Back in the Citadel of Chaos…
Thane pushed forward as he locked lightsabers with Kai Leng. His physical capabilities enhanced by his Aura, Thane pushed his own emerald blade closer and closer to Leng's throat. But before the Drell could perform his murder stroke, Leng drove his knee upwards and slammed it into Thane's stomach.
The strike knocked the wind out of Thane and sent him stumbling backwards. While the Drell was off-balance, Leng then reached out with the Force and grabbed onto him, pulling Thane forward. As Thane was forced to move towards Leng, Leng swung his lightsaber in hopes of killing the alien before he could recover his balance.
But as Leng brought his lightsaber down on Thane's head, the Drell disappeared, and Leng's telekinetic hold on him vanished. Leng hissed as Thane used his teleportation Semblance to once again escape his grasp. The Force then warned Kai Leng of danger behind him as the Drell Assassin reappeared at Kai Leng's back, ready to strike.
Kai Leng spun around as he brought his lightsaber up to block Thane's. Thane was far faster than the cyborg and launched two expertly placed strikes, the first aimed at Leng's thigh and the second at his throat. But while Thane was faster, the Force allowed Leng to feel the attacks coming, his prescience letting him keep up and deflect both strikes.
As Leng parried the strike from his throat, he then extended his off hand and shoved it towards Thane, sending out a wave of telekinetic energy to shove the assassin back once more. While Thane couldn't see the impulse of the Force, he could at least see Leng's arm. And so Thane pirouetted and got out of the way of Leng's extended limb, dodging the wave of telekinetic energy as it flew past him.
Moving with the momentum of the spin, Thane threw a low roundhouse kick, his Aura-reinforced shin slamming into Leng's thigh. Leng hissed in pain as the superpowered kick landed, causing his guard to drop as he staggered on one leg. Taking advantage of the situation Thane then lobbed a ball of biotic dark energy that slammed into Leng's chest, flinging him backwards with a Biotic Throw.
The Biotic Throw sent Leng flying back, and ironically slammed him into the same window that Leng had thrown Thane into previously. The spiderweb cracks that spread through the safety glass then shattered as Leng was thrown through the window and out of the tower. As Leng was defenestrated, Thane chased after him as he leaped out of the window as well.
Floating above his opponent, Thane brought his sword down on the cyborg, hoping to score a quick kill as Leng fell. Unfortunately, Leng was able to right himself at the last moment, and draw his own sword to block Thane's blow. As the two assassins locked blades in mid air, Leng made the first move to break the stalemate.
As they fell, Leng grabbed onto Thane's sleeve and twisted his body so they reversed positions, Thane now below him and falling to the ground first. Placing his hand on Thane's chest, Leng then shoved him down with a Force Push, sending Thane rocketing to the ground while Leng propelled himself up and to the top of the control tower.
Thane felt himself fall to the ground at well beyond terminal velocity. Thane tried to turn and right himself, to prepare some kind of landing strategy, but found great difficulty doing such maneuvers in free fall. As Thane reached the halfway point of the Citadel of Chaos however, a hand reached out and grabbed his own, stopping him dead.
It was only Thane's Aura and Drell physiology that kept his shoulder from popping out of its socket from the sudden stop. Looking at his hand, Thane saw a mechanical, human hand gripping his own in a vice grip. Following the robot arm up, he saw the form of Gray Fox, hanging on the outside of the Citadel itself.
"Need a hand?" Fox's synthetic voice hissed out as he pulled Thane up, who grabbed onto Fox's shoulder. "Need me to carry you up there?" he asked as he looked back up to the top of the tower.
Thane shook his head. "I can do you one better." calling on his Semblance, Gray Fox and Thane blinked out of existence and reappeared at the top of the tower, standing across from a very surprised Kai Leng.
Immediately, Leng dropped low into his battle stance as he activated his lightsaber once more, gaze flicking between his two opponents. Meanwhile Thane and Gray Fox dropped into their combat stances as well, Thane drawing his own lightsaber while Gray Fox drew both his Fox Blade and the red katana he had taken from Adam.
Leng's eyes shifted to the crimson blade Wilt as he said, "So you killed Adam? No matter, that sub-human boy was not really one of us. Your presence won't make a difference. None of you can stand against the storm of Chaos that is to come."
