Snippets from Eclipse — The Girl Who Saved the World
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“Team! The Namestone is indestructible! Kill her!” Valkyria shouted.  Oh, dear, I thought, not to mention several other words Mum would not have approved of my using, Valkyria is even more short-tempered than rumored.  She could readily have drawn out this conversation for some time yet, say until I felt comfortable about teleporting away.  No such luck.  Valkyria tossed her explosive throwing katana.  Her katana’s explosion packs the power density of a starcore weapon.  Her team launched a totally bizarre mixture of high power attacks.  Not one of her team-mates seemed to notice that if they killed me I would drop the Namestone, which would then roll back down the Stairs into the Maze, there to be returned to the Martyr.  Mayhaps Valkyria counted on the explosion from her throwing sword to blast the Namestone free. 

I’d forgotten the Screaming Skull, even though I had just told him off.  Over-focus is very dangerous in combat, but at this point I was outnumbered close to twenty to one.  I’d paid too much attention to Valkyria, and paid no attention to the Skull, even after he threatened me.  He used the moment to launch his most deadly attack, the Shower of Total Death.  Being attacked by the League of Nations Elite Team was bad news, but the Skull is a Lord of Eternity.  His attack? It works on people, it works on a tree, and now I’ll see if it works on me.  I’ve actually never been positive my second level shields do anything.  It’s not as if there are a lot of second level attacks wandering around to test them against. 

My scramble for more and more power levels worked.  Barely.  My shields did everything needed.  Then Valkyria’s katana hit me.  Of course, I’ve seen starcore energy densities before, real ones, and my shields worked just fine that time, too.  It’s just I was very tired, the gifts being used against me were incredibly powerful, and I had to go truly deep to hold my defenses against all of them at the same time.  I didn’t quite fall over, but the world was getting a bit gray.  Medico flashed a warning, blue shading farther into violet.  My reception committee was coming too close to killing me through my own shields, assuming I didn’t kill myself first with the crash drop I had just made.  For half an instant, the Skull looked surprised.  He could tell: I was not drawing on the Namestone.  He’d tried to kill me, and my personal defenses were good enough to stop his (several other words that would not meet with Mum’s approval) attack in its tracks. 

I really wanted to grab Valkyria’s broadsword. Using it to give her a straighter backbone sounded really appealing.  Kicking her face also sounded attractive.  Alas, if I continued to fight, they got to do the same. Besides, she was wearing armor.  Here and now was not a favorable battlefield.  I did not give them a second chance.  I was down through enough levels to hold all my shields, keep slack, shatter the teleport blocks, and teleport.  I flicked my wrist back.  Namestone vanished.  I smashed the blocks and teleported out, far far away, all the way to the Dark Side of the Moon, then a half dozen fast jumps, one triple cycle loop, and finally a pause in case someone was following me.  I’d ended someplace that looks like it could be my base.  It isn’t, but it looks really basey.  Base-like? Basious?  OK, it looks like a high-power persona base.