Crystal Folly

His Devastation of Salo

The crystal wall behind everyone began to recede back into the earth, shaking the ground and toppling more of the remaining apartments and businesses. The instant that Arthur began scaling one of the few surviving buildings to get higher ground and scope out the area, a crystal spike lunged from beneath him, barely missing his shoulder before it slashed at him again. This time, he was ready for it, and melted it with small burst of purple flames. Another shard, aimed for Taylor, flew from where the wall of the dome was standing minutes before, clipping her hair and completely taking out the brick wall that was behind her. Arthur prepared another fireball when several more spikes began flying around, each of them barely missing everyone.

"We don't have time for this!" Liliona yelled as she prepared a spell. The majority of the shards began speeding directly towards her, some travelling faster than Mach 26, yet not a single one made it; her spell contained the royal flames, purple in color, with bits of blue fire for added effects. They all instantly melted from the heat and reformed from the numerous puddles they left behind into a human-sized crystal figure. Prepared to completely get rid of him, Taylor began to make black flames, being extremely careful not to touch them. Xeno only laughed when he saw what she was doing.

"Black fire can't do anything to crystals!" he chortled, contempt with taunting them. "All crystals are extremely resistant to its properties, so it'll take a lot more than just that little fireball to kill me!" Shortly after he finished, he leaped into the air and dove face-first into the concrete, creating a gaping hole leading directly to his main body. Ender was about to go down into it but was caught by Stella moments before more crystals began to sprout from the entry point and completely seal it. Milo and Arthur had finished climbing the building that Arthur started to scale moments before they were attacked and were currently making observations of the ruins and his giant body ahead of them.

"I think it's the best idea to fly towards him," Milo announced from the rooftop, standing shortly afterwards. "We go by foot, he can feel us and pinpoint an optimal angle for an attack. In the air, we have a better chance of making it to him, even if he sees us." He transformed into his base wolf form before coming down, leaping from building to building as each one became shorter and easier to jump to. He transitioned into his dual wolf form before he could say anything else. "It's better to fly to him than it is to walk or run. We can't risk the dragon forms yet, too small of a space here and those shards look like they can just cut through scales with ease." Stella was already prepared with an argument against it, but by the time she began saying something, Liliona had already cast a group levitation hex on everyone.

"I like that idea, Milo. We're not exposing any scales and he can't feel us until I run out of magic again," she told everyone. Half of them were still getting used to the anti-gravity effect of the hex while Ender, Johann, Taylor, and Stella were managing to stay still while floating slightly above the ground due to their cat forms. "It'll take some getting used to for you guys, but we'll be at the drop-off point soon." She began waving her hands in the direction of Xeno, slowly moving the group forward. More crystals unearthed themselves beneath them and slithered on the ground like snakes, looking for the group that was a few feet above them. I have no idea if they're alerted to sound, but we need to stay quiet if that's the case, she thought, pondering about what the best course of action might be if they were spotted. As she was thinking, a crystal tree sprung up nearby, covered in more of the crystal snakes.

"Milo, you got any ideas of a plan for when we get to him?" Johann asked after a few minutes of silence. The crystals under them stopped moving for a second, as if they'd heard him. Liliona waved her arms faster to get them to move more quickly before it was too late, but it wasn't necessary; by the time she got the hex zone flying faster, the crystals had returned to slithering around each and every ruined building to find them. "I mean, what good is there in being close to him if we don't have a plan to take him down?" he whispered, taking notice of the crystals continuing to move about as if nothing was said.

"We're gonna have to wing it this time, Johann," Milo replied, also in a whisper. "There's too many variables for me to come up with a solid plan. We don't even know what all he can do, so coming up with our own plans is the best idea." He sounded confident, even though everyone knew it was just a front to keep them steady. More crystal trees sprung up, some almost close enough for Arthur to touch, and began waving their branches towards them as if they sensed the displaced air.

"We're almost there, guys, get ready!" Stella loudly whispered, accidentally drawing the attention of the serpents near them. One tried to attack her, but was several inches too short and shattered upon contact with another snake. The rest of them and the trees sunk into the earth, going back to Xeno's main body, looming over them with his back turned. As they floated closer towards him, he began to turn towards their direction.

That's not good, Liliona thought. "I'm running low on magic, guys, be ready to book it towards him!" she announced shortly before slowly lowering them to a nearby building. "If we go now, we can get a small surprise attack on him!" Xeno had finished turning around and looked down at them as if they were welcomed guests to a party, yet sounded as if they were his worst enemies from generations past.

"Too late."