[Edit] Ahah! Frontpage’d ftw. Thankee kindly. ^_^

Man.. this thing shoulda been a chapter and a half! Sorry it took me a day longer than it should have, but this is my longest submission yet. Kindly don’t stabbify / pastify / force me to wear high heels etc. Anyway, thanks all for your support, and not ditching me in my long idleness, I proudly present to you, Drifting Dimensions Part Fourteen! (And <3 to you too Dezling. ^_^ xD)

—And into the Flames—
The angsty groans of the not-quite-dead surrounding their party echoed throughout the mines around them, and our protagonists were more than careful to keep far enough back from the edges of the group –and let the stronger “DarkStriders” do the fighting for now.
“Eeech.. I hate zombies!”, Cross exclaimed as another was casually hacked down by a gleaming warrior with a lengthy (quite literally so) spear.
“I must agree,” said Leul beside him, hitching up her robes to pull them away from the cold, blighted grounds, “anything that feeds primarily on brains well clears the mark for my ‘ick list’.”
“Oh, they’re not that bad…” Kytin remarked a step or so forward, “I think maybe the Zombies are just misunderstood!”
“Don’t even start.” Riella said decisively beside him, looking side to side edgily, ready to pounce on any undead droolface that got within ten paces of her.
“No, really! Imagine if you had to go around all the time with a hole in your head, that’s gotta be drafty! And only one good leg? Terrible!” A voice rasped beside him, barely audible to their group and no further;
“Hhmph. Well why don’t you go attempt to communicate? I’m sure you’ll make fast friends, if you can convince them not to munch your gray matter.” It was Shard, hiding under darksight since they’d arrived, for fear of somebody recognizing him here.

Finally, they reached an opening in the rock wall ahead, glowing red and giving off vibes similar to that of an oven on pre-heat. (And by that I mean hot and smelling of burning fumes.) They left behind the ever demanding calls for ‘braaaaains’, and with the sudden change of scenery came the smell of sulfur and a good deal of additional dry heat. The entire party dragged their feet and coughed their way past bubbling lava pools, snarling hell hounds in various stages of development (also dispatched by the more powerful fringe guards), and over various small gaps to finally meet up with another large group, presumably the forces of unnamed DarkStrider cronie two. Their leader waited as well, glowing dark with the obligatory ebil-aura-of-doom-teh-ohnoes that every evil magician came readily equipped with, and perched somewhat above on a sizable peak of volcanic rock. The man spread his equally gloomy black cloak wide, and cast his hands over the crowds below (and looking quite eerie there, a skull-topped kage in one hand and a hat slung low over his eyes, leaving only glowing pinpricks of light in their places).
“Ooh,” Kytin nudged the warrior beside him to whisper excitedly, “I think this is the part where he reveals all his evil plans to us!”
“Shush,” Riella answered in a similarly hushed tone, “I knew that!”
“Greetings comrades!” the man began in a dark and most thoroughly sarcastic drawl, “Who among men has never sought ultimate power?” (Riella snorts, and Leul rolls her eyes, they both seem to agree.) “We are here today,” he says as he raises the kage, shouting now, “to start on the one definite path to that power! I present to you, the one, the only Fire booster of Broa!” His staff flashes, and the cavern begins to rumble, nearby gas vents shooting agitated steam.

—Trajectory of an Angsty Object—
Last episode, on Drifting Dimensions! *insert summarizing flashes of last part here, concluding in the ever irate Achoss and Cerusk exploding into the air. Because that about summarizes it –the two assassin fiends now tumbling head over haunches past the Cold Fields and numerous (fluffy) Jr. Yeti below.
“Graaah!!”, intoned Achoss in an intellectual protest, as he bounced off the snowy terrain once, and slid off the too near cliff to fall again, rebounding off crag and ice flow and tree until he was reunited with the blissfully solid ground –emitting a sickening crunch. Cerusk landed beside him, no more gracefully, and supplying another thoughtful “ARGH” as he touched down as well.

Scraping sorely battered carcasses off the bloodied snow, the sins wiped similarly reddened faces and straightened tousled armor sets.
“Errr..” it was more of a growl than a word; “Those kids are starting to get on my nerves!” (The author has inclined no comment on this particular cliché.)
“Agreed.. now tell me you have another return scroll, this’ll be a sorry situation if we have to climb out of here like this.” Achoss, reminded, putting their conversation on track without delay.
“Yeah, it’s around here somewhere..” the other replied, rummaging through a hastily produced rucksack. He removed several potion bottles, miraculously unbroken, and took a hearty swig of white medicine before handing it to his brother. Sipping the white potion casually, the sin watched Cerusk with little interest, until at least something leaped out of nowhere to pull the pack out of his hands with a snarl and a set of sharp teeth.

