26th October
23:18 GMT
The shockwave of my landing probably ruins the field, but I ignore my surroundings in favour of cutting through the construct hand's fingers with the Sword. This was either a rushed job or powered by his own fears; it's human in shape and after the initial grab-and-slap didn't exert much force on me. It's just trying to keep me down rather than do anything likely to cause me lasting damage. Two fingers and it fails completely, letting me get to my feet.
Let's see… Engines, girder, a couple of assimilation attempts… Ring, how are we doing for power?
Ninety three percent remaining.
And those giant constructs must have cost him more than that. So as long as I nobble him if he tries to get my yellow lantern out to recharge… Would that occur to him? If the bloody Sinestro program required me to kill Green Lanterns, become a tyrant or achieve enlightenment then he-.
I dodge violently as a beam of yellow energy bursts through the clouds of dirt and blasts into the ground! Yes, yes! Burn power. Ring, can we tell how much he has left?
Assuming that he has not recharged since the fight began, his construct usage should leave him with around seventy percent full charge.
Uh. I'm not eager to get eaten another three times. Something else, then.
A hail of smaller yellow light bolts home in on my position, though not all that accurately. I hesitate to dodge, experimentally letting one hit me in the chest before I start an evasive pattern. Auh. Punched through my environmental shield easily enough, but my armour stopped it and it didn't sap my orange light effects. So: don't want to get hit by a whole -ow- swarm, but one or two aren't a problem.
Why aren't they all hitting?
Okay, yes; constructs can be a light speed weapon, but even a powerful lantern will usually only fire energy bolts at a couple of times the speed of sound. But even at that speed he's not that far away from me. I should be getting hit by most of these rather than the odd one. So why aren't I?
The dust is diffusing the orange glow around me. It doesn't matter how many construct eyes you've got if none of them can see your target. He's still not scanning. I create a humanoid construct of me and dim my environmental shield and yes, most of the shots start aiming at that instead of me. I have it stumble and big beam! Immediately I dim my environmental shield further, and hope that the additional dirt thrown into the air will conceal what's left.
Ring, passive detection only. Let me know if he calls the lantern.
By your command.
But what now? The Terror Thing is inhabiting his whole body. There's no one target I can strike to destroy it or banish it. Disabling him in one hit when his constructs are strong enough to hurl me back is a pipedream at best-.
Message received from Lord Sheldrake.
Kelly doesn't seem to be taking the bait, though I can see the yellow glow marking his location. Play.
I've got a charmed knife, but I doubt that it would pierce Major Kelly's skin. Do you need it?
Ah, for access to a hush tube. Response: get ready to pass it to me.
Message sent.
I might get a stab. But I'd have to hit his brain to neutralise him… Or would that just result in me fighting the Terror Thing? Or… I don't know exactly where in his body they stuck the Right Eye of Zoltec. I doubt that it would be in his arms or legs, so… Somewhere in his chest. It would make his organs invulnerable to being cut by its sharp edges so he wouldn't have to worry about that. … No, there are just too many places it could be for me to be able to reliably hit it. And I'm not sure what would happen if I did.
I'm.. coming up short here. Actually invulnerable people are a pain to fight. Another super tough lantern and I'd put my faith in my regenerative abilities in a high magic environment, but like this…
The Kelly blur glows brighter for a moment, and then yellow lights start shining from all around me. Some sort of.. construct warrior? I hope so, that would be a decent drain on his reserves. But if he's sending infantry in, I need to get out.
Think think think. It's still dark, there were woods over there and I'm not glowing significantly. Agh, no, can't transition with the Sword and I can't risk leaving it-. No, wait. A subterranean tunnel. I could transition myself, construct-tunnel back and drag it-. No, no, too risky. This sword can kill me far more easily than it can kill him.
Okay, got it. Two flying hologram generators. Send one towards the searchers that way projecting a faint orange me-shape. Are they reacting? Slightly, but there aren't any incoming shots yet. Fine. Boom tube behind him in two, one, now and send the second one through. I see the yellow light blast which destroys the projector, but the first holodrone is flying up through the dust while I use my aerodiscs to get as high as I dare…
Another yellow beam and he's looking in the wrong direction and gogogo! Move the boom tube to Lord Sheldrake and transmit 'throw it'! I fly at Kelly full speed, the weird translucent-monster-body-part armour he's coating himself with spotting me just a little too late. I lunge Sword first, piercing his defensive construct and slicing open his back… Think I severed his spine, not that he needs the use of his legs.
"A-urh."
Knife incoming.
Kelly's right hand is glowing as he manoeuvres away from me. I drop past him in the air, a construct reaching for the inbound knife as I slash at him again. I hit.. something, I can't really see as he fires a big beam at point blank rangeow-grrr-gahrrr-gah! That hurt, and I can feel the air against the left side of my body where the armour was burned away. But now I'm going to get him. Lunge.
He backs off again and puts up a barrier of cancerous tentacles. Which is fine. I flare with orange light to disguise my intent, dropping the Sword and leaving it to be conveyed by construct. To hold his attention I start striking the barrier with my bare fists. No Bastion Will Withstand Me!
I'm actually knocked back as the force of my punch overwhelmed both aerodisc and ring flight aura. Wrong approach of course. Rip and tear is the way. I grab and yank and the barrier starts to fail. Come on Kelly, you're the strongest weapon you have. Yes, good, he's coming back and preparing another beam.
Double backstab.
The construct-controlled Sword of the Fallen stabs him again, parting otherwise invulnerable construct and flesh. The blade then turns to widen the wound to allow Lord Sheldrake's knife to pierce Kelly as well.
And ring? Finish assimilating the crushed stone.
By your command.
"GRRAAAAAGHHH!"
This time I back away slightly, recalling the Sword of the Fallen but leaving the knife in place. Now focus on the-.
Absorption complete.
Kelly gasps, a disturbingly death rattle like sound as yellow mists violently exits his body, swirling around before clumping together above me to my right. Kelly shudders as the yellow light everywhere else flickers and fails. Ring's still on his finger, but without the Terror Thing-.
"Freeeeeeee!"
Ah. The Terror Thing.
