Jace and Lessa leapt aside. A heartbeat later, a beam of charged shield-Aes rippled out from the guardian’s chest.

  It seemed counter-intuitive. Shields shouldn’t be ranged weapons. But the Aes chewed through the stone ledge, parting it in a cylindrical pattern, like the beam was repelling it away. He’d hate to see what that would do to a human body.

  Worse, Kinfild didn’t move. The beam screeched up toward him, and he activated a defensive technique of his own. He fortified his forearms with tendrils of flame, then held them up against the approaching beam of energy.

  It seared up along the ground and clashed against his flaming bracers, and he skidded back a few feet. Hexagonal sparks burst out from the impact point as it tried to push his arms apart and repel his technique.

  “Kinfild!” Jace yelled. He almost ran forward and pulled the man out of the way, but the beam sputtered out.

  With a hiss and a shudder, the automaton’s chest-beam faded, and with it, the glowing lights all along its body and form dimmed. Jace could barely see it behind the new swath of dust it had kicked up.

  “Kinfild, what was that?” Lessa asked. “Are you trying to die?”

  “Shield-Aes,” Kinfild replied. “Listen well, Jace. The best defense against a ranged attack is a forging technique, in which you create solid objects out of Aes. But Wielders like us don’t have useful forging techniques. Not yet, at least.”

  The automaton lunged forward, pulling back its forearms, and swatted at Kinfild. It moved fast for a lumbering creature twice Jace’s height, but not so fast he could track its movements.

  Kinfild ducked under the blow. His joints probably creaked louder than the creature’s mechanical limbs. Despite being a device many thousands of years old, it didn’t seem hindered. Its age hadn’t caught up to it.

  “The best way to block a ranged attack for us is a fortification technique.” Kinfild held up his forearms and clutched the staff in both hands, then blocked the automaton’s downward fist-smash with the haft of his staff. His arms strained against the blow, but his strengthened, enhanced limbs didn’t buckle. “My Flame Brace card temporarily converts all Potency into Strength and doubles it.”

  “I don’t have a fortification technique!” Jace exclaimed. “Watch out!”

  The automaton widened its stance again and leaned back. The edges of its core cannon sparked and glowed again, and the lines along its body began to blare brightly through the hall again.

  And it pointed its shield-laser directly at Kinfild. It’d hit him for the whole time, and that would surely break through the fortification technique.

  “Lessa, see any weak spots?” he asked.

  “I’ll look and probe it,” she said, stepping back down the walkway. Then, with a wink, she added, “And I’ll try not to hit you.”

  Jace activated a hyperdash immediately, flashing through Kinfild and appearing behind the automaton’s leg. He raised the Whistling Blade, then slashed down at its calf. The blade whooshed through the air, trailing sparks and plasma, and it bit into the metal coating.

  It only sank in a few centimeters. Jace pushed, but the metal resisted, and the automaton barely buckled, even with his strength. The glowing hot edge melted whatever the substance was, but at a much slower rate.

  Was the blade already running out of stored plasma-Aes? Or was the automaton just that much tougher?

  Still, it bent backward slightly from the impact, shifting its beam, and blasted up over Kinfild’s head. It tried to drag its beam downward, but Kinfild blocked it. He only had to hold his defence for a few seconds before the beam sputtered out again.

  “What’s this thing made of?” Jace exclaimed, jumping back. Immediately, the automaton registered him as a new threat, and it wheeled around, shifting its upper body on a swivel without moving its legs, like its entire upper body was an owl. Then, it made a fist and punched at Jace.

  He stepped back again, avoiding the strike, then slashed at its hand. The blade still lit up bright white as he swung, and the tip cleaved a gash along the automaton’s inner wrist. The plates blocked it.

  “Some sort of arcane alloy, likely!” Kinfild said. “Steel bathed in shield-Aes, giving it defensive properties.”

  At the same time, he launched a column of flame at the back of its head, and Lessa fired a bolt of plasma at its chest. The fire glanced off harmlessly, barely making the creature’s armour glow red, but Lessa’s shot left a dent and a black char with a glowing hot center.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Concentrated attacks worked better on it, then.

  Still, as Jace stumbled along the ledge, he realized that this Whistling Blade wouldn’t be enough. Not on its own. He needed to enhance it with his own power.

  And the chances of him finding a card for that were slim. He needed it now.

  He could manipulate Aes without a card as a base. He knew he could. It just took more effort and wasn’t as instantaneous.

  “Lessa!” Jace yelled. “Keep hunting for a weak spot!”

  “On it!” she called.

  “And can you read its stats?”

  “Give me a minute!”

