Chapter 292

7777 words.

***

Chapter 292

Matt stood up with the rest of Team Zero. Or, most of Team Zero.

There was no time to prep, no time to down their boosting potions and pre-cast their buffs. They were tired, and while they were full on mana, that did little for their taxed spirits and Domains.

And yet, there was an army waiting for them and they had a job to do, so they rallied without complaint.

Drifter was trying to pilot the ship through the asteroid field they had been pulled into, while also avoiding the worst of the waves of spells that were coming in from every direction but forward. Origami was still flitting from place to place, trying to keep the spatial crates from exploding. Meanwhile, General Darrow was glued to the screens with his third eye flicking from location to location as he tried to find them a way out of the trap they found themselves in.

They were caught in the scheme, and were only given one ‘clear’ way out. A way out that Matt was sure would be full of mines and other traps.

As if General Darrow was reading his mind, Team Zero’s commander barked out, “Ascenders, go! Clear us a way through the asteroids while protecting the ship. Our goal is to break through and return the goods we stole to Empire controlled space. Everyone else focuses on protecting the ship. Their spells are piercing our shields and we can’t let them take out our engines! Drifter's Talent can only keep the ship flying if there’s something still left to work on.”

Matt looked to the others even as he nodded. He’d love to kill Maven, but they had been cornered on her terms, and while Ascenders were built to break their way out of terrible situations like this, if they could deliver the goods they had stolen from the Republic, they could greatly slow the war front's expansion. And that was far more important than taking vengeance. Even if the surrounding space wasn’t locked down and Shadow teleported them out, they would still need to abandon their loot, and that went against the primary objective of the mission.

That didn’t mean Matt wouldn’t do his best to kill the woman.

With the spatial lock limiting Shadow, they were forced to exit through the ship's rearmost hatch. The moment the hatch opened, Matt was blinded by dozens of explosions. Though his spiritual perception, despite being limited, was still able to see through the impacts of spells on their shields.

They were being bombarded by thousands of enemy cultivators from every side.

Team Zero deployed, charging forward into the breach.

Flying up and over the ship, Matt pointed his left hand and cast [Mana Beam] directly in front of their path. An arm-thick beam of mana cut out from the shield, and the seemingly empty space in front of them lit up with a wash of explosions, but Matt didn’t stop firing his spell. He waved his hand around in an arc, trying to clear a wider path for them.

A squad of five darted in close to the ship's shields and tried to cast counterspells, but with Aster and Light defending him, their attempts failed and his mana washed away most of the asteroids that had been placed in front of them.

Their attackers seemed to be waiting, or at least ready for that, and the moment Matt had cleared an open passage through the minefield, they shifted their formations to better cover the exit like two doors slamming shut.

Maven also must have considered that her personal cue, as she exited her ship with a confident swagger and over two dozen Sect fighters following her in small squad formations.

No, Matt was not going to allow that.

Turning his pointing finger, Matt cut off the stream of [Mana Beam] and sent the [Breach] he had been charging at her and her group of goons.

Matt had only been able to charge the spell with a paltry one hundred million mana, but it was still more than large enough to send Maven and her gang scattering like ants. The ship they exited from wasn’t so nimble, and despite redirecting its shields, it was sent spinning through space with its back half crumpled and mana leaking from a shattered storage compartment.

General Darrow's voice came through their channel, “Stop them from attacking the ship! Drifter is working to keep us in one piece, but we’re taking too much fire!.”

Matt turned his attention to the spells that cut right through their magical shields and slammed on the hull’s armor plating. The damage wasn’t immediately obvious, thanks to Drifter’s Talent trying to keep everything together, but Matt didn’t need General Darrow to point out the issue.

Light was already turning spells into illusions if they pierced the shields, but the spells with piercing effects were interspersed with hundreds or thousands of normal spells, and they could only tell one from the other when it slipped through their shield. The other Ascender did admirably, even with only that tiny fraction of time to respond, but Light only managed to stop around three-quarters of the spell's landing. The damage from the attacks that slipped through was rapidly starting to add up.

Three Lizzes jumped forward and lashed out with their own spells, but Matt turned to the side of the ship, where  most piercing attacks were being sent from.

[Dragonflame] washed out like a nightmare of fire, and Matt smiled as the front-most attacking formations scattered to avoid more of their cultivators being set ablaze. His smile quickly vanished as the rest of the squads activated red barriers that blocked his torrent of flames.

[Dragonflame] might be easily countered, but that was why Matt had its cousin. [Dragon's Drought] sent eddies of sand carried on hurricane-strength winds at the enemy position. Their flame wards did little to stop the raging sand from consuming them, sand shredding skin from flesh as easily as it tore through their shields.