"You and Adam have far more in common than you think." Gray Fox commented as he crouched low, mirroring Leng's stance. Leng paused to allow Fox to elaborate. "You enjoy the sound of your voice far too much." Fox sniped as he dashed forward, Thane moving forward in tandem.
Kai Leng snarled as they advanced and extended this hand and fired off a Force Push at Thane. But before the impulse of telekinetic energy could hit him, Thane vanished.
"Predictable!" Leng shouted as he spun and raised his lightsaber to defend himself from Thane's sneak attack, as the assassin once more chose to blink behind Leng.
As they locked lightsabers however, Gray Fox took the opportunity to get close and swing his blades at the Cerberus assassin. Seeing the cyborg ninja attack, Kai Leng fired off another wave of telekinetic Force at Thane. At such a close distance, the Drell wasn't able to dodge and was blasted back.
His lightsaber now free, Kai Leng spun and swung his blade for the approaching Gray Fox. Not wanting to test either of his blades against the plasma of the lightsaber, Gray Fox stopped his attacks and dodged Leng's slash with a corkscrew flip. As Fox twisted over Leng's attack, time around him appeared to move at a relatively slow pace as his cyborg exo-skeleton allowed him to process the sensory data extremely quickly. It was slow enough that Gray Fox was able to extend his leg mid-flip and plant his foot right in Leng's stomach, kicking him backwards.
Leng soared through the air from Fox's superhuman kick, flying right for Thane who he blasted in the same direction a moment before. And unfortunately for Kai Leng, Thane had already recovered, and was ready for the follow up. As Leng flew in front of Thane, Thane strengthened his own leg with his Aura, and with a brutal front kick sent Leng skyward.
Now floating nearly 20 feet above the Citadel, Kai Leng did not get long to contemplate his life choices as Gray Fox jumped up and was hovering right beside him. Gray Fox had his leg raised high, and without hesitation dropped a mighty axe kick into Leng's stomach, sending him crashing back to the ground. Leng hit the top of the control tower with a dull thud, the strength of the kick denting the tower's metallic exterior.
Kai Leng groaned as he slowly pushed himself out of the impact crater. He spat out blood as he felt several of his ribs were broken, alongside one of his arms. Leng tried to use the pain to fuel his Force powers, but found himself unable to focus enough to funnel the pain correctly. The Force however, did warn him of danger. Turning, Kai Leng's eyes widened as he saw Thane once more behind him, lightsaber already in motion.
Too wounded already, the Cerberus assassin couldn't move fast enough as Thane drove his lightsaber into Leng's torso. Kai Leng gasped for air, eyes widening as they looked into Thane's unflinching gaze.
"Couldn't kill me alone, could you, Frog man?" Leng venomously spat out at Thane.
Thane however, was impassive as he responded. "I am an assassin." Thane then withdrew his lightsaber and with a flick of his wrist, decapitated Kai Leng. "I don't fight fair."
Thane deactivated his lightsaber as Kai Leng's body fell lifeless to the ground. Meanwhile, Gray Fox landed from his own leap and walked up to his ally.
"I have to say…" Gray Fox commented as he looked upon Leng's corpse. "After all that you and Shepard said about him, this guy was a bit of a push over. How did he kill you before?"
"Last we fought, I was dying and had half a working lung." Thane shrugged as he bent down to pick up Leng's lightsaber. Then Thane paused as he thought back more on his encounter with Leng during the Cerberus Coup. "Although perhaps I could've just shot him in the back of head when I snuck up on him, rather than getting close enough from him to disarm me."
Gray fox shrugged in return. "Hindsight has a way of clarifying many of one's mistakes."
Before they could exchange any more words, an explosion within the control tower rocked the ground beneath us. The two shared a glance and nodded, before rushing back down to aid Sarah in her fight.
**Linebreak**
While Thane and Kai Leng fought their duel, Sarah Lyons and Grand Admiral Thrawn continued their own battle to the death. Sarah struggled to hide the bulk of her armor behind the cover of a computer terminal as Shadow Troopers continued to fire at her. Glancing around, she saw that the majority of the Geth Primes she had brought with her were already down, and to make matters worse, she still didn't know where Thrawn was. The Chiss had disguised himself as one of his Shadow Trooper bodyguards, and combined with their cloaking devices, made it next to impossible for Sarah to pin him down.
