Third engagement! Let there be light!

The illusion around half of Ward’s cameras dissipated, revealing the true state of the battlefield.

They were completely surrounded. ‘Damn no room for the rifle.’ Ward thought as he switched it to a baseball bat and drew an automatic grenade pistol.

To their sides were tall and dense buildings, courtesy of overpopulation. Behind them a large group of the Hivemind were already descending from the roof and starting to attack.

In front of them a whole group of Devourers were already locked in a fight with Louis, dropping from the canopies of the trees surrounding the Eiffel tower.

“They appeared out of nowhere! I got the yellow ones!” Louis said.

“I got the green one!” Kaya said confidently as she swam up the wall of a building effortlessly.

Before William could ask “What green one?” Waterfall kept swimming as if on thin air, slithering upward in a spiral motion while slowly being covered in a thick red liquid.

The fish-like scales of Waterfall changed their colors to a deep red, slashing its way up the Giant’s arm. As the monster started to move and struggle against the serpentine metallic frame, it slowly became visible, illusion breaking with the Giants movement.

Even though Kaya’s frame was a fifteen-meter-long machine it looked like a toy compared to the humongous and distorted citizen of Paris. She coiled upwards, surrounding the monsters neck and arm but was promptly stopped with a powerful electric shock.

The lightning came from the monsters neck itself and sparked in every direction like a lions mane. Kaya had no choice but to slide downwards, placing Waterfall around the giants arm and do her best to disable it.

The monster roared with frustration, trying to pry it’s hand free of the sharp serpentine machine, only to have both of his arms now trapped in Waterfalls weapon like scales.

“My teeth are not going deep enough.” Kaya said, frustrated.

“You got this?” Ward asked Kaya who was driving the Giant away from the group.

“ Yes” Kaya said while wrapping around the monster tighter.

Anya and William were knee deep in a fight of their own.

Shoulder to shoulder and back-to-back both warriors worked in tandem with one another.

They were a storm of whirling steel and blunt force trauma.

But while some of their strikes did find their purchase, William more often than not swung at an apparition only to hit nothing but air.

“Switching to sonar” William said, knowing full well sonar is slower but much harder for the Hivemind to mess with. “But I am going to have some lag.” William exclaimed as he fired a line of grenades at a large group of the Hivemind, knowing at least some of them were real.

“I got you where you cant swing” Anya said while hitting with her hammer a Fallen that would have jumped on Oath’s back from one of the buildings. While William and Anya were good fighters and their opponent was an order of magnitude smaller, hitting them proved to be a difficult challenge.

They dodged wide swings and grouped together to stop the short and fast swings, sacrificing some, only to let one of their faster members try and reach one of the Joints of the Mechs and rip the metal apart with inhuman grip strength and sharp claws.

Some of the Purple-eyed Crystalline monsters were wielding pipes of metal and sharp sticks as rudimentary weapons, doing their best to create any opening for their comrades to reach Anya or William. ‘I cant let them get to my cockpit or else my brain is screwed’ Ward thought to himself as he swung.

Most of those who dared to get too close got clubbed on the head but other then the brave attackers Both warriors were missing more often than they were hitting.

Ward saw some of the purple Fallen slipped by, going deeper into the battlefield.

In response he venomously said, “The Oath is now Cascading!” doing his best to keep his voice calm

William said and punched a big red button on the console in front of him, a siren blared as a heat warning was displayed and every single one of the stars on the Oath’s frame started to glow.

Light erupted from Ward’s Mech, shining like a small sun with all its luminous glory.

Each star on the Oath’s frame shot a laser forward, covering the battlefield with precisely aimed beams of red, white and blue.

Any Fallen that moved slow enough for the sonar to pick up were fried almost instantly.

The beams of light burned hot enough to melt stone, and they rarely missed, creating an opening in the enemies’ strategy. William could feel his mind slow way down, as if time itself could stretch. His body operated on pure discipline, leaving room for his brain to strategize and fall deeper into the zone.

William could see Waterfall slithering up and down the giants body in figure-eight, slashing it and restraining it. ‘I sure am lucky that bastard isn’t my problem.’ William thought as he saw Waterfall was doing ok. “Brother how you doing?” Ward asked Louis since he couldn’t get a direct line of sight.

“Doing ok for now Mon Frere. A hundred down. But they are getting good. one of them already bit me in the ass.” Louis replied while the sound of the air parting way for his blade was heard immediately after.

Knowing his team is doing ok William let his instincts take over.

‘This one is going for my elbow. That one is going for my knee. Two at the back, they climbed the wall.’ William thought while the laser system managed to fry the Fallen going for the leg.

The Fallen from behind him used himself as a meat shield to let his ally attempt to strike the back of the Oath’s neck.

And in one swing William cracked all their skulls.

The Hivemind were confused, if they came too fast, they would get hit by the baseball bat. If they sneaked slowly, they were ignited. Just like Ward wanted. It was slow to progress but after a slog of several minutes William and Anya were almost halfway done.

They sustained relatively minimal damage other then the armor of their Mechs, which was supposed to take damage in wards opinion.

“Brother, I need help! I got most of them, but I lost an arm. They know my moves.” Louis sounded rough and winded, the sound of his engines and screeches of the Devourers in the background along with a weird dripping sound William could not decipher.

Time froze for William.

He could hear Anya start to say “Go! I have this” but his legs already started running.

He passed piles of bodies and cut terrain. He could almost feel his mind splitting.

One eye looking at the present, the other at the past. “No! Don’t take another brother from me”

He ran so fast, the road beneath him cracked. Seeing in his memories a dear old friend growing red crystals, as if it was happening right now.

When William got to the tree line he could see the aftermath of Louis’s fight.

It almost looked impossible. The whole courtyard was destroyed as if by the force of an invisible god while the Eiffle tower did not even have a speck of blood on it.

At the center of the open field were the last hundred Devourers and some Hivemind who got past him and Anya. All surrounding the one-armed, wingless Nomad .

All of the monsters charged Louis at once as William’s lasers fired.