“We’ll be deploying into the crack, playing defense as the civilians mobilize and prepare for another blast. We could expect Titan Skadi, if the last case is anything to go by. The Wardens are conserving the battery for the portal system.”

“Ah, yeah. It’ll scare the living daylights out of us when it pops up, to warn you,” he said, smiling behind his helmet.

“Maybe,” Moonsong said.

The silence hung in the air.

“I’ll leave you guys be,” Tristan said. “Sorry.”

⊙

Tristan’s power produced a tower of building material, rising up to meet the axe-hand that was coming down. The blade sheared through concrete and wood and some metal. Chunks went flying. With how many people were still in the area, Moonsong worried a few people had been clipped or brained.

The second lunge of Tristan’s power followed from the first.

Juggling, Moonsong thought. She’d refused Tristan’s offer for the strategy. An old trick they’d practiced while in Reach, during training when they’d been invited to come up with just-in-case plans against Endbringers. Before Byron had ‘died’.

It made sense he’d want to use it here. It made sense that Tristan would think of something that obscure. She hadn’t been lying when she’d told Tribute that Tristan had some of the hallmarks of a capable field leader.

Now she tried her best to utilize it. A short spike of gravity, as debris fell. So the chunks of shattered building would hit the spike and fly upward. A well set above the Titan’s head, so the chunks would be sent flying down.

Trying to capture the bulk of it, so she’d have a constantly rebounding cascade of debris.

She lost most of it, lost more as her focus slipped, the Titan sliding forward, arm raised—and she took a step back, losing concentration. The gravity wells came apart, spike deflated.

Scribe stepped in to fill the gap. A chunk of red crystal struck the Titan and stuck there, metal bolts extending to attach forearm to upper arm, trapping it in a bent position.

Slowly, surely, the Titan began to pull its arm apart, the armor tearing, flesh being ripped away by her own efforts and strength.

Moonsong raised her hands, creating as many spikes of reverse gravity as she could in the area. Picking up every chunk of debris, every bit of crystal, and even smaller pieces of the Titan that had broken away.

They dug gouges into the Titan’s flesh, bounced off—forcing her to ‘catch’ them with more gravity wells.

Tristan produced another burst of his new power, the shattered building lunging into existence—and it only hit the red crystal with the attachment ‘rivets’ sticking out like the spines from a sea urchin. The Titan was gone.

Where!?

She wheeled around, and saw it. Attacking civilians. Furcate was over there, directing people, pointing the way to the portal. Sveta swooped in to scoop people up, saving them from the plunging attack of the Titan.

Who disappeared again.