Chapter Fifty-One

Author’s Note: The following chapter takes place from the perspective of Rose, the Haven Goddess of Illusions. After the next few chapters with her, it’ll be business as usual from Amaia’s point of view. 

“Fuck!” I shouted tumbling on the ground next to the two Nobles I ported with me. I got to my feet and stood across from them, having a staring contest as we sized each other up. I made it so I was fighting two Archs. Adriel got the better end of the deal, but that was only because I knew he was one to fuck around when it came to battles. The motherfucker thought he was invincible. 

One of the Archs was Psyna. She was a telepath and possessed telekinesis. She was probably the more dangerous of the two. But the other wasn’t to be taken lightly either as the other was Ice Cap. His look was ridiculous as something must’ve happened to make him look like a humanoid blue tiger, but I guessed the senses of a big cat came with the look. He also possessed ice powers as his name suggested. To what extent? I’d have to find out. 

“You kinda screwed yourself over teleporting us on top of a dam,” Ice Cap said, scratching his baseball cap. “Unless, of course, that was intentional.” 

“Let’s try to keep the chatting to a minimum this time, yeah?” Psyna said to the tiger kid. The way she said this made me think they were in a relationship. Only reason I knew was because I had heard that tone of voice used with…Lynx before. Right before I beat the shit out of whoever had the nerve to talk to her in that condescending manner. “Keep in mind that she’s responsible for aiding in the death of our friends.”

Ice Cap didn’t say another word for a while after that. Atop this thin bridge-like area of the dam, we were ready to do what I sent us here for. And within seconds of Psyna’s last statement, we rushed at one another. 

I first released my light dragon construct at them, letting it charge up a beam before Ice Cap held his palms out at it and shot a multitude of icicles. The dragon shot through most of them, but I didn’t see Psyna manipulating some of the icicles to go around the dragon and straight for my back. 

As I heard the high pitch sound of the icicles cutting through the air, I spun and allowed them to think I got hit, when in reality, I merely dodged and was walking behind them. As soon as I raised my pistols, Ice Cap sniffed, then spun around to face the real me as he slammed his palms into the dam and raised an ice wall to absorb the bullets I let off. 

While they were behind the wall still, I reloaded and they smartly used my reloading as a cue to jump out. Ice Cap shattered the ice wall, sending ice shards flying at me as Psyna lifted herself with her telekinesis and held me in place. I had my light dragon return to me in time and let off another beam to obliterate the shards. When I did this, instead of continuing to hold me in place, Psyna lifted me into the air, then slammed me back down onto the ground of the dam. This caused my body to create a small crater and crack. 

As they let me get to my feet, I had to think of a logical way to defeat the two of them as they worked really well with each other. And as I paused, Ice Cap rose a small stump of ice then rushed at me while Psyna stayed back and sliced off thin pieces from the stump at me. Each piece was large enough to cut me in half at the speed they were going, but brittle enough from any other angle to be shattered with a mere touch.

I dodged Ice Cap’s flurry of swipes with his claws at me and allowed him to think he had hit me a few times using after images, but his nose allowed him to keep up with the real me. That was the first thing I needed to take care of, and he was in the perfect position to be dealt with. 

As I continued to evade both the ice blades Psyna carved out of the stump and Ice Cap’s attempts to cut me, I maneuvered my light dragon behind him and made it briefly charge a beam. Ice Cap was so focused on landing a hit that it didn’t seem like he should have known my construct was behind him. He turned around at the last second somehow to see it and only raised his arms to block. I quickly glanced over to Psyna to see that she had already seen the dragon and was likely keeping a telepathic link between the two of them. But it was too late for them to do anything as I recalled my dragon without letting it blast a beam which caused Ice Cap to turn back around to me in confusion. As he did, Psyna wasn’t fast enough to keep up and stop me before I pistol-whipped the tiger in the nose, breaking it.

She then caught my arm and appeared furious. Without being able to control my body, Psyna used her telekinesis to snap my arm in two different places before calling my body over with her telekinesis into an ice blade that sliced my body in half.

Ice Cap must have told her the real me was behind her before his nose broke as I tried to unload a clip into the back of her head, but she stopped each of the individual bullets and held them in place before shooting them at me at the same speed. I created a portal in front of myself and another behind Ice Cap and allowed the bullets to shoot at him. Most of them only grazed him, but it didn’t matter that he didn’t die. I had successfully removed one of their advantages. 

Ice Cap froze over his wounds as they both reset and stood in front of me once more. I wondered why Psyna didn’t attempt to do anything with my body before with her telekinesis as the only way I could break out of it was more illusions. Maybe it had something to do with how angry she was--

Using those illusions must exhaust you, a voice said. From within my head. It was Psyna. You forget we each still have a revive as well. 

Get the fuck out of my head, I shouted.

Now, linking with you telepathically, she said. I’ll be able to track where the real you is at all times.