A/N: Sorry that this chapter has taken so long to write! The main reason is that I've just been busy with school and other life, but don't worry! I ended up splitting the chapter in half because it was too long, and the first half is this chapter! The second half makes up the majority of the next chapter, and so should be finished much sooner than this one! Remember to review and favorite!
The Forgotten Shore. Though, if the activity that usually was present at it was any indication, it was anything but.
It was a popular place for Guardians to scout out; whether for an actual routine check, or for a simple session of relaxation. It was peaceful in its own way; the communications building was nearby, and from the top of it or one of the surrounding ships that lay beached upon the shoreline, you could look out at the ocean and watch as the waves crashed against the sand. It was almost therapeutic, seeing something so normal and blissfully untouched by the horrors of the war that had ravaged many a site like this one.
At the moment, however, Scorch was a bit preoccupied. She stood within the communications tower and looked around, trying to find any sign of the Hive squadron reported here, but seeing none. Some of the walls of the building were missing from years of exposure, and the wind howled through the structure, accompanying the sound of slapping waves nearby.
"Where could they have gone?" she heard Dawn mutter to her left. "I mean, it's not like a bunch of Hive could just hide." Scorch didn't want to say anything, but she was having a difficult time seeing where a powerful Wizard like Omnigul could be hidden within a building interior about the size of her old apartment.
She decided to radio it in. Holding her wrist interface up to the mouthpiece of her helmet, she contacted Zavala. "Sir, this is Scorch. The Seekers are here at the relay, but we're not seeing any kind of Hive activity here, not to mention the Warmind."
The voice she heard, however, was not of the Titan Vanguard. "The sanctum of Rasputin is further below in the tower, hidden by a trapdoor-stairwell."
As Eager began to rummage around on the floor, Scorch spoke back to the voice; "Eris?"
"Yes."
"Where's Zavala?"
Suddenly, his voice came onto the channel. "Scorch, Eris Morn has… requested that she be the one to assist you through your mission. I've entrusted her with my command comms." Scorch sighed exasperatedly. Not to say that she didn't trust the woman, but c'mon… if there was ever going to be a person who acted and looked more freaky than she did, Scorch did not want to meet that person.
"We are wasting time! Listen carefully; can you hear that?" Scorch held her arm up to signal both Dawn and Eager to remain silent for a moment. After a few moment's pause, she did hear it amongst the other sounds of the water and wind; a musical piece, muffled and soft as though the source was covered up. It sounded like opera; she'd seen a show that some of the citizens of the city had put on when she was a kid.
"Yeah, I do. What is it?"
Eris responded excitedly, "That's Rasputin! If I know him, then that music means he's in trouble."
"Hey!" Scorch and Dawn snapped their heads to Eager where he crouched on the ground. He was lifting up a loose board of flooring that had revealed a staircase under it.
"Alright, we found our ticket in. We'll keep you all updated, just stay in touch." Scorch closed the channel, and walked over to descend the stairwell. It was dusty, and dark. Spectre appeared, and shone a light from his eye to illuminate where she stepped. She could hear Eager helping Dawn enter behind her, and continued on.
It wasn't a long time of walking around before she came to a peculiar entrance; it was a diamond shaped walkway, gray in color and built out of a durable metal unlike anything she'd seen before. The music was loudest here.
"Think this is it?" asked Eager rhetorically. Before she could snap back at him, a hiss of air blasted at them as the diamond split along a vertical seam in the middle. The two halves moved aside, acting as doors, and the music began to blare from within.
"I've never known him to welcome visitors." The eerie voice of Eris startled Scorch. She hadn't been aware that Eris had reopened the channel. "He must be in greater trouble than I thought."
Scorch shook her head as though trying to rid herself of the creepy woman. Biting her tongue, she forged ahead, followed closely by her fireteam members.
The inside was quite the contrast to the state of the building that it was built under was in; here, it was brightly lit and well kept. Stainless steel railings and floors were abundant here, and the entire place had a sterile feel to it; sterile of any kind of human presence. The opera music continued to play at loud volume.
