His health dropped to twenty-four percent. Moran above him, raising his hammer, was the last thing Kaiden saw as the Improved Scatter Shot’s blind effect kicked in.
Ability: Matter Shift
He activated it on instinct, unable to aim it, but teleporting anywhere was better than staying beneath Moran’s oncoming attack.
Even through the blind effect, lights flashed in Kaiden’s vision and he felt the ground disappear from beneath him. It reformed a moment later in time for him to hear what must’ve been Moran’s hammer slam into the spot he’d just occupied.
The blind wore off and Kaiden saw Moran turning toward him. Zelda hit him in the back with an Improved Warden’s Bolt that dropped his health to sixty percent but Moran was fixated. Bent on killing Kaiden.
“What is this little group of yours without their leader?” Moran roared as he used Kickback to launch through the air and land above Kaiden, then raise his hammer.
Screw this, Kaiden thought and grabbed an item from his inventory. The Matter Insubstantiator. He activated it with a click, and all at once, he was insubstantial. Moran’s attack passed right through him. Kaiden looked down through his own transparent chest to watch as the hammer thunked into the floor.
Moran cursed as Kaiden rolled to his feet, then stepped forward and directly through him. The hierarch spun and raised his hammer, but he seemed unsure what to do. Hard to hit a target that has no mass.
But the ability wouldn’t last long. Kaiden turned to run, to regroup with the others.
Ability: Improved Shield Charge
Moran’s shield hit him with the force of a meteor just as the Insubstantiator wore off and then Kaiden was flying backwards, driven across the room.
His health flashed down to six percent from the initial impact. And then the walls of the chamber shuddered with an echoing boom as he was driven into them. Moran’s shield crushed him, drove him a foot deep into the wall as stone was pulverized to dust around him. Kaiden’s health was likewise pulverized and the last thing he saw was his health drop to zero before it all went black.
Chapter Sixty-Five
You have been defeated
Respawn available in: 6 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes.
Kaiden stared at the text. It was the only thing he could see, and even still, he couldn’t believe it.
You have been defeated.
Respawn available in: 6 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes.
I had a plan. A way to beat him. It was all there; we just had to execute it. I just... just had to live long enough to pull it off. But I didn’t. I failed.
Could the others do it without him? They had to now. The three of them had to be enough or else that was it; they lost. Killswitch would take Nova offline and then... then what? Before he could come up with an answer, a light flashed in his vision.
Huh?
It was distant, but growing larger. As it did, he could see what was inside it. Zelda. Thorne. Titus. Moran and the chamber, the broadcast control console. The light was an image of them all and it was resolving itself by the moment.
And then text flashed in his vision.
Ability: Saving Grace
You have been revived! Welcome back.
Kaiden stared at the text blankly. Uncomprehending. And then he was back in the chamber. Back in his body. He looked down to find one hand clutching his hammer and his shield glowing in the other.
He blinked dumbly as his brain caught up to what had happened. He was alive and he had ten charge. But why?
Titus, he realized. Titus had revived him!
Pebbles clattered off his shoulders and dust rained down around him as Kaiden pulled himself up from the pile of rubble Moran had left him in and took in his surroundings.
The warden hierarch was attacking Thorne. Her health was down to seven percent, but as Kaiden watched, she used her last stimpack and rose to thirty-two percent.
Zelda was focused in, unloading a barrage of attacks into Moran’s back. Plenty of them must have already connected as his health was down to fifty-five percent.
And then there was Titus, off to one side. He was slumped over, like Saving Grace had taken an incredible amount of physical exertion. And as Kaiden looked closer, he realized the big man’s health was down to thirty-three percent.
He pulled up the text of the ability and realized why.
Ability: Saving Grace
You expend a massive amount of charge to save yourself or an ally from death. If a target within 100 feet has been reduced to 0% health in the last 5 seconds, they return to 50% health instead.
Cost: All of your charge and 50% of max health if targeting an ally. If targeting yourself, all of your charge but no health and you resurrect with only 5% health and 5% charge.
Cooldown: 6 hours
All of your charge and fifty percent of your max health, Kaiden realized. Titus had nearly killed himself to pull the rez off.
“Titus!” Kaiden said through comms. “You’re almost dead!”
“Well, you were fully dead,” he said with a shrug. “Had to do it.”
“Use a stimpack!”
He shook his head.
“Used my second one a bit back, then my last one just now to survive Saving Grace.”
“I need you alive to win this.”
Thirty-three percent health was far less than ideal, but Kaiden was only at fifty percent himself. But at the moment, it was a far sight better than the zero percent he’d been moments before.
“All right,” Kaiden said through comms so he would get everyone but Moran’s attention. “Let’s finish this punk.” He was painfully aware of the timer at the edge of his vision, still ticking down as ever. Fourteen minutes left. If they were going to do this, they needed to do it now. He did a quick mental rundown of everyone’s abilities, then compared that against his knowledge of what Moran was capable of.
How do you beat someone who can use nearly every warden ability? He can counter nearly all of our attacks. But he’s
