Arkay looked at Volt, then looked up to the tower they had been thrown from, looked at Volt, then looked at the tower again.
“How the fuck did you do that?” he finally asked, his brain unable to comprehend how their semi-mortal bodies had not turned into gigantic splats on the ground.
Volt shrugged, then looked around for a weapon. “I guess it’s because I’m a ninja.”
“Ninjas have the ability to, I don’t know, manipulate gravity, leap up walls and glide through the air without having any sort of wing structure or telekinetic ability to aid them?” Arkay blinked. “Hang on, what actually IS a ninja?”
Volt glanced at Arkay. “You don’t know what a ninja is?”
“No, not really. I mean, I kinda get that it’s a stealthy humanoid thing but otherwise I have no idea of the origin of it all. Makes sense to ask someone who describes himself as a ninja.”
“Well, to be fair, I think the definition has been so twisted and broken over hundreds of thousands of years that I probably would not recognise an original ninja if I saw one. I just go with the idea that we’re elegant, powerful warriors that fight from the shadows, coming and going before anyone notices…”
“Huh… I always just called those Skiavok. They could literally move through shadows. Then it turns out what I called Skiavok was actually several different species… You know what?” Arkay suddenly changed the subject, reloading his rifle.
“What?” Volt asked.
“We should probably go join in the fight.”
Just as Arkay finished his sentence, two beings landed in front of them. Arksi and Verlais had also separated from the fight below them, just to confront the former Veth. Both of them seemed to be more heavily armoured than they had been earlier. And for some reason, they also had what looked like heavy, stone wings.
“Or they can come to us,” Arkay tutted. “Verlais, I thought you liked to keep promises?”
The two Kronaron snarled. They were clearly under the Whenvern’s influence.
“Why should you care, ‘brother’?” Arksi growled. “You are just horrible, dirty, nasty Veth. You all fear the end of the Cycle, yet take pride in ending the lives of others.”
Arkay glanced at Volt, then sighed. “That’s rather mean, considering that we share a mother and Volt here is so shiny you could eat a meal off his codpiece.”
“Um, what?” Volt gasped.
“I’m kidding,” Arkay smiled. “Why DO you have such a large codpiece?”
“I don’t know. Ask the being who made me.”
“Well, who made you?”
“I…” Volt hesitated. “I actually have no idea. I mean, I wasn’t always an electric space ninja. Used to have other getups as well. Pretty sure I was a child once. At some point.”
“WILL YOU BOTH SHUT UP ALREADY?” Arksi suddenly interrupted, in a completely non-Arksi way. “Are you going to fight us or not?”
Volt and Arkay glanced at each other again, but this time, Arkay was grinning.
“Nah. We were just distracting you from the rest of the battle. Your friends are all down for the count.”
Volt casually flicked his wrist, firing a bolt of lightning that bounced between the Time-Drakes, briefly stunning them. Angered by the weird, nobbled humanoid’s attack, they shook off the effects of his lightning and stepped forward, only to be telekinetically lifted into the air and thrown off into the distance.
“I feel bad,” Arkay moaned. “Before I died, Arksi was always stronger than me, but at least it was a fair fight.”
“It’s not your fault!”
“True.”
A moment of silence passed between them, but it was rudely interrupted by the grotesque tentacle monster thing that was Vel.
“You two incompetents doing well? The battle below us is mostly over now, in our favour of course. You guys seen Kinisis?”
“Oooh,” Volt squeaked. “I’d forgotten about her! We should go see what she’s up to.”
Arkay though, just sighed. “Fine… This time though, we’re walking…”