Sarah grunted as another volley of baster fire flew overhead. While the Shadow Troopers kept her pinned, Sarah reached for her belt and pulled out a pulse grenade. Depressing the button at the top of the grenade, the explosive let out a sharp whine and glow as it primed. Sarah lobbed the grenade over her cover and near the commandos who were pinning her down.
"Grenade!" One of the cloaked shadow troopers shouted as Sarah heard one clatter to the ground.
Unfortunately for the troopers, when the grenade detonated, it didn't explode in a burst of shrapnel or plasma as they were expecting, but instead exploded with a wave of electromagnetic energy that slammed into them. The explosion didn't do much damage, if anything it might've given them a small shock. But what it did do was short circuit the Shadow Trooper's cloaking and energy shields, leaving them helpless on the ground.
Sarah roared at the opportunity, appearing above her cover while firing her gatling laser wildly. Two decloaked Shadow Troopers were scythed down in an instant, their body armor not enough to protect them from the rapid fire laser. A third charged at her while she killed his comrades, firing his own repeating blaster with his right hand as he primed a thermal detonator in his hand, ready to kamikaze.
The blaster bolts splashed off Sarah's power armor as she turned her head to face him. Letting go of the gatling laser, Sarah's mechanical powered hand shot out towards the approaching trooper, the steel digits wrapping around the entirety of the man's hand and forearm. Before the trooper could detonate the grenade, Sarah squeezed. Hard. The Shadow Trooper screamed out in pain as the pneumatic pistons crushed his armor, his hand, and the thermal detonator.
Sarah let go, causing the trooper to fall to his knees in shock. In a quick motion, Sarah ripped the helmet off of the Shadow Trooper, and to her disappointment, only saw the face of a middle aged human. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Sarah reared her fist back and the trooper's head vanished with a punch.
"Thrawn!" Sarah roared as she scanned the room for him. "Where are you!" Thrawn didn't answer, and there were no live Shadow Troopers left. Sarah wondered if she had gotten lucky and one of the troopers she previously killed was the Chiss.
Her musings were proven false as she was blasted forward by a wave of blue-white Ion energy slamming into her back. Sarah grunted as she fell to one knee. Similar to the pulse grenade, the ion blast didn't do much actual damage, but instead targeted the electronics of her power armor, sending the whole suit into failure.
"I've read about your so-called Brotherhood of Steel. At Least, what records my men could find within the Capital Wasteland." Thrawn's low, cold voice spoke from behind Sarah. "An order of quasi-religious knights who use their overwhelming technological superiority to protect others." Sarah continued to struggle within her suit to no avail as all of its systems shut down. "Effective, for your world. However, your overreliance on technology results in a critical weakness."
Thrawn walked in front of Sarah, and her eyes slightly widened as she saw that the Admiral's Shadow Trooper armor was pristine and untouched. In his hand was the Ion blaster he used to disable her armor, and on his back was the Staff of Ragnos, the same staff he carried in the Temple of Order.
At Sarah's bemused expression, Thrawn said, "Ah, I was never actually fighting. I stood off in that corner while you exhausted yourself against my men." It wasn't a gloat, as Thrawn was above such base pride, but mere exposition for him.
Before Thrawn or Sarah could speak another word, Thrawn then drew a Vibrodagger from his belt, and activating the oscillating blade, sunk the blade deep into a chink in Sarah's breastplate. Sarah gasped as she felt the sci fi blade pierce through her armor and her Aura, sinking into her ribs.
As Thrawn dug the blade deeper, Sarah looked up fiercely, matching the Admiral's dispassionate gaze.
"Not a bad plan." the Sentinel admitted. "But for all your planning, you left out one key detail."
Thrawn's eyebrow rose a fraction. "And that is?" he asked curiously.
"Human spirit." Sarah spat out as she hit the emergency evacuation button on her armor, opening up the suit and sending it crashing to the ground as she called upon her Semblance and coated herself in living steel.
