The armored figure darted to one side, stepping in time with Lyra. Not the most elegant of dance partners, but obviously an attentive one, given that he'd followed the shifting of the Shroud even while it expanded. She took note of that. Added another point to the picture of him in her mind, a wispy outline that might one day grow to be as vast and beautiful as the golden landscape around them.

Only it never would. She'd never know this man.  Today might be the last day anyone saw him alive.

Six sharp stings shot straight towards the dark knight and his guns, six sharp stings slung sideways as soon as they slipped in close.  Their hungry spikes would never meet flesh, nor even armor, thanks to a deft deflection on the part of a wary target.  Good thing, then, that those pretty points had been little more than an attempt at theatrics on Lyra's part.  Easy to see a spear and assume a simple assault, when in fact their true purpose was somewhat more insidious.

Those stalks had never been an attack.

They were an [i]infection vector[/i].

If Caius had been sharp enough to detect the chill at the edges of the Shroud, he'd likely notice as the temperature near him [i]shot[/i] down, or catch the slight distortion in light from the thousands of minuscule ice crystals forming in the air.

Physically, Lyra's frozen arrows had been little more than solidified water and some residual organic matter. However, like the nodes on Caius's own armor, they carried power within them. A quiet passenger, it had ridden along, reached its destination, and then jumped from there into the surrounding water vapor. And jumped. And jumped and jumped and [i]jumped[/i], every scrap of humidity in the air crystallizing into a tiny frozen shard. Neither liquid nor vapor would escape her: she seized all that came in range, wrapping it in the cold embrace of her mind.

The individual crystals could still be shifted by Caius's vector field, whirling around him in a growing blizzard, but the infection continued unimpeded: entering from six places at once, it moved outwards from its origins, not only bearing down on Caius but also seeking to flank him, surround him. 

Worse, his supposed defense had only worked in Lyra's favor.  She'd spread power from her stalks, but had not relinquished them, and as his field carried her weapons around in an arc she nudged them inwards, so that they'd orbit around him rather than fly off under their own momentum.  If he'd gone with a conventional shield, the sudden freezing phenomenon would have spread only from the area the stalks had struck, but now he'd be dealing with an incoming tide of cold from his entire left flank and behind him as well, with the six projectiles moving fast to complete the circle.  If the problem wasn't dealt with quickly, he'd soon find himself blanketed in crystals from all sides.

Under such circumstances it would take a will of iron to carry on with an attack, but perhaps he'd try and shoot regardless. Quick on the draw he as might have been, Lyra was just as quick in her reaction, which came almost by reflex. If an armored finger did squeeze a trigger, the large thin layer that made up the front of her Shroud would bulge outwards slightly, its top and sides spreading as a large gap appeared in Caius's line of fire, a hole in the dark wall for the bullet to speed through unimpeded.  Once the shot had passed by, the Shroud would snap closed, returning to its previous shape.

Interesting, that he'd followed the Shroud's center but hadn't aimed there.  Another mote to remember him by, locked away in Lyra's thoughts.

She could only hope he'd do the same for her.