His moves were raw efficiency. Oberon was power and speed, sheer ability and a weird kind of grace, if grace could be used in the same context as raw power, mass, and shockwaves being produced on landings. Titan Nemean resembled a martial artist in some ways as he streamlined everything he did. No wasted effort, one hundred percent awareness of what his form was doing.

He spun, turning quickly, and I almost missed seeing it. The violet beam slashed out, striking at his hand, following something in the air, the beam stopping short instead of continuing down to hit the city, because it touched something.

I flew to one side, and felt the air woof as it whipped past me. A dark, ice-crusted bit of concrete chucked my way, surreptitiously.

A second woof, a moment later, lower impact because I’d moved further away, and it traveled a slightly different course.

That would have ended me.

The card up his sleeve now spent, he wasted no time in repeating the effort. I saw Crystal and my Aunt Sarah use forcefields to block or deflect chunks of concrete I couldn’t even see in the gloom.

I’d run into a wannabe ninja who hadn’t thrown actual ninja stars with the accuracy this monster was hurling slabs of concrete and roofing.

I shot it, training my laser on it in hopes of putting it off balance. The beam had no recoil when I fired, but it did have an impact as it struck home.

Arms around its head, hand still placed roughly in the beam’s way, it crashed through a building that was already toppled, and dust exploded around it as it brought its arms out to either side.

This time, my warning wasn’t even a laser touching the projectile. A momentary flash of red across the sky.

I dropped out of the air, because down was the only direction I could move quickly while lugging the gun around.

Even though I was falling through the air with no connection to the earth, I could feel the vibrations in the air as it started running. I looked, and I didn’t see the Titan, but I did feel the vibrations growing more intense, second by second.

A trap. I could see the explosions illuminating a city street to my left, as capes opened fire on the Nemean Titan, who had moved around to flank me, using the cover of buildings and rubble while dropping down to all fours to maintain a low profile. Circling around to come at me from an angle I hadn’t one hundred percent anticipated.

Shitty thing was, it worked.

I dove low, and I let go of the gun, swearing under my breath. Had to drop the dead weight, while he closed in. Letting it drop to the ground. Drop my forcefield to cut back on air resistance—

—Glance over my shoulder—

—Fly over the crack, full speed, because he was closing in.