Zelda ducked to the side, avoiding the attack but delayed from beginning her own, and Kaiden stepped toward the charging Esme, bracing for impact. He hadn’t blocked any damage yet, though, so he had no charge and thus no access to his abilities. The wardens were designed as a reactive class, not meant to instigate fights.
And yet, here we are.
Esme closed the distance between them in no time. Kaiden raised his shield, but at the last moment, she turned off in favor of advancing on Zelda.
Titus stepped into her way and blocked her initial hammer strike before responding with one of his own. She let it hit, not even attempting to block in favor of attacking as much as possible.
“Power wardens gain charge from blocking attacks but also from dealing damage,” Thorne said, rushing in to attack Esme from behind. “The more you let her wail on you, the stronger she’s going to get.”
Titus backpedaled, giving up ground as he tried to dodge the power warden’s attacks. He was a shield warden, though, so his dexterity wasn’t anything special, and his attempts to dodge the hammer strikes only lowered his defenses. Kaiden jumped forward to help him on instinct, but without charge his attacks weren’t going to do much. Esme ignored him, focused on Titus for the moment. She’d built enough charge for an ability.
Ability: Shield Break
Ignores armor, staggers the target, and deals 150% base damage.
Kaiden’s visor displayed limited information on the ability, as it did for all enemy attacks. Esme’s hammer burst with energy then slammed into Titus’ shield. The energy flashed forward, straight through his shield, and he was driven backward, a worrying chunk bashed from his health. Down to eighty-seven percent already – and Esme had only used one ability. With Titus staggered, Esme shrugged past Kaiden and his ineffectual attacks to turn back toward Zelda.
Thorne launched into the air, her hammer crackling with energy.
Ability: Earth Shatter
You channel charge into your legs and leap into the air. Upon landing, a shockwave bursts out from around you. Opponents within 10 feet of you are knocked down.
Cost: 25 charge.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
She slammed her weapon down as she landed and a shockwave exploded outward, knocking Esme onto her back. Thorne took advantage of the moment to dart in and unleash well-aimed strikes at her opponent. They connected, but not for nearly the damage Kaiden would have liked to see. By the time Esme was back on her feet she’d only lost eleven percent of her health.
“I can keep her occupied,” Thorne said, gritting through a barrage of damage as Esme lashed out. “But I’m not winning this fight. Not one on one.”
The two power wardens danced back and forth, weapons swinging so fast as to be nothing more than vaguely hammer-shaped blurs. Thorne was taking the worst of the damage, though, which made sense considering she was several levels weaker than her opponent.
“Keep her off Zelda as long as you can,” Kaiden said, then sprang into motion. Range reigns supreme here. We need to take their blaster out of the fight.
As if to hammer home the effectiveness of ranged classes, Alvarez spun from where he’d been slinging shots toward Zelda — since Titus had been beaten away from covering her — and caught Kaiden in the shoulder with a Paralyzing Shot.
Deals base damage, slows me by half for ten seconds, he thought, then cursed but pushed on anyway. He sprinted toward Alvarez and the shield warden, Clarissa, but it was like his body was moving through tar; his legs were heavy and refused to move at their usual pace. He was a sitting duck.
Alvarez lined up another shot, an ability charging on the end of his hammer-gun.
“Oh, hell,” Kaiden mumbled as his visor read out what was coming.
Ability: Inferno Shot
Ignores some of the target’s armor and deals a massive amount of damage to enemies and allies within range.
“Got you covered!” Zelda shouted and Kaiden flinched as a Kinetic Grenade arced from over his shoulder toward Alvarez. Zelda must have been in Sniper Mode to be able to get such distance on her grenade, hoping to knock down the enemy blast warden before his ability could charge. Unfortunately, Clarissa stepped in front of it at the last moment and blocked most of the damage with her shield. Inferno Shot was ready to fire.
Then the boarding party burst into the fray, guns blazing to life and filling the corridor with a hail of screaming laser fire.
Clarissa raised her shield to block the shots but there were too many to stop. Her health flashed as the marines’ attacks pecked away at it. Alvarez seemed caught off guard. He spun to aim his Inferno Shot at the marines, then seemed to think better of it and tried to spin back toward Kaiden. Too late, though. The attack finished charging and fired.
Kaiden threw himself to the side, mostly out of the path of the attack as a screaming explosion of damage poured past. His health bar flashed as the attack winged him —dealing significantly less damage than a direct hit would have. It mostly missed him, but several marines were not so lucky. Two were killed instantly as the Inferno Shot detonated.
Marine Ally Slain!
Marine Ally Slain!
Kaiden climbed to his feet as the slow effect from Paralyzing Shot wore off. He ducked behind his shield as Alvarez blasted an Improved Burst Arrow at him. It exploded against his shield in a flash of near-blinding light, but also filled his charge bar some. Enough, for the moment.
Ability: Improved Blur
Kaiden fired off the ability and two body doubles appeared beside him as he closed the remaining distance to Alvarez.
It’s time to turn the tide of this fight. We’re gonna take ‘em out like a house of cards. Knock out the base and the whole thing comes down.
More laser blasts rained down at him, but they were inaccurate, the blast warden clearly unsure which Kaiden to shoot at. All the better; his heath was already down
