The collective armor had the characteristics of Spider, Horns, Cyclops, and Wings, but on the whole, it was simply an abomination, lacking any rhyme or reason to its form.
“What are you doing?!” Lucida shrieked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I answered. “Spider there... Lukoria, was it? He’s taken control of the Zanaffars.” The only reason he’d let go of Heavy Armor was because, regardless of the status of the wearer, the Zanaffar itself was dead and thus couldn’t be integrated.
“He’s taken control of them? He can do that?” Lucida whispered in disbelief.
But as far as I was concerned, the answer was obvious. If Lukoria had made the Zanaffars... “He built this capability into them from the start,” I explained, “so that he could hijack the others if it came to that.” Spider’s tentacles weren’t really meant for swinging through the trees, but for this.
“That’s absurd!” Lucida shrieked.
“‘Hijack’? Slander,” Lukoria said scornfully. “It’s a suppression system I designed on the off chance that a Zanaffar got out of control. Ideally, I’d have given each one the same function so they could all control each other... But the wielder needs to understand the technology to use it, so I didn’t implement it in the rest.”
“What about Tessius and Sagan? Are they all right?!” Lucida asked.
It was a fair question. They hadn’t uttered a peep since their initial cries of surprise when their armors were snatched up. Either their voices couldn’t penetrate the armor, or...
“They’re fine. Stop worrying, Lucida, and tend to Londium and Cashdial. Meanwhile...”
I got the feeling that the misshapen lump’s eyes, wherever they were, had just turned toward us. We sensed the malice rising from the new Abomination armor and readied ourselves for a fight.
“I’ll stop them,” Amelia declared, immediately moving into a chant.
Just then, a gray afterimage raced through the air! Amelia, Zel, Alaina, and I all leaped in different directions, while Gourry alone stood fast and lashed out with his sword. The wings here and there on Abomination’s body had transformed in the blink of an eye, becoming gray spears that fired straight at us. Gourry sliced through them, leaving just the severed spear tips sticking into the ground nearby!
“Oho!” Joy abounded in Lukoria’s voice. “That sword’s the key, eh?”
Crap! I felt a pang of regret. Centaur’s remains had given away the fact that we had a weapon capable of severing the Zanaffar armor. The purpose of Abomination’s attack just now had been to ascertain exactly what that weapon was.
As Lukoria spoke, Gourry dashed forward, intent to strike immediately. The Cyclops part of Abomination raised both its hands—the ports from which it fired its lasers. And just then...
“Aqua Kaleido!” Amelia cast her refraction spell around the extended appendages. There was no way Lukoria could risk firing like this!
Gourry swiftly closed in, and when he did... the abomination armor jumped! With a litheness and agility belied by its round, misshapen form, it leaped clean over Gourry—easily out of sword’s reach—and lashed out with its tentacles. They snagged nearby trees, allowing the mass to accelerate further and adjust its posture in midair. It was really heading for Alaina!
While Alaina just stood there, slow to react to the armor’s unexpected charge...
“Dug Haute!” Zel conjured spires of earth that struck the flying Abomination. Alaina used the disruption to get some distance.
Though Abomination should have been knocked off course, the mass of armor landed with ease. The awkward giant, which really should have needed a moment to get its bearings, immediately began pursuing Alaina again.
So his top priorities are the sword that can cut it and his fellow elf, while us humans play third fiddle?! Then again, the first time we met, Alaina had been the one to bust up Spider’s fireball and give Lukoria a good toasting, so maybe the dude was holding a grudge.
But right before Abomination could crush Alaina underfoot... she disappeared from sight!
A spell? No... She’d twined her whip around a nearby tree, speeding up in an all new direction. Abomination paused when it lost visual, and then...
“Earth Sloun!” Alaina conjured an earthen battering ram to send Abomination flying!
More specifically, it never actually made contact with Abomination’s main body. The arms and legs of Cyclops, Horns, and Spider moved to block the attacking battering ram, and Abomination flew backward through the air to mitigate the hit. The reflexes involved were almost absurd—Gourry-level, or maybe even greater—and I doubted those reflexes were Lukoria’s.
