Molting the Mortal Coil

With so many of the attacks focused on Sage, the pressure on the Blacksilver Pawns was reduced and they rapidly converged. Ignoring the rest of the attacks coming their way, they pooled together. The black tar flowing off and forming into a singular mass before their crystal skeletons changed back into a bluish mercury and coated the large black shape. Almost like an insect, this being had its muscles on the inside and armor on the outside. The Blacksilver Knight took form once again, changing its skeleton into an exoskeleton. The energy fed to the Black Enhydros no longer used for defense and focused entirely on strength. The energy that was split among a dozen now channeled into one drastically improved its capabilities.

The fusion wasn’t smooth, being interrupted by large objects smashing against its body and smaller ones stabbing through it. The Blacksilver Knight wasn’t bothered, the process merely taking longer, continually reshaping itself to exclude the foreign objects and squeezing out from underneath the large ones crushing it. Eventually, that ten foot tall knight was fully formed and the blue mercury skin solidified into solid armor plates of bluish ice with a metallic sheen at the edges. The full helmet only had a slim eye-slit which showed only black oil within, the design more for intimidation than function. It was controlled by Sage’s Soul Fragment, it didn't need any normal sensory organs to function.

The Blacksilver Knight didn’t bother to avoid the incoming attacks. The rebar spears and torn beams bounced right off its armor plates, while it met the large pieces of rubble with a closed fist. It stomped the ground and took off like a freight train barreling towards the shirtless weirdo while unleashing a storm of punches to blast away the dozen huge pieces of stone that were sent its way. The enemy realized that Sage’s frantic escape had been a ploy to divert his attention and was now fully focused on stopping the huge thing rushing towards him. As it drew closer, the ground underneath the leather lover lifted into the air. A huge piece of debris floated into the sky and he hopped onto it, kneeling down to grab a piece of rebar poking out of the side to steady himself atop it. Unable to fly, the Blacksilver Knight stabbed its feet into the ground to stop its momentum and then started picking up pieces of rubble and hurling them at the now airborne target.

In a reversal of the earlier situation, now the man in the gas mask was the one with huge pieces of concrete flying towards him. Only, he avoided destruction in a much simpler manner. The pieces of rubble, flying at speeds in excess of hundreds of miles an hour, curved in the air, taking strange trajectories to avoid hitting the man floating on the stone. Telekinesis is really just too awesome. Color me jealous. Damn that cheapskate Zhenyan and his prices.

The man in the mask floated away while the Blacksilver Knight stood in place and threw a flurry of projectiles. None of them struck the man, but they were preventing him from retaliating. The earlier arrogance now fading as he just retreated into the distance. Sage wasn’t going to let him escape so easily and he ducked behind a building, hiding from the enemy’s view and taking a circuitous route towards the punk. Once the man in the gas mask had traveled a few blocks away the debris he rode dipped downwards, using the other buildings as cover to block the attacks from the Blacksilver Knight. Once he was out of view the knight rushed forward, leaping over the smaller ruins and barreling through the still intact buildings.

Just as Sage was worried the man would get away, there was loud chittering, and then the whistle of high speed projectiles. The Blacksilver Knight smashed through a wall, busting out of an old ruined storefront and stumbling into a conflict between the man wearing the gas mask and a dozen giant cockroaches. More than twenty rat men were firing their crystal weapons at the man. Surprisingly, a few of them had struck him and drawn blood. Large pieces of debris were floating in the air in front of him, piling up into a wall to block the view of the rat men. The purple crystals flew even faster than the things thrown with the man’s telekinesis and they cut right through the concrete like it wasn’t even there. All they did was block the view of the rat men and throw off their aim. A dozen of the rat men were already laying on the ground, dead or dying, smashed or impaled on pieces of debris, but the rest were fighting hard.

Not one to miss out on an opportunity, Sage sent the Blacksilver Knight rushing in, ignoring the crystal projectiles and closing in rapidly on the fisher. The crystals shot through the knight just as easily as the concrete, but they made such small holes they healed in moments. The poor guy with no shirt had no such quality and was now covered in blood from many small cuts and penetrations. With the giant rushing towards him again, the punk thrust his hands towards a nearby building and the side of it seemed to grow larger. The whole wall of the three story ruin cracking off and falling down upon the knight.

The knight didn’t back down, just winding up and throwing a sky punch at the falling wall, cracking it apart to prevent itself from being trapped. The pile of debris still smothered it, but it immediately began to dig its way out. It burst out of the rubble and started to dash forward again. It was only a few feet away from the bloody man when it was stopped in its tracks. The delay had bought enough time for the masked man to sift through the ruins and muster up dozens of steel beams. They flew to the Blacksilver Knight and wrapped around it, piece after piece layering around it like a cocoon.

At that moment, a piece of crystal shot through the man’s stomach. He was ignoring the incoming projectiles while turning around with intense focus. A fist shot towards him, and a metal pipe whistled as it spun horizontally. Twirling like a propeller to deflect the incoming attack.

Sage’s right wrist was hit by the spinning pipe, but he wasn’t deterred. He had rushed in close while the Blacksilver Knight and the rat men were distracting the man and he wasn’t going to give up his chance now. He felt a few crystal shards punch through his leg and stomach, but he pushed forward. Detached from pain they only slowed him down, and the pipe struck his shoulder and side with a force that cracked his bones. He lowered his shoulder and rammed into the man’s chest, knocking him backwards and then forcing him to the ground. The triumph was short lived as a three foot wide piece of concrete smashed against Sage and tossed him a dozen yards away. With the two immediate threats dealt with, the psychic picked himself up and swept his hands out towards the rats. The silver rings on his fingers flew off with lightning speed and pierced through them. The tiny objects swooping and darting around like tiny birds, killing the rest of the rat men in just a few seconds.

Then the man suddenly coughed and then moved his hands to his face, letting out a pained roar when his hands contacted bare skin. His now visible eyes, a crisp blue that were now rapidly turning bloodshot fixed upon his foe. That foe, Sage, climbed up from the ground and held a gas mask in his hand. His cracked bones and the holes caused by the rat men's weapons were already healing rapidly, damage he’d taken to accomplish his goal. You’ve got to be wearing the mask for a reason, right!

The man’s face was a stark contrast to his chest. Instead of being weathered and scar covered, the skin of his face was pale and delicate, like he’d been wearing that mask for years. His eyes were already bloodshot, wicked red lines spidering through the whites of his eyes as they started to bulge out. Starting around his eyes, his veins started to throb and grow. Like worms were crawling under his skin, spreading outwards from his face and expanding over the man’s whole body. As it did, he looked down at his arms and body and then started to laugh, a very maniacal laugh.