Chapter 26

[There is no better time than the present to learn something new] Aian's voice trickled into Howard's mind followed by a light chuckle.

He managed to steal a glance at Aian who was nonchalantly hovering above the ground, their eyes made contact and she threw him a smile.

[So unless you are an ant under a rock, by now you've figured out that this is the Abrahamic deity and his angels.

The angels have a six tier system. The ones we all tore apart were the lowest. You are fighting two fourth-level spirits. They are known as Dominions – They are the governors of other angels and have the responsibility of regulating lower angels' duties. The rest are fighting against lower ranking ones known as Powers – They are the Divine Warriors. Their responsibility is to fight the evil spirits. They are guardians of that heaven. The powers supervise every movement of the celestial beings and the evil spirits. They try to maintain the safety and harmony of the deity's kingdom.]

Nick muttered a sarcastic thank you but Aian heard him and wished him luck in the same tone. She enshrouded herself in a golden hazy light and watched. She was curious to see how the team had improved.

She knew Winjoy had improved if she could cast a shield to protect Howard from the effects of her true voice. The others had withstood the shock due to their intense training as well as the artefacts they donned. Though she had only used a fraction her voice, otherwise not only would the landscape have been changed, but also her kin would have been alerted to her existence.

Juma was the first to decapitate a power. He did so by fully controlling the lone angel he'd captured and used it as a puppet. This infuriated all the spirit beings and the atmosphere became electrified.

Aian proudly watched as Juma unleashed his power in the battlefield. She had noticed on the first day that his PSI was very different from the rest.

He had been forced to use a small incompetent version of his PSI as no one knew he could further harness it.

His PSI allowed him to control any electronic device. Aian had seen the fuller capability of it. In essence his PSI wasn't electronic device manipulation, rather deleting previous consciousness and pouring his own version consciousness into any object or with the Merlin power up any living creature.

She had been just as surprised at him pouring AI (Artificial Intelligence) into the angel. She'd expected at the most for him to wipe the consciousness of the angel.

Now as Juma's angel struck down the Power she smiled.

She felt the spiritual chatter between the angels as he killed it. She brazenly exploded her aura to remind the rest that she was watching.

She turned her attention to Howard, watching calmly. The two Dominions attacked him in tandem. She knew hadn't it been for the bracelet, the human wouldn't have made it so far. Yet, without PSI he was battling two and parrying them off.

Violette and Kuronike had dreamwork teamwork as they complimented each other very well. The two angels battling them couldn't find any opening during the fight. When Nike attacked leaving him exposed, Violette covered him with either Murder of Crows' endless barrage or her newest technique Silent Swoop of the Owl.

The dagger above her head vanished from view. The two angels soon discovered why the blade had vanished. It attacked them at random without warning and it was hard to track it's movements. Within ten minutes, their combination attacks rendered the two angels helpless.

Violette finished them off with Dive of the Peregrine and they burst into purple flames. She then collapsed and almost hit the floor but her partner caught her. He lowered her eyepatch for her.

Frank and Winjoy were also battling their own Powers. Winjoy used her defensive barriers to protect them which enabled Frank to seamlessly transition to phase two of his PSI.

With his berserker mode highly amplified thanks to the power up, he managed to go toe to toe with both angels effortlessly unlike last time with the Duke.

Winjoy had her eyes not only on Frank but on the rest as well. Her barriers were rapidly being renewed though Violette and Kuronike weren't fighting.

She didn't trust the angels to subscribe to ethics when fighting.

Aian watched Nick, he was struggling and she understood. He was fighting alone unlike the others. She smiled slowly.

Howard dodged the swipe aimed for his neck and twisted his body painfully to the left as the second blade missed him by bare millimetres. He saw sparks as the last of Winjoy's shields took the blow and shattered.

He felt a hand pull him up and someone back into him. The bracelet glowed brightly on contact.

[I would be ashamed if you lost here]

He managed to look up in the sky and was confused to see Aian watching him.

[You forget I'm a not a puny human]

With Aian having his literal back he went on the offensive, leaving her invisible avatar to focus on defending him. The two Dominions took a step back and gazed upon the human then skywards.

[They are upping their attacks now, they've sensed I've stepped in.]

Even as she spoke their sword became enshrouded in red flames before doubling in speed and strike strength. Howard cursed as the first of the four blades slashed at him. As he dodged the first he saw the blade twist around to strike as if it were a serpent.

The bracelet put up an ethereal shield taking the damage and absorbing it. Two of the blades went through Aian's clone and it disintegrated.

[That's enough help, don't you think?]

Another blade landed on his hand as it tried severing his fingers. The bracelet reacted by throwing out a hit of equal measure cancelling out the attack.

A few seconds later a red flaming sword materialised in Howard's hand and he parried away each sword strike. A spinning sword appeared behind his back and an uproar rose up from the sky.

[I love your sense of humour, rile up your opponents as you fight them]

He wondered what she meant as he had not created the spinning sword. It was like the bracelet had a mind of its own and was deliberately goading the Dominions.

As if in agreement, the bracelet let out a shrill whistle and the flames turned black.

He felt his strength increase and so did his speed. A warm feeling spread throughout his body as he felt the fatigue wash away. Three minutes of supersonic fighting, Howard saw his chance.