swiftly as reflex servitors to intercept the attack. Moments after each sacrifice, replacement servitors emerged from the assembly plant housed deep within the battle engine.
Lumichem-spraying attunement servitors flew over the heads of the oncoming Cygnaran infantry. The bright alchemical goo highlighted the soldiers’ positions even as it thickened to clog the joints of their armor and inhibit their movement.
After the servitors hovered clear, Pollux ordered the reductors and perforators to attack in earnest. With the glowing stains to guide their aim, reductors peppered the enemy with their swarm projectors. The tiny projectiles blossomed as they flew toward their targets, their spring-loaded saws chewing through armor and mangling the bodies beneath.
The perforators raised their arms and fired armor-piercing protean javelins upon the front ranks. The Cygnar infantry fell beneath the deadly hail, their armor of no more benefit than cotton tunics.
Aurora watched as Nemo turned his attention from his Storm Strider’s doomed attack on her Prime Axiom to hurl another arcane storm through a Lancer. Burst after burst of lightning coursed through the reductors and perforators, mangling their clockwork bodies and leaving behind scorched and steaming wreckage—leaving too little for even the optifex and their servitors to repair.
Aurora channeled her thoughts through the top-shaped Corollary hovering just beneath her. It was the first of the light vectors to benefit from the arcane displacement fields that propelled the servitors and granted the clockwork angels true flight. The arcane repeater buried deep within its globular chassis magnified her thoughts, sending her mental control farther across the field. Its external coils flickered with surges of arcane energy from when it had absorbed a fraction of her residual power, storing it for later use. She called on that reservoir now, drawing back that stored portion of her mental strength and pouring it into the Diffuser.
The light vector fired shot after shot. As each ripspike emerged from the barrel of its high-tension launcher, fins sprang up on its base. Guided by Aurora’s thoughts, they twisted to guide the missiles over and around the intervening storm knights, bringing them unerringly toward their target. Four ripspikes sank deep into the Lancer’s steel carapace, but only half their job was done.
Each imbedded spike sent silent signals to the nearest Convergence vectors, clockwork vessels, and priests. Sensing their designated target, the perforator prefect moved his troops forward and launched a volley of protean javelins toward the Lancer. The armor-piercing missiles tore the warjack to shreds, cutting off Nemo’s reach on the western side of the battle.
Aurora sent her Assimilator gliding eastward toward the remaining Lancer. Unlike the globe-like Corollary, the upper chassis of the heavy vector resembled human shoulders with asymmetrical arms. As it approached, storm knights and Cygnaran infantry stepped forward to block its path. The hovering vector fired its tri-barreled cannon into the enemy troops. As its segmented javelins arced just above the soldiers, Aurora triggered their charges to shower the troops below with a horde of tiny projectiles, each buzzing with a pair of razor-sharp saw blades. The dissevering microswarm left a cloud of blood and steel filings above the fallen bodies, clearing the way to the Lancer.
Once the path was clear, Aurora sent her lightning-charged Modulator gliding past the Assimilator and took to the sky.
“Numen!” shouted Sabina, flying after her with five more angels close behind. “Should we not remain close to the Conservator?”
Aurora ignored her. While the ablator blades and bucklers of the heavy vector provided another layer of personal security, Aurora wanted a better view. She wanted to see how Nemo reacted to her counter attack. If it had worked, she hoped she had drawn the attention of his remaining Storm Strider and Fireflies away from the Prime Axiom.
The Strider moved to the east, away from the colossal. Then both the storm gunners and the Fireflies redirected their attacks not to her attacking vectors but to the Galvanizers and priests repairing the Prime Axiom. A white net of voltaic destruction danced at the feet of the Prime Axiom. Gears and blades flew off the Galvanizers, while optifex shook in a brief, fatal dance before falling to the ground.
Surrounded by the telltale runes of a warcaster, Nemo channeled another spell, adding his own lightning to the storm. Bolts of electricity coursed through the surviving Lancer and blacked the Axiom’s legs as it finished off the repair units beneath it.
Aurora cursed herself under her breath. She’d been rash to place so many of her critical repair units in such a small area. In a few flashes