Matt was going to repeat his actions, but had his attention pulled to the rear, where Maven darted through their shield with a harpoon that she threw at the rear of their ship.

The projectile flew through the emptiness of space with a rattle of chains that Matt felt in his bones and Domain.

He didn’t need Darrow’s hasty evaluation to understand they couldn’t allow that harpoon to land on their ship.

Stick and Stone were the closest to the projectile, and without hesitating, they threw themselves at the weapon, bodies, spells, and Domains at the ready. They were sent tumbling back as the harpoon glowed a sickly green, but they did manage to slow the projectile long enough for Matt to reach it.

He flared his Intent even as he cast a crystallized [Bulwark], interposing himself and his shields between the ship and Maven’s strike.

Matt was Dauntless, and he would not be moved by a simple projectile.

His [Bulwark], despite being reinforced by his Tier 25 Talent, exploded the moment the harpoon touched its crystalline surface. Instead of putting his body in front of the harpoon, Matt positioned himself right beside its shaft, and the moment the barbed head passed him, he reached out and grabbed the weapon with his left hand.

It burned with power that tried to degrade Matt’s very being into sludge, the harpoon sought to bind his decomposing form to itself in a  feedback loop meant to keep him from escaping as the weapon slowly killed him. At least, that was how it was supposed to work. It tried, but Matt’s left hand simply refused to be destroyed, which prevented the effects from harming him. Despite his hand stopping the magical effect, it still took every ounce of willpower he had left being channeled through his Intent to lock himself in place and halt the momentum of the harpoon.His exhaustion from depleting his will power so quickly almost had him wishing for a hole to crawl into, as his spirit screamed for him to stop and recover. But Matt steeled himself and put the harpoon away in his spatial ring for later study, before turning to where Maven watched from outside the shields, refusing to let any of that weakness show.

A spell narrowly missed Matt, redirected from their ship by Aster, but he never took his eyes off Maven, who blew him a kiss in response. Rage boiled up in Matt, but he strangled it and simply pointed at her with his left hand.

She flickered to the side, and seeing her flinch, Matt turned his attention to where he predicted she would end up, and lashed out with a [Telekinesis] that was little more than a flat plane of force... just with five million mana backing it. The closest ships exploded, while those farther away simply crumpled under the sudden force as they were hit with his fury manifested. For a brief moment, the rain of attacks on them slowed.

Turning his attention back to his comrades, Matt noted that Stick and Stone were back on their feet thanks to Bulwark's healing efforts, but their readouts on his [AI] were more red than green, with little bits of orange showing non-critical but serious damage. They had taken that corrosive force head on, and had come out worse for wear.

Before he could focus on them, Maven returned, but this time she was flanked by the cultivators who had been in her ship. En masse, Maven’s unit darted through their shield and went straight for the rear of the ship, where the engines were exposed.

Two Lizzes moved in close to support him, along with Shadow, but Matt frowned at the lineup.

They were seriously outnumbered, and he was sure they were prepared for their individual tricks.

Activating [Archmage’s Presence], Matt slashed out even as he formed five copies of his sword with [Sword Twin]. Two of them immediately merged with his blade, but three of them flew to the side and started attacking the elites, trying to tie them up.

Matt slashed out at the woman who was in between himself and Maven. She blocked his initial blow, but he used his return swing to send a [Mana Slash] at her. She was still in her blocking position, but was unprepared for a spell at that level, and with her arms shattered, she was sent tumbling out of the way.

That still bought Maven the time she needed to dart forward and through the defenders.

Unable to teleport with his ring thanks to the spatial lock, Matt pointed at Maven’s back and cast [Mana Beam]. Maven twisted, but instead of retreating into the mass of Sect cultivators, she dodged forward, trying to get Matt to attack his own ship.

Her dodge might have saved her from Matt, but that just put her right into Shadow’s waiting daggers.

Turning, he slashed at the nearest Sect fighter while charging [Lightning Torrent]. Allie could handle Maven; of that he was certain.

***

Allie dropped her Intent, allowing others to sense her once again as she drove her daggers at Maven.

The Sect elite blocked her leading dagger, but Allie expected that and drove her blade at the womans blocking hand, intending to sever the appendage at the wrist. Her attack was interrupted by the woman's rear legs that kicked down at her thighs and waist.

Having seen the poison present on the rest of the weapons the Sects had been using, she wasn’t going to let such a blow land.

Shadow resisted the urge to teleport behind Maven and drive her blade into the woman's head. One, that was an obvious trick. Two, with the spatial restrictions that had been layered here, her teleport would be slow enough that Maven could probably dodge. And three, her gut told her that was a bad idea. She wasn’t sure where exactly those ideas came from, but she had long since learned to trust them.