Spitting potion down his front, the assassin reflexively threw the bottle at the nothing attacking his sibling (he was holding the potion bottle in his claw hand, you see), and it gave a yelp and fell back, instantly apparent as a white wolf.
“Oh.. you’ve got to be kidding me,” Cerusk said, mildly shaken, and stepped back to back with Achoss immediately. “White pangs. It HAD TO be white pangs.” More white forms sprung out of the snow, point snouted wolves with teeth bared.
“To the cliff face, NOW!” Achoss demanded, and they carefully backed away from the wide semi-circle of snarling dog-likes closing them in. Reaching a safety distance of a good three paces from the nearest wolves attempting to get behind them, Achoss’ next instruction went without saying;
“RUN!” And they turned around and made it so.

—Arms and Legs Inside the Ride at all Times—
Now, since dearest narrator is in the mood for summary today, here’s what the most recent five minutes of the noble BlastMage’s adventures boil down to;
“AAAAAAAAAA*deepbreath*AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH”. Yup, that about covers it. Flying over the gaseous geyser fields of Nirvana now, the blast pod plummeted toward its target below. It careened for the ground at earth shattering speeds, and then, within seconds of impact, exploded into white light as the airbrake thrusters fired on their front end. The mortified magician inside was flinching at sporratic intervals, looking on the brink of a seizure, and it was all the girl beside him could do not to laugh. He panted heavily, eyes darting side to side, and jumped at the hiss of air as the pod snapped open.
“Oh, don’t be a baby!” Maeve chuckled. The cleric did little more than glance over at her and quiver unhappily. “C’mon, we’ve got to get out now.” she said, more or less attempting to console the panicked man, and took him by the hand to pull him from the contraption as the NakMachine climbed from its spot in the cargo hold below.
“The man needs tranquilizers. No getting around it.” it commented dryly.
“Oh shush, you were manufactured with nerves of steel, Blasty here probably just doesn’t like heights.” The magician had composed himself well enough now to speak coherently, and supported her claim.
“Yeah. That’s it. Uh.. yes.” –Okay, so he was speaking nearly coherently.. the main intent was to stop shaking and looking like a general psyk case.

There was a sickenly happy chortle, and Lift bobbled by easily. Ryyn, the Kal, and Armor followed it as well, apparently having arrived first.
“So, how’d he take it?” The man asked, eyeing the shaking mage. Maeve looked away, picking at one sleeve. “Ah, okay then.” Ryyn stopped to pat Blast on the shoulder once, then returned to sit sidesaddle on his nearby armor. “Armor, scan the area for potential challengers, and test wind speeds.”
“Gotcha Ryyn!” it chortled and the commotion attracted Lift’s attention as well.
“Oh, he’s equipped with a scanchip?” It said, drifting off to go spout techno babble with Ryyn and the mobile, as the Kalisddon approached its pilot carefully.
“Hey, you okay Blast?” The magician looked up (heard something about ‘yeah, custom job, wasn’t tough at all’ in the background), and grinned, his good humor somewhat reconstituted.
“Yeh, it was no problem!” he said, (Maeve snorted behind him) smacking a hand against the mobile’s turret in a sort of awkward high five.
“Guys, heads up! We got challengers!” Ryyn said, jumping into his saddle.
“Group of three, in blast pods, touching down two-hundred meters north of here in twenty seconds.” Armor informed.
“Yes, and we’ll have to fight for our position here,” the L-563 explained, “losing parties are required to leave the vicinity of elemental shrine arenas for a set timeout. We don’t want that.” It finished with a whir, and drifted off north to wait for the incoming party. Soon enough, another two blast pods came whistling through the air, and the group looked away as the bright airbrakes went hot.

