I'm running through a number of plans in my head, discarding most of them as quickly as they co. ntal Acceleration helps and gives more ti; the robot isn't moving particularly fast, so the full second it takes gives what feels like a minute to think.
Barrier and Crystallized Barrier are both useless here. Crystallized Strength is probably useful, but also unlikely to be enough against sothing like this the robot looks heavy even before putting its Firmant into account. I suspect it'll be able to resist anything I do and more.
ntal Acceleration and Intuitive Analysis are both useful, but they're both ntal skills. Great for giving ti to think and adapt; not useful in the now.
Triplestep and Firestep might help get away if I can get past it, but I felt how fast it was moving I don't think running is the best option, here. Hiding, maybe, but it was able to track down sohow. The skills can act as force multipliers to any attack, but that presus I have an attack that's strong enough to begin with. Robot or not, this thing feels like it's at least as strong as Naru, and an attack combining all my speed skills and Crystallized Strength didn't even make him step back.
Tough Body and Second Wind. Good for survivability if I need it, not useful right now.
Firmant Manipulation. The robot is practically emanating Firmant; its entire core is nothing but Firmant. I could try to twist it to my will, but I suspect doing that will be like trying to manipulate soone else's Firmant. Intuitive Analysis tells that pits our relative Firmant strengths and willpowers directly against one another, and losing that battle might shatter my Firmant base. I don't know what that ans, but it sounds dangerous.
Temporal Fragnt and Color Drain.
Ahkelios might succeed in distracting it. Other temporal clones are out of the question; the only echo I have here is the one that entered the Fracture in my fifth loop. It never got this far in. Color Drain might be useful, if I can sap its strength and speed out of it, but the primary thing that I want to drain is weight. I don't know what color that is yet, and I don't know if it's possible.
I could ask Ahkelios and see if he miraculously rembers.
An Inspiration might help. The Eye can help combine any two skills, and with the Mirror I can pull out other temporal clones from different monts in my life; an Anger fragnt, combined with my own efforts, would probably at least triple my effective strength. But that had only been enough to throw Mari off-balance, and Naru is stronger than her still...
No matter how I think about it, I just don't have enough raw power. I grit my teeth. I don't want to end the loop here not if I can survive. I want to get back to Mari, show her the stone and the skill shard; I want to check the Hotspot again and see if Naru has left.
There's too much to do this loop to lose it to a robot that ca out of nowhere.
The robot's hand is halfway across the room now, closing in on . ntal Acceleration continues to stretch out the seconds, buying precious ti. I race through my options, trying to find sothing that will help; maybe so combination of Inspirations and a new skill, like a Temporal Fragnt combined with Crystallized Strength
There's an electric tingle of Firmant in the air, the exact sa sensation that led to the first blast. This ti, it's strong enough that I can feel it even through the stone.
And that puts sothing new on the table. If I can push it just a little bit off balance if I can just shove it into the upcoming Firmant blast, and disorient it enough that I can run, or kill it outright...
That's a better plan than anything else I've got. If I can't muster the strength myself, why not use my environnt to do it for ?
Now I just need to ti everything right.
I milk every second I can get from ntal Acceleration. I twist away just a fraction of a second before the robot-thing's hand brushes over my shirt, elongated fingers leaving a heavy crackle of Firmant that lashes against mine. Triplestep takes to the farthest corner of the room I can manage.
"You are fighting," the robot thing says. It's a statent, not a question, and it sounds puzzled, as if it doesn't understand why. "Please do not resist."
"Not really an option for ," I say dryly. "Maybe you stop trying to capture instead?"
"My directives do not allow to." Its answer is simple, though strangely worded but before I can think on it, it twists its way into the room, contorting its body to fit through the doorway. The rock crumbles and cracks as the robot forces itself through, and the golem still off in its corner makes a distressed sort of grumble as the stacked rocks teeter and fall apart.
I don't have the attention to spare for it. Firmant crackles across the tallic plates, like it's preparing for an attack, and it's pure instinct that makes call up a Crystallized Barrier
A blazing shield of crystalline Firmant forms in front of , and only just in ti. Electricity blasts into it, yellow energy skating off each facet of the barrier and scorching into the walls and floor. The barrier cracks, but sohow holds.
My only advantage here, I realize, is that this thing doesn't want to kill . It wants to capture , and so there's a limit to the amount of force it can safely use. But I have to play this safe if I threaten to kill myself, it might decide to leave a ssage for its next iteration to hunt down, and I cannot threaten the fundantal safety of my loops. It'll an I have to spend every second running, every second trying to avoid capture.
