96: Spear to Diamond to Lone Wolf Formation

After a brief debate—where everyone proposed the exact same idea to Celeste—they settled on a plan. Celeste formed the head of a spear-like formation and they began inching towards the center of the room where the transforming Nyssa sat.

The sound of their breathing felt louder than ever. Their hearts pounded as their ears began to feel stuffy.

“Is this a symptom of nervousness or is she inducing a heart attack within us all?” Ryker asked while rubbing a hand against his chest. “My regeneration factor isn’t doing anything so I assume not but... what about you all, feeling anything being stimulated?”

“Nope, everything is fine,” Albion whispered back as a mist of cold air left his mouth. “My powers are instinctively acting up though. I think it's some sort of subconscious danger response.”

“Understandable,” Electra patted Albion on the back. The moment her hand came in contact with Albion though, she recoiled, hissing under her breath as frost spread across her fingertips. One exhale later, an arc of electricity cleared the frost, but her fingers had already reddened. “Oh you were not joking about that, my bad.”

“No, it’s my fault too,” Albion apologized as they refocused on the task at hand. They followed behind Celeste who took slow steps forward. Each time she lifted her foot, her leg quivered a little as she made slug-like progress.

Her fingers stayed glued in a crossed position as sweat began covering her body. A faint pounding sound filled the air as her heart elevated to near-unsafe levels. Heat came wafting off her body as she felt feverish.

A messy array of thoughts marched through her mind as she tried to keep a steady, but wary pace. Just be okay, and... go back to being human... please...

As they made progress towards the center of the gymnasium though, a heavy feeling settled on their shoulders. Each step became heavier as the air seemed to quake and shimmer. Everyone began squinting as visual hallucinations appeared in the corners of their vision.

A snake here.

A crawling black... whatever... there.

A claw reaching out.

The moment they turned to look, it disappeared as fast as it came.

“N-Nyssa! Calm down, it’s just us!” Celeste called out with a shaky voice after a wave of jitter-inducing hallucinations where ghost-like fire accompanied every shadow of a transformation.

“Hm...?” “Yes?” “Who?” “Oh?” “Wait... what?” “You?” “Why... are you?”

Nyssa flinched. For a brief second the transformations stopped. A plethora of voices, all distorted, like they had been forced through a television static filter all raised a question. In a moment of clarity, she seemed to regain a little lucidity and the weight disappeared. The air returned to its usual unnoticeable state as everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“Good one.”

“How did you know she’d do that?”

“I had no idea... I just had to try something,” Celeste murmured back under her breath. “Why are there so many voices though?”

“No idea, but it’s probably not ideal,” Electra put a hand on Celeste’s shoulder, urging her forward. “We should keep moving though.”

“Y... Yeah...” Celeste agreed, turning to look back towards Nyssa. I swear... I feel like we should’ve been making more progress. But we’re still so far...

Still in their spear formation, they kept walking. They’d take a few steps, someone would step on a pebble, a piece of cracked floor, or just breathe with a little too much vigor and they’d take a break out of caution.

Crack.

A piece of the floor shifted, cracking under Titus’s foot. It let out a weird, metal screech-like sound as it stretched and cracked at the same time. Reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard, everyone’s shoulders tensed.

Including Nyssa’s.

Fleshy tendrils shot out of the gymnasium’s center. Nyssa, who had morphed into an unrecognizable form, shifted more as these tendrils came out from every surface, racing towards the source of the disgusting sound.

“Oh SHI-” Conrad yelled out. He unsheathed his sword and blocked a spiked tendril. With a clang, it pierced into the ground, breaching the weird metal constructing the room, but not making it all the way through.

Other tendrils rushed their group. Some morphed into giant jaws, covered in razor-blade like teeth. Others rotated like a drill. Some let out fire. One or two shot lasers towards their group, and others began releasing some green-purple colored gas.

“Retreat, retreat,” Ryker ordered as he blew up his hand to blow away the gas. “Retreat and regroup, she obviously got mad. Let her calm down and we’ll head back in.”

---

A tense fifteen minutes later, Nyssa’s attacks stopped. They had, for the entirety though, targeted the area of ground Titus had stepped on. Unlike her usual precision, they acted like independent beasts, searching for the source of irritation with wild movements.

Unsure as to how to approach now, the team adjusted their formation into a diamond shape, sticking together like glue as they began another slow march forward. Step-by-step, they advanced forward, those at the front mapped out safe areas to walk with light taps before they shifted their full weight forward and those in the back followed by placing their feet in the exact same locations.

Only failure greeted them though. They managed to get closer, but once they passed a certain invisible threshold, Nyssa had another outburst, lashing out with indiscriminate attacks as if annoyed at the mere smell of those who neared her.

“Back up! Retreat!” Electra shouted, shocking away some of the tendrils as they scrambled backward. Their formation, now in shambles, regrouped near their original starting spot.

“Alright, I think we need to change something,” Ryker sighed, both of his arms regrowing from stubs while he talked. “Is it us?”

“What do you mean by that...?” Celeste, still out-of-breath, raised her eyebrow. A second later, her eyebrows furrowed as everyone else nodded in agreement.

“You have a point with that Ryker.”

“What a genius idea.”

“Honestly, it really might just be us. We’re not that close to her.”

Realization dawned on Celeste’s face, and she shook her head with a laugh. “Oh. I see now. It’s a little dangerous though, I feel like going alone isn’t the best idea. We could try with... yeah, I’m not sure.”

“Alright, how about this...”

---

Albion, Titus, and Conrad spread out in a triangle formation across the otherside of the room as Electra and Ryker stayed behind Celeste. From a bird’s eye view, the five of them formed a loose ring, as Celeste began moving back towards Nyssa.

Everyone stayed in a crouch. Titus wreathed his hands in flames and Conrad had his sword drawn.

“We’re ready to rush in at any time, Celeste, you’re safe, don’t worry,” Electra reassured as Celeste took shaky breaths.

“Thank you.”