—Yoink Incarnate—
The cave shook dramatically as the far wall split open with a flash of light, revealing an ancient altar of volcanic rock, upon a bed of still flowing molten lava, shining above which floated the pulsing red magic booster –a flat flame emblem, rotating slowly in space.
“Form a loose circle around this area and prepare for onslaught while I fetch our trinket! For ultimate power and world domination!” the black clad leader shouted, then hopped pillar to pillar in the direction of the gleaming bauble, cackling madly all the way. The guild moved into more or less even ranks as the infiltrating party whispered hastily.
“What do we do now?” Leul demanded of the warrior beside her.
“Nothing for the moment,” Shard answered from thin air instead, “we can’t get up there anyway, and we need the DarkStriders to keep the bains off our case. The second he touches that booster, this whole place is going to the dogs.”
“Great.. more hellhounds.” Cross grumbled, clicking kumbis into his claw. Kytin knocked an arrow and supplied;
“Hey, at least we don’t have to deal with them. We’ve just got to get that booster from him when he gets back, no?”
“You make it sound like a walk through pig beach.” Riella chastised, though Cross frowned slightly (he still took a hit or two hanging around there).

Suddenly, the cave was the only one grumbling, and the raucous barks of bloodthirsty hounds far off echoed through the fire caverns. The ring guarding their position became a seething mass of slicing metal, as the monsters plowed through the lines of defense like wet paper.
“WE won’t be dealing with ‘em, oh Ky?” Riella shouted, dodging off to the side as her previous location became occupied by gnashing teeth.
“I’m sorry okay!” he exclaimed, diving clear of a firebomb, the dog responsible roaring angrily, “I thought THEY could handle it! I mean, … what!!?” He cut off looking in the direction of the onslaught, Riella following his gaze to see a Bain thrashing furiously and smashing into one pillar, then another, roaring and shaking its head in fury. The reason for its agitation? Atop the dog, Zakum only knows how he got there, CrossSlash held for dear life to the creature’s long teeth like some kind of deranged bull rider, looking somewhat panicked.

“A little help here!!” he said, as it charged by and ran sidelong into another pillar, at the same time Leul healing the burns and bruises hastily, and various members of the party sidestepping firebombs as well.
“CrossSlash! How in the Lava Dungeon did you get up there!” the warrior cursed him, jumping foot to foot for lack of a plan of action this time.
“He knocked me in the air!” Cross squeaked, as the beast ran at another pillar, trying to mush him to bits. Kytin looked around hurriedly, then spotted a high ridge created by a recent Bain-pillar collision.
“Shard! Haste it up!” he said, running at the rocks, then jumping high into the air as the blue symbols flashed around him.
“Haste’d!” The bandit called back, as the hunter sprung easily off the ridge at twice his height, then flipping backwards into the air, loosed an arrow whilst upside down, his newfound angle allowing him to get a shot in the back of the creature’s neck. The arrow landed between the rogue’s legs (which he hastily got out of the way), just far off enough not to cause damage. The arrow didn’t get further in than the tip though, stopping fast in the bain’s thick skin, and merely angering the beast, it proceeded to ram pillars more profusely.
“Ugh.. nice shot flyboy!” Cross complained, examining the shaft still protruding from the back of the monster’s neck.

Meanwhile, as said flyboy hit the ground, Riella darted among scattered guildsmen, dodging a bain here, and climbing over the singed wounded there. Shard appeared briefly to stab one of the beasts in the side, then disappeared again to dodge out of the way of the scalding flames produce in retaliation. The raging bain topped with a side of rogue clamored by again, but Cross had an idea now. Standing up shakily on the beast’s bouncing hide, the thief steadied himself with a firm grip on a massive tusk, then raised one fist and charged a Disorder punch.
“You need obedience classes mi friend! Step one, know who’s BOSS!” Still holding the tusk, Cross bounces a little ways into the air, then came down with all possible force, punching the arrow lodged there deep into the creature’s vital airways, with Disorder debuff and all.

The monster coughed once, then finding it’s lungs entirely disabled, sputtered and lurched forward jerkily in death convulsions. Now, this was all well and good, with the exception of the fact that Cross was holding onto the creature’s tusks when they jerked forward. “Waah!” he shouted, suddenly catapulted forward, flipping uncontrollably through the air. Landing with a thud on the very same pillar where the XDarkStriders’ leader had stood before, he jumped to his feet hastily to see the mage bouncing hastily back from the sinking elemental altar across the caverns. Below the last of the bains were finally falling to the strongest of the guildsmen, and with a smirk, the rogue disappeared in a puff of smoke to go and meet the man. (Now was as good a time as any to act, no?)