"Be aware guys, we may be in a bit over our heads here," warned Scorch. With that, she took a right and began to walk through the facility.
Eager looked around at all the machinery and area of the place. "What is an all-powerful AI doing with this much spare room, anyway? I mean, he just hangs out down here by himself right?"
Dawn elbowed him. "Maybe he wasn't always alone. I'm sure that humans probably worked with him a lot before the collapse." Eager nodded, accepting this answer. They both acted so naturally that Scorch sometimes forgot that they were Exos, and not human. Or, at least not organic human. But that got back into the whole 'Do Exos have emotions or are they just machines' debate, and she didn't feel like dragging up some of her own biases right now-
"Contact!" yelled Eager, pointing in front of Scorch. She quickly redirected her attention to where his finger was indicating; indeed, a group of Thralls was barreling towards them.
"Clear 'em out!" ordered Scorch, raising her hand cannon to the onslaught of Hive zombies that were clawing their way towards them.
Bullets tore through the air as each Guardian found a target. The sound of gunfire was fitting to compliment the screams of the dying Thralls that fell to it. Unfortunately, they weren't the only Hive here. Greenish orbs began to appear, signifying the teleportation of more enemy forces.
"Go!" she yelled, and the Seekers sprinted forward and away from the orbs. She could hear the grunt of a Knight behind her, and knew she'd made the right call. "Up there!" She pointed at an opening which led into a large circular chamber. Passing the threshold of the doors, Dawn immediately turned and slammed her fist into the emergency lock. The massive barricades slid from the sides of the opening and slammed shut behind them.
All three stood there for a moment, gathering their bearings. It was only upon hearing an awful screech not unlike a dying animal that they all turned toward the source.
The room they were in had a viewing section of the entire chamber, and on the opposite side of the room was an ugly looking Wizard that Scorch wasn't going to forget any time soon.
Omnigul hissed at them, obviously baiting them into an attack. Scorch grinned. If this was a trap, she was about to set it off. Excellent.
"Seekers, let's take this Hive-bitch down!"
-X-
Matt slowly lifted his head up from the water.
Placing his arm in front of him, he used it as a prop to push himself up and look around. He was lying on his stomach in the pool of water to the left of the entrance. To his right was the cracked, and still smoking helmet of a Wizard half submerged in the water. Apparently, Ash and Aria had already taken at least one of the Wakers out.
Hearing a loud grunt, he faced forward and saw the Knight that had thrown him into the pond with a swipe with the back of its hand. It now raised its sword up to deliver the killing blow.
Acting quickly, he rolled out of the sword's descending arc. Not a moment too soon, as the heavy blade of the Knight cut into the water where he'd been just a second ago. He stood up with an alertness that did not reflect how groggy he truly felt. The creature prepared to take another swing, but its eyes were blown apart by Matt as he unloaded the Hawkmoon with startling accuracy into its face. It immediately reached its hand up to where it felt the pain, only for Matt to follow through with a slice of his Hunter's blade. The blow was fatal, and the Knight began to disintegrate, leaving nothing but a shell of chrysalid armor behind.
"Matt!" He turned every which way to find the source of the cry. He eventually found Aria keeping another Knight busy by zapping it with an electrical strike which sent current running throughout its body. It began to convulse until its bony frame could no longer tolerate the pain, and it sank to its knees. "You good?!"
He nodded shakily. "Where's Ash?"
Aria used one hand to conjure a wall of void energy and deter the sword of another Knight, and used the other to gesture absentmindedly towards the crystal. "I don't know! I'm a bit busy at the moment!"
Matt left Aria to her own devices as he turned and let a throwing knife fly from within the folds of his cloak. It traveled through the air gracefully before sticking into the middle of an Acolyte's forehead.
He craned his neck toward the sudden outburst of gunfire that came from somewhere over by the crystal. Peering over, he saw Ash trying to furiously impede a Knight's progress toward her. All too soon, however, her magazine ran out of ammo and she continued to hold down the trigger to the sound of empty clicking that came from having no ammunition.
