Ben's five golden eyes pulsed at once.
His senses flared. "Incoming!"
The beams fired.
Five streaks of pure annihilation carved the sky apart and erased everything they touched.
But the trio had already moved.
Ben hurled himself through a collapsing gravity fold and blinked between two beams as they sliced through his afterimage.
Apophis dipped through a spiral of her own water, folding space just enough to slip under the barrage.
The knight twisted in mid-leap, planted his sword into the ground, and used the impact to vault over a beam that tore through where he had just stood.
For a moment, they were alive.
Ben slammed into the ground and barely cushioned the fall with his appendages.
The dark aether around him flickered.
His shoulders heaved.
His limbs ached.
Apophis landed beside him with a stumble and coughed up black mist.
Her wings, once sharp and fluid, were now cracked.
The knight appeared last.
He staggered slightly and gripped his sword tight.
