The fight froze as Astral separated the pocket dimension in two. Pushing Jaimie, James and Angel into safety as he stared into May's eyes, desperate to rescue her and not let anything bad happen to anyone else. He was able to make it through the shockwall and tapped her nose and sent her out of the pocket dimension.
The two halves of the pocket dimension crashed together as it made everyone off balance as more clones flooded the area. Astral was able to destroy each one in singular punches. The white landscape became covered in red as the clones kept dying.
Angel finally saw their attacks coming, her stacks soared to even higher heights as her blows became on par with Jaimie as she was now taking on five clones at once with her spear as the stacks allowed her to not only cleave through them in a handful of swings.
James doubled his production as his hair turned fully white. Six clones would attack him at once as he was much faster, gutting them with his claws. Each clone detonated with an explosion as they died. James could take each explosion as it hardly scratched his aura.
Jaimie escalated her attacks as she realized that the clones were attacking in the thousands, and Astral was taking on a large chunk of them even while battling Finnick. The clones wouldn't stop as she started to take on enough to ease Astrals burden. Hopping upwards and twirling her spear, she ignited her attack and damaged the magic circle of Finnick's as only enough clones to distract the three of them were appearing.
Astral launched a punch at Finnick's wrist as it was blocked by a wall of ice. "So you do have more magic up your sleeves." Astral kept the gap within arms reach as Finnick was constantly backpedaling from Astral's attacks, using all matter of ice, water, earth and electricity to slow him down. Between barriers and actual attacks Finnick showed no worry as he was still fast enough to respond to Astral's movements.
"MY TURN!" Finnick grabbed Astral's chest with his left hand and fired a concentrated beam of lightning through his abdomen. Astral wasn't winded as he hit Finnick in the skull with a kick. Hooking him into the ground.
Finnick rolled up as Astral's wound was already healed. "That strength of yours is such a waste. Too bad you won't join us." Astral clapped as he used a spell as Jaimie jabbed her spear forward into Finnick as she pulled it out and was teleported back.
Finnick had a ball of ice launched directly forward as Astral reshaped it into a seal tossing it upward. Looking at Finnick he saw the potential to do something critical. 'Magic is only bound by your creativity.' Mike's voice bounced around in his head as Finnick focused all of his clones on Astral.
"Your lackeys can't handle magic." Finnick snickered, not fearing anything as Jaimie bashed him with her shield. Her armor glowing as she stood in front of him.
"I could care less about magic and power. All I ask is this, how does the seventeen work?" Jaimie asked as Finnick spit blood on the ground. He sent an ice spear at her as James jumped over it and slashed it to bits as she didn't move.
"From Seventeen to One, one is the weakest and Seventeen, the originator. The strongest." Finnick held up one finger on his right hand. "I am one. And won't lose to three mortals." His finger was sliced off before he could react by Angel as she was soaring around above the fight.
"Tricky thing is. We are anything but weak." Jaimie held her shield high and tight with her spear behind her. James stood on her right side as his ears twitched. Stabbing a clone in the skull, reacting before realizing.
"That's what his magic circle is?" Finnick looked around. "Pathetic, all it does is enhance abilities, doesn't even perfect them." Finnick hopped back as he fired a barrage of magical spheres from his gauntlet.
"If you sever his head I can handle the rest!" Astral's voice boomed through the pocket dimension as it was deafening to Finnick. Jaimie closed the gap and dodged each close missile that homed in on her. Jabbing the spear into his gut as it created a second hole that slipped past his defenses.
"You are wrong. This ability is called perfection." Jaimie hopped back as she twisted her spear in a circle and waited a second to execute her attack. Finnick tried to move his body as he looked down. His feet were stuck into the ground as the claws pierced his body, how did he not see it?
He tried to bend his arms to block the same attack that damaged and slowed his magic circle. His arms are lying on the ground next to his feet as he looked up seeing his torso from above as it became incinerated. All Finnick did was laugh.
Astral hovered in the air as he held Finnick's head. "You can't kill me, that's the best part, this was just a clone." Finnick was laughing hysterically.
"All that power won't save you from what I can do." Astral's fingers dug into his skull as Finnick shouted in pain. The clones swarming the three of them below as Astral dug deeper. "Every one of you shall die!" The skull exploded in his hand as all the clones exploded in a quiet boom.
Astral landed on the ground softly as the blood from the clones vanished as May and Lone were dragged into the pocket dimension. May jumped up and hugged Astral as he took a sigh of relief. "Now this is where the challenge starts." Lone spoke as the others looked at him. "They lost one of theirs, but they think its a fluke. We will prove them wrong."
The Seventeen were sitting around a table as a few spots were missing. The chairs had numbers as the marble shined around them all, a lavish purple carpet on the floor as One was leaning back. The missing chairs were Seventeen, Thirteen and Seven as One exploded in front of the rest of them. Alarming them and wondering what happened. Calling up their prodigy and pet project, Zero. The gods helped gear Zero up as they waited for the moment that was looming.