Thrawn immediately backed up, drawing his heavy blaster pistol from his side and repeatedly firing it at Sarah. The plasma bolts scorched Sarah's Aura, turning her steel skin red hot from the temperature of the bolts alone. The bolts hurt, but weren't enough to put Sarah down. The charging sister of steel was far faster than the back pedalling Chiss, and within seconds Sarah was able to wrap her arms around Thrawn's torso in a mighty bear hug.
Thrawn screamed in pain as Sarah used her superhuman strength to squeeze the very life out of the Admiral. Thrawn's Shadow Trooper armor cracked and broke under the pressure of Sarah's bear hug, his spine and organs quickly following. Blood burst out of Thrawn's mouth as for the first time since coming to the Final Destination, rage and anger overtook his countenance. His look of spiteful hatred was matched by Sarah's one look of fierce determination.
Sarah squeezed even harder, causing Thrawn's hands to slump to his sides as the last of the air was also driven from his lungs as Thrawn lost consciousness. Just as Sarah thought it was almost over however, she heard beeping coming from Thrawn's belt. Eyes widening, Sarah dropped the alien to the floor and saw that in his last moments, he activated a thermal detonator on his belt. Sarah tried to jump away but it was already too late. The grenade exploded and Sarah was blasted backwards in an explosion of heat and light.
When Sarah came to, she found herself staring at the ceiling with ringing ears. Then she noticed her metal skin was gone, along with the entirety of her Aura. Everything hurt, her body felt like one giant burn, and in truth it probably was. Everything but her left arm hurt, which was strange. Looking down, she saw that all that remained of her left arm was a charred stump right above the elbow. Putting the limb down, she then looked at the remains of Thrawn, which were mostly charred chunks of plastic and meat now spread across the room.
"See asshole?" Sarah barked out a laugh, which came out more like a wheeze that hurt every part of her body. "I didn't need no Goddamn armor to be badass." Sarah then closed her eyes as she felt her consciousness fade.
...
Gray Fox and Thane made their way back into the Citadel's Control Tower, which was devastated by the battle between Sarah and Thrawn. Walls were scorched, windows blown out, and every computer within was broken beyond repair. The duo looked around and saw no combatants on either side still standing, bodies of Shadow Troopers and Geth Primes littering the room.
Gray Fox activated his thermal sensors, looking for anything still alive, and one body stuck out amongst the wreckage and destruction. "There!" he shouted, pointing to a burned body beneath some scrap metal.
Immediately the two ran over, pulling the pieces of metal off and melted plastic, finding a badly burned female body underneath.
"Damn." Thane muttered as he looked at his friend. "Is she…"
"She's still alive." Gray Fox immediately answered as he pulled out a pack of medi-gel and immediately started applying it to Sarah, Thane jumping in to help.
By the time they finished, Sarah was horribly wounded, unconscious, and unable to fight, but alive and stable nonetheless.
"Hard to believe she lived through all of that." Gray Fox said under this breath as they finished treating her wounds.
"If there is a word to describe Sarah, it is stubborn." Thane nodded. "She won't be able to help us for what comes next, but she should be safe here."
"Then we should salvage what we can and meet up with Shepard." Gray Fox said as he scanned his surroundings. That's when something specifically caught his sight.
At the epicenter of the explosion that tore apart the control tower, amongst the charred chunks of meat and plastic, was an item that didn't seem damaged at all from the detonation. It was a magic staff, if the various staffs that he saw at Mother Base were any indication. Walking over to it, Gray Fox knelt down and carefully took the staff into his hands.
"I know that weapon." Thane said as he stood above Gray Fox. "That's the same staff Thrawn used in the Temple of Order to nearly kill Lileath. Galen called it the Staff of Ragnos, and it has the power to drain the Force out of people and places."
"Sounds useful." Gray Fox offhandedly commented as he gave Thane the staff.
Thane took it and placed it upon his back. "Indeed. I believe it will prove useful in the coming fight. Now, there's nothing else we can do here, we should make our way to Shepard's position."
"Agreed." Gray Fox simply said.
No more words were needed between the two assassins as they chose to leave behind their friend and make their way to the Citadel's throne room.
