(Alnilam)

Extracting my hair I create a double-edged spear, a weapon very similar to one Amaia uses. My shield coats my companions like a second skin, pulsing and vibrating.

Every attack on my companions is blocked by my shield, and I feel the intensity. My energy is depleted with every attack on my defense but we have just begun. It will take a while for me to completely wear out.

Besides, Jamina works in unison with me, she opens portals and lets them take the hits away.

Saiph takes on Bellatrix. Zabiel, Karna and Jamina face the remaining Reavers while I am up against Betelgeuse. His power is the deadliest. Using his unique-styled gun, the kind I have never seen before, he aims and shoots, trying to hit my chest.

A blue laser-like beam shoots out, right towards my chest. My shield blocks his attack, but breaks where he has aimed. The energy is sponged off.

Betelgeuse is about twenty paces away, a smirk he holds, that damnable plasma gun is humming in his grip as it absorbs my energy.

My shield wavers like a disc of hardened moonlight, its surface shimmering and a gap forms. Inducing extra energy I fill the hole he has left.

Even as it settles Betelgeuse fires again. A beam of incandescent blue plasma shot through.

Instinct drives my weapon up. The impact of the blade is like a thunderclap that shudders through my bones, but the shield holds, dissipating the energy in a ripple. But something is wrong. The usual cool hum of my shield grows warmer, agitated.

I see it then, tendrils of that plasma, instead of scattering, seem to bleed into the shield’s energy field, siphoning away in faint, stolen streams towards Betelgeuse’s weapon, especially where I am protecting my companions.

"Like it?" he calls, his voice a gravelly taunt. "It doesn’t just burn. It feeds."

I have guessed that much by now.

Another blast. I pivot, taking it on an angle to deflect the worst, but the sponging sensation is clearer this time. A sickening drain, like watching your own blood fuel your enemy’s blade. I feel it in my soul.

A surge of anger stirs something inside me.

He shoots again and this time Jamina’s portal opens right where he has aimed, sucking it and sending it to some void.

My gaze finds her and she gives me a broken smile. She knows, she always knows how to defend me, how to fight alongside me.

I give her a thankful nod and give her a signal, which only she understands.

Focusing back on Betelgeuse, my long hair stirred. Without even a command, a thick coil of it lashes out like a whip at Betelgeuse. He flinches, firing wildly but my hair efficiently dodges his attacks. Jamina opens a portal and I cross through it to end up right in front of Betelgeuse.

The double-bladed spear flares to life in my right hand. I close the distance, a whirlwind of motion. He backpedals, firing rapid, panicked bursts.

I catch one on the shield, there, another pull of energy and I use the momentum to spin, the lower blade of my spear sweeps for his legs.

He leaps back, but a lock of my hair, acting on its own volition, snakes around his ankle.

I yank. He stumbles.

I am on him, my spear a blur. High strike from the right blade, he parries with the barrel of his gun, the metal screeches. Low strike from my left, he barely dodges, the edge slices through his Reaver uniform.

But I am too close to his gun. He grins, a mad grin, and shoves the muzzle point-blank against my shield.

"A full shot load!" he roars.

The gun whines, a deep, hungry sound. Blue light, fat with stolen power, swells at the aperture. This is not a kill shot. This is a containment rupture. The one that will be reflected on my companions too.

Jamina opens another portal for me so I can cross over and have time to think.

I pass and think.

Time fractures.

A direct shield defence would be suicide, it would absorb the blast and explode in my face. So I don’t block it.

The world dissolves into a roar of light, so I drop my centre. My hair becomes a torrent of silver, thousands of filaments weaving not a shield, but a reflective lens.

A concave net of magic they create between me and the gun. At the same instant, I thrust my weapon forward, not to stab, but to cross its gleaming shaft against the face of my own shield.

The gun discharges.

The plasma shoots forth, but instead of hitting my shield, it hits the refractive lens created by my hair.

It bends, concentrates, and is funnelled directly onto the central point of my spear. The blades shine with unbearable light. The transfer is violent, a flood of raw energy screams through the metal into my hands, threatening to vaporise the weapon and me with it. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

But the shaft is crossed against my shield.

With a shout that tears from my very core, I slam the supercharged spear into the shield’s face.

There is no sound, but only an expansion of white.

His stolen energy is amplified by my hair, conducted by my spear, and is slammed back to where it was siphoned from.

It erupts. My shield doesn’t absorb it. It reflects it. It throws it all back.

The blast wave is silent and clean. It hits Betelgeuse like a god’s hammer. His plasma gun shatters, its feeding mechanism overloads in a shower of molten lava.

He is lifted off his feet and hurled backwards flying about twenty feet back.

The silence rushes back in, broken only by the drip of cooling metal and Betelgeuse’s ragged gasp.

I stand, my hair settling back like a cloak of silver on my shoulders. My weapon is dark in my hand, cooling rapidly. The shield glows with a soft, steady hum.

Firstly I glance around at my companions. Everyone has halted, watching me with stunned eyes. Zabiel’s bloodied mace and enormous shuriken stars embedded into two dead Reavers is a sight to see.

Karna has her whip with coated black fire around another Reaver’s neck, about to finish him off while Jamina is opening portals for Saiph as he fights with Bellatrix.

Her katana and his scythe clashes and their gazes shift towards me for a split second.

Bellatrix observes her brother in the ground, a harsh layer of hatred covers her face as she tries to move but Saiph has her blocked. His hands touch her temples and her eyes whiten out, he has her trapped in a nightmare.

I leave him to finish her off and walk over to where Betelgeuse is sprawled, the fight gone from him. I look down, his face is painted with the colours of his defeat.

"You should have brought a bigger gun," I say, my voice is quiet in the vastness. "And remember something."

I lower my shield, its pristine surface slowly disappearing around me. I need to keep it focused on my companions who are still fighting.

"A protector’s shield isn’t just for taking hits. It’s for protecting his companions."

Betelgeuse maliciously smiles. His hand moves and he extracts another gun and shoots. The one I haven’t seen.

The distance is so little between us that I hardly have time to erect my shield. I embrace for impact, my hair forming a shield but I know it won’t be enough.

It’s then the portal opens and someone crosses through, taking the hit instead of me.