A thick bolt of lightning leapt from Angel’s arm. It struck one of the Vyrg’s many eyes, blowing it apart with a loud explosion. The monster screeched and reared back, rising from out of the dust cloud.

Silver flashed along its back as Silver darted across its body, dragging his sword through it behind him. The Vyrg bucked and twisted, trying fruitlessly to throw Silver off.

Angel fired his next lightning blast, striking the monster in another eye and knocking it into the sand. The cooling system in his arm flew into overdrive and he felt the side of his body start to warm from the amount of times he’d used the empowered attack.

The Vyrg was clearly injured, but it was far from down. Angel gritted his teeth. He didn’t like his odds of firing another shot, but it didn’t look like they’d have much of a chance if he waited for his arm to cool.

He steadied his aim, aiming for another one of the eyes on the monster’s head. From what he knew of Vyrgs, their eyesight wasn’t the best and they sensed prey through noise. However, he was pretty sure anything would think twice about a fight if its prey put out all of its eyes.

A rattling hiss marked the exact moment when the Vyrg realized that Silver wasn’t the true threat. It turned toward Angel’s position on the hill and shot toward him, moving at an incredible speed.

As the magic built in his hand again, a chill ran through his body. The glowing energy dancing within the plates of his arm flared with traces of dark purple lightning. A sharp pain slammed into his chest like a nail, knocking all the breath from his body.

Purple lines of magic traced up Angel’s metal arm, traveling through his skin and across his chest and toward his heart. Every inch they moved felt like jagged blades tearing through his flesh.

Light spilled out of his body, splitting skin apart and escaping into the air around him. Angel drew a ragged breath, calling on old lessons that he wished he could forget to force the pain and shock away until the situation was dealt with.

Crackling purple magic sparked in the air around him, saturating it with a thick purple cloud. It flooded into his lungs with every breath and stung his eyes. Angel ignored all of it, taking aim at the charging Vyrg and firing once more.

A portion of the magic around him channeled back into his arm, causing it to shake violently. The magic twisted around his last bolt of lightning as it screamed through the desert and drilled into the Vyrg with an earthshaking explosion.

Carapace shattered and the Vyrg’s crashed to the ground, skidding through the desert. A huge crater smoked in the side of its body. If Angel had hit his target, the Vyrg probably wouldn’t have risen again.

Instead, as Angel’s body finally rebelled and he crumpled to the ground, the Vyrg rose, angrier than ever and bleeding profusely. Silver hacked at the monster, but it ignored him completely.

It stampeded at Angel, intent on crushing him beneath its feet. He desperately tried to move, but his limbs wouldn’t budge. He gritted his teeth and braced himself for impact. He was dimly aware of the air behind him growing uncomfortably warm, but he paid it no attention. It wasn’t like he could turn around, anyways.

A ball of fire the size of a small airship streaked through the sky like a falling planet. Angel watched in disbelief as the orb crashed into the Vyrg, melting a portion of its face away before erupting in a massive explosion that rocked the desert and sent a ring of pressure tearing through the dunes.

Alison thumped to the ground beside him, her eyes closed. Her chest rose and fell slowly. Lilian and Tilly shot past Angel on their skates. When they grew close, Lilian grabbed Tilly and launched her into the air.

Magic spiraled around her huge gauntlets and two drills of lightning slammed into the wound that Alison had made, sending flesh and blood splaying through the air like a grotesque fountain.

She started to fall, pinwheeling her arms in an attempt to maintain balance. Silver leapt off the monster’s back, catching Tilly and landing safely on the ground. His hat was smoking slightly, and a few stray pieces of smoldering ash had burned holes through it. A tiny flame flickered at part of the brim. He put it out with two fingers and the three rushed over to Angel and Lilian.

“What happened?” Silver asked, staring at purple energy rising out of the scars crisscrossing the right half of Angel’s body in a mixture of worry and fascination.

Angel groaned. His fingers twitched. The magic around him slowly receded, siphoning away into Alison’s body. As more of it left, his bodily functions started to return.

“I have no idea, but it felt like the magic was trying to escape my body,” Angel said through stiff lips. It came out a bit muffled, as his face was pressed against the sand. “Blue? You there?”

“You are likely correct,” Blue chimed from within his travel bag. “I told you that your channeling of so much magic would not go over well. I could not contain the magic any longer, especially when you were drawing on so much of it. It escaped through your body.”

“Is it going to do that every time?” Angel asked with a cough. “And is Alison okay?”

“Only when you absorb too much,” Blue said while Lilian knelt beside Alison. “Aside from the pain, I tried to direct the magic through your skin and avoid anything important. Aside from some minor appearance changes, you should make a full recovery.”

“Alison is just asleep,” Lilian reported. “She probably just drew too much magic.”

“Good for all of us,” Angel said, still speaking into the sand. “I think she managed to absorb all the extra magic floating around me.”

The Vyrg shimmered. A huge fountain of blue energy erupted from its body, splitting into four streams and flooding into everyone other than Lilian. Angel gritted his teeth, bracing himself for more pain, but all he felt was the euphoric surge of magical energy as it flooded his body.

“I guess throwing Tilly doesn’t count,” Lilian said with a chuckle, allowing herself to relax slightly. “I didn’t hit it, so it makes sense.”

Angel pushed himself upright, wincing as pain arced through his body whenever his skin brushed against his shirt. The magical energy had torn jagged strips through the cloth, making it somewhat pointless.

“Silver, can you cut my shirt off me?” Angel asked. “It isn’t going to be doing much anymore.”

Silver shrugged. His blade flickered and a cool breeze rushed past the nape of Angel’s neck. The back of his shirt peeled back, slightly dampened by sweat and blood, and fell to the ground. He grabbed the front with his left hand and pulled it away, pressing his lips together.

“Buried Gods,” Silver said. “You’re all purple.”

As much as Angel hated to agree with him, Silver was right. What almost resembled the branches of a purple tree traced up from where his metal arm met his shoulder, traveling along the entire right half of his chest.

“Maybe I’ll start a new fashion,” Angel said. “But, more importantly, we’ve all managed to survive a Vyrg attack. Somehow.”

“We didn’t just survive,” Tilly said. Tremors ran through her voice – likely from the huge amount of magical energy that had just entered her. Angel suspected it was even more potent, as she’d been very low level before the fight. She’d probably gotten quite the boost. “We killed it!”

“Carved it up like a pig,” Silver agreed, adjusting his hat. “Quite the teamwork we had there. Just remember, when we’re telling the story to anybody, I did everything.”

Lilian reached down and helped Angel to his feet. The pain was still there, but it was already receding.

Silver scooped Alison up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Lilian shot him a flat stare. Silver sighed and shifted Alison to hold her in front of his chest. The group, slightly bloodied but completely victorious, set back off through the desert.