Amplify/Redirect

[ACSRS: Pressure]

Lumen explained her idea to Hokaze as the Esper dodged.

The girl looked disapointed that all Hokaze was doing was dodging her shots so she pulled up her shirt for a moment, revealing more laser pointers underneath.

"Don't bother waiting for me to run out of ammo. I still have this many bows left. My calculations say these will last for 48 hours, can you last that long? Of course, take that long and who knows what happens to your queen."

Hokaze evaded the next set of shots by hiding behind a support beam that was lying on the ground after the pile from before had spilled.

"Lumen." Her voice was quiet "Do it."

Before anything else, Lumen checked with Joule. She was almost there and already out of anywhere crowded. Her friend gave her a nod and opened her mouth to sing quietly. Lumen's song began at the same moment, ringing out throughout the room.

[ASG1: Azure Door]

A song that had been composed while Joule was still being controlled by Sumeragi. More specifically it had a connection to one adept in particular.

Hokaze sprung out of cover just as the girl was reacting.

Lumen had taken her human form and flew over Hokaze's head.

"Who?" The girl raised her pointer and shot a laser towards Lumen, the beam passed right through the projection and did no damage. It did get Lumen to smile though as she sung.

The girl's distraction hadn't been wasted as Hokaze had taken the time to grab and throw some of the support beams.

The girl whipped her torch/sword out and cut one up so she could dodge past it and the rest of the falling metal but Hokaze was already there with one more causing the girl to stumble back.

She righted herself quickly though and pointed at Hokaze as she fell towards her. The laser pointer turned on and the girl screamed as the laser that she had amplified was redirected into her own arm.

This song was based on Joule's memories of Jota. She'd used her ability to allow sound to interfere with the amplified light. It wasn't perfect as it was a bit of an improvised move. Sound normally had a wavelength far too slow to hope to interfere with light and any interactions between the two were normally coincidental at best and impossible at worst.

Lumen had been forced to set a limit then. Only light at a certain energy level and only if it came within a centimeter of Hokaze's skin. Anything else and the results could have been uncontrollable.

Now though, Hokaze had a perfect defense. She swung in, throwing punches as the girl had to dive back for safety.

Even as she did though, she fired more shots and Lumen panicked. The girl didn't always shoot her lasers at the same level of focus. Some of them were weak enough to slip past the barrier and still do damage.

Hokaze dodged to the side again and she and Lumen watched as the girl discarded the laser pointer. it seemed that kind of rapid fire burned them out.

"We can force her to use up her supply." Lumen noted telepathically.

Hokaze shook her head slightly "It would still take too long. Counting the one she just grabbed to replace the one she had been holding, she's still got 31 left. We need a way to make her drop them faster."

Lumen nodded, changing the barrier slightly to adapt to the changes in power she's used so far. It would still need one shot to calibrate but that meant that each laser pointer was only good for that one shot. She'd only hit Hokaze with rapid fire and only one bolt of each rapid fire could do damage.

It was good, but not perfect. 31 shots could still kill Hokaze, even if they were randomly placed.

As they dodged a few more shots that were at another new frequency, they quickly saw the girl slip a whistle into her mouth.

This barrier wasn't set up for sonic attacks!

Hokaze through herself out of the way as the air in the space they had occupied only a second before was caught in an "Explosion."

Ultimately, if you make sound loud enough, the result is just a concussive wave, just like what comes out of an explosive. The whistle could be used faster and it basically meant going at the girl from the front was doomed to failure.

Hokaze spotted a stairwell and sprinted down it, Lumen following closely after. Even as the girl was "left alone" though, someone was still listening.

Joule had arrived and had gone silent, allowing Lumen to carry the song for the moment. It meant less power but she still needed to focus on the effects she wanted to produce.

"...for 24 hours? I'm such a liar."

She overheard the girl talking to herself and allowed Lumen and by extention Hokaze to hear too.

"There's no way I could do that. Well, it doesn't matter any more. With that singer..."

The girl gave a long sigh "Who else was working on the Astral Buddy project? And who let one of the subjects get to Junko? I thought that Yuuri was the only one with that power. Where'd they find another? Should I call her out on bringing help?"

She sighed and leaned back "No, I don't feel like it." She tilted her head to the side, looking down the stairwell that Junko had gone down "You really are incredible."

End of chapter.

The flu is gone but I still have a cough. It's not fun but at least I feel much better writing.