Page 62 of Tears of Tungsten
Even weakened by my use of Charybdis’s skill, I obeyed. This time, I resorted to more classical methods, manipulating the currents of energy my enemies controlled. Caught off guard, the apsids had trouble regrouping.
Two crystallized units tried to lunge at me, both of them shaped like some kind of unrecognizable animal. One of them opened its snout, trying to bite off portions of Charybdis’s tail. In response, I forced the currents of energy around us to dislodge its jaw.
The pilot hidden behind the creature’s head bellowed at me. “You! You’re the changeling! We should have killed you when we had the chance.”
They’d been obviously aware of my apsid nature and had deemed me a threat even before this incident. That was interesting, but useless. Even if they hadn’t known about it, they’d have definitely noticed me just because I’d dared to launch such an uncommon, risky attack. “Maybe you should have, but you didn’t. And now, it’s too late.”
“I don’t think it is. You have no idea what you’re up against, fool. You’re taunting forces greater than you can ever imagine.”
Yes, I was. I’d been aware of that when I’d asked Charybdis to use her skill. Manipulating black holes was insane even for a chimera pilot turned apsid. But I had a feeling my opponent wasn’t referring to that, and my guess was confirmed when all of a sudden, the systems of the Cerberus froze.
Another crystallized unit rushed up to us. It looked humanoid, but it was also even more dangerous than all the others put together. The tachyon shields screamed in protest as an unseen force tried to wriggle its way into the core of the Cerberus, threatening to shut him down.
I managed to force the power away, but it was a close call and I didn’t think I’d win the battle a second time. The newly arrived apsids didn’t seem affected by the clash at all.
“How unpleasant,” one of the pilots—a male—said. “You’re forcing us to resort to methods we would have preferred not to use.”
“We didn’t much like the idea of coming here either,” Pollux replied, “but here we are.”
“At the risk of sounding childish,” I added, “you started it.”
“We really didn’t, but I suppose you can be excused for thinking that. With minor exceptions, chimera pilots tend to be very foolish.”
The light around the crystallized unit faded, allowing me to see its pilots. Several of them were unrecognizable and didn’t look human at all. I had no idea how a reptilian biped, a rocky giant, a mass of tentacles, and something that looked like one of The Grand Judiciary’s experiments gone wrong could form part of the same species.
But the other two pilots were even stranger because I recognized them. They looked different from the last time I’d seen them, but not enough to make me miss their true identities.
The man who’d spoken was none other than the pilot of the Zephyrus, Jared Glass, the same person who’d supposedly died in the Grand Tartarus Tournament. A familiar woman floated to his right, wreathed in flame. It was Stella Donadieu.