Flying upward and over Maven, Allie launched a series of small attacks at her head and eyes.

Maven flinched back, and Allie used that opportunity to dart in and landed a large wound on the other woman's shoulder armor, breaking her collarbone.

Flying back, she avoided the follow-up strike and lashed out at the foot.

Her daggers cut through Maven’s armor, but Allies' instincts again warned her that something was  wrong, and so she refrained from following up with any aggressive melee. Instead, she cast [Fan of Blades], and after throwing the copies of her daggers in every direction, she cast [Deadeye] on Maven, letting the blades rain down on her with potent accuracy.

When she saw an opening as Maven dodged a little too far to the right, Allie darted in and drove her dagger into Maven’s gut and twisted.

Blood flowed, and as Allie wrenched the dagger out, ready to dodge a follow-up attack, she found nothing attacking her. Instead, a spell darted out and hit one of the ship's engines, completely destroying it.

One down, only three remaining.

That wasn’t good. Darting in, Allie slashed out a dozen times, landing a few glancing blows, which forced Maven to turn back and focus on Allie. [Mirror Image] made it seem like Allie split in two, but the real her never moved, and when she darted forward, ready to drive her blade through Maven's eye, she was glad she continued to heed her gut, and didn’t dive in recklessly.

Mostly because her guts were now strewn about everywhere, as Maven's now griffin leg claws tore at Allie, and her hand claws reached for her head. Ignoring the poisons and curses that started to ravage her, Allie moved to deflect the claw-swipes, only to find that Maven’s strength was far greater than it had ever been before.

Her claw, which should have been deflected, slashed across Allie’s helm and tore four razor thin lines through its plating, despite the helm being some of the best Tier 25 armor in the Empire. More pain flared through Allie as her vision was ruined, but she ignored that as she dedicated most of her attention to stopping the poisons from entering her brain while also trying to retreat without taking any more hits.

Being blinded wasn’t the largest issue she faced. She barely even used her eyes half the time, preferring reliance on her spatial awareness. But while she could normally keep up with the Dao Child well enough, she now found herself outmuscled and outpaced with every passing second.

It seemed impossible, but Maven had gone from someone just below her in combat power to someone a decent bit stronger.

That didn’t mean Allie would simply roll over and accept her fate, and she defiantly scored a deep wound on Maven’s chest that healed faster than it should have. The healing didn’t rival Matt and his stupid [Regeneration] trick, but it was a close match, which meant she needed a new tactic.

Allie spun and took a blow on her back that would have taken her arm, but used that opportunity to drive one of her blades into Maven’s flank and left it there as she blocked with her single remaining dagger.

Torment’s Rage jetted in, fire coalescing into a massive volcanic greatsword, only for Maven to transform into some kind of horrid tree root-bunny monster and tear the demonic figure in half with three blurring attacks. The flames gutted out, and Allie felt her breath catch in her throat. Rage was tough, hard for even her to damage, and she’d just… torn it in pieces?

What the hell was this woman on?

Darrow spoke into her mind, “You’re doing well, Shadow. I can’t tell what is responsible for empowering her so much, but the amount of mana and willpower she’s utilizing can’t be sustained. Keep probing to try and find its limits, and prevent her fro—”

Allie stopped listening as Maven blurred and closed the distance between them, and once more, Torment’s summons were torn to shreds. She took a crescent moon spell that cut off one of her legs, but landed a slash that nearly pierced Maven’s helm and took her eye out, though it failed to penetrate deeper and take her life. Unfortunately, before she could teleport her leg back into its place, Maven transformed into a ravenous dragon and ate it whole, shredding it to pieces well beyond what her normal armor could sustain.

Still, that opened up enough of an opportunity for two Lizzes to close the distance and begin a proper dragon-hunt.

She was only missing a single leg, so she leaped forward to try and keep pressing Maven, but Bulwark yanked on her neck and she reluctantly disengaged.

***

Darrow blinked as Shadow was pulled back into the ship by a struggling Bulwark. Their healer had been working overtime, having only just finished patching up Stick and Stone.

This situation was less than ideal, and he pushed his third eye to its limits as he tracked the battle. His nascent Intent was sparking, but he put it to the side.

He marked another unit possessing the armor-piercing weapons that were dealing so much damage to their ship, identifying another target for Light to take out, but he knew that they had a serious issue with Maven being boosted.

It was standard fare to empower an elite to match an Ascender, but it was rare for the boost to be quite this strong. He wasn’t certain what was going on, but it was his job to find out.

