Anti-Thinker Fighting

The enemy numbers kept increasing.

Against thinkers, take them out ASAP. Distract, stress, befuddle. Mental and psychological strain, when it can be applied, should be used, as they have an ironic tendency to have their minds be their weak points.

I used my aura, hard, and probably disturbed some ordinary residents in the neighborhood in the process. Someone fell, losing their bag, and I grabbed it. I hurled the bag at the largest cluster of thralls.

There had to be thirty of them. Three to five to a car- six cars. What had been an orderly suburb was chaos, drowned in freezing rain, a thin film of ice crusting anything that was getting rained on.

They turned guns on me, and I flew up and away, trusting the darkness and the rain that fell in people's eyes to give me cover. The bright shots stabbed randomly up into the sky. There were some that didn't need eyes, instead having powers that Teacher had granted, but they were wretched, less people with added enhancements, and more slaves who had lost more than they'd gained in ability.

It was easier, like this. No doubts, a clear enemy, no having to juggle my allegiances and compromise my thoughts to fit someone else's goals. I could put Amy out of mind, let the dust settle, mend and care for myself.

I hit the large group with the case they'd withdrawn from the trunk of the car, bowling into people with the wretch only momentarily active. The incoming fire stopped- any miss would hit a friend of theirs, but they had other methods, including makeshift melee weapons.

I leveraged my fear aura, turned to outright shoves, flying knees to vital areas with no wind-up, and backhand strikes with my hand enclosed in a metal-braced glove. I fought through the tide of thralls, and if they might have found their footing and hit me back, those opportunities diminished to almost nothing as the fear aura slowed them down and gave them second thoughts.

- Gleaming 9.4