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That was why he'd opened with those exploding javelins. As a proof of concept, they'd been successful. Explosive force could indeed displace the smoke. Now he needed to scale up the intensity. Would've certainly helped if he'd ever practiced this technique before, but oh well. Learning mid-combat was something he'd been doing since day one, it felt like.

Rather than trying to disperse the smoke with one big burst, he went with a flurry. More javelins. Dozens of them, flying all at once, followed by an immediate second and third wave.

Molten coatings for all of them as soon as they touched the smoke.

A stream of explosions, bursting the smoke apart in clusters, not unlike bubbles in boiling water.

It wasn't doing much, Hector saw. Banda was still plowing through it all, chasing after him relentlessly.

But it wasn't doing nothing, either. He followed up with fourth and fifth waves, and he could see the smoke dispersing more and more. Momentarily, he saw what he'd been waiting for.

A few whiffs of red, isolated from the rest of the smoke--and seemingly not of Banda's own volition this time.

Hector pounced on the opportunity, clapping thick iron orbs around the separated smoke.

This was how he'd defeated the worm in the Undercrust. Cutting it up into manageable chunks. Maybe Banda would--

No.

This was wrong, he realized. In the back of his mind, he could sense it with the Scarf. The volume of smoke wasn't like that of a worm. It was changing constantly, growing and shrinking as it pleased, whipping towards him, then slinking back to try to flank him.

Banda was in pan-rozum. Which meant he had access to materialization, too. His smoke couldn't run out until he reached his volume limit, which was probably gargantuan.

This wasn't going to work. Hector knew that much. Hell, the whole fight had obviously been hopeless from the start, but if he didn't think of something different to try, then Banda Toro was going to kill him soon.

And then everyone else, too.

And worse still, emergence wouldn't help. Even if he did achieve it again, what difference would it make? More powerful materialization wasn't the answer when he couldn't even touch this guy.

The problem was a fundamental one.

In background thought processes, while he concentrated on evading each deadly attack, these thoughts were stewing.

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Hector barely got out of the way in time--and even that wasn't quite enough. The flame didn't actually touch him, but it still melted most of his breastplate. He could feel his chest burning as he rushed to annihilate and rematerialize the front plate.

His flight was chaotic. He didn't yet have the kind of well-practiced control that he needed to be fighting a battle in the sky like this. But he did have the power. The speed.

That would have to do.

He didn't hold back in his movements. Subtle and nuanced went out the window. When he needed to go right, he surged right. When he needed to go left, he burst left.

His body could barely take it. He could feel bones cracking with each explosive turn. He could feel blood pooling quickly to one side of his head and limbs before violently shifting to a different side. It would've certainly been enough to make him sick and disoriented to the point of delirium, if he hadn't been so focused.

On the fight. On Banda.

The Raptor's smoking form was so difficult to keep track of at this range. It moved so strangely and unpredictably. The Scarf of Amordiin helped, but not as much as usual. Air currents could pass right through Banda's body with only the faintest whiff of information being sent back to Hector's mind.

He had to pay closer attention than ever before. He couldn't let some little puff of red smoke sneak up on him, lest it turn suddenly into a blade through his helmet.

But it wasn't like all the other red smoke in front of him could just be ignored, either. Snapping maws and thrashing claws kept materializing from the smoke, lurching at him in a flurry of ceaseless attacks as the smoke billowed after him.

And the ranged attacks, too. Some of the mouths mixed in more beams of white fire, each one threatening to end him in an instant.

Hector had the Amir-10, though--the new version of Haqq's shield that Abbas had gifted him. The beams broke upon it like water upon rock, splashing out in all directions around him.

Still, this was far from an ideal situation. He had to hit back--and hard, too. As hard as possible.

But his most powerful technique would prove useless here, Hector felt. Orbiting cubes launched at high speeds would just pass right through Banda's smoke-based body. Soul-empowering them wouldn't matter, either, he was pretty sure.

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"I need you all to stay here," said Hector. "If he makes it past me, retreat into the Entry Tower and bury the entrance as best you can."

"What're you--?"

"Abbas will be here soon," said Hector. "Just hold out until then."

'Hector, wait a--' Garovel tried to say.

Hector clapped an iron orb around the reaper. 'I'm really sorry,' he told him. He caught the orb with both hands and then tossed it over to Roman. "Take care of him for me, please."

More words were said in response. Some of them quite upset, from the sound of it. But Hector had already tuned them all out. Maybe that was a stupid thing to do. It was certainly rude, at least. But he had to. The auras demanded his full attention.

Banda Toro demanded it.

The man would not be dissuaded from this fight, Hector knew. He was coming for Darksteel, and nothing was going to get in his way.

In full armor, with his still-rather-haphazard ability to fly, Hector leapt away from the ground and soared up to meet him there in the sky.

For a moment, it crossed his mind that, perhaps, Banda would want to talk to him first. And Hector wouldn't have minded. It would've meant more time for Abbas to show up.

But no. That notion was destroyed as he grew closer to Banda's aura. The heat in it. The hostility and viciousness. It didn't want to talk. Not with words, anyway. It did want a dialogue, of sorts, yes. It wanted to know him through his actions.

And on some level, Hector could appreciate that. It was absolutely horrible for him, but he could appreciate it.

He decided to open with a volley of iron javelins. The first word of the conversation. It wouldn't do much, he knew, but he intended to put a little twist on it.

He made them icy cold, and when they pierced the red smoke of Banda's body, he added an instant molten coating to them. The sudden extreme temperature difference made them explode.

It wasn't doing any actual damage, Hector knew, but it was a way of testing the waters and dispersing some of the smoke. Pockets of Banda's red form burst apart, though not for long.

The return fire from Banda was far more deadly.

A giant, dagger-toothed maw formed out of the smoke, and from it, a white hot pillar of fire shot out like a laser beam.