22nd August
16:15 GMT
Guy pauses in his battering.
"Ah,
great. One a'
those.
"
I hit two Qwardians who thought I was distracted enough not to notice them going for their qwa-bolts with cold beams.
"Guy, stay away. He can drain-.
"
"
At last!" Ragnar
grins. "
An equal!"
At least he seems to still be in control of himself. I just wish
I was in control of himself. Ragnar
charges towards Lantern Duran, who responds by
lashing out with his injured arm. A
wave of dull green energy surges out from his ring, slamming into Ragnar and beating him back. Ragnar goes flying, his construct armour cracking and failing as he slams into the ground in an uncontrolled hurtle.
"
Get up, alien!
My sole remaining purpose in life is to humble you and then kill you!"
Ragnar nods as
his construct armour knits itself back together. "Better than you have
tried!"
Yes, I imagine that teaching him to be humble would be an uphill battle. Ah, okay, if his construct armour still exists at all then anti-green rings don't have the same 'total nullification' effect against orange rings that they do against green ones. He should be able to manage against another rookie for a little while.
"Orange? An interesting choice."
W-? There's a
Qwardian face, wearing what looks like a deerstalker hat and with a pair of welding goggles across his eyes.
"Avarice, if I remember correctly. Fortunate for me that you use the same communication system as the Green Lanterns."
Ragnar and Duran engage in a brief
beam of
war. Ragnar's orange force projection gets
battered back, but fortunately he has the sense to
get out of the way rather than simply
let his enemy's attack strike home. He
fires a conventional energy pulse back, which Duran
blocks with a construct shield which mimics the one he had during their pit fight.
A qwa-bolt I'd missed narrowly misses Guy before slamming into -and through- a nearby wall, revealing a hole inside. Quick scan… Yes, that's our way down. I fly towards the opening, cold gun constructs taking shots of opportunity. Once we're in the open air, evading qwa-bolts will be a far simpler matter. And assuming that they haven't had any major upgrades we're all faster than Thunderers in the air.
"I had considered using it, but I found that it tended to drive my test subjects insane."
"Chief Weaponer Kalmin, I presume?
"
"Not any longer. 'Weaponer' will do fine. Is the Green Lantern of Sector Two Eight One Four with you?"
His head turns around on my ring and he catches sight of Guy dodging and weaving as he uses construct lassos to pull the qwa-blade of one Thunderer into the arm of another. The resulting energy discharge blasts the arm to pieces, burns the armour protecting the Thunderer's side and probably causes all kinds of internal injuries. It
also allows Guy to grab the man's severed hand with a construct, said hand still holding
his qwa-blade. Guy then uses
that to stab at a third Thunderer from odd angles, removing his left leg in a flash of yellow energy.
"No, no one from Two Eight One Four is that creative."
"They are since
I've been teaching them. Power rings are
tools, not weapons.
"
"An intelligent attitude. Which is not to say that they don't work perfectly well as weapons."
The handful of Thunderers left are keeping their distance from Guy and I, mostly wanting to keep a solid wall between themselves and us.
Could kill them all, but as long as they're suppressed they won't prevent us moving on to our objective.
"Guy, ready to leave?
"
Guy takes a second to check his surroundings, then generates a green construct demolition charge on the wall above where most of our foes are hiding.
"Nearly.
" I see it as a green blast wave shoots through the wall, causing it to collapse onto our opponents. Trapping them in a way which
probably won't kill them. As long as-.
A yellow explosion evaporates a chunk of the debris, and everyone who was underneath it.
As long as none of them were prepping a qwa-bolt. Fortunately, it looks like Guy's ring hasn't registered that as a 'kill'.
Ragnar and Duran are
still fighting each other. Duran's added
a glaive to his
dark green energy bolts while Ragnar
parries each shot or swing. Persuading him to break off is going to be difficult.
I raise my ring into a more convenient speaking position.
"What's with the weak defences, Kalmin? How are we even
alive at the moment?
"
"I haven't killed you because you interest me. As for these dullards, you may thank High Weaponlord Varnathon of Q'uldi for their lack of preparedness. And for aliens being allowed on Qward at all."
"I take it that he's a fan of peaceful trading relationships?
"
"Bah!"
Sounds like someone I need to support. And I imagine that the Guardians would consider that knowledge to be useful as well. I generate a railgun construct and take aim at Lantern Duran.
Ragnar spots my movement, his eyes widening. "
No!
This is my fight!"
Damn it. Ragnar turning my way attracted Duran's attention, and a
blast from his ring destroys my construct.
Guy's hesitating just in front of the hole.
"Hey! Are we-.
"
"I
know!
" Turning back to their fight I see Ragnar switch to a one-handed stance with his sword and
generate a kite shield for his defence. He uses that to
deflect Duran's swing, then
slashes at the back of his construct glaive. The glaive shatters, Ragnar tries
charging again and Duran-
"
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
-
fires a colossal beam of energy at Ragnar, blasting his shield apart, breaking his construct armour and battering the conventional armour beneath. Duran
maintains his attack, slamming Ragnar into the ground and then into a wall as his armour continues to abrade.
Right, transitioning… No, non-functional. Fine. I recreate my railgun and shoot Duran with a crumbler round.
"Guh."
The beam slackens off, giving me the opportunity to stick a harness around the dazed and bleeding Ragnar and drag him towards the exit hole after me.
"Wait, I-." Ragnar
breaks my construct in a surge of orange light. "
I have nearly beaten him!"
"Ragnar, we've leaving. We have a mission to complete. He'll follow us. Get moving.
"
Oh, at this point… Guy drops out of sight and I rocket after him, construct boosters adding to my speed as I fly
downwards into Qward. If Ragnar dies it'll be
awkward, but it's only one of Larfleeze's rings with no added database. I should be able to call it, and even if I can't it's a bearable-.
Ragnar comes through the hole, looking around for me for a moment and
then accelerating down while
keeping a shield construct above him. Oh, good. Now we just have to-.
"Careful, Lantern. These tunnels aren't undefended."
My ring shows me huge cannons unfolding from the tunnel walls half a mile below us.
"Try to survive. I have a use for you."
