Chapter 99: Hunting
Nioh adjusted his headset and strapped the modulator to his back. Althea slid her arms into two compression sleeves and let them absorb into her body, her limbs pulsing with metallic sheen. Akron rotated his neck and stretched his shoulders. He wore no armor, just his fists.
The drop timer clicked down.
5...4...3...2...1...
They jumped.
Freefall into heat and chaos.
The hunt had begun.
They dove into the crater like comets.
The heat clawed at them as they sliced through the thick, ash-choked air. The world below was a writhing canvas of molten rivers, rising geysers, and jagged obsidian cliffs. As they fell, Nioh activated their gliders, a soft ripple across his back armor as semi-organic wings unfurled like blades of dark crystal.
Althea flipped into a dive, rolling her body through the heat columns and curling her legs to spin through a plume of vapor. Her descent was less like falling and more like dancing, her limbs precise, her body limber and fluid. The wind caught her hair as her cryo tinted visor glowed faintly, adapting to the crater’s intense glare.
Akron came down like a meteor. No finesse. Just pure force. He activated his descent stabilizers late, slamming into a rocky ledge, his boots cracking the stone beneath with a boom that echoed across the scorched chamber. Ash swirled around him, smoke hissing from the heated edges of his gauntlets.
Nioh was the last to land, sweeping low across the molten floor and skidding into position near a broken ridge. He snapped the wings back into his armor, rolled once to his feet, and yanked the cryo binder from his back.