[Zaden]

Pythos tried to zoom away, but the container's bursting caused an expulsion that gave the bugs a boost, and they were coming at him faster than he could fly. Once he realized he couldn't escape, he whirled around and clumsily tried to hover. Apparently, the Wings of Tanabi were not made to hover, and he ended up flying straight up a few feet, falling, ascending those same two feet, falling again, and repeating.

He franticly reached into his bag to pull out a smaller bag, stopping only for a second to slap the first flesh-eater to arrive off his arm. Rather than untie the twine sealing it, he ripped the cloth pouch open and quickly inhaled the fire powder within. (This is a Gauntlet: Legends-style Fire Breath.) He exhaled flames, but the result was sad. Instead of a finely-shaped, directional stream of fire, it came out as a bulbous cloud of hot embers, which lasted one-fifth as long as it should have. Due to his jaw injury, he could not make his mouth assume the proper shape, so he simply exhaled the embers rather than blowing flames out of his mouth.

If it had worked correctly, he could have roasted all the termites alive in a single breath. Instead, they simply died of hyperthermia when he heated up the air around them. Seeing as they were chewing on his body meat, he gave himself first-degree burns in the process. This also used all five of the lungfuls of fire that the powder granted him.

First-degree burns are only an irritation and are not that bad. However, if he is exposed to great heat later, they will become second-degree burns faster than they would if he had undamaged skin. Second-degree burns would be a big problem.

The burns are all over his left arm up to his wrist, and on his right arm from his wrist to his elbow.

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One of the first and foremost rules of combat is that every distraction, no matter how small, provides an opportunity of equal duration...

Hanford looked up at Pythos bobbing in the air.

<What's he doing? Burning flies?>

He aimed his assault rifle at him, putting the cross-hair on his back, but stopped.

<...At this range, only one or two shots will connect, and I'll waste a ton of ammo...>

He lowered the gun and squinted.

<I got a better idea...>

He proceeded to set his rifle on the ground and remove some other heavy pieces of equipment, setting them next to the rifle. After unburdening himself, he ran until Pythos was directly above him.

"Activate gravitational dampener: Moon mode."

It was an experimental device, and R&D chose "Starhawk" Hanford to field test it. That was before he was screwed over by two different alien businessmen. "These are top-quality parts!" the first one said. "I'll repair that warp drive, too! It'll be good as new!" that Frelite scoundral of a mechanic told him. Both rip-offs resulted in a crash. The R&D team at HQ, however, had a much better track record when it comes to equipment, and he knew they could be trusted.

His suit began to hum as generators kicked in. He crouched down and launched himself into the air. He ascended a little slower than he expected, floating upward.

<This isn’t what jumping on the moon is like… it must have something to do the atmosphere. I have moon gravity, but the air is still thicker and heavier than it is on the moon.>

The apex of his jump occurred right behind Pythos, as planned. He wrapped the fingers of his right hand under the bottom of Pythos’ right wing, and grabbed the top of his left wing his left hand until he had a firm grip. If he attached these wings to himself, they can probably be detached. If they can’t, oh well. He planted his right boot on the small of Pythos’ back and thrusted it as hard as he could while yanking on the Wings of Tanabi. Pythos screamed in pain as it felt like part of his scapulas were being torn off. It took less than a second to remove them and they both began to fall.

The Sheng Gong Wu, sensing that it had changed hands, reverted back to its artifact form, a small ten-inch gold sculpture of a pair of wings that found its way into Frederick’s right hand.

While gently floating down, Hanford’s gravity device fizzled out. He was suddenly yanked down by the planet’s gravity again. He performed a parachute landing fall and rolled conveniently to the equipment he had removed earlier.

<I’ll have to let R&D know that the grav-damper’s battery short-circuits…>

Pythos fell to the ground much faster, being propelled by Frederick’s initial shove. When his abdomen came within seven feet of the ground, his Gravity Orb activated and he stopped for a second, his Cat Ring activated and his feet flipped under him towards the ground, and he fell the rest of the way.

He was falling quite fast, so his Gravity Orb took a real toll on him to activate.

“uuuhhhh-ooooooooohhhhhhhh”

He bowed over and clenched his stomach in pain.

You know how you might stick a fork in spaghetti and twirl it, wrapping the noodles all around the fork in a ball? The sensation Pythos got when he stopped above the ground was like someone was doing that to his intestines. Sure, it didn’t really happen, but the pain felt real enough.

Frederick scanned the horizon until he saw Pythos… acting like was about to puke.

<This guy’s weird…>

He seemed distracted enough for Frederick to re-equip himself.

Pythos decided he had held his stomach long enough and should just shake it off and locate his opponent. He pulled out a Cloaking Device and turned the dial. The light surrounding his body twisted and refracted until his body's image was identical to the image behind him. The moment Frederick found him he lost him, as he seemingly disappeared off the violet spectrum.

<He cloaked...> Frederick thought. <I can see his imprints in the grass, but I also know he has ways of flying... and I have no idea what he's doing with his hands.>