wildly and Mark could see the crazed look in his eyes. Something felt very wrong about his whole situation. Oscar was acting erratic, Mark knew he was an intelligent man, but his actions bordered on deranged. With narrowed eyes, Mark tried to look at his Aura. Without his construct, he hadn’t been able to sense what was going on, but now that he took a better look, he could just make out the smallest hints of Corruption swimming through Oscar’s power. It made sense, the Corruption was edging on an already unstable individual. Who knew how high his Cv was?
At that point, Jonathan engaged Oscar once more, this time though, the two fought a lethal dance. Jonathan fell back on pure strength to beat the guy down but Mark noted that Oscar no longer needed Jonathan to attack him. He was directly pulling Jonathan’s Aura in.
“Everyone attack! He’s powering up again!” Mark shouted.
Daphne dashed from their frontline toward the two crashing into Oscar from behind, unable to turn away from Jonathan he took the hit directly to his spine. Sam formed thin shards of ice and shadow, throwing them at his skull. Lieutenant Nole dove back and sent a dark fog whipping along the ground in an attempt to lock his feet in place.
All the attacks hit, but suddenly Daphne’s Aura joined Jonathan’s inside Oscar’s festering mix of energies.
The moment it did Oscar used it to endure the incoming strikes and rebound some of the damage onto Jonathan. He narrowly avoided the icicles by blocking with his fists like a boxer, and when the shadows locked him in place he just continued to fight as he was.
Mark expected Oscar to get angry or try to escape, but his eyes just darted over to the bomb.
At this point, Mark realized he'd missed an aspect of this fight, where was the bodyguard?
Mark searched the battlefield and noticed the walls were empty of their attacker, only then did he see that the guy had circled around while they were occupied, and was creeping up on Lieutenant Nole.
Mark shouted for him to watch out, but the guy had to have known he would be spotted because he closed the rest of the distance all at once. Wrapping his arm around Lieutenant Nole’s neck and squeezing until the sound of bones popping could be heard. The shadow locking Oscar in place blinked out of existence, as he stopped struggling altogether. Then the man turned and threw Lieutenant Nole’s form across the space with the same importance one would give trash.
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His body hadn’t even hit the floor before the bodyguard turned and charged at Daphne, crashing into her. Daphne dug her heels in and attempted to slow his charge. The guy tried to overwhelm her but seeing as both were strength-focused neither could get the upper hand.
Mark stared at the Lieutenant’s far-off corpse, stunned by the brutality. Lieutenant Nole was their ticket to deactivating the bomb, maybe he could make it over to resuscitate him. Mark saw Chloe at the console of the device, shouting into a two-way radio, but had to fall to the ground when Oscar sent a horizontal blade of Aura their way.
Then Mark remembered Lieutenant Bix was much closer, it was a long shot but maybe he knew how to stop the bomb. Searching for the man Mark saw his crumpled form embedded in the wall, Mark stood and got ready to run when Chloe’s next words chilled his insides.
“Code black in less than twenty seconds! Everyone to me right fucking now!!” she screamed as she began running towards the wall.
The code system they had come up with on the way to the city had three stages. Green, Orange, and Red, but there was a fourth stage. A code black from Chloe meant a lethal event had a 99% chance of happening. When they heard this they were meant to drop whatever they were doing and try to follow her orders as best they could. In this case, the only thing that Mark could think was that the bomb was going to go off even if they could get Lieutenant Bix to the console in time. The only thing they could do now was attempt to secure their survival, and with limited options and Mana, Mark did the only thing he could, he ran after Chloe.
All thoughts of stopping this thing went out of Mark's head and he sprinted away from Sam, reaching down and pulling Nathan up and over his shoulder. Mark released his physical limit and turned back to look over his shoulder.
Sam smashed a dark screen between Daphne and the bodyguard, dazing both of them and sending the bodyguard flying. She then grabbed Daphne and made a break for it in the direction they were escaping.
