On the ground.
Just as Saul stepped out of the crater, the golden warhammer in his hand began gathering lightning. He was ready to charge straight into the military academy with overwhelming force and physically erase that damned anti-psychic device, along with the entire building.
Something suddenly changed.
In the shadows of the ruins surrounding him, the air abruptly warped in an eerie fashion. Like a stone dropped into still water, it sent the light refracting and breaking apart.
Then a burst of shrill electronic noise flooded every frequency. The Auspex inside Saul's helmet blared frantic alarms, then instantly overloaded and went black.
"Bzzzt-"
Dozens of sleek Battlesuits, enormous yet far from cumbersome, their forms embodying the elegance of futuristic technology, silently emerged from Optical Camouflage!
These were no ordinary Battlesuits. Their entire bodies were coated in light-absorbing matte black, with blue energy circuits flowing across their armor plates.
They were XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuits! And judging by the intense electronic interference radiating from them, these were certainly not standard models. They were specially modified "Godslayer" prototypes, equipped with the latest electronic warfare suites and short-range jump engines!
They did not try to surround Saul like the lumbering Riptide Battlesuits, nor did they stand still and unleash a coordinated volley.
They hovered in midair, the Stealth Field generators on their backs humming as their forms flickered between one reality and another.
The next second, they moved.
They did not attack Saul directly.
These XV95 Battlesuits, known as "Ghostkeels," were like a swarm of venomous wasps circling a lion. Every so often, they fired beams of high-energy fusion particles. Yet those deadly beams were not aimed at Saul. In an utterly contemptible, utterly provocative display, they bypassed his defenses and struck the Sons of Sorrow warriors struggling to hold on behind him