Once he knew what the secret was, he could counter it. Because there was always a secret weakness. Some hidden formation or unstable potion, perhaps a secret cabal of support mages hidden in the wings. Some clever trick that the Sects had been saving, waiting for the opportune moment to put not one, but two teams of Ascenders out of commission.

“What are you,” he asked himself, studying the projection in front of him. Next to the illusion of Maven, mirroring her every action as she engaged with Team Zero, a series of diagnostic spells confirmed and added context to what he could see with his own skills.

There was no external flow of mana, so support mages were unlikely. There was no sign of cybernetics, but that meant little for a shapeshifter of Mavens calibur. That the Federation might empower one not of their own with the runes they had been putting on elites was unlikely, but not impossible. The woman’s spirit was in major flux, and while most of his probes were blocked, he got the distinct impression of major turmoil. An unstable, overpowered potion, perhaps? That implied a time limit, that was good.

It meant that Drifter- Darrow steadied himself as the ship shook again- only needed to keep them alive long enough for the potion to run out, and then they could easily make their escape.

A potion would also mean that there was no shortcut. No buffs to dispel, no formations to smash. They’d simply need to wait out the boost.

At least the boost was not such that Maven would be able to take the full might of Team Zero. If all ten met her at full strength, without the need to protect the ship, then even now, she would fall.

Was it worth sacrificing the ship to remove her from the board?

He contemplated that and ran through the numbers, weighing his options against the greater war effort. That was why he was a General, and not simply a Colonel; he had to understand and act for the betterment of the Empire’s war effort, even at the cost of anything else.

Was it worth it to give up all these supplies to kill Maven?

There was no real backup plan, no second way for them to get home without Shadow unveiling her full capabilities. To be certain, it wouldn’t be a full revelation of her powers, but it would be a chink in the armor. Whether it was enough for the tactical Seekers of the other Great Powers to determine more of her abilities than they intended, he didn’t know. There was no doubt that it was outside of the allotted actions given by their counter-information Seekers, and that carried risk.

No, that alone was insufficient reason to eliminate Maven now, instead of the next time they met. When that was combined with the truly massive amount of goods they had pilfered from the Republic, and the chain reaction that would have on the enemy's rapidly advancing warfronts?

The answer was clear. The mission was unchanged; the goods, and their secrets, were more important than Maven.

Looking outward to the remaining thousands of troops, Darrow ran through ten thousand scenarios and settled on one he hoped wouldn’t blow up on him. His newest Ascenders had listened to him so far, and were remarkably well behaved for Ascenders, but they had a deep seated personal grudge with Maven. He wasn’t sure they would be willing to follow orders if those orders didn’t involve killing Maven at all costs.

To test the waters, he sent Quill an order. “Let Stick, Stone, and Torment handle the rear of the ship. Relieve some of the pressure off of Light.”

Darrow was worried Quill was going to ignore his order, as once he disengaged, he stayed where he was and cast [Dragonflame] at the elites. The burst of fire was intense and actually killed two of the attacking elite, but Darrow was relieved when he saw that most of the flames spread out like a wave before washing over the attacking side troops. Quill used that opportunity to do as he was instructed, and he disengaged from the nine remaining elites.

Darrow already had an understanding of their remaining strength, and knew they could be handled by the other three long enough for Quill to relieve Light.

With a quarter of his attention, Darrow tracked Quill's progress while calling out more of the piercing attacks for Light. The mage might as well have been a construct with the kind of efficiency he was performing with. He dismantled wave after wave of attacks, and with the losses Quill was out there inflicting, Light was even starting to get ahead of things and take the offensive.

Checking on Shadow, he sent her orders to slip out and try to disable the anti-teleportation formations the moment she was stable.

Just as things seemed like they were starting to come under control, Darrow's attention was drawn to the rear of the ship as the second engine exploded.

Orders went flying as he worked to salvage the situation.

***

Ai’la swore as a linking staple overloaded, breaking free and flinging itself violently across the cargo hold. That forced her to drop to the ground, lest she be injured by the flying rune-fragment. She couldn’t risk even a minor injury slowing her down with so many attacks hitting, and sometimes puncturing, the ship around her. If her makeshift spatial items popped open, she and all of Team Zero would get to experience what it felt like to be a pinata stuffed with explosives, and she didn’t want that.

Hearing it clatter against the far wall, falling to the ground with a clink that didn’t set off a chain reaction of popping, she rushed over to the crate it had come from. Eyes closed, she ran her fingers over the whirring exterior of the box, letting the vibrations and mana-flows wash over her, telling her with perfect clarity the status of the crate.