Like humans, elves generally had only two arms and legs. There was no way Lukoria’s brain could manage the Abomination, which had double that number, plus spidery tentacles and multiple wings. The same was true of his multi-legged and tentacled arachnid armor before the transformation, which told me that Lukoria left the finer controls of the armor to Zanaffar while he simply issued orders. That meant if we could get Lukoria to hesitate, we might be able to net ourselves an opening... but the Zanaffar’s incredible reflexes and athletic abilities wouldn’t make that easy.
While Abomination was still in the air, the part that had once been the Cyclops armor opened and shot out multiple projectiles. A hail of gray bullets about the size of songbirds flew at Alaina. More of the drones Cyclops sent into the fog to locate us?! I’d assumed the things were meant for surveillance and monitoring, but as extensions of a Zanaffar, they were probably plenty tough on their own. A blow from one of those would be like getting hit by a rock. Plus, Amelia couldn’t block them with a spell like she could the laser breath, and our attack magic still wasn’t gonna work on them. That being the case...
“Vu Vrima!” I placed my hand on the ground and incanted a different spell!
Abomination, having landed, seemed to be on guard as it scrambled backward. Then, in response to my words of power, the ground between Alaina and the incoming drone swarm swelled. The drones entered the rising cloud of dust, which absorbed them, roiled, and took on a giant humanoid shape large enough to rival Abomination!
In other words, I’d just made myself a golem. It would obey simple commands and it was built sturdy, but it wasn’t particularly fast. Obviously it didn’t stand a chance against Abomination, but...
“Golem!” I pointed in the direction opposite Atessa and gave my order. “Full speed ahead, thataway!”
The golem responded with an earthy creak and did as it was told. And though it wasn’t particularly fast, it was at least a little faster than a normal human could run. Behold, my secret technique—the drone snatch-and-dash! Abomination would have to destroy the golem to get them back, and Amelia’s spell would block any attempted uses of its laser breath. That meant it’d have to get up close and personal to do the job—leaving it vulnerable to an attack from behind! That was my plan, anyway, but...
“Bam Plosion.”
Fwoom! Following the incantation, an attack spell hit the golem!
Was that...
“Tessius?!” Lucida, who’d been treating her companion, identified the source of the voice.
It had sounded like Tessius to me too, but how could that be? He shouldn’t have been able to use magic from within Zanaffar armor... unless it was open, that is. Except earlier, when Gourry had tried to slice through Heavy Armor and Tessius had used an attack spell to drive Gourry back, he’d done so while his armor was seemingly closed. I could only figure that Horns’ opening port was designed to be difficult to perceive.
Now, magical logistics aside... Tessius had insisted on retreat earlier. Was he really cooperating all of a sudden with Lukoria, who’d ignored him and sucked him into the mega-Zanaffar against his will? Or... was Lukoria controlling Tessius through the Zanaffar, forcing him to chant spells?! Either way, we were now going to have to factor surprise spells into our battle plans.
My blown-away golem fell to the ground in chunks. The spy drones briefly stored inside flew out and resumed their attack on Alaina. But by then, Gourry was back in the game and broke out the swordplay! There was a flash, then a second, third, fourth... With each swing of his blade, a drone fell to the ground, cleaved in two.
In response, from some ways away, Abomination raised its hands and took a stance. Was it going to use its laser breath despite the risks?!
Amelia immediately began her spell... She was about to activate it, but hesitated.
Of course. This is... “Dodge!” I shouted.
Gourry and Alaina leaped aside, barely evading the torrent of drones. Seeing this, Abomination lowered its hand and eased up on its stance.
Damn, this is tricky. Abomination was threatening a twin attack with its laser breath and drones. If Amelia didn’t use her refraction spell to defend, we’d have to dodge the laser breath. But if she did use it, Gourry would end up blinded to the path of the incoming drones.
Abomination recalled the drone swarm to set up the same attack again, when...
“Vigas Gaia!” Zel unleashed a spell that caused tremors in the ground. It wasn’t going to harm Abomination, but it would throw it off balance. Thanks to that, we were spared another drone-laser double whammy, but the longer this fight kept up, the worse off we’d be. Therefore...
“Everyone! Let’s withdraw for now!” I called, and everyone—with Amelia just a beat behind—took off in a run. But not toward town.
“You think you can escape me?!” Abomination howled. Then, right in front of him...
“Aqua Kaleido!”