**Linebreak**
Darth Nihilus roared in anger as he locked lightsabers with Galen. While Galen was far younger than the Lord of Hunger, it was quickly apparent that Starkiller had focused far more on the martial aspect of the Sith than Nihilus as he was able to keep pace with the Amalgamation's strikes. Twirling his lightsaber, Galen deflected a wide horizontal slash from Nihilus with his right as he extended his left, jamming the Staff of Magnus into the Amalgamation's face.
Calling upon the Staff's magic, he began to drain the chaotic magical energy out of the Amalgamation, causing it to howl in pain. As Galen had him pinned, Pyrrha then ran up behind the Amalgamation, brandishing both her Power Sword Miló and her lightsaber. Swinging both her blades low, Pyrrha's slashed through the back of Nihilus' legs, severing the tendons in both his knees and driving him to the ground.
The Amalgamation vulnerable, both Galen and Pyrrha then raised their weapons to run him through on both sides. But the second before their final blows struck, the Amalgamation screamed. Through a combination of Dark Side power and Chaos Magic, the Amalgamation unleashed a terrible Force Scream that tore at both of the heroes' very souls. Pyrrha and Galen were blasted back as blood now poured from their ears and eyes.
Growling, the Amalgamation focused his hungry gaze on Galen, who was still disoriented from the Force Scream. Channeling his power into his left hand, orange lighting crackled at his fingertips as he unleashed a Force Drain upon Galen. The former assassin screamed in pain as the Amalgamation siphoned off not only Galen's Force, but his very life itself.
Had Nihilus continued to drain him for a few seconds more, Galen would've been nothing more than a desiccated corpse. Luckily for Starkiller, the Amalgamation was forced to stop when a blue, biotic cannonball slammed into him in the form of Commander Shepard's Biotic Charge.
Shepard slammed the Amalgamation back as her Biotic Charge hit him dead center. Not finished with her assault, the Amalgamation was not prepared for Shepard to then explode with Biotic fury as she overloaded her own barrier with a Biotic Nova. The Nova's biotic flames seared the Amalgamation's body, but it wasn't enough to put him down. The monster growled and swung his lightsaber with the intent of decapitating the Spectre.
Acting more on reflex than any conscious thought, Shepard raised her Power Axe, the adamantium weapon blocking the attack. Before Shepard could counter attack, the Amalgamation then blasted her back with a storm of Force Lightning from his off hand. The electricity sent Shepard flying back, slamming her into a wall and tearing apart her Aura's shield.
Shepard groaned as smoke billowed from her burn wounds. With Shepard on the ground, Nihilus then loosed another storm of Force Lightning at her, intent on putting her down. Before the lightning hit however, Galen intercepted the attack, blocking the lightning with his lightsaber and saving Shepard's life.
While Galen and the Amalgamation faced off, Pyrrha charged in once more roaring, "For the Lady!"
Seeing Pyrrha charge at him with both her blades raised, the Amalgamation cancelled his Force Lightning and instead focused on her. With a flick of his wrist, the Amalgamation thrust his blade for the charging Pyrrha's face. Before the strike landed, Pyrrha dropped down, continuing her momentum forward as she slid across the ground beneath the Amalgamation.
As she passed by him, Pyrrha swung Miló once more and sliced deep into the Amalgamation's calf. Nihilus hissed in pain as he stumbled and Pyrrha finished her slide. Now behind Nihilus, Pyrrha swiftly stood and followed up with a swing of her lightsaber. The Amalgamation was able to turn and raise his own crimson lightsaber to block, locking blades with Pyrrha. While their lightsabers pushed against each other, Nihilus had no other weapon to defend himself as Pyrrha thrusted Miló towards Nihilus' torso.
Pyrrha's strike almost struck true, but the Amalgamation twisted with a jerk and was able to turn his body just enough to turn the impalement into a shallow cut on his side. But dodging the attack put Nihilus in an awkward position as his body was now twisted sideways and in a worse position to defend himself. Taking advantage, Pyrrha relentlessly pushed after Nihilus, rapidly swinging her blades at every opening she could find.
In a flurry of attacks, Pyrrha slashed Nihilus across his right shoulder with Miló, leaving a deep gash as she then struck his left thigh with her lightsaber. As that wound burned and cauterized, she followed up with a backhand strike from Miló that cut across Nihilus' chest.