Like all of the crates, it hadn’t been prepared for the violent yank that pulled them from Chaotic Space, and the spatial lock established moments thereafter had prevented its normal systems from recovering. With the crates already straining under the loads they were under, that had redirected most of the spatial pressure to a tertiary backup system, and it was not happy. Even now, portions of the crate’s internals were randomly fluctuating in size, building up and releasing mechanical pressure haphazardly. The linking staple had simply been the latest victim of that phenomenon, having grown even as its surroundings had shrunk, sending the fragment of metal flying.

The sudden loss of a linking staple had correspondingly put far more pressure on all of the other staples. Fortunately, they hadn't burst quite yet. She had expected something to go wrong when she built these things for a combat mission, but if she didn’t relieve that pressure sooner rather than later, the rest of the linkages would be turning into popcorn shortly.

[De-tension] siphoned a bit of the physical pressure off, [Temporary Conduit] enabled her to take a bit of the mana-strain onto herself. That felt like someone had kicked her in the chin, but Ai’la ignored the jarring pain and riffled through her toolbelt with [Hundred Hands], looking for a replacement.

Unfortunately, the linking staple she could find was designed for use with fire enchantments, which was… an issue. She set her AI to keep looking for a better staple, grabbed a spare fire-force driver, fused it with the fire staple, then hard-tweaked the force driver with an arcane-attuned mana crystal to function as a channel for the existing space mana.

That didn’t fit into the space she had, so Ai’la grabbed a thin piece of sheet metal, folded it around the bodged-together staple and carefully sculpted it into the right shape and size. A quick cast of [Running Install] averted the crate from disaster, and let Ai’la turn her attention to its neighboring crate, where a string of compression runes had been damaged and burned out.

She was halfway through fixing that when the ship rattled as an attack hit the outer hull, throwing off her balance and wrecking the rune she was working on. It began to glow black, and Ai’la’s eyes grew wide.

Panicking slightly, she grabbed her wrench and smacked the box three times. The first forcibly ensured the enchantment kept running for a few moments, the second knocked loose the faulty rune, and the third just felt good. If she was going to die by exploding pinata, she wanted to be the one who got the last smack in. Not some stupid attacker who had no idea what they were messing with. Wrench still ringing, she ripped out the faulty rune, melted it to slag, and shoved it through a battlefield processing plant. That would take fifteen seconds, but she couldn’t just sit on her butt while that finished.

While it was running, a bang drew her attention to a crate behind her, where a copper banding strip had given way under the pressure. That at least was easy enough to fix, magically welding the metal back in place and jump-starting the enchantment again only took fourteen seconds.

Perfect. A full second to relax.

Then, her processor finished, and she quickly remade the rune array, spilling a bottle of Drooping Vineroot Essence in the process all over the floor. It reacted with a pile of already-spilled Darklands Dust and spread space-distorting black smoke across the floor.

Ai’la ignored it, pushing on her Intent to ensure the red-hot strip of metal integrated properly with the existing enchantment, and the box almost visibly creaked as it settled into place.

Then a massive crack spiderwebbed across the top of a crate across the hold, and Ai’la got back to work.

***

Torment felt numb. Hatred was a whimpering puppy in the back of his mind, Rage was outright dead, and even Fear and Terror had been reduced to a baby-sized cloaked figure with too-large eyes, and a colorful stuffed animal respectively. Greed was still active, but was having difficulty sustaining itself. There wasn’t much avarice to be found on a battlefield. Even Shock was unlikely to have much to feed upon, not with the broad chaos which gripped the battlefield.

Thus, he was predominantly relying on his normal summons. While [Wolfpack] strengthened them, and his Domain and spells empowered them all the same, he was little more than just a… two-bit conjurer without his Demons.

Oh, to be one of the brave and bold, the mighty whose mere hand could vanquish enemies, and not beholden to the mere whims of chemicals in the body and imbalances in the spirit, whose mighty whims managed to fool all who saw him that he was worth anything at all…

A pulse of his Concept locked Despair away, Annoyance overpowering the specter and chaining it up to the wall. Things were not so dire that he would loose that particular demon, not upon this most foul of nights. Not until all Hope was lost, and perhaps not even then! Quill was more than capable of beating back so many of the Sect soldiers that an outright loss was almost impossible.

He, Stick and Stone may have been on their last legs- well, leg in Stone’s case- but they were strong, THEY WERE MIGHTY!

He smiled as Love licked the inside of his cheek, and he gave his goodest girl a spiritual scritch on the head. With Despair properly constrained, his other Demons were expressing their own forms of encouragement.