"Ash!" She looked towards him just as he tossed over the Hawkmoon. She caught it easily enough, held it up to the Knight that was nearly upon her now, and calmly let loose several slugs into its abdomen. It reached a hand toward the entry points, and began to claw at itself in pain. Ash gave no mercy, and delivered a sharp but powerful kick to the now weakened armor. The Knight's torso snapped in half at the breaking point, and both torso and legs fell to the ground where they wriggled in agony for the next few seconds before disintegrating as per usual.
She held it out for him as he jogged over. "Thanks," she panted. He gave her a nod of acknowledgement before turning to Aria and calling over his shoulder.
"Aria, if you can summon any light, a storm trance would be pretty helpful about now.
The Warlock gave no answer as she was still defending herself from another Knight, but he did see frays in the fabric of her robes begin to stand up in accordance with the static electricity that was now beginning to charge along her body. In another moment, her body exploded with blue energy, and she began to let lightning fly from her fingertips. The Knight had already been killed by the initial unleashing of so much energy, and she redirected her efforts towards the last three Wakers near Matt and Ash.
Matt pulled Ash out of the way as Aria glided forward, arcs of lighting traveling down her arms into her fingertips, where they manifested in surges of electricity that could be directed at opponents. A Waker turned to face her, and was immediately destroyed by the raw power of Aria's super. Another attempted to challenge her, and likewise was nearly melted to sludge.
The last Waker saw what had happened to the other two, and decided that it did not want to follow in their footsteps. It made a dash for the exit, but Ash grabbed her empty rifle, and threw it as hard as she could at the Wizard's retreating back.
In a fatal move of pride, the Waker turned back to screech indignantly at the Titan. That was the last thing it did before Aria caught up and sent as many volts of power as she could coursing through the Wizard's body. Overloaded with energy, the Waker simply ceased to exist, its body exploding with a poof of dust and rotting flesh.
The room fell eerily silent, now that it was devoid of the screams and howls of Hive soldiers. Aria turned towards Matt. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be."
He was about to reply to her, something along the lines of not to jinx them, before a deep rumbling began to emit from behind them. All three turned to the greenish-glowing crystal which was now vibrating in its half-buried position. In a completely unexpected turn of events, the thing shot up into the air and began to increase in glow, as though charging up for something.
"Move!" he ordered, forcing Ash and Aria to follow him into cover behind an outcrop of rock. Green projectiles began to fire off from the crystal, obviously aimed at them.
"Dammit, Aria! Why'd you have to go and say something like that?!" scolded Ash, a spray of dust billowing out from near her head as one of the beams ricocheted off the rock they were taking cover behind.
"Oh, come off it! How was I supposed to know that the stupid rock was gonna start flying around and shooting freaking laser beams at us?!" Aria retorted, the anger in her helmeted voice all too apparent.
Matt exhaled softly, trying to think of a plan. "Alright, obviously we can't stay here forever."
"Oh, really? I had no idea."
Matt glared at Aria. "Look, soul crystal or not, the thing is still just made of rock. A good nova bomb should shatter that thing pretty easily."
"Hey! How come I've got to be the one to risk my neck here?" He smirked at her reaction.
"Well you were the one to jinx us. Only seems fitting that you fix the problem you created." She said nothing coherent, but he could hear her grumbling beside him at the injustice of the situation.
She pointed a finger accusingly at him. "You better create a distraction or something then. I'm not gonna let myself be a sitting duck as I get pelted with the green globs of whatever it keeps shooting at us."
Matt nodded, and turned to Ash. "You wanna help me out with this?"
"Oh, I would! But see, I appear to have misplaced my rifle." She gestured to herself, indicating she was unarmed. He'd forgotten that she'd chucked it at the last Waker earlier. "And I don't think it'd be a good idea to hop out of cover without a defense, right? I suppose you'll have to do this one on your own."
He couldn't see her face, but he could tell from the silky tone she'd taken on that she had a wolf's grin plastered over her facial features.
"Oh, for…" he sighed in exasperation. "Alright, fuck it." He rolled out of cover and began to run towards the exit of the cavern. The crystal followed his movements and he could hear the sizzle of the energy beams it was firing leaving scorch marks in the dirt, or fizzling out in the pond he splashed through.
