Beam cuts into Ophion

I landed in a clear spot beside Tristan, the edge of the gun scraping along road that was seventy-five percent ice before finding traction in the other twenty-five percent.

Then I pulled the trigger.

The beam cut into Ophion, and it did damage, this time. Its head was like chewed gum with spikes and metal contorting its shape, and that gum split and burned. Less than I would have liked, but I was carving into him. The gun shuddered, and the damage I'd fixed and pinched together was pulling further apart now. Handholds became gouges and furrows as I repositioned hands to hold onto the weapon.

Situating myself on the ground meant the ground provided a bit of security, one extra point of contact.

***

"Shoot it!" the first cape I'd heard called out.

"Shoot what!?"

"He's got something! At the top of the spike!"

I flew forward, bringing the gun with me. Toward the horrifying titan, toward the fallen and broken needle-like spikes that could alter a person on a fundamental level, and turn them into something grosser and bigger than a Titan.

I saw it. At the top of that center spike, traced in the gold outline that Kenzie's tech provided me, a nugget of something, swelling.

I aimed, and I fired at it.

Yeah, sure enough, the gun wasn't currently equipped to handle the vibration of its internals with the damage to its externals. Cracks split wider, claw marks opened up, and parts of it began to rattle.

My adjustments to keep hold of the weapon cost me accuracy, and I ended up trying to just take out the base of the spike, toppling it, because I could at least get the left-right aiming down while fucking up the up-down accuracy. Hitting the very tip required both.

- Infrared 19.3