Awe properly blossomed as he watched Quill cut through a dozen Sect soldiers in a single blow, and the sand-colored dragon burst forth from his chest, setting claw and fang against the awestruck soldiers it faced.

Stick’s armor decompiled, twisting bands of cloth snaking around one another in just the coolest way. Then, as she redistributed and magnified her weight, it snapped a Sect fighter in half.

Torment gasped as the flood of essence from the soldier was replaced with a silvery explosion, sending Stick and Stone tumbling away from one another and disrupting their comforting Domains! They were both vulnerable! How dare they!

Another Sect member struck forward with a rapier, attacking the ship while the duo were still recovering, and Love leaped in Torment’s throat. Awe was too busy, but he could still save the mission! FOR THE EMPEROR!

Joy sang as his body blocked the attack, but the spell tore through his meager defenses. Fear regained a lot of strength as he saw the mangled mess that his torso had become, no matter that it was eminently survivable. His body was torn, his body was broken, hewasgoingto-

A pulse of his Domain silenced them all.

HE WAS HIS OWN MASTER. AND THE REST OF HIM NEEDED TO SHUT UP RIGHT NOW OR HE WOULD TEAR THEM ALL TO SHREDS.

Curiosity piped up, asking how the new Rage might be affected, if it was spawned from internalized self-loathing, but Torment already knew the answer. He’d kill that Demon and let a new one take its place.

He was just glad that everyone else would be alright.

Caring materialized, helping to knit together Sebastian’s body, and he relaxed. Impatience piped up, wanting him to keep moving, and Torment drew upon that emotion to try and stabilize himself, keep himself in the fight… but he wasn’t Quill, and he wasn’t Dauntless or Endless.

As he was claimed by the darkness, Torment felt Bulwark grabbing him.

***

Drifter pulled up hard, her ship screeching under the strain. She didn’t need the console to tell her she’d taken the stray shot to her left wing's thruster, as her Talent simply stepped in to ensure it didn’t inhibit her actual flying.

Hot on her tail were a trio of Sect fighters on oversized flying swords, armed with some truly enormous ballistae, firing off magical blasts that homed in on her ship. Quill blocked two as a target of opportunity, but that left one still hot on her tail.

An asteroid loomed before her, but she didn’t stop, instead punching her speed even harder, jetting towards the massive boulder at a speed well past what most people would call “reckless.” At the last moment before collision, she pulled into a roll, enhancing the adjustment with a skill, and corkscrewed around the obstruction. Her ship groaned under the strain but held strong. The blast that chased her wasn’t so maneuverable, and it detonated against the asteroid she’d so narrowly avoided.

She should have been free, but a second blast she hadn’t seen fired tore through the opening the first had made, so Drifter couldn’t let up yet.

But maybe…

The General came through. In the blink of an eye, Drifter learned the relative positions and general business of all of Team Zero, coordinated a possible solution with the General, and received confirmation from Light that it would work.

The Ascender in question was currently engaged with a deployment of soldiers bombarding him with spells. None were actually landing, the vast majority simply being torn to shreds by a whirling maelstrom of disruptive mana, but they still occupied the man’s attention and kept him from doing anything more important.

Well then, she’d need to come to him.

How would she do that? Well she’d figure that out as she went. She always figured something out.

If she had all of her engines intact it would be an easy maneuver, but she was down to two, which limited her. Though the engines she used in the middle of a battlefield were slower than her ship’s travel speed, it was still faster than just about anyone at her Tier.

That gave her opportunities, but not an answer.

Scanning the battlefield, she saw A dozen Torches cutting their way through the Sect attackers off to the left, but that didn’t immediately help her. On the other side, Quill was casting million mana spells like they were free, and she decided that could work. Cutting left and using the mostly intact underbelly of her ship, she caught one of the waves of flame Quill was burning their attackers with and used that to propel them along faster.

Warnings flashed everywhere as her hull was melting, but it got them across the battlefield in record time.

She disrupted the deployment harassing Light with her own support. Between her own [Fire Bolt]s, [Shardling Barrage], and her ship’s onboard weapons systems, a single pass was all that was needed to break the Sect’s local cohesion. That, in turn, let Light snag the final projectile chasing her, pull it into a halo of pure power, and unleash it in turn as a wave of overwhelming Plasma on the surviving soldiers.

In one go, not only had Light taken out the soldiers occupying him, but also freed her from the pressure that was the homing siege spell. Her pursuers unleashed a new trio of attacks, but Drifter hit a hard-stop despite her Domain screaming that was a bad idea, and pulled her ship around. She shot off in reverse to center back up with the line Matt had carved into the asteroid field at the start of this ambush. The middle sect fighter narrowly avoided a head-on collision with her, and that threw their flight pattern off enough that they were sitting ducks for her own counterattack.