Aria held up her end of the deal, and launched her self up into the air. Spinning quickly, she let loose a purple bomb of void that traveled in a clean arc towards her target. The Nova Bomb impacted against the crystal, causing cracks to appear throughout its internal structure. The pressure became too much for the rock to handle, and it shattered into many pieces, each of them falling to the ground in a heap of smoking crystalline chunks. A green mist began to seep from the rubble, accompanied by the hiss of something akin to gas leaking from a canister. It eerily sounded like something groaning in pain, and Matt could only think that it was likely the sound of Crota's dying soul being released from the crystal.
Ash peeked over the edge of their cover. "Hey, look at that. It's dead."
Aria gave a huff of air. "Yeah, thanks for the info Captain Obvious." She walked over to the remains of the crystal, and pulled out a shard that still held a bit of green glow to it. "Here's the proof that Eris asked for." She tossed it over to Ash, the latter catching it easily in her gauntleted fist.
"So, do we get to head back now?" Ash had directed the question to Matt, and he shrugged in response. "I guess so. I mean, unless you want to hang around on the moon some more?"
She shook her head. "No thanks, I think I'll pass on that offer."
Matt gestured for both of them to follow him. "Then let's go! Maybe the Seekers already finished off Omnigul, and we can get this show on the road."
-X-
This isn't good.
Scorch couldn't help but let that stray thought run through her mind as she dodged projectile after projectile.
Shut up, it's not like we don't know that. We can handle this.
No, the situation is already out of hand. This is past being able to handle.
She heard herself arguing with her inner voice, and hated to say it, but she agreed. Not that she'd admit that of course. She knew that they were going to set off a trap by Omnigul, but she hadn't realized just how crafty the Wizard was. Upon them entering, the exits had all locked and Omnigul had summoned quite a large amount of Hive; Knights, Acolytes, even a few Ogres, it was just a bit ridiculous. She probably would have made a joke about over-compensating if she wasn't evading gunfire constantly.
A blast of energy hit the ground just a few feet in front of her, and she stopped in her tracks, only to dodge in the other way as more gunfire tracked her movements. That had been too close, she'd actually felt the waves of heat roll off of her from the blast. She already had a scar across her left cheek, she didn't need any more.
"Scorch!" Her head snapped towards Dawn's voice. The Titan had popped a Ward of Dawn in the center of the room, protecting her and Eager who were standing inside.
She sprinted over to them, and rolled into the safety of the bubble. "Glad to see you could join us," said Eager, his arms up in a mock gesture of welcome. She ignored him.
"Dawn, how much longer can you keep this thing up?"
Dawn replied, her voice straining with concentration, "A bit, but it's not gonna hold out forever. Whatever you can do to help, do it soon!"
"What I don't get," muttered Eager, "is why Omnigul hasn't just destroyed the Warmind yet. I mean, isn't that what she came here for?"
Indeed, the Wizard did not look to be interested in the console anymore. Instead, she slowly began to cackle loudly, her screeching voice echoing off the walls of the chamber.
Scorch slapped her visor with the palm of her hand. "It was a diversion! Eris said it herself, she wants that orb thing! What better way to ensure it's unprotected than by luring the people hunting you away?" She looked up to see Omnigul beginning to glow green, which meant she was about to teleport out of here at any second.
"Eager, take her down with a Nova Bomb or something! Now!"
Obeying his leader, Eager leapt up out of the bubble, and let a ball of energy began to grow from his hand. He pulled back his fist, and then lobbed it over at the Wizard. It curved in an arc, spiraling towards the Hive general until it detonated in a purple spray of void. They waited for the smoke to clear before assessing the situation.
"Did… did you just…?"
"Ah, shit."
"DID YOU JUST MISS?"
Eager shrugged, as though that would divert the blame. "Hey, it was a spur of the moment thing! I got a bit nervous, can you blame me?" Sure enough, there was no sign of the Wizard anywhere.
