Endelle only stopped her aerial theatrics when she paused to levitate upright in the air and drew her phone from her leathers. With her cell to her ear, she began a slow descent. Once she touched down, she turned in his direction and waved him over.
He crossed without hesitation.
How different everything seemed now that he’d launched his grayle power, because as he focused on Endelle, he fel
t a vision hover within his mind, waiting for his attention.
When he drew close, she shoved her phone back into her pocket, then said, “That was Thorne. He’s got several of his men, including Warrior Santiago, pinned down by Third Earth death vampires. Looks like Chustaffus has started bumping up his game.” He saw the concern in her wooded eyes as she planted a hand on his shoulder. “What have you got for me because if you can provide a vision, I can get them out of there right now.”
Duncan let the vision roll and as it did, he knew Endelle could see it within her mind at the same time. He wasn’t sure if it was his grayle power or hers, but whatever the case, sharing a vision saved a lot of time.
The vision basically showed the exact location of the besieged troops and the next moment, Endelle, within the vision, showed up in the outfit she currently wore, a sword blazing in each hand.
A plume of red smoke created a vaporous cloud around her as she struck at least a dozen of the bastards down. The swift sequence of her strikes made it impossible for any of the death vampires to even see her.
When the vision drew to a close and a cheer rang out from Santiago and the Militia Warriors on the ground, the vision dissipated.
Endelle dropped her hand away from his shoulder. “Excellent. And what intrigues me is how clear the time-frame is. I’ve got five minutes. Well, done, Duncan.”
Instead of leaving immediately, however, she moved in Merl and Luken’s direction. She quickly detailed the nature of the vision and what she’d be doing.
She didn’t wait for either of the men to respond, she simply folded from the workout center.
Merl didn’t let but a handful of seconds lapse before he called out to the team, “Listen up. I need all of you on the wing-mount fold. We don’t stand a chance against either Third Militia Warriors or death vampires unless the team has mastered this skill.”
~
Rachel followed after the men, her thoughts still caught on having watched Endelle perform an amazing series of levitating and tumbling moves. That Duncan then shared a battle vision with Endelle had left her feeling wired, but not in a bad way.
Yet what stuck in her head was the reality she was part of the whole thing, especially because of her Fourth Earth shielding power. She could mount her wings faster than ever before and she’d started releasing her own green grayle smoke as a result of these advances.
She vibrated with energy and power.
As Merl levitated and moved swiftly up and down the line, her gaze was fixed on him. He had an intensity now he’d not had before. She felt his determination and understood the cause since rescuing Katlynn, as well as the other warriors, bore heavily on each of their minds. Merl’s ability to communicate to the warriors had improved immensely and each warrior was really responding to the combined efforts of Jean-Pierre and Merl.
He spoke about holding the grayle power tight as the wings released, so that the mounting of the wings fed into the grayle surge. Only with the two combined, wings and grayle, could the fold be accomplished.
Rachel closed her eyes and held out her hands, feeling her own grayle energy rise. She recalled Merl having slapped Duncan on the chest, saying the power came from the core of the body, the very soul. She let the power flow and when she felt the grayle connect with her wings, the increased vibration of energy let her know she could do the fold.
She didn’t hesitate, but mounted her wings and the moment they released fully, she folded all the way to the entrance of the workout center, then materialized. There was no pain, no disrupted mesh super-structure, only a swirl of green smoke rising all around her.
It took her a moment to realize the men were all cheering her. She grinned so hard her cheeks hurt. She was one of them and the good Creator had given her an abundance of power so that she could serve on the ops team.
With the same confidence, she repeated the movement, arriving back at her starting point.
Merl drew close, his light blue eyes glowing. “Well done, ascender.”
Backing up, Merl addressed the team. “Since Rachel is on fire, we’re going to practice her shielding right now, along with some team signals I want all of you to learn. Because of the field we’ll be attacking, I want Rachel capable of reaching the team at a distance of sixty feet. And don’t worry, we’ll get to each of your wing-mount folds in a bit.”
Alex whistled. “Rachel, you think you can cover us at sixty feet?”
“I’ll damn-well try.”
Merl added. “And we need to be able to fold together as a unit, in any direction, on command.”
Owen scowled. “How the hell are we going to do that?”
“Well, I’ll tell you.” Merl then gathered everyone around and spent the next half hour drilling the team on directional gestures used in the field to move as a body, especially given Rachel’s shielding properties.