Her cannons charged and fired in an instant.

Boom! Headshot.

She was so awesome.

***

Aster cast her newly upgraded [Icicle] with [Barrage] at where Maven and Liz fought, not really worrying about the ones that hit Liz or the sect fighters who tried to rush in and assist Maven.

They didn’t need to talk to know they needed to stop the Dao Child, who was empowered beyond the norm. She was doing her best to contain the woman with [Dampening Snowfall], a spell that created snowflakes that drifted around and slightly disrupted magic, and [Winter Mirage], a simple looking spell that weakened skill mods and reduced skill power in an area. Both of them were amplified by her Tier 25, which she had crept out into the surroundings disguised as part of the same skills.

Aster would have preferred to keep her Tier 25 more hidden, but she was currently using it to absorb a mana stone Matt had given her as a back up to her back ups. Burning through enough mana to need to utilize the reserve left her with little choice but to bring her Tier 25 out and into the fight.

It was working though, and she had been able to slow Maven down without her catching on as she tried to fight her way free of Liz, but the two of them were keeping her on the defensive.

Allie was all sorts of fucked up thanks to Maven’s ambush, but Liz was far harder to hurt. Even when the two Lizzes took wounds that turned necrotic, they simply shifted the surrounding area to its blood form and expelled the corrupted blood.

Aster hit the now half griffin, half snake woman with [Brittle Cold], trying to degrade the power of the woman's Intent. But the spell seemed only half as effective as it normally was, so she decided to pull out two of her ice golems.

They were destroyed in seconds, but they managed to distract Maven and send her flying into Liz, who landed a blow that was blocked by a misty shield, but Aster used the golem’s ice to freeze a few of Mavens reinforcements solid before they could interfere.

Not letting that deter her, Aster threw her own Domain at the woman, increasing the effectiveness of her ice spells.

[Absolute White] seemed to catch Maven off guard, and it slowed her down long enough for Liz to drive a spear into her open snake mouth, shattering one of her fangs, but Maven seemed undeterred and chomped down on the spearhead. The spear didn’t break as Aster half-feared it would, but Maven was able to use the spear to shake Liz and throw her to the side.

Maven then turned on the other Liz, trying to kill her, but Liz took the slashing blow on her raised arms and just flowed around the attack as she transformed her body to blood. Liz took that opportunity to drive a tendril of blood that hardened into a golden crystal spear at Maven’s jaw.

Maven tried to dodge, but Aster hit her with a [Headwind] that slowed her just enough for the blow to land and carve a shallow cut along her face, with no misty shield to protect her this time.

Maven shook like a wet dog and growled even as her snake face transformed into a more bear-like form, and she slashed at Liz with a massive paw. Liz took the blow to the face to land a blow on Maven's arm, but her clone exploded before she was able to do more than superficial damage.

Maven turned to Aster, but instead of fleeing, Aster stood her ground, knowing reinforcements were coming.

Liz came in from where she had been tossed aside, the other Liz was already reforming, and Matt came flying in, blade ablaze.

Aster trusted her team and so held firm and cast [Glacial Spear] boosted by [Glacial Strike]. The massive chunk of ice was easily dodged by Maven, but Aster had planned for that and cast [Cracked Shatter] on the projectile right as it was passing by the Dao Child.

As the ice exploded and shrapnel hit Maven, it stuck to her like glue, and Aster used that connection to cast [Black Ice]. She could have gone with a slowing spell that would have prevented Maven's paw from cutting through her chest and bisecting her, but if she had, Maven might have noticed Matt.

Matt who came in with his blade crackling with lightning that mirrored the deep rage coursing through their bond.

Got her.

***

Chen Zedong gasped as Shadow teleported into their hidden base that housed their warding cores. That shouldn’t be possible. Dao Child Maven had taken her out, and no one should be able to teleport under such conditions.

Sh—

***

Matt was furious as he reentered the battlefield.

Light was barely protecting the ship, all but one of their engines had been destroyed, and Maven had some bullshit power up that let her fight on par with Ascenders.

Slaughtering more than half the Sect attackers who were attacking their ship hadn’t helped his mood either. Being able to see they were almost out of the asteroid belt had helped a little, as once they were clear of the formations that had been woven through it, they could reenter chaotic space and leave. Even with that bit of good news, Matt was still fuming.

But that was all in the past now. He had Maven dead to rights.

As his blade landed on Maven, who had only realized he was close at the last second, he unleashed the [Lightning Torrent] he had charged with thirty million mana.

