Legend Untold Chapter 19 Blank Slate Chapter 33 [i]Freehold Part 8[/i] “How are we doing?” Ilya asked, tossing a grenade that stuck to a Goblin and blew it up. “Very well,” I answered, calmly busting up the head of a Hobgoblin and then shooting its stomach, “There’s too many of us for them to handle, but that thing’s shields and armor are a problem. It’s not taking much damage.” “You figure that out on the move,” Ilya replied, “Go help the others out, I got this spot.” Leaving cover, I began running a circle around the Mind, shooting its shields and getting it to look at me. Its canons turned on me and I tried weaving between some Goblins to make it destroy its own allies, but it was too smart and checked its aim to avoid friendly fire. A Minotaur tramped into my path, angry red eye drilling into me. I jumped into the air and tried to Blink again, but nothing happened and I ended up landing on the Minotaur’s head. It grabbed me and tried to throw me off, but I made it drop me with a swift kick to the head. Landing lightly in front of it, I planted my fusion rifle’s glowing barrel against its torso and sent it falling backwards with a hole burnt through it. Before I could get moving again, the ground was tossed up under my feet and I landed on my face several feet away, pain telling me that I was missing part of my right leg. A quick glance revealed that the Mind was still tracking me, and I rolled to the side just in time to avoid another blow. After a couple seconds of rolling and tripping up a Goblin, my leg was back and I hopped to my feet. The Mind was following Keis now, but before I could decide what to do next I felt my field of Light across the room ebb. “Ward is going down!” I warned, and just in time everyone split out of the dome and took up positions with the Titans. The blue barrier vanished, leaving only Fehri standing where it had been, shooting at a couple Goblins. The Mind noticed and turned to face him. “Fehri, get out of there!” I shouted. But the Warlock just finished off the Goblins and put his gun away. Planting his feet firmly and staring down the Mind, the Warlock stuck his hands up, waving two offensive fingers at the Vex. Without any care for what Fehri was doing, the Hydra opened fire. I expected Fehri to dive out of the way right then, but to my surprise he did a backflip and landed in a full split just out of the way of the explosions. “THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL!” Drew cheered from the other end of the room. But Fehri wasn’t done yet, and when the next shots came he sprung up onto just one hand, barely slipping between the projectiles. Next he got back onto his feet and began dancing sporadically, avoiding more blasts and ending with a moonwalk that kept him just ahead of the whistling balls of energy. Finally running out of the way, he joined Sierra behind some kind of generator and started laughing his head off. “You are psychotic,” Sierra scolded. “If psychotic means fun, then yes!” Fehri joked. There weren’t a lot of Vex left in the room now, which is why I was still standing in place, but balls of light from more Vex arriving were starting to fill the air. “We need to kill the Mind!” I collected myself, still holding in a laugh from watching Fehri. “I’ve got this!” Drew declared, then charged the Mind head on. It turned towards him as Arc energy began coursing over his body, the three sections of its body beginning to pull apart a little. “Wait Drew!” I tried to stop him, but he was already leaping at the Vex. Before he could slip past the translucent barriers and hit the Mind with a Fist of Havoc, a shockwave burst out from the Mind as its segments slammed together and deflected Drew. The electricity left his body and he tumbled through the air, landing on an unsuspecting Welkine as he tried moving to a new position. “That didn’t work!” Drew announced as he got off of Welkine, who was grumbling about rotten luck. “Nova Bombs?” Veronica suggested, “We can all jump high and get over the shields.” “Keis can hit it,” Blanc confirmed. I looked at my hand and focused on my Light build up, “I’ve got enough juice for one.” “Whoa whoa whoa, what?!” Fehri stopped me there, “But you’re a Defender, you just made a Bubble!” “He’s weird,” Sierra explained poorly. “Oh,” Fehri seemed to except that for some reason, “Carry on then.” “Sometime today!” Yvan growled, pinned behind cover with Quintel by the Hydra. “Now,” Crag cut in, shooting the Hydra in the eye a moment later so it would look at him. Scrambling to action while it was distracted, I sprinted towards the hovering Vex. An arching ball of violet announced Veronica’s Nova Bomb a moment before an explosion made the Mind list to the side, a portion of its upper right armor scorched and broken. As it turned to face the retreating Veronica, Keis came to a stop behind it and paused for a moment as he waited for one of the gaps between its shields. Seeing his chance, Keis pulled his arm back and then threw out a smaller, faster Nova Bomb than Veronica had so that it would fit between the barriers. It hit, making the Mind release a metallic screech that sounded angry, and Keis began running around it to keep it distracted as I came close and judged my approach. The Vex would definitely go down if I hit it directly, but as I watched a couple Minotaurs came up and began covering the areas that their Mind wasn’t watching. A Line Rifle bolt singed my shoulder, and I shot its chest so it would put itself in stasis for a moment. “Why are there little ones blocking the way?!” I complained. “Not my fault!” Drew shouted. “They all came in at once! Watch your back Will!” Nat warned. I realized that dozens more Vex had suddenly appeared while I had been watching the Mind. There was a flash behind me and I turned to see a group of three Minotaurs appear. All I could do was leap up and away from them as they all swatted at me. One fell to my fusion rifle, then I was tackled out of the air and hit the ground hard. Before it could follow up on its attack, the Minotaur that had tackled me went down from a few sniper rounds. The last tried surprising me by teleporting close, but I anticipated its movement and dented its abdomen by kicking out both legs while laying on my back. I finished it with another fusion rifle shot and got to my feet, switching to my auto rifle. All of the others were busy holding out against the sudden wave of stronger Vex while also avoiding concentrated fire from the Mind. There was still a ring of Vex around their leader, but at the moment I wasn’t being targeted. “I’m going in!” I declared, then ran at a Hobgoblin and threw it into a Minotaur that was standing between me and the Mind. The Minotaur turned to me and charged, Torch Hammer lighting up. Sliding under the projectile, I sprung up onto the Minotaur and used it as a platform to jump towards the Mind, but I still wasn’t nearly as high as I needed to be to shoot over the shields. I focused on a point in the air just above the giant Vex and pictured myself there, willing all of my body to move. But again, nothing happened, and I had to make a sloppy recovery with a midair jump, followed by another strained one when that didn’t take me high enough. Finally finding myself far enough up to have a clear shot, I drew from my stores of energy. After a moment of strain from focusing a large amount of Light after having expended so much before, I was able to form a violet orb in my hand. It whistled through the air and crashed into the Mind, disintegrating its form in a sizzling flash. I landed amongst purple cinders, body feeling spent from the exertion. Images flashed through my mind; starless skies, faces I knew but forgot as soon as they passed, ships crashing. I shook my head to clear them and rose to my feet shakily. The others were finishing off the Vex, which had charged out madly when their leader had been destroyed. I wrangled with my Light, trying to suppress the memories and lessen its flow so that I could recover. The images stopped, but before I could manage to calm the energy raging through me, the Minotaur I had used as a stepping stool tramped up to me. With no weapon in hand, I lashed out instinctively, sending the Minotaur tumbling back with a burst of energy from my palms. Pt7: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/245634951/0/0 Pt9: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/245635260/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0