Here’s all the guild master saw, he was happily bouncing back above the carnage with a deadly trinket of ultimate power upheld victoriously above his head, just about ready to make a grand declaration of their triumph, when *poof!* the flame emblem disappears from his fingertips.
“I am yoink incarnate!” Cross warbled happily, and jumped back down into the fray to the deafening roar of the angered mage. Dashing back over to the others, regrouped into a more or less organized cluster, he appeared among them to whisper hastily, “Time to go methinks!”
“SOMEONE HAS STOLEN THE BOOSTER! GUARD THE EXITS NOW!” came a shout from above. The entire entourage turned to glare at Cross.
“What!? I was just helping!” he said indignantly, as the guildsmen officers moved seamlessly to the doors.
“Well it’s too late to leave now! Any suggestions Shard?” she said, turning to the bandit. The man sighed deeply, then, having finished mulling it over, disappeared again.
“Fine, I’ll go stab people.” said his voice from the air. “Wait here, and try not to die.” The DarkStriders were closing in around them now, murmuring angrily, as apparently several had already identified Cross from his first bar fight amongst them, and weapons not already bared were drawn. Clustering together tightly, the four left there pressed back to back to face the onslaught.
“Thief boy there!” their leader called from above, “You took my trinket, no?”
“No, no I didn’t sir!” Cross sputtered, restraining the urge to fling another flippant taunt.
“Oh really?” the man snapped his fingers, and a fizard behind them fired an arrow into the rogue’s back. This fizzled out in his backpack, burning a large hole. (At this time shouts of pain were heard in the crowd, but no one paid an especially large amount of mind to them.) Cross scrambled to catch the object that tumbled out, but with a loud clank and a flash of light, it was obvious what had hit the ground. “Eheh.. about that..” The leader smiled decisively;
“Kill them. Whoever brings the thief’s head gets a promotion.” And the masses closed in around them. Panicking, Riella bared her teeth, she’d get a fatal stab or two in yet… but then her comm rang.

—Backup Would Be Nice—
In what was normally the crowded pq area, the western sewer access had been cleared for a far more organized gathering, the strongest thieves available on short notice in a murmuring cluster. Arriving with a protesting mule in tow was the Dark Lord himself, calling to assemble the crowd.
“Dark forces of Kerning! The time has come to prove your worthiness in battle, serve me here as you served so loyally in all things else, and I call free booze on the house tonight!” he finished, gesturing to the bar he had just exited. This was of course met with cheers from all persons, and they encircled him eagerly as he entered the crowd to hold a glowing stone aloft. “To the Lava Dungeon then! Now is your last chance to back out, one and all!” Nobody moved. “Very well then.” He pulled a dark emblazoned black comm from his pocket, flicked a few buttons, and with that, tossed the glowing stone at the ground, resulting in a blue fog that swept over the crowd.

Flames, heat, the stench of sulfur. All at once the smoke was wiped away, dissipating outward to the coughs of bystanders, and there was a crack of startled air as the party reappeared. All around them was a massive DarkStrider force, caught off guard by their sudden arrival, and the masses staggered back for a moment.
“Bandits, forward offensive ring, assassins guard center ring, haste on!” As symbols flashed throughout the circle, and the maelstrom of slashing blades forced its way outward, a voice spoke up behind him.
“DarkLord, how’d you get here!?”, Cross of course.
“Grendel tipped me off. Let’s get to work, shall we?” and with no more word than that the class master drew steel and dove into the crowd.
“Hey!? What about me? Don’t count me out!” and BlastMule jumped into the fray after him, his stars’n’stripes’ sharp tip brandished gleefully.
Riella, still looking at her comm stunned, scanned the words onscreen again, for the second time they’d appeared. “Incoming Party…” There was another crack of air around them, and this time Dances with Balrog touched down, face painted in primal stripes for war, and he only glanced at her once before shouting his summons to the force that accompanied him.
“For Perion! For the Granite stone! For victory!” the warriors cheered, and dove into the fray. The initial perpetrators looked to one another now, baffled, the sounds of battle filled the air, and above the DarkStriders’ leader was in a rage, casting magic left and right.. but where just a moment before they’d been surrounded, there was now a great pocket of space, and they were encircled by countless allies. –They had had half the XDarkStrider’s numbers, but the element of surprise was with them, and the forces the guild had organized were far from the best of the best. But the comm wasn’t done yet, and Riella glanced at Kytin happily as the air cracked again;
“Told you we wouldn’t have to do the fighting.”
“Cheap shot Rei! You said we wouldn’t be fighting bains!”
“Hmph.” Archers touched down around them then, in a rustle of bowstring and clatter of arrows being knocked, they were immediately in good position to snipe those DarkStriders posing actual threat.
“Oooh yeah!” Kytin bubbled, falling in line beside Athena, who led this assault, and arrow bombs exploded throughout the falling back enemy lines.
One group left, buy their savior the comm’s guess, and Grendel had arrived with a force of the best battle mages Ellinia had to offer.
“Fizards up front! Thunder mid-range, clerics flank!” He looked over the seething battlefield idly, the DarkStriders forced back in less threatening packets across the vast caverns. “Oh, hello Riella, Leul…” and he merely frowned at Cross, with the Fire Booster laying on the ground beside him.
“What!? Why does everybody blame me!?”

