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He cycled through all of his previous tactics and techniques, searching for anything that seemed useful. Nothing was really sticking in his mind, though. Bullets went right through the smoke. Coating didn't work on gases. Boxes were pointless. Walls would be torn through like tissue paper.

But they could still obstruct Banda's vision.

Maybe that would buy him some extra time to think, at least.

He went to work materializing giant slabs of iron between him and Banda. He made sure to soul-empower them as well, to aid with the blocking of reaper sight as well. It wouldn't be perfect for the latter unless he completely sealed himself in, which he obviously didn't want to do, but if it could just disorient Banda a little, then that would be enough. Hector just wanted to press the sensory advantage that the Scarf of Amordiin provided.

The chase grew even crazier. Hector had to be constantly aware of Banda's position relative to him and his own falling iron walls. He couldn't spare the time to worry about dematerializing them before they crashed down to the ground. They weren't directly over the decoy castle, so it should've been fine.

It didn't take Hector long to realize that these walls weren't doing much. Even his low expectations for them were not being met. The Raptor wasn't getting disoriented at all, even when Hector started trying to curve the walls to provide more cover for himself. Banda billowed and weaved around each one, only bothering to punch through on occasion.

And then Hector realized why.

Banda always saw the shortest path to Hector. Whether it meant breaking the wall or going around it, Banda knew.

He could sense Hector some other way, couldn't he? Through his aura, probably. Obscuring his vision didn't matter, did it?

Agh.

Hector's mind raced for another solution as Banda kept the chase up. Aura felt like his only hope now, but that might've just been because it was still so mysterious to him. That hope was created by uncertainty, not by any sort of clear plan or idea.

Shit. It was about all he had, though.

There was definitely more to this aura stuff. He knew that much, at least. It was the "product of his entire self." That was what Rasalased had said.

Which meant--wait a minute. That meant that emergence actually would help, didn't it? Because emergence affected his materialization, and his materialization affected his aura. So technically...

A man-sized claw came for him, and Hector only just slipped out of the way. The wind it left in its wake was enough to rattle his armor.