  “Kinfild!” Jace called. “Can you keep its attention?”

  “My speciality, it seems,” said the Wielder. “Yes, I can.”

  Jace backed away from the automaton, but it matched him stride for stride. And, worse, it kept up with ease, despite its size. Its stride was twice as far as Jace’s. Jace tucked away his Whistling Blade, hiding it behind his back. Perhaps if he wasn’t so bright and shiny, the automaton wouldn’t be attracted to him so much.

  But the automaton prowled forward. Energy sparked around its core again, and Jace leapt aside in-time to avoid a beam of shield-aspect Aes. It tore up a cloud of dust and debris, which pelted and stung his shins, but he ignored it.

  Then Kinfild blasted the back of its head with another burst of flame, and Lessa fired at its shoulder. The beast groaned in a mechanical, warbling tone, then spun around to face the next perceived threats.

  “I’m seeing a high Vital rating,” Lessa said, pulling her rifle’s bolt back. “Around sixty. It’s tough, and it has a high Strength rating, too—about fifty. Low Agility, low Potency, medium Resistance.”

  “Luminian steel was very strong,” Kinfild said. “And it has been basking in the energies of this world for thousands of years. Certainly, this beast…” He trailed off and stepped back to avoid a heavy punch. “...Has grown more powerful than when it’s creators originally built it.”

  Jace kept his back pressed against the wall, then held his Whistling Blade out in front of him. He needed to transmit his own Aes into the blade. That was what it was for. Such weapons were designed with Wielders in mind.

  He cycled his Aes up to his hands, then, with a deep breath, tried to thrust the blue, hyperspace-aspect energy into the blade’s hilt. He imagined he was fuelling the Vault Core.

  Nothing happened. Nothing.

  Jace grimaced.

  “Jace, what are you doing?” Lessa asked.

  “Is the sword working?” Kinfild added.

  “I’m…give me a second!” Jace shouted. He looked down at the blade’s crescent-shaped hilt with frustration. “I promise I’ll come help! I’ve got an idea! I just need…thirty seconds!”

  On Celacor VIII, when he’d fought Stenol, the blade had a song. It had resonated with him, like it had been his and always his, even if he’d only held it for a few weeks. The sword’s song had helped him defeat Stenol.

  It had a name. Arbiter. It had a purpose, and that was to cut. It was for him.

  But it wasn’t as easy as just fuelling a Vault Core. For one, it was a Whistling Blade. It only released Aes when it was moving. That had to help. But he also had to listen to its song, to its vibrations.

  He wedged his fingernail in between the leather bindings just beneath the crossguard, then lifted the weapon. It warbled slightly, and the glass tang vibrated in tune with it.

  Feel the song. It wasn’t really a melody, but the blade itself had a rhythm to it, and it wanted to be listened to. When Jace lifted the sword, it wanted to slice down again, to finish the cut, and a vacuum of power rolled down the blade, both as it drew leftover plasma from the forging process, and as it tried to draw Aes from him.

  He let it.

  [Whistling Blade bonded. Funneling three hundred (300) units of hyperspace-aspect Aes into glass?]

  Jace mentally accepted.

  A surge of blue Aes rippled down the blade. Lightning shot through the filaments in the glass, heating up and glowing white-hot. It looked almost no different than before, except now, the blade trailed blue sparks as he swung it.

  And the sword itself had a hyperspace aspect. His aspect, his strength.

  He sprinted forward, charging at the automaton with a shout, and slashed at the back of its leg once more.

  His sword sliced the air with almost no resistance. It wanted to move quickly, to use the hyperspace aspects of his Aes, but his body could only swing so fast. The Aes wanted to move faster than light. It built up, trilling in the sword, and then with a Whistle, it sent white-hot spears lancing through the entire glass fuller.

  The blade left a blue crescent in the air as he swung it, its speed drawing out its shape. He slammed it into the automaton’s calf, and the metal no longer resisted. It was like when he first picked up the blade and used it on low-level beasts. It slashed through with ease, and he had to exert almost no pressure.

  With a metallic screech, the automaton tumbled forward and crashed to a heap in the center of the walkway. It tried to pull itself up with its hands, to stand again. It wasn’t done just yet.

  “Jace!” Lessa exclaimed. “Hit it beside the weapon core! It was protecting that area from plasma blasts!”

  “On it!” Jace jumped over a slow-moving mechanical leg, then jumped onto its flank and held the Whistling Blade in a reverse grip. After a second, he drove it downward into its body, striking just beside the core.

  The automaton bellowed and screeched, then shuddered.

  “Jace, get back!” Kinfild called. “You don’t want to be beside it when its internals fail!”