Grey catapulted forward to meet her, moving so fast his feet slipped along the ground. His Steel-Toe Shrouds were ruined, but his Black Forces were still very much there. He just hadn’t managed to upgrade them enough to be useful against opponents of this caliber.
But right now, he was going to have to make do.
BOOM.
"Fuck me."
The angel lady swung down her rod with a single arm, still holding the ball of chaos high in the air with an arm. And yet, it felt to Grey like he had run into an impenetrable wall.
He felt every moment of his feet slowly leaving the ground, of his arms cracking beneath the pressure, of his blood vessels bursting beneath the strain.
But he also knew that if he flew back like he was almost assuredly, undoubtedly going to, Thi Lan and Amunet would die. They were already rushing forward to try and support him. They weren’t idiots. While they knew they were weaker, they could also tell that this opponent was beyond Grey alone.
’Dammit!’
Grey roared and his hands became coated in his pimp gloves, crimson strands roaring around him as he activated his Bringer of Light gloves at the same time.
Tendrils of white gold extended from his body and dug into the earth, piercing through it and sinking down 10 meters, then 20, then 30, then nearly 50 before he finally managed to anchor himself down.
A blossoming of blood came from his mouth as his body withstood all the pressure to stand his ground.
His feet, once lifting into the air, slammed back down. And his arms gave way to the pressure, cracking beneath.
The rod nearly slammed against his body, but rather than staying back and letting it happen, Grey swung his second hammer right at the angel lady’s head.
With her arm occupied by holding up the sphere of chaos, the path should have been wide open.
Except it wasn’t.
Her wing curled forward like a shield and Grey felt like he slammed right into a brick wall. His arm rebounded away like he had smashed against a trampoline, an entire half of his body buzzing as though he had hit a funny bone that shut the entire half down.
"Fuck me." He said again.
The feathers of the wings splayed open like an array of knives and they slashed at Grey.
Suddenly, the woman slowed down considerably as though she had been trapped within time and space, and then Amunet suddenly swept in, piercing forward with her rapier. A gauntlet of black coated her arm and she exploded with power beyond her body’s means as a hand that was far more corporeal than normal pulled on her muscles with the strings of a puppet.
BOOM.
Time sped up again and the woman was sent tumbling and gliding into the distance. All the while, she still held her rod in one hand and the sphere of chaos up high with the other.
Grey coughed up another mouthful of blood. The moment the pressure his body was under disappeared it was like it wanted to collapse.
"Fuck me..."
"Is that your new favorite saying now?"
"I’m tired, okay?" Grey grunted.
He had gone from killing a bunch of aliens, to flying for hours, and then right into this.
"Well I literally don’t have a leg right now. Less complaining. More smashing."
"And here I thought you were only so light because of that flat chest."
"Do you think if I stick this rapier between your ears it’ll come out the other side clean?" Amunet wondered aloud. "I’m convinced it might even squeak a little bit. What do you think?"
"I think that if you’re fantasizing about sticking stuff in people you’re not well equipped enough to pull it off. Now if you want to talk about taking a stick..."
"Why don’t we see if I’m equipped or not first?" Amunet grinned dangerously.
"INCOMING!" Thi Lan roared.
The two of them were already moving.
The white-gold strands Grey had dug into the earth rotated, ripping out a chunk of stone as large as a small hill as he leapt into the air and drew the angel lady’s attention.
Amunet shot forward like a rocket.
Thi Lan’s palms had already started smashing out as she spoke. She had seemingly abandoned her whip and dagger, sending one palm flying through the air after another.
They condensed into compressed air, the etching of a lotus embroidered onto every palm.
The angel lady completely ignored them, looking up at the skies where Grey was standing above what almost looked like an inverted mountain.
Grey roared.
"Hey. I’m going to need you to pay a little bit more attention to me. This is kind of rude." Amunet said, appearing beneath the angel lady.
Thi Lan’s palms appeared and the angel lady was pushed back a little bit, tipping her just a bit off balance.
Amunet put her entire body behind her thrust, aiming for right between the angel lady’s shoulder blades.
BOOM.
The tip of her rapier bent wildly, the faintest small edge of it managing to break a little bit of the angel lady’s defenses. But it wasn’t nearly enough.
That said... it didn’t have to be.
The angel lady went soaring up as Grey continued to roar.
The white-gold lines condensed around the enormous inverted mountain.
And then it shrunk by half the size.
And then another half.
And then another half after that.
It began to glow like a violent, rampaging sun, molten earth condensing into molten metals that burned the very air itself.
Grey’s mind reflected with the thoughts of his battle against Duko, a remembrance of the black diamond that he had seen.
He pulled on his magnetic field harder and harder until his very Neural Frame burned itself.
And then he smashed down from above like a burning meteor.
BOOM.
The angel lady slammed into the bottom of the inverted mountain as Grey pressed down from above, burying her back beneath the earth.
An eruption shook the maze.