Chapter 171: Book 3: Simulations
[Charge the Seed: 32/100]
The fight's advanced enough to become harrowing. Novi knows enough to stay a good distance back, thankfully; the plan for Guard to take the lead doesn't quite work as well against these Regrets. If they get close enough to him, they can just phase themselves through—and from the looks of things, that does quite a bit of damage to his systems.
"Are you alright?" I ask, steadying him. There's some smoke coming out from his systems; he makes a sound that's a little bit like a cough. He nods, but leans a bit more weight on me than I'd expect if he was fine.
"I will be fine," He-Who-Guards says. "I simply need to make sure they don't touch me."
True enough. I take the lead anyway; as long as Phaseshift is active, I can basically act as a physical wall. A barrier. They seem drawn to me when I do it, too. Only a few of them slip past to try to get at Novi and the Seed.
Guard, meanwhile, doesn't take long to adapt to his role as backup. His Firmament blasts can still hit them, and his chains work as long as they're charged through with his power. At first, it's barely even necessary—but the farther we get down the tunnels, the more the Regrets swarm. More and more of them get past me.
And that's where Guard really shines.
From the way he's fighting, I get the odd feeling that he's frustrated—there's an aggression to his movements that I'm not used to seeing from him. Maybe he feels he isn't contributing as much as he should. He fights with an expert precision, launching charged chains of Firmament that anchor themselves into the walls to block off paths, firing bursts out of his palms that take down two or three ghosts each.
It's pretty cool, if I'm being honest. I'd sit back and watch him if I didn't have to fight myself. We make steady progress like this, and for a while it's enough.