Scorch groaned internally. "We need to follow her, but I don't see us getting out of here any time soon with this many enemies surrounding us!" She began to mutter under her breath, "You'd think that a super with a nearly twenty foot radius would have at least hit something…"
Dawn groaned. "Guys, do something quick!"
Scorch turned back to Eager. "Alright, I know I'm asking you to chain supers here, but can you harness your Radiance?" He thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Good, but be forewarned, this is gonna take a lot out of you. When I give the mark, I want you to start heating up the air. Hopefully, they're as flammable as they look." She gave one last look around before she hopped up and reached her hand to her back for the bow that had just materialized there. She drew it back, and let three arrows fly in different directions; each landed where she'd marked, and became an anchor, tethering enemies and keeping them from running, as well as weakening them.
"Now!" Scorch fell back into the bubble just as Eager jumped out of it, surrounded by flame. He began to spin, allowing heat to generate from his body and sending jets of flame swirling around the room. Wherever a tongue of fire licked a Hive solider, their papery skin ignited and caused them to turn to ash. Soon, there were flashes of instant ignitions occurring all around the room as Thralls and Acolytes alike popped like kernels of corn. Scorch and Dawn remained safe within the Ward of Dawn, watching as the Warlock laid waste to to everything around them.
Finally, he fell back into the bubble, and Dawn released it. All around them were piles of ash, littered around from Eager causing essentially a hurricane of fire. He was hunched over from exhaustion, the result of having chained his supers.
Scorch patted him on the back. "There you go, let it out. Looks like you redeemed yourself for your terrible aim earlier." He snapped his gaze to hers, narrowing his eyes at her teasing remark.
"I hate to break the two of you up here," called Dawn, "but don't we have a Wizard to hunt?" Both Eager and Scorch looked over to where she'd moved, next to the exit. She waved her arm at them, urging them to follow.
The reality of the situation hit the Hunter once more, and her mouth set itself in a thin line. "Shit. Where do you think she'd go?"
"Well, like you said; she came here as a diversion to lure us away. This is her opportunity to take that orb of Eris's, so…" Scorch gulped and finished off Dawn's sentence.
"She's likely heading to the tower right now."
Not five minutes later, they were on their sparrows, heading back towards their ships for faster travel. Scorch held her wrist interface up to her helmet to open a channel. "Seekers to tower, come in tower! Zavala, we've got a problem!"
-X-
"And I just looked at him, and said 'so it's a challenge then?'" The Hunter in question began to laugh loudly alongside her companions who she'd been retelling that particular story to. They walked with her over to the vaults.
"Alright, now just let me grab-" What exactly she was about to grab, they didn't find out. A green hole materialized in the air in the center of the courtyard, and exploded outward with a rush of air. Nothing was actually damaged, but the force from the concussive blast was enough to knock anyone near it off their feet. Omnigul now hovered where the hole had first appeared, greenish smoke trailing off of her ghastly form.
"What the hell is going on out here? Why-" Cayde walked up the stairs to the courtyard from the Hall of Guardians, and saw what had caused the commotion. He immediately turned his head back toward where he came and yelled, "Uh, guys? We've got a bit of a problem here!"
Omnigul screamed, and threw a beam of blue energy straight for his head. Luckily, Cayde wasn't just the joker he always appeared to be, and expertly rolled out of the way, all while drawing his custom-made hand cannon from its holster. Upon his feet making contact with the ground, bullets were already tearing through the air toward the Wizard. Omnigul cast a defensive barrier made from some kind of dirt-colored energy field. The bullets impacted harmlessly against it, and dropped to the ground.
Zavala, Ikora, and Eris all made it up the stairs, coming as quickly as they'd heard Cayde warning. Zavala assessed the situation quickly and efficiently. "Eris, she's here for your orb! Keep it safe, we'll deal with her."
Eris snarled slightly. "Like those 'Seekers' were supposed to deal with her?" Zavala made no comment on the apparent failure of Scorch's team, and instead began to bark out orders as Eris retreated back into the hall.
"Guardians, assemble! Do not let Omnigul get to Eris!"
