Ability: Improved Instigated Fury
The fervor of battle sweeps over you. For the next 8 seconds, each time you take damage your base attack increases by 15%.
Ability: Lightspeed
Dangerous levels of charge are channeled into your leg implants, increasing movement speed by 200% for 10 seconds. You will take double damage if hit during Lightspeed.
Ability: Lethal Precision
Your knowledge of the enemy increases the chance of you and your allies landing critical attacks. For a duration of 15 seconds, all attacks from you or your allies (within 50 feet) gain a +20% chance of becoming critical attacks.
Double base damage, damage increased every time damage is taken, insane movement speed, and an increased chance to land crits. Kaiden could barely keep up with all of the abilities as they flashed in front of him.
Moran went for Titus first. Lightspeed did its thing and he was a blur. Right up until his hammer came down on Titus’ head with a resounding crack and his health bar went wild with flashing. Nineteen percent health evaporated in the blink of an eye. Fifty-two left.
Another blow landed on Titus, echoing through the chamber. His health plummeted. Another attack or two and he was done for.
Ability: Improved Burst Arrow
Zelda fired the attack but Moran was moving far too fast to be hit by it. He sidestepped it then turned back toward Titus, looking to deal a lethal blow.
Ability: Improved Scatter Shot
Lightspeed made Moran near impossible to hit as long as he kept moving, but Zelda was so close it was almost impossible for the shotgun blast of her Improved Scatter Shot to miss. She blasted Moran with the attack from mere steps away. The laser exploded against him, biting away at his health and dropping it to seventy-five percent.
Ability: Lock On
You direct charge into your hammer-gun. For 5 seconds, as long as the last target you damaged is within your line of sight, your attacks will not miss. You cannot attack any other target. If you take damage this effect deactivates.
“Your speed won’t help you now,” Zelda said, then fired an Improved Kinetic Grenade. With Lightspeed and Berserker active Moran was looking at some serious penalties for getting hit, as became painfully evident when Zelda’s grenade went off at his feet with a resounding boom.
His health flashed down to sixty-four percent, and as it did, something strange happened. He doubled over, growling and cursing. His armor began to glow and vibrate. Whatever was happening spread to his hammer, and as it did, the hammer changed. It’d been the size of Thorne’s, clearly a power warden’s weapon. Now, however, it was shaking and moving as if it were liquid. As Kaiden stared, Moran’s hammer shrunk in size until it was back to that of an enhanced or shield warden.
Power warden abilities removed.
Berserker, Improved Instigate Fury, and associated effects ended.
The system message flashed in Kaiden’s vision, but he didn’t understand it.
What does that mean?
“He’s lost the ability to use power warden attacks?” Kaiden asked aloud.
“How did that happen?” Titus asked, stepping in front of Zelda with his shield up.
“He lost more than twenty-five percent of his health!” Zelda exclaimed all at once.
“And…?” Titus asked.
“Oh my god. You’re right!” Thorne said, and Kaiden knew it as well. Suddenly it all made sense.
“The Warden Hierarch is a special class, right?” Zelda said, staring at him with a new appreciation. “Almost like he’s part player, part boss. So, what if his class works like a boss? What if he has stages? Every twenty-five percent health he loses, he loses the abilities of one of the four classes he’s made from?”
It all made perfect sense. And for the first time in the fight, Kaiden started to piece together a path to victory.
“Guys!” Kaiden shouted. “I know how we win this. We need—”
Moran wheeled on him and began swinging, cutting him off mid-sentence. The attack came blindingly fast and Kaiden didn’t have time to dodge. The blow came down as a critical strike and his health dropped to eighteen percent.
He backpedaled, shield up to protect himself.
Moran charged an Improved Kinetic Grenade then slammed it into the ground at Kaiden’s feet. It detonated with an eardrum-rupturing bang in the confines of the chamber. Even with his shield blocking most of the damage, burning bits of ground and razor-sharp fragments of tiles blasted past Kaiden as the fire overtook him and a massive chunk of his health evaporated once again.
Thirteen percent health now.
Kaiden grunted as he regained his balance, blinking through the stinging in his eyes from the blinding attack. He drew his vision back into focus in time to see a hammer swinging into his face.
He ducked under it and slipped past Moran, scoring a critical hammer strike on his knee as he passed. Lightspeed had expired now and the speed debuff from the Chrono Sledge kept Moran away for a moment. Kaiden had just enough time to catch his breath.
“Every time we strip one of his abilities, he gets weaker,” he said. “If we can take them away, we can beat him. Right now he can counter our attacks with whatever warden ability is best for it. If we take that away, he’ll be more predictable and we’ll know what to expect.” Kaiden used his last stimpack. His health swelled to thirty-eight percent.
“Pop stims,” Kaiden reminded everyone, staring down Moran. “There’s a lot of fight left in him.”
Moran must have seen it coming because he chose just then to unleash a volley of attacks. A Paralyzing Shot that slowed Thorne. A Hammer Toss that sent Zelda dodging to one side. And then an Energy Grip toward Kaiden.
Moran lashed out and the lasso caught Kaiden around the leg, then ripped him to the ground and dragged him forward. Zelda fired an Improved Burst Arrow but Moran ducked it, then leveled his hammer at Kaiden and unleashed an Improved Scatter Shot. Kaiden’s armor cracked and a few pieces were blown away as the attack hit him
