You're here!
Yeah, babe, please forgive The comm unit broke and we've been fixing it all this time. Tell me, are you hurt?- No, But there's still time. — I muttered grimly, then, unexpectedly even to myself, softened. — I'm just glad to hear you guys.
After a short pause, Julia's shy little voice chimed in:
Likewise, oh light of our
Ali, we love you, seriously, but now's probably not the best time! Help out that guy with the sword. Look at him go! — Antwan blurted out excitedly. So, we're making a mess? — I asked rhetorically and dove straight into the fray.
Over there, Phoenix was holding off four ghosts on his own, using the smartest trick in the book — not letting any of them actually cross blades with him. His sword couldn't hurt their intangible forms, just like their ghostly blades couldn't harm him. But weirdly, they weren't afraid of his weapon — they feared the flame twirling above the blade. That fire clearly had some spicy chemical mix that bothered the phantoms. Some Caper tech? Huh... maybe they weren't such useless bags of crap after all!
This kind of fight wouldn't last long, though. That sword was more of a scarecrow than a slayer, and eventually the ghosts would find a gap in even Phoenix's admittedly skilled defense. Time to step in.
My first -scouting- swing with the arcana went nowhere — the phantoms' enhanced senses picked up both my moves and Phoenix's. Not effective, but damn it looked good... and damn, he looked good too in that tight turtleneck with a flaming sword in hand. Eye candy deluxe.
He got distracted, noticing my stare, and then bashfully refocused on the fight. Eh... time to speed things up.
I picked up the pace and started dual-wielding my arcana, giving the ghosts less room to breathe. One of them zipped right past Phoenix's side, aiming to strike — but a sharp whistle later, I'd hooked my first catch!
The lasso yanked it toward me, glowing and struggling. Its face was still a faded blur with no details, but I didn't care. Pouring a bit of ectoplasm into the arcana, I started shredding its core, pulling apart its threads of essence.
Spare ..— the words echoed in my mind, flat and emotionless. No hint of life in them. Even this pitiful creature wanted to keep existing in whatever form it could.
I don't know how it reached my consciousness — maybe some shared ancestry — but I sent it a telepathic reply:
Spare you if you take your buddies and get the hell out of And name your employer.
-We caaaan't... his will is stronger than ours. We have to obeyyyy. But there is something inside us that can heeelp you. That's all we can say. Spare us, you're like uuuus...
What kind of riddle was that? I had no idea what it meant. But one thing was clear: they couldn't stop because someone else held the reins. And I had zero time or desire to unpack that crap, even if they were trying to sneak into my imaginary family tree.
So, I squeezed the arcana and tightened the loop — and unraveled the bastard into nothing. Three left.
Phoenix was starting to tire. Not fatally yet, but his quick figure-eights and clean vertical strikes had lost their sharpness. A ghost to his left swung from below and almost tagged his thigh. Phoenix dodged, but let's face it — with that wall of muscle, he wasn't exactly light on his feet...
I threw both arcana like carnival rings aiming for a spike, landing them right around the ghost's neck. It twitched once and dissolved instantly as I pumped too much energy into the trap. Way too much. But hey — instant kill! Never pulled that off before...
No time to be impressed, though — one ghost's rapier slipped past Phoenix's guard and stabbed him right under the shoulder blade.
Failure. Or maybe not yet?