[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qSXKgkY.png[/img]
[sub][@Nanaya][@AThousandCurses][@Psyker Landshark][/sub][/center]
He was flying. Then falling. Then tumbling. Tuck in your chin, break your fall with your arms rather than your head, and curl into a ball. Air was pummeled out of his lungs, but Otis held his firearm close still as he smashed into the earth, rolling two, three, four meters away before he forced himself up. His head hurt, his vision spun, and yet, he still pointed his gun out towards the distance, recognizing the shapes of the two bandits that remained. They hadn't gotten out of it unharmed. This was the only chance to definitively end this threat!

Hammer struck crystal, the remaining bullets emptying out of its chamber, firing towards the men at supersonic speeds.

Tufts of dirt exploded around them to little effect, every single shot missed, before they disappeared into the aether.

The Strigidae let out a low sign. No magic bullets meant no homing bullets, so that was his bad. Or perhaps he should have prepared a helmet, so his head wouldn't have been knocked about so much by the gambit. Or perhaps they should've sought to escape to begin with, rather than engaging so fully in such a disadvantageous situation. What would it have been like, if it was any of [i]their[/i] Ethos pitted against a couple of physically skilled, but entirely essence-less individuals? It'd have been a massacre. Incomprehensible trump cards that they were, it'd have been far too easy to end this.

He coughed, then walked back to the others, circumventing the wreckage of carriage and bone to turn towards Alto. [b]"It'd be expedient, I believe, to return to Wingram and cancel this trip. Injured as we are, and having not resolved the root of this problem, any further travel would be similarly doomed. Especially now that we are one carriage short, and most of us are injured."[/b]

Amber eyes flickered over to Fianchetto.

[b]"Also, what was the spell you were going to cast? I have my own hypotheses about it, but without any ability to see essence right now, all that I'd be making are baseless presumptions and wild guesses.[/b]