—Hydrate and Retaliate—
His vision blurred, Erik groaned and sat up hastily, the cleric by his side clasping his hand worriedly.
“You okay? You took quite a knock back there.” Imlye asked quietly. The wizard groaned in response, rubbing a sore point on the back of his head. “I healed you, but you were out for awhile.” He stood up shakily, pressing his weight on the wall.
“How long?”
“Only twenty minutes or so.. can you stand alright?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” he said, shaking off the groggy haze in his head. “Where are we?” He looked around the dim room once.
“The kitchen, I teleported us through a wall to get away from those jerks who put you out.” she said, taking a couple of bottles from a cabinet at one wall, and tossed him one.
“Where’d the sins go? They just ditched us didn’t they?” he asked, irritated.
“Pretty much, at least they gave us a distraction.” She answered, as he looked over the bottle in his hands;
“Pure water.” he laughed, “Always did think the stuff tasted plain.” but gulped it down gratefully nonetheless. His comm buzzed in his pocket, and he took it casually from its place there to flick the device on. “Marching orders to the Lava Dungeon, Im. Boss must be having trouble with that lot again.” he glanced at her over his water, feeling better now.
“Ugh. I don’t see how he messed this one up, he brought nearly the entire guild.” she sighed, and drained the contents of her bottle, “I’m ready if you are.”

Stumbling into town looking thoroughly beaten, wolfeaten, and bashed up in general, two assassins stumbled aimlessly in the direction of the nearest-comfortable-place-to-collapse, generally ignoring their surroundings. They hauled themselves up the steps to the inn where this had all started, and Achoss mentioned something along the lines of;
“If we run into them in there, I’m going to tear their arms off with my teeth.”
“Agreed.” Said his brother concisely, though as he reached for the door, his comm went off, and he shook it out of his pocket with a groan. “Marching orders to the Lava Dungeon, big man needs backup.” And he rolled his eyes at this.
“Ugh, the white pangs could’ave at least had the common decency to eat your communicator too, they finished off all our unagi easily enough.” Achoss snorted.
“Yeah, lousy wolves.” Cerusk grumbled, “But we’ve got to go really, you remember how angry the boss was when we missed that last Jr. Pepe attack.” Achoss sighed, but agreed nonetheless, saying as they turned from the door,
“Fine, to the potion shop first then.” but before they could step away, the heavy oak door hit them in the back, sending them stumbling haphazardly off the steps. “Aargh!” They whirled around to identify the attackers as Erik and Imlye.
“You!”
“YOU!”
“Marching orders?”
(He gargles.) “Yep.” And the disgruntled quartet set off across El Nath again.