Out of desperation, Nihilus tried to backpedal away from the huntress, but Pyrrha dogged his every step. In an effort to get more distance, the Amalgamation's chest began to bubble as a long, mangled arm covered in blue feathers and black sludges shot out, clawed fingers aimed right for Pyrrha. But Pyrrha was too fast for the arm to grab hold up, and Pyrrha sidestepped it with a twirl. Simultaneously, she swung her lightsaber vertically, and severed the demonic hand from its arm.
Nihilus howled, his body reeling in pain as the now amputated limb flailed in front of him. As he roared, purple-blue warpfire then exploded out of him, enveloping Pyrrha at attempting to tear her apart molecule by molecule. But the Blessing of Lady was designed to resist such foul sorceries, and Pyrrha leapt through the warpfire unscathed. Landing in front of the thrashing Amalgamation, Pyrrha raised both her blades and stabbed him through the chest. Miló and her lightsaber tore through Nihilus' insides, exiting out of his back, plasma and disruptor energy dissolving his insides.
"Pyrrha! Get back!" Shepard yelled from her position.
Without a word, Pyrrha withdrew her weapons and jumped away as Shepard was lining up a shot with the Fat Man she had holstered on her back. With a press of the trigger, a football-sized mini-nuke catapulted out of the Fat Man and flew right for the Amalgamation. Sensing danger, the Amalgamation twisted his head towards the incoming nuke. Despite the fact he was leaking liters of blackened fluid from his wounded torso, the Amalgamation raised his hand and grabbed onto the mini-nuke right before it hit him.
Nihilus then pushed his hand forward to fling the mini-nuke back, but found the explosive was resisting his powers. Then he saw, from beside Shepard, Galen had also extended his hand, calling on the Force to hold the mini-nuke near Nihilus. The Amalgamation continued to push back, the contest of wills causing the explosive to quake beneath the pressure.
Before either Sith could prove their superiority however, a shot rang out. Pyrrha, who was now sufficiently far away from the Amalgamation, transformed Miló into its rifle form and fired. The Dust round hit the mini-nuke, resulting in a small metallic ping followed by the mini-nuke detonating with a massive fission reaction. The heat and radiation exploded out from the mini-nuke, blasting the three Legionnaires back despite their distance. Shepard's rad-counter spiked, before returning to normal levels as the radioactive emissions burned through their purposely short half-lives. It was still a dangerous amount of radiation, especially for the unshielded Galen and Pyrrha, but it's not like they had the time to worry about potential radiation poisoning or cancer right now.
A cloud of smoke filled the impact zone, obscuring the Amalgamation from their sight. The mini-nuke was powerful, but the three of them knew better than to just assume the Amalgamation was dead before they saw a body. Hell Shepard knew that even if she saw a body, that didn't mean her target was dead.
That assumption proved true, as within the smoke, the heroes heard the Amalgamation roar. It was a pained scream, not backed by the Force like his previous attack, but one a howling cry that reverberated throughout the throne room. Shepard could hear the sounds of bones cracking from within, followed by what sounded like the sploshing of gallons of liquid onto the ground.
"To Hell with this." Shepard muttered as she pulled out her Plasma Shotgun. "Light him up!" she roared as she began firing rounds into the smog.
Pyrrha quickly followed suit, firing off Miló blindly while Galen unleashed a storm of Force Lightning. Some of their shots hit, if the incessant screams of the Amalgamation were any indicator, but it wasn't enough. Thanks to Galen's lightning, they could see flashes and shadows of what was happening within the cloud of smoke. The Amalgamation was growing, his silhouette expanding as limbs and mass seemed to be added on from nowhere.
With one final roar, the cloud of smoke around the Amalgamation began to swirl, transforming into a vortex of darkness that buffeted the heroes. With a final push, the cyclone was dispelled, revealing the disgusting form underneath.
Nihilus' original body was still there, though now adorned with two, scintillating purple wings on his back. What changed however, was that Nihilus' upper body extended out of what could only be described as a mountain of blackened sludge and rotten flesh. The sludge was almost slug like in appearance, and was coated in almost every foul substance imaginable. Long heads of hair, broken bones, maggots, rotting flesh, as well as a multitude of arms and legs all extending out at broken, unnatural angles. These limbs pushed at the ground with clumsy fumbling, plodding on the ground as they pushed the Amalgamation to face the heroes. With that, Nihilus shed his base form, fully ascending to the Amalgamation, Daemon Prince and Devourer of Gods.