Jonathan remained where he was but his Aura swelled to gargantuan proportions, the two of them had to finish this, neither would allow anything less. Jonathan was done holding back, and they were out of range, so he began beating Oscar down with raw power. Shockwaves ruptured out around the father-son duo. Tearing through the air and ground, shaking the whole space. Aura rushed from one to the other, but Mark could see Oscar was having trouble absorbing everything Jonathan was outputting, and it was still growing. The aftermath of the collisions pressed against Mark's back and literally pushed him forwards. Oscar blocked, weaved, dodged, and deflected, but with each successive strike, Jonathan's force grew. Oscar recovered slower, his daggers barely getting there in time. The look on his face had changed from a smirk into one of concentration. When that wasn't enough, panic slipped in, but was quickly overpowered by rage. No words were exchanged, the strikes were too fast for that, but then Oscar missed a swing and it cleaved across his chest. That set off a chain reaction in Oscar's Aura, and all the power he had stole turned on him at once. Jonathan brought one final overhead swipe down and when their blades met, the system dagger couldn’t handle the strain, snapping in two at the base. Jonathan's swing continued forward and sunk right through Oscar's left shoulder, coming out at his hip and cleaving off a portion of the man's body.
Suddenly the device nearby came to life, a low humming of machinery begging to spin up. Something flashed on the small console but it was too small to see from where Mark was.
When Oscar fell he crashed to the ground he put a hand up in his defense. His Aura eating away at his flesh one cut at a time. Jonathan stood over the man, chest heaving and murder in his eyes, Mark couldn’t hear what they said but Oscar muttered something through the blood. Whatever it was still Jonathan in place, but then with a flick of his wrist, he knocked the blade out of Oscar's hand, and another cleaved his head from his shoulders. Jonathan took off running before the head had even touched the ground, never looking back.
By now the bodyguard had recovered and saw Jonathan coming his way. He frowned when he saw Oscar's deteriorating corpse, but didn’t move from his spot as Jonathan passed. Instead, he retrieved an amulet made of what looked like green marble and crushed it in his fist. The next instant his Aura encased him, and his whole form turned into that of diamond, including his weapons, armor, and even a small portion of the ground he was standing. It reminded Mark of an ice sculpture. Was that Oscar's plan? Had he intended to endure this?
Mark kept running after Chloe. Sam and Daphne had already caught up with him and a wind lifted Mark pushing him forward.
By then Chloe had reached the wall and turned as they all arrived, Jonathan right on their tail. She pointed to Lieutenant Bix.
“Get him down, he still has a chance!”
This was all happening too fast. What about Lieutenant Nole, he couldn’t stop thinking about how his body had landed. What about everyone underground? His amulet took too long to active they were too short on time.
“Mark! Concentrate! Your head needs to be in this. Link up with Sam. Get walls of earth around us, barriers, anything! All of you do the same if you are capable, we only need to hold out for a second or two!”
Mark came back to reality, survive now, think later.
Sam was already beside him. Taking her offered hand, Mark calmed his mind and triggered [Joint casting], syncing his will up with hers.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mark saw Daphne returning with Lieutenant Bix in her arms.
Putting all of that out of his mind, Mark took out his staff and placed it in front of both of them.
Blocking out the world Mark pulled at Sam’s Mana. It came far easier than it had any right to, they were matching their will’s but this was something else. Mark’s Prana rushed forward too, easily responding to Sam’s calls.
Both of them cast [Control earth], the resonance of their threads matching perfectly. Mark's awareness expanded into the stone below them. The wall behind them resisted their will, but that was to be expected. The inscription's only purpose was to harden and repair the wall, they could have easily battered it aside, but chose to leave it. Any extra protection it offered was worth it. They did however begin to mold the edges of the wall around themselves. Pulling the earth up to cover and consume them.
Sam led this portion of the threads as Mark's mind was still weak, but then it became necessary for Mark to take over as they began pouring power into [Sculpt Mana]. Mark built a perfect pyramid of force in an attempt to make their power go as far as possible.
Darkness, cold, and a wall of air began to creep in as Sam weaved them into their surroundings. Power rushed from them, through the staff, and into all the spells. So much so, that Mark could feel it heating up in his grip. If his eyes had been open at that point, he would have seen how the runes across its length cast a marbled mix of blue and purple light about the dark space. Mark was dimly aware that his teeth began to chatter from the cold, but Daphne’s Aura settled over them like a warm embrace. Quite settled over all of them and Jonathan’s Aura began to wrap along the outer edges of their earthen tomb.
The last sound before the world ignited was the cracking of a radio going off and Daphne's voice filling the space.
“Lisa, we’re sorry, but we couldn’t stop it. Get somewhere safe. Hold on, please just hold on-”