—First Impressions—
Okay guys, we’ve got to get off to a good start in our first match, so we won’t be playing makeup later. You don’t want to have to fight your way back here from a penalty arena. A.sate, Lightning, and Grub on the other side, Armor tells me, so keep away from ditches, and under overhangs where possible. Watch out for the a.sate especially.. Blast remembered Ryyn’s words gloomily as another ethereal tracking orb passed through him, and braced for the impact that followed, a handful of burning lasers singed his clothes through the magic guard, and made shallow gashes in the kalisddon’s shining hide. He paused briefly to heal the creature’s wounds then urge it on again;
“Get forward Kal, he’s got a lock on this area, prep turrets for the next launch!”
“On it BM!” the mobile panted, rolling forward over the rough volcanic terrain, its turret hissing as it built up pressurized air to launch another missile pack. He heard Ryyn shout in the distance as his armor was pounded by multiple bouncing shells from the opposing grub, which was just that, a giant glowing armored bug, in effect. It gleamed yellow, and its saddle affixed turret whirled briefly to load another round. Blast was more concentrated on their own opponent at the moment though, their introductions had been brief and the subsequent battle fierce, who could have known the little obese little yellow frisbee known as “a.sate” could pack such a punch!
“I don’t know how much more of this we can take Kal, their shots are biting big chunks out of my magic here!”
“Never mind that, I’ve got my aim straight now, permission to fire?”
“Granted.” Blast said hurriedly, looking over to see Maeve doing a good deal better, crowding up on the stout lightening tank, which was slowly descending underground as one after another of the spider’s digging shots battered it’s position. The mech under him rumbled and the turret kicked back, another missile pack careening into the air. “Bullseye!” The rotating orange shells crashed directly into the tubby frisbee, for the well deserved damage they’d worked three test shells to get. “Okay, load up the SS, and brace for return fire. Let’s finish this guy!”
“Priming super shot BlastMage!” But the ‘return fire’ was not what they’d expected, and as blue orb hurtled across the distance between them, the cleric had little time to steer his mount aside before their opponent carelessly occupied the space they’d just stood. “HEY! Are you insane!? SQUISHING opposing jockeys is outside the rules by a long shot I think!” Their opponent only laughed, tipping back a blue cap to look at them better, he pointed out rather bluntly;
“We’re all a little insane here. The point is a Kal doesn’t take close range well.” and he laughed heartily.
“Well he’s right Blast,” the Kal said quietly over its shoulder, “I don’t know how well we can take him out now..”

—The Fall of the XDarkStriders—
The battle was winding down, well in the favor of the massive attack forces that had gathered there to fight, ironically enough, in the favor of Zakum’s forces, guarding the tightly kept Fire Booster from potential theft, even if they did plan to take it for themselves eventually. Despite this, up above still loomed the DarkStriders’ leader, stranded for lack of a teleport scroll, and surrounded by his enemies and the collective wounded and dead of his entire guild. He was unnoticed as of yet, and still planning a tactful means of esc-
“Aargh!” he fell from his perch atop the high pillar with a cry, his train of thought abruptly derailed as something struck him sharply across the back –Shard could be seen laughing uncontrollably, up where the man had stood a moment before. The guild master flipped upright with a small pulse of magic, and landed gracefully crouched below, amongst the troublemakers responsible for all this to boot!
“YOU!” he spat venomously, rising to his feet, sending CrossSlash jumping back and Riella’s hand to her sword. Leul stepped back as the warrior gritted her teeth and raised her Traus to eye level threateningly, the yellow blade gleaming in the firelight.
“Riella! No!” Grendel exclaimed, turning from the battle to observe the commotion, he appeared between the two with a shower of blue sparks, and the dark mage bounced back across the ashen floor at a pulse from the elder magician’s person, his flowing white robes flapping with the metaphysical winds of pure mana.
“A bigger fish to fry.” The dark mage intoned, snapping to his feet with a burst of black magic, his aura flaring. “Fine then.”
“Riella,” Grendel instructed, looking ever so slightly over one shoulder at her, “Take the others and get out of here, get that booster away from the DarkStriders, and, (he sighed) don’t come here again until you’re a Crusader.”
“Right away!” she said, taking no time in gathering up the others and their forfeits to lead them in a hasty dash out of the fire caverns.

The old mage returned his attention to the adversary at hand, and the man snarled viciously in a more or less reasonable reply.
“Shall we get started then?” was inquired.
“Let’s.” And the caves echoed with a great many bursts of magic and the shouts of the DarkStriders’ last defeat.

—All Systems Critical—
Meanwhile, things were going downhill fast on Londe. As it turned out, un-split Kalisddon missiles weren’t a fourth as powerful as those given the chance to separate and land hits at full rotation, in addition, it seemed a lightening mech was most dangerous when completely underground, as Maeve’s Nak could no longer reach the dug in opponent, yet it could easily call electric strikes to damage her from above. Ryyn faired no better, he’d been in rough shape since the grub had knocked him in that ditch, as its bouncy shots never failed a direct hit with ample walls to rebound off of.

