Grey armour 2

Smirking at my companion, I sent a pulse of aether to the armor, and it vanished, melting away in an aetheric nimbus.

His bright eyes bulged, then grew comically wider as I resummoned the armor with only the barest application of aether. It wrapped around me like a shadow, so light and well-fit that I could barely feel it.

“Ayy! Matching horns!” Regis gave a throaty chuckle. “We can be the horny trio.”

Caera sputtered as she glowered at my companion. “We’re not calling ourselves that.”

Regis circled me, sniffing. “It’s there, real and physical, but also…”

“A manifestation of aether,” I finished for him. “Like energy bound into a physical form.” Curious, I held out my arm. “Regis, bite me.”

Showing a worrying lack of hesitation, he bit down on my forearm, his teeth grinding against the armor. I felt it as a pressure, obvious but painless. Tilting my head at my companion, I goaded, “Is that all you got?”

Growling, Regis bit down harder, and the pressure increased. Focusing on my forearm, I pushed aether out to my skin in the same way I would protect myself with an aetheric barrier. The armor seemed to react to it, drawing on the aether to bolster its defensive capabilities and reducing the crushing pressure.

Regis let go and pawed at his tongue. “Yuck. It’s like sticking my tongue on a battery. My mouth’s all tingly now.”

Though I was curious to keep testing the abilities of this new relic, the low hum of the exit portal was drawing me in, and I was eager to move onto the next zone and test the armor properly. “We should go.”