Of course, it might have left that ssage already. If it has, I can't do anything about it, so I don't bother considering that. I'll deal with it if it cos down to it.
"Another anomaly." It actually pauses, analyzing my shield, and I let it. Firmant is still building in the background. Every second that it wastes is precious to .
"What's so anomalous about ?" I ask. I don't really care about the answer, but strangely, the robot-thing actually pauses, as if to think about its response.
I use the ti to prepare.
I need to use the Mirror Inspiration here. I'd stack it if I could, but my Firmant is weak, and I don't want to exhaust it completely. I still need my Barriers to protect myself from the blast.
Crystallized Strength.
The skill resists when I try to use the Mirror on it. It flows from , but there's a gap where I would otherwise be able to apply the Inspiration like sothing about it is incompatible. I grit my teeth, fighting it, trying to force the two together. Firmant Inspiration, Strength skill.
For a mont, it almost seems to work. I feel the Inspiration brush against the Firmant of the skill, and it flickers into a dull red
but just as soon as I manage it, it forces itself apart again, and settles into my muscles. The crackle of Crystallized Strength fills instead. I'm disappointed, but this isn't a failure.
Not yet.
"Anomaly: Firmant. Firmant instability exceeds expected standard deviation within species and stress markers. Further analysis required," it tells , and then it repeats itself. "You are fighting. Please do not resist."
Firmant is still building in the background. It's stronger than it was before, now, but Intuitive Analysis tells it's still a few seconds before the blast actually takes place.
It whips the chain it carries towards . The end of the chain uncoils itself like a living thing, moving to wrap around , presumably to capture ; I wonder if that's the purpose of the thing. ntal Acceleration has a hard ti keeping up with it, but it just barely manages, and I Triplestep, ducking low to avoid the chain
except it curves to follow , moving faster than I can
Color Drain.
I'm lucky that there's a crackle of yellow Firmant running down the length of the chain. I drain the speed out of it, the Firmant pooling into a useless puddle of yellow on the floor, and it slows it down just enough that the chain cracks against my ribs instead of wrapping around .
It still hurts. I'm pretty sure it breaks a rib.
But I'm alive.
I see the robot-thing gathering Firmant to use a skill. I feel the Firmant in the background gathering even more, Intuitive Analysis telling that the Fracture is just a second away from bursting with Firmant, even more powerful than before.
Now or never.
Color Drain. Color Drain. Color Drain.
There isn't much color I can actually drain out of it. I target every color I can red, because I know it represents strength, even though there's barely a hint of red on it; yellow, from the crackle of the Firmant beneath its plates; purple, because that's the color of its core. All three of those colors ooze onto the ground, and it reacts, but it reacts slower.
Crystallized Strength still flows through . I Triplestep and Firestep forward, feeling flas light the ground beneath my feet; a Crystallized Barrier forms around my fist so I don't break it on the plated tal. I see it move to react, tallic plates actually shifting on its body to block the impact of my blow.
Mirror. Temporal Fragnt.
A blazing red copy of bursts forward in the sa mont my punch lands. The temporal clone slams an empowered fist directly into the sa spot onto the robot's stomach, Firmant overlapping briefly with my own.
Too late, I realize the chain it holds is still slack, the end of it lying on the floor behind . Too late, I realize that as the force of my punch forces it backwards through the doorway, it's retaliating.
The chain whips towards the back of my head, even as I turn around to et it. I don't know if he's trying to kill in revenge or reacting out of instinct, or just trying to disable . I do know that I don't have the ti or the speed to react. ntal Acceleration gives the ti to notice it, but even though I'm trying to call up a Barrier of so sort, I'm tugging on a nearly empty pool of Firmant. A half-ford Barrier materializes and is instantly shattered again.
I can't stop it.
But the chain never hits.
There's a crunch of tal-on-rock, and I hear the sound of stone shattering; I glance behind , only to see that the golem that was in this room has sohow stepped in front of the chain, and lost an entire arm for it. It doesn't seem to care it glares past at the robot, which is still tipping over backwards.
And then the Firmant blast explodes outwards across the Fracture. I try to call up a Crystallized Barrier, but it fails, too.
The last thing I'm aware of is a shadow in front of . Then the sheer energy of the blast whips away my consciousness.
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