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And though it missed, the attack on Karkash bought Hector a bit of time. A dozen iron pillars shot up around the trio, providing brief refuge from lightning while Karkash went to work removing them.

A mound of yellow crystal flew toward Harper, and he had to spare a laser to destroy it before being flattened. An aluminum coating tried to slow the movement of his arms, but Harper tore through without losing a beat and sent a two-handed blast of light toward Conall’s shelter. The laser hit aluminum, reflecting off but still toppling the metal anyway.

Conall was left briefly vulnerable, and Harper wanted to take advantage, but then Andres and Desmond were both there in his face while Nola came up from behind.

Judging from the way she’d melted Hector’s foot into the ground earlier, Nola’s power was certainly integration type, though Darsihm didn’t yet have more details for him. Hector had yanked himself free a while ago and discovered the foot to have become stone--having not just displaced the ground it had sunken into but actually merging with it.

On its own, Nola’s power would not be immensely threatening to Harper, but here and now, supported by her comrades, if she managed to touch him and disable just one of his limbs, however briefly, it would spell trouble indeed. Thankfully, though, the Queen intercepted her, leaving Harper to only worry about Desmond, Andres, and Conall.

It was time to change tactics. His enemies knew they couldn’t touch him from a distance, so now they were trying to surround him and attack at close range.

That was absolutely fine with Harper. They would find that his soul power was more than up to the challenge.

Yellow crystals gathered around him, trying to hold him down while Desmond closed in with a flaming fist.

Harper merely waited and let them think he was trapped. Then he reached out through the crystals, shattering them like they weren’t even there, and grabbed Desmond by the arm and neck. White light brimmed around the edges of Harper’s palm and exploded forth, taking Desmond’s head off in an instant.