Book 7. Chapter 5: The war within I
Eight hours prior
To’Avalis watched as the hammer smashed through the human’s fractal wraiths, keeping the pests from causing true damage to To’Orda. The strategy was sound, slowly whittle away the human. He could respect his older brother's tactics there. Methodical was a good word.
Shields wouldn’t save the squishy meatbag within that armor from a direct hit. Everyone watching knew it. Including To’Wrathh.
He expected the human to attempt trump cards soon as the fight grew more feral. What he hadn’t expected was a repeat of prior tricks. But humans weren’t known to be overly clever or with impeccable memory.
In the stream, far more wraiths appeared and swarmed around To’Orda. The human’s melee combat abilities drastically changed in style and pattern in addition to the acasual difference. The obvious change in command between the armor’s user and the armor’s engram was clear.
Keith was using his engram to pilot his armor, and that had one fatal flaw. The thrill of victory surged through his mind, a sense of vengeance and vindication, as well as a feeling of complete superiority. His opponent had merely been a human, an insect at best. Luck could only take the wretched thing so far.
He’d never felt this way about any opponent prior, it had always been cold indifference and planning. They were obstacles to be overcome. Keith was… different. It was personal, for once.
To’Avalis boasted as much over the open comms, giving To’Wrathh a sneak peak of what they planned. Let her suffer and panic for a moment, it would make victory that much the sweeter. He’d take command of To’Orda’s broadband abilities, send the override signal with the exposed administrator access, and the Winterscar's armor would become a glorified coffin.
After that, To’Orda could take all the time he wished to wind up a kill blow. He squashed the immediate idea of killing the human right there and then; planning needed to be done. First, take the human to a far more deserted area, devoid of metal of any kind. And then squash every possible soul fractal in the area before finally killing the human for good. Break down any source of metal, and examine To'Orda's soul fractal afterwards for any signs of the rat.