The Hive Wizard made another gargling sound, and swiped the air with her claws. In an instant, a collection of Knights and Acolytes had appeared to aid her. Without further pause, she and her troops moved to attack.
Guardians immediately began to take out the Acolytes, they posed little to no threat aside from being cannon fodder and keeping Guardians from charging head on. The Acolytes returned fire, and several Guardians were forced to take cover behind kiosks or the vaults. The Knights began to move in, trying to push past the Vanguards and make their way into the hall. They were putting up a hell of a fight, but there were simply too many enemies. Zavala punched an Acolyte's skull in, and was forced to retract his hand lest the blade of a Knight make contact and sever it. He gave a sharp kick to the Knight, and sent them stumbling back a bit, before he noticed that his wrist interface was lighting up.
"…come in tower! Zavala, we've got a problem!" Zavala grunted as he listened to Scorch's voice and simultaneously used the armor on his free forearm to deflect a few bolts of gunfire that an Acolyte had sent his way. "If it has anything to do with Omnigul coming to the tower, we're already more than aware of the situation!" He ducked to avoid another sword, and Ikora leapt over to defend him as he communicated. "How long until you can get here?"
"We'll be there in roughly four minutes!" Zavala nodded.
"I believe we can hold out that long; just make haste. We're in need of every available Guardian here!" With that, he cut the connection, and instead switched to an open channel, broadcasting to anyone on that frequency; "This is Zavala to all Guardians within a ten minute travel distance to the tower; we're under attack from Hive forces, and are attempting to delay them! They're after something here which they must not get their hands on! Cease what you are doing, and come to defend!"
That message would reach people no matter how far they were, but only a select few would be able to respond; Any Guardians on Earth would come, as would any currently on the Moon; but Mars and Venus were just a bit out of reach, and would be unable to assist. Hopefully they'd have enough.
Unfortunately, Omnigul was not partaking in the fighting; she had quickly chased after Eris, following her into the hall. Zavala called out, "Cayde!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," came the Hunter's snarky response. Cayde quickly kicked his opponent away to gain a brief moment of respite, and followed Omnigul down the stairs.
He found the Wizard fighting Shaxx, who was giving a valiant effort to belay her. Becoming frustrated, the Wizard backhanded him and sent the crucible master tumbling into the wall. Then she rounded on Eris, armed with nothing but her fists and her orb.
Wasting no time, he unloaded his weapon into the Wizard's back. It didn't seem to do much, but at least it distracted her enough to get her to acknowledge him. The Hive general turned and screeched a challenge at him, giving Eris a chance to move back into cover, raising her claws and releasing more bolts of arc energy towards him. Again, he ducked, and reached around for his throwing knives. He let two fly, hoping at least one would find their mark, but Omnigul simply disintegrated them with her field before they could reach her.
"Oh, c'mon! Those were my favorite knives-" He didn't get to finish the sentence because Omnigul had charged him suddenly, and he sidestepped to avoid being smashed. She rounded on him again as he fumbled to reload.
Before she made a move however, a pair of arms appeared and wrapped around the Wizard's neck. Omnigul attempted to shake their attacker off, and rotated enough to where Cayde could see what was ailing her; Dawn had leapt up and was now literally riding the Wizard like a bucking bull. Scorch and Eager were trailing closely behind.
"Cayde, things are about to get kind of crowded down here!" The Exo looked up at the stairs where he noticed three Knights following them down the steps.
"Oh, great. Now you tell me."
Omnigul, having finally reached the end of her patience, reached around and grabbed Dawn by the shoulder, and then proceeded to fling her across the room. She crashed into the quartermaster's desk, and pretty much broke it in two with her momentum.
"Eager, focus fire!" Both he and Scorch attempted to suppress the Hive, but the chitinous armor that adorned both Omnigul and the Knights' body made it rather difficult for the bullets to have any lasting effect unless they found a weak spot.
Omnigul analyzed them, and finally selected a target. Hissing to the Knights, two of them took her order and began to move towards Cayde who was now kneeling next to Dawn, trying to get her to rise. He spun around, ready to meet their approach. Meanwhile, Omnigul and the last Knight looked over at the remaining two. It was then that Scorch realized that this final Knight was massive, its head was nearly scraping the fifteen-foot tall ceiling.