Seeing the Amalgamation in his true, ascended form, Shepard couldn't help but think about the time she fought Saren and how Sovereign "ascended" the former Spectre. "Keep firing!" She shouted as she fired off another blast from her shotgun.
Pyrrha and Galen opened fire once more, but it was painfully obvious to them that their attacks weren't doing anything. With a slow, lumbering motion, The Amalgamation twisting his mass of flesh and roared as a storm of Force and Warp Lightning exploded out of him.
Shepard was forced to jump back, strengthening her Biotic barrier to protect herself while Galen used the Staff of Magnus and his Lightsaber to try and absorb as much of the lightning as he could. Pyrrha however, charged right towards the Amalgamation using Miló and her Lightsaber as lightning rods to absorb as much lightning as she could. And any electricity that made it past her defense was scattered across her form as the Blessing of the Lady protected her from the worst of the magical damage, and her own Aura protected her from the rest.
Once Pyrrha was in melee range of the Amalgamation, the monster swung a "tentacle" made of compressed meat, bones, and other unidentifiable material right for the huntress. However, unlike how he was in his "Nihilus" form, the Amalgamation's new form was found lacking in speed and finesse, allowing Pyrrha to easily jump and flip over the swing.
Landing on the ground, Pyrrha unleashed a series of cuts in retaliation. Miló sliced through the side of the Amalgamation, the Power Weapon easily carving out chunks of blackened flesh. When her first swing finished, she immediately followed up with a slash with her Lightsaber, which burned through the sludge and meat without issue.
From the cut wounds however, what looked like a cloud of shadowy miasma burst out, choking Pyrrha with its corrupting stench. Pyrrha jumped back, careful not to inhale anymore of the smoke, firing off Miló as she retreated. As Pyrrha moved back, Galen and Shepard charged forward towards the Amalgamation's rear.
Seeing her shotgun was doing negligible damage, Shepard instead leaped forward with her Power Axe in hand, sinking the head of her weapon in the Amalgamation's meaty tail. Meanwhile Galen swiped his lightsaber at two contorted limbs that extended out towards him. With a flourish of his blade, Galen severed the two arms, and while they fell to the ground smoking, Galen plunged his lightsaber deep into the Amalgamation's flesh.
Unfortunately for them, if their attacks were effective, the Amalgamation showed no sign of it. From the brunt meat where Galen had severed the two arms, three more arms suddenly appeared, these ones burning with purple fire. Galen cursed as he jumped back, trying to avoid the flaming talons that sought to grab him. At the same time, the Amalgamation whipped his tail with a motion far faster than anything Shepard was expecting. The tail of hair, flesh, and bone slammed into her chest, sending the Spectre flying through the air.
The Amalgamation then roared as the body of Nihilus reached into the black mass beneath him and pulled out what looked like a large, golden spear with a glowing, purple blade at its end. Twirling the spear, the Amalgamation stabbed the blade into the ground, and summoned a swirling cloud of black miasma that crackled with purple lightning.
The three legionnaires were not ready for how quickly the vortex spread, and they were all caught by the storm. The attack was devastating, as the lightning electrocuted the heroes while the miasma tore apart at their very souls. Through the pain, Shepard saw that the Amalgamation somehow dove into the ground, jumping into some kind of portal of pure darkness.
Once the abyssal storm dissipated, Shepard hacked out part of her lung as she violently coughed out the miasma. While she cleared her airways, she was not prepared as the Amalgamation opened up another portal of darkness behind, jumping back into their world like a breaching whale.
Shepard spun at the sudden noise behind her, reaching for her axe. But she was too slow. Before she could swing her weapon, the body of Nihilus grabbed onto Shepard's body with the Force, lifting her into the air. Shepard struggled in vain to break free, her cybernetic and Aura enhanced strength not enough to overcome the power of a former Dark Lord of the Sith. Before any of Shepard's allies come to save, the Amalgamation clenched his fist and broke Shepard's back, folding her in half backwards with but a single thought.
**Linebreak**
A/N: One more chapter left! Almost there!