After about an hour of posting up a defensive front, Ken finally alerted me.
"I found him! He's in a field... what is he doing there?" He asked. Ken had his eyes closed so he could follow that path with his Ocular Ability, or whatever. I still wasn't really sure how it worked, but I trusted him. He closed his eyes and analyzed the area, describing it to us.
"Sounds like he's an easy target right now. We'll go hit him with everything we have." I said. I waited for Ken to tell me the direction, but he paused.
Slowly, he lost the color on his face and opened his eyes.
"Maybe he does have an Ocular Ability... he shut mine off. I can't imagine who he would be fighting though since he was charging an attack." Ken said like it was nothing.
"Huh? Say that again, but in the right order." I told him, watching our surroundings again.
"Zeus was charging an attack, but he wasn't fighting anybody," Ken said. It clicked in my head, but he didn't seem to realize it.
"Everybody, be ready for an attack! [Absorption 3]!" I shouted out, drinking a health potion, a stamina potion, and priming my staff with blood.
I watched closely, waiting around for the attack to arrive.
Above us came the three golden circles that floated in the sky again. The last time we saw them, they only blocked entry and exits from a big barrier created in the shape of a dome. This time, however, that wasn't the case.
A small, blue gem started to form near the middle of the top magical circle. I swore I had seen them before in my world, but the intensity of the shining gold and now the shining blue color set them apart. This wasn't just a barrier, this was an attack. Something to fear.
I was afraid I wouldn't even be able to absorb it or save everybody from the hit itself, but in the worst-case scenario, I could try to use Shima's power as well to save myself. I wasn't confident about it, but I had to be for the sake of everybody else. That's how I'll be my own Hero.
It continued to charge and the blue gem in the center of the magical circle started to enlarge. Finally, it burst into dozens of small shards that moved toward the outline of the intricate design within the circle. They were swirling and getting faster. My guess is it would be a singular laser instead of multiple. It's probably creating a vortex in the center.
One made of wind.
That's it! After all, Zeus could wield the air element and with Ono's skills, he could use it to attack. I was certain of it, this was a vortex of some kind!
The way the air element was used was to speed up attacks. When put into a vortex-like this, it would most certainly speed up anything that ran through it, but all vortexes end at a certain point that comes to a close, just like the one above us. To get the maximum speed for a ruthless attack, it would have to be a singular laser, otherwise, the vortex couldn't speed up the lasers around it!
Maybe it wouldn't be a laser, but that's how I imagined it. Either way, I knew what must be done.
"Shima, can you do it? How do I activate you?" I asked my arm, looking at it with intent to use it regardless if she agreed or not. Could Shima even live without me?
"Anima... that looks kind of dangerous..." Ruby said, slowly cowering next to me.
She was right, this wasn't like Joro or any other time I was going to be hit with an attack. This wasn't his ice storm, this was of a massive scale. I didn't want to be brave, I didn't want to sit here and try to defend against this attack. I don't care about my surroundings, I just want to live. Would that be so much to ask for? To live, instead of dying to this attack?
Anxiety started to shoot up my body and I could feel myself tremble. This is it. This could be the end for all I knew. I'm not a high level, I have no health, and I'm quite the pathetic man, but that's all more the reason to stay here and be brave.
"Hey, are you really sure we can take this?" Ipa asked me, looking up toward the circle.
The sky started to shift from its natural blue hue to something grey and white. It was like a cluster of clouds, but it never ended. Just a constant stream of grey and white.
"Yeah, I don't think so, but I'm too far in to back down now. If you guys don't feel safe, then get back." I told everybody, but they weren't satisfied with my answers.
"[Blessing 7]" Soul said out loud, buffing me even more. I now had near double the health that I used to, but could that still block this?
I awaited the large beam, or bullet, or whatever might've come out of the bottom of the vortex starting to form. I was led on with miles of anticipation.
Eventually, the blue gems burst into nothingness and the vortex started to speed up and shift from a clear-white coloring to dark blue coloring. This definitely seemed to be nothing positive, and I could no longer think of a strategy around this. My tactic was to just take it and hope for the best.
"Soul! Tama! Ruby! Ipa! Ken! Just know, when I block this and take all of this damage, I want you to immediately head for Zeus no matter if I'm alive or dead, we can't let him take my body above all else!" I yelled out to everybody. Ken offered to run back to my body to cut out Zeus again. We had our plan, and now, as the vortex came to a close and a bright flash of light flickered above me...
We needed to defend.