False Gods | The Prime Archives #3 ✓

thirty-two

Orion was pissed.

His battle with Stella didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. If anything, it just gave him more fuel to fight everyone else.

Oscar and Xiomara went on the offensive first. Together they sent a powerful torrent of sweltering fire in his direction, pinning him down while everyone formed a circle around him. The plan was a simple one—surround him and keep him boxed in like a shark in a tank.

There was only one problem—Orion was more than capable of destroying the tank. However, he wouldn't be able to take them all at once. He was strong, but he wasn't omnipotent. With enough focus and a lot of luck, they could take him down.

Victor, Andre, Emily, and Theo rounded out the left side of the circle while Chase, Isra, and Mateo took the right. Mateo had taken the form of a teenaged grizzly bear; not quite as frightening as a fully grown one, but big enough to do some damage. Victor brandished his weapon, as did Chase. Both prepared for Orion to spring at them at any given moment.

While Oscar and Xiomara focused their fire on Orion, Emily pelted him with sonic arrows. They screamed through the air before exploding, sonic rings shooting out the metallic arrowheads. Orion grunted as he tumbled backward. He was pushed up against a piece of crumbling concrete that had fallen from the ceiling.

Most of the ceiling was gone now. The walls were still trembling, as Dr. Johansson's self-destruct protocol continued to rip the lab apart. He thought the ceiling caving in was the last of their worries, but then the floor started to give way to the inside of the mountain. A rocky abyss met his eyes as chunks of the ground crumbled and fell.

Gulping, Oscar continued focusing on the task at hand. Sweat poured down his face as he felt the temperature around him amp up. Steam poured off his body. Gritting his teeth, he willed his flames to go up in temperature. His orange fire quickly turned blue while Xiomara's remained the same. The two contrasting color streams swirled around each other like vibrant dragons dancing in the air.

Orion blocked the flames with his forearm. They cascaded past him, licking the massive stone fragment behind him. With a grunt, he ducked from the twin streams and surged forward. In an instant, his hand was wrapped around Oscar's neck.

It felt like a boa constrictor had coiled around his throat, slowly and agonizingly squeezing the air from his trachea. His eyes bulged as he kicked out, desperately trying to free himself from the golden-eyed Prime's clutches.

Andre stormed Orion with his steel fist cocked back. The sound of his metal hand connecting with the Prime's jaw reverberated around the room. The force of the punch sent Orion through the air, but his feet were back on the ground in seconds.

Oscar fell to the floor. His hands flew to his neck, which had been seconds away from snapping into pieces like a twig. Wheezing, he offered up a 'thank you' to his savior.

"Don't thank me yet."

Victor was the next to attack. He teleported in behind Orion and delivered a flurry of quick strikes from his katana all over his body. None of them even drew blood. He might as well have been constructed out of solid titanium.

And Oscar thought Chase was impenetrable.

Orion's mouth twisted into a snarl. He lashed out at Victor. His hand caught the man on the side of the face, sending him flipping through the air like a ragdoll. Victor teleported just before he hit the ground and safely rematerialized on one knee a few feet away.

"This isn't working," he shouted before wiping the blood from his cheek.

He was right. Nothing they threw at Orion was even slowing him down. If Stella in her star mode couldn't take him, what made any of them think they could? It was a hopeless battle.