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And that was no trivial matter, because in every previous encounter, this enemy--whose name he still did not know--had used the splashing to conceal further attacks. The freshly melted gallium would be cool to the touch and largely harmless, but when they tossed some boiling hot gallium into the mix, too, it became much more difficult to simply ignore the splashing.

Not to mention, against Taj’s aluminum materialization--and many other metals for that matter--gallium had a corrosive effect. Normally, such corrosion required considerable time to take effect--days or weeks--but whoever was wielding it now was able to enhance its reactive properties, causing embrittlement to occur within seconds.

Taj knew they had to flee. These attacks were just from one of their pursuers, who’d apparently grown confident enough to not even bother waiting for their comrades to catch up. He could see the figure in the distance, surging toward them on a moving platform from far down the street.

Taj raised a large aluminum wall. It wouldn’t stop them, of course, but it would block their sight, at least. While there was only one enemy to worry about, their odds of escape were still good. He grabbed one of the others by the hand, shouted for everyone to follow, and began sprinting for the open tunnel.

Going in there was a risk. If it was a dead end, then they would be forced to fight their way back out again. So to help mitigate that danger, he raised more walls behind them as he ran, making sure to provide plenty of space between each one so as not to accidentally trap any of his kin.

He aimed to create a maze, to further obstruct the enemy’s vision. If it worked, then their pursuer might not even realize that they’d gone into the tunnel for quite some time, which was all they really needed, right now: time.

Great crashing sounds arrived from behind him, which was probably from his materialized walls getting destroyed. He thought he could hear even more than that, though, like that of buildings collapsing. He couldn’t afford to turn around and look, though. The walls were obscuring his vision, and even if something really important was going on back there, Orolix would warn him.

Before they could reach the tunnel, however, an alarm blared. Its ear-splitting pitch was enough to make Taj flinch and stagger, and he was not the only one. He could see his kin doing the same--and even the reapers, too, writhing in the air.