The door caved inward under the impact of the soldiers
Iron braces warped. Stone dust burst into the room like smoke from a match. The sound wasn't frantic, and whoever was breaking in knew exactly how much force to use. They had to be professionals.
Cael moved first, already drifting toward the left wall, his blade angled low. The princess stepped back without being told, and she pressed herself against a reinforced column at the chamber's center.
Izan planted his feet between them.
The door exploded inward.
Three figures surged through the opening in heavy armor, shields overlapping. Thick plates, runes etched on them, and behind them, something larger moved, making sounds of metal scraping stone.
Izan felt the pressure in his chest.
He exhaled and chose.
Red lighting threaded across his gauntlets.
He burst forward, landing a punch across the worn metal helmet of the figure.
The helmet was flying in the air and then skidded across the floor, stopping at the feet of a large metal foot
"You got some bite, kid, but how much longer will the fight last when in the presence of technical innovation?"
The giant didn't laugh. He simply raised the gun-axe. It was a brutal piece of engineering—a massive, notched crescent blade built onto a thick, rifled barrel that hummed with a low, mechanical thrum.
"Innovation, this Innovation that I will make sure to knock your head off, tin man," Izan spat. He smashed his gauntlets together, the heavy plates ringing with a sharp metallic crack. He felt the Axiom in his chest straining against Rovan's seal, buzzing like a hornet's nest.
The giant pulled the trigger. There was an enormous explosion of gunpowder, a smell of acid, and metal swirled in the air. A cluster of steel flechettes tore through the air.
"Scatter!" Rovan commanded.
Izan didn't duck. He dove forward, his nomadic instincts turning a simple roll into a controlled dash. The flechettes whistling inches above his head, shredding the stone column behind him.
"Cael, now!"
Izan closed the distance in a blur. He didn't have the reach of his old nomadic spear, so he had to get inside the giant's guard. He stepped into the blind spot of the Gun-Axe, his gauntlet snapping out in a stiff jab meant to disorient.
Internal Art: Soko.
Against the giant's chest plate, the punch landed. The heavy steel didn't break, but the force of the reinforcement sent a shockwave through the suit. The giant grunted, swinging the axe-side of his weapon in a horizontal sweep.
Izan slipped the swing, the blade passing so close he could feel the cold wind of its edge. He drove his right fist upward, targeting the hydraulic seal at the giant's elbow.
Red Lightning: Thunder Flash.
A pulse of crimson energy flared from his knuckles. It was a concentrated discharge that cooked the arm actuator's internal wiring. The giant's right arm seized, the Gun-Axe dipping under its own dead weight.
"He's using External Shaping: Sound to dampen the affects!" Cael's voice cut through the mechanical hiss of the suit. Cael was already a grey ghost among the lesser soldiers, his Gnosi Saber slipping into the gaps of their armor. "The vibrations aren't reaching his body, Izan! You're just hitting the shell!"
"Then I'll hit it harder!" Izan roared.
He grabbed the giant's iron collar with his left gauntlet and pulled himself up, delivering a flurry of thunder-like strikes to the faceplate. Each hit was a Pulse Burst, red sparks spraying like blood against the dark metal.
The giant caught Izan's throat with a massive, powered hand and slammed him into the floor. The stone cracked.
"Enough," the giant growled, raising the axe for a finishing blow.
But Izan was smiling, blood tingling in his mouth. "Look down."
During the flurry, Izan hadn't been trying to break the helmet. He had been channeling Red Lightning through the metal floorboards. "Every time one uses Axiom, they need a medium. That's the second law of Axiom use."
The iron-rich dust and metal scraps scattered across the military outpost had become magnetized by the high-frequency discharge. They lashed upward, sticking to the giant's legs and arm joints in a chaotic mess of magnetic interference. The suit's gears shrieked as they ground against the debris.
"Now, Cael!"
Cael appeared behind the giant. With a precise, almost surgical-like flick of his saber, he severed the main Axiom line on the giant's shoulder.
The suit hissed, steam venting as it lost power. The giant stumbled, the weight of his own "innovation" suddenly becoming a coffin.
Izan rolled away and stood, his breathing ragged. He looked at his gauntlets; they were smoking, the red lightning traces beneath his skin fading back into the darkness.
The princess stepped out from behind the column, her sharp eyes scanning the downed soldiers. "Took some damage there, but a sufficient fight."
Rovan stepped forward, the shadow of his anchor falling over them all. "The breach is open. If there's one giant, there's a company behind him. We leave. Now."
Izan didn't argue. The Axiom Debt was settling into his bones like lead. He looked at Cael, who was already wiping his blade.
"You okay, Grey Eagle?" Izan asked.
"I have a migraine," Cael muttered. "Stop talking so loudly."