The explosion rocked the world and even sent ripples through the fabric of reality itself, but Matt was wholly unaffected thanks to his lighnting-skewed [Cracked Phantom Armor]. The explosion even destroyed the spear that was still impaling him.

Maven reeled back, her left arm blown off, but her smoking right arm was mostly intact.

Matt didn’t let up and dove in with a [Mana Slash] following up his first attack. He knew that wasn’t enough and added in small, few hundred thousand mana, random manipulation skills to harass her further.

Maven, moving as fast as he did when using [Archmage’s Presence], dodged the blade attack but struggled to dodge the follow up strikes thanks to his manipulation efforts slowing her down. She was able to deflect the [Mana Slash]es, but the loss of her arm meant some damage was getting through to her body no matter how well she blocked.

He was pursuing her despite them starting to get a little far from the ship, and Matt pushed his advantage by playing things a little more risky than usual.

Aiming for her head, her claw caught his blade. They battled for control for an instant, but he was still stronger than Maven despite all her buffs, and he leveraged that to land a deep wound on her hip as he wrenched his blade free from her hand, taking a finger with him.

Hacking down with a heavy blow that cracked her chest armor, he took a swipe to the guts that just barely sliced [Cracked Phantom Armor] to ensure his blow landed.

Confident, he pushed back in for another blow, willingly taking a blow to the chest. This time, Maven’s claw sliced right through [Cracked Phantom Armor], but Matt didn’t care. He felt the poison that raced through his body, but [Barbarian’s Hide], [Regeneration] and [Archmage’s Presence] crushed the poison before it did more than kill a few organs.

Not letting up on his rage-filled offensive, Matt landed a flew glancing blows, slowly whittling through her defensive spells. But just when he was starting to deal real damage to Maven, she changed the game. A flickering dagger appeared in her hand, and in one smooth motion, Maven threw it not at Matt, but at their ship's engines.

It was a perfect shot, on course to score a direct hit on their engine, but a Liz manifested from the blood that trailed their ship and caught the blade before it could land. The blade exploded, destroying Liz, but she had prevented the attack from landing.

Then, finally, Light came into the fight.

The man seemed as cold as ever, but Matt suspected the mage was quite angry at someone nearly killing his teammate, and it showed in the large spells he started casting from the outset.

Maven was hit by a plethora of small spells that started to eat away at her, but stopped when they were only pockmarks.

Matt ignored the spells and slashed out at her again and again, adding more to the damage.

Growling behind [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s translucent helm, Matt saw an eddy of blood mist move into Maven’s other side.

Lunging forward, blade extended, Matt thrust at Maven his blade eager to pierce her head.

She dodged, but that sent her right onto Liz’s solidified hand that impaled her.

Matt was sure they had her, but before they could do any more damage, Maven exploded in three colors of smoke and vanished.

At seemingly the same moment, their ship exited the asteroid field, and Matt felt the spatial suppression vanish from their surroundings.

Seeing that Bulwark had already grabbed Aster and pulled her into the ship, Matt grabbed Light and Liz before flying into the ship through one of the gaps in the hull.

The moment they were inside, they exited into chaotic space with a lurch. Knowing the fight and pursuit might not be over, Matt grabbed the crystal he used to feed the shields and pumped all of his regeneration into it, forgoing all but a small trickle of mana that he kept feeding [Regeneration] with.

Their ship needed the mana more than he needed a heart or lungs.

With their ship’s hull so badly damaged, they were at the mercy of the corrosive energy that was chaotic space, and the battle before had drained or destroyed a lot of their ships' defenses. Not all of them, or their ship would have just fallen apart the moment they entered chaotic space, but their efficiency was going to be awful until they could return to Camp Lightfoot and get repairs. Which meant he needed to keep them powered.

Glancing up, Matt looked to Origami, who panted next to the still intact boxes.

It had been a little sloppy, but they had completed the mission despite Maven's ambush and surprise power up.

Looking back to the rapidly shrinking mote of light behind them, Matt grit his teeth.

Part of him wished he had simply ignored orders and attacked Maven with Allie right from the start, but the rational part of him knew that they had only escaped this ambush with their payload thanks to General Darrow’s deft handling of the situation, and any deviation could have cost the war as a whole tremendously.

His grudge with Maven would be repaid one day, but allowing millions of soldiers to die because their enemies had nigh endless provisions wasn’t worth it, no matter how much Matt wished it were otherwise. There would be more chances to take out Maven, he was sure. No matter how she had gotten her boosts, the Sects would be trying to throw her at them even if the surprise factor was gone.

She might have gotten a power up, but Matt suspected by the time they returned to Camp Lightfoot, he’d have a few more of his own waiting for him.