Omnigul raised her claws, and in a split decision, Eager moved in front of Scorch. He conjured up a reasonable wall of void energy, and used it as a shield to block the arc bolts that the Wizard was firing at them.
All the while he kept up the defense, the Knight walked forward, and drew back its sword. Gaining as much inertia as it could, it brought the blade forward in a massive swing, and let it slam into Eager's void shield. The shield immediately broke from the force, and Eager flew backwards into Scorch. They tumbled backwards into the chamber where the Vanguards usually resided, coming to a stop before the long table that stood in the center of the pit. Scorch felt Eager's limp form laying on top of her, and she grunted in effort as she tried to move him off of her.
The Knight continued to advance while Omnigul began to back Eris into a corner. Scorch raised the Last Word as a final stand, emptying round after round into the Knight. The bullets left dents in its armor, but nothing much more than that.
Omnigul smacked Eris down, and reached forward to grab the orb. "No…" Scorch heard Eris groan. Omnigul began to cackle in victory, and the Knight in front of Scorch raised its sword up to deliver the killing blow. She shut her eyes, awaiting the end.
The sound of a spark zapping to life silenced everyone. All turned to look at the entrance to the hall where three Guardians stood. In the middle was a Hunter, his body crackling with electrical surges that gave off a blue aura, surrounding him in a cool glow. A bladedancer's trance.
Matt drew his knife menacingly, and one could tell from his controlled body movements that he was tense. This was the behavior of someone who was very dangerous, and very pissed off.
Scorch felt a number of emotions swirling around in her mind. The first and foremost was relief that more help had arrived. The second was confusion, at how the Heroes had even managed to be come here. And the third was just a bit of anger; once again, Matt was going to step in and take over her mission. Albeit, things had gotten quite out of hand, but there was a spark of rebelliousness nonetheless- and she let it simmer a bit.
The Knights attacking Cayde and Dawn roared at them, jolting everyone back into action. Aria ran forward and began to assist Cayde in dealing with their attackers, while Ash and Matt sprinted forward to the chamber where Omnigul and Scorch were.
Matt made a beeline for Omnigul, and began to weave in and around her blue projectiles that she was so fond of throwing around. He continued to advance until he was close enough to start hacking away at her with his electrified knife, causing the Wizard to howl in pain.
The Knight decided to finish its original intention, and let its blade fall towards Scorch. She would have been killed if Ash had not taken the chance to barrel forward, and knock it off balance by charging into it. The blade flew out of its hand and stuck into the ground inches from Scorch and Eager's bodies. Once again, Scorch tried to shove the unconscious Warlock off of her so that she could rejoin the fray.
Ash was holding onto the leg of the Knight, just trying to keep it off balance; she knew that she was no match for it considering it was nearly up to the ceiling in height. Her act of stalling seemed to be working as the Knight clumsily stumbled about, until it reached down and pulled her off. Raising her up, it slammed her onto the table where she stirred slightly, incapacitated for the moment. The Knight took the chance to look over at its general.
Matt was climbing around on the Wizard's back, all while she tried to claw at him and throw him free of her. Unfortunately for her, Matt wasn't about to relinquish his grip, and upon finding a stable position, he grabbed at her neck with one hand to expose it, and then began to use his blade to saw through it in quick jerky motions.
The agony Omnigul was experiencing was quite obvious for the three seconds of her remaining life that she continued to scream until finally her neck was completely severed, and Matt tore her head free from her torso. Upon the moment of death, both the head and body began to dissolve into dust, Eris's orb falling to the ground with nothing solid left to support it in the air.
The Knight howled in anguish at its general being killed, and decided that it wasn't going to die without an act to even the score. Matt glanced over to see the Knight plucking its weapon from its embedded position in the floor, and reaching down to grab Ash who was still lying vulnerable on the table.
Without warning, it promptly held her in the air at arm's length as she weakly kicked to get free, and then skewered her upon the blade.