“We’re in rough shape here BlastMage! I know you’re tired, but look at the others!” Indeed, the Nak and Armor were both panting under the strain of the damage they’d taken, their limited supply of repair packs long since depleted. “We’ve got to end this before we’re completely wiped out!” Their opponent only laughed, no more than five or six paces away, the only distance they’d managed to put between themselves and him.
“Good luck with that. You’ve got to take me down first!” Frustrated, Blast turned to his consol screen.
“We’ve got one item left. Kal, what can a dual shot do for us now?”
“I don’t know buddy, all that can manage is double up our ammo, but that won’t help if we can’t damage him in the first place! I don’t think we can take another hit at this rate!” Indeed, their opponent’s turret had begun to glow, signaling another imminent battering, and the way it was visibly drawing in the surrounding light, that one was going to be the devastating super shot –his finishing move no doubt.
“Whatever! Just load it and get us whatever clearance you can!” he commanded, and the mobile backed up on its heavy treads with a click of the item slotting into the turret. Out from the Kalisddon’s hood rose another cannon next to the first, and a metallic voice informed Blast; ‘dual fire enabled’ as he took hold of the manual targeting handles and pointed the weaponry down at the a.sate. “Fire at low power, direct trajectory. Estimating time of missile split.”
“What?”
“You heard me Kal, land it so the missiles split at point blank!”
“That’s just crazy enough to work..” the machine mused, and ground in its tires as it finished charging.
“Whazzat?” Their opponent inquired, only catching bits of their private conversation.
“FIRE!” Was BM’s only response, and they launched the charged missile packs point blank into his face.

Were time to slow down for more careful observation, it could be seen that the missile packs themselves reached full rotation quite rapidly, and split mere millimeters before they made contact with the enemy mobile, but to the naked eye, only a flash of steel between the two was visible, accompanied by the explosive sound of grinding metal. Eight missiles struck the a.sate simultaneously, and its grav reversers failed instantly, their opponent wobbling precariously as it coughed once, and fell directly to the ground. The once threatening SS in its barrel fizzled out harmlessly, and the opposing jockey looked across the mess at them in shock.
“We did it!” The Kalisddon said, surprised, “I thought close-range was the one thing I couldn’t pull off!” BlastMage chuckled, and made no effort to control the brief fit of giddy happiness;
“LOL KAL MELEE!” The shout could be heard from a great distance off, echoing over the ash plains with his raucous laughter.

“BlastMage! BM snap outta it! This isn’t over yet. The others are still in trouble, and I’m fresh out of tricks!”
“Oh, right,” the magician responded easily, “I’ve got just the thing.” He stood easily in the saddle, supporting himself with one hand on the harness, and drawing something out of his pocket hastily.
“What’re you doing? Blast?”
“Trust me on this one, mage’s intuition.” He said, revealing the object to be his focus gem –containing the Earth booster they’d obtained before. “Besides, I’ve been thinking this one over.” He tossed it lightly into the air once, charging a magic bolt as it spun through the air, and then catching it again, threw it as hard as he might back towards the battle field, encased in a burst of bright blue mana.
“What the…” Kal wondered aloud, as the gem sailed out over their remaining adversaries, who looked to the skies in equal bafflement. As it peaked in its arch, the magician closed his fist tight, the glowing aura crushing into the gem, and it exploded violently, leaving the Earth booster floating there above the plains, in all its glowey splendor.
“Manablast! Earth Elemental!” Blast said, jumping in place excitedly. The ground shook and the rocks shifted, suddenly Ryyn and the enemy lightening were thrust above the ground, as that and other portions of the ground spiked up erratically, setting a geyser alight here or there, and more importantly, knocking over the two opposing mobiles. “Now Ryyn, Maeve!”
“What was all that about manablast?” The Kal inquired as Blast sat back down contentedly, and watched his allies shred the disabled opposing team.
“Heh.. just something I made up on the spot. I didn’t really need to say anything, but it just sounds sooo much cooler if I do.” And he smirked.
“Yeh, I suppose so.” it agreed. Flicking his wrist casually, the shattered focus gem pieces were animated once again, floating back to him on individual blue nimbuses. He crushed it nonchalantly back into an undamaged whole, just a bit of magic here and there to restore it, and standing again, he cast it back out, the magically charged device absorbing their Earth Booster again in the air.
“So, first battle went well I think, you Kal?” he mentioned as the gem floated back, bobbing this way and that in the sulfuric breezes.