It had been a week since I’d let loose Bob and Fae on the nd surrounding the fortress with a whole load of orders and while they were progressing nicely; I had been ag to personally check out the death world so near me. Selene happily joined me, which is the story of how we ended up with her py-fighting against some of the fauna here, before she asked me to make some nastier foes for her to beat up, namely, Tyranids.

  I might be going crazy. I mused, my eyes and serag Selene as she flowed through the densely forested terrain like a graceful gale of precise destru. Her sword was gone, only f in her palm the moment before she s forward a it right through the torso of a Tyranid Warrianism I’d made for her to train against.

  Psychic power pulsed through her and the impaled beast exploded into bloody ks as the telekiic shockwave tore it apart from the i.

  It was … beautiful.

  The way her pure white armour ate iters of blood, the elegant flick of her wrist that sent the gore flying from her sword before she jumped back, flying twenty metres as telekinesis aided her like a pair of invisible wings.

  Was it normal to find the way my lover so elegantly sughtered her foe hot? Probably not, but oh well, who cares about that?

  “ you make me something stronger?” Selene asked, her helmet not eveing away as she tilted her head, meaning she was clearly still itle mi.

  “I give you a knock-off Swarmlord,” I said musingly. “It wouldn’t have the experiend mind of the real one, but its strength should be the same. Do you want to try it?”

  “Yes,” Selene said all too quickly. “Give it to me.”

  “Your wish is my and,” I said with an exaggerated bow, trolling the tiny bead of eldritch flesh still ihe gory remains of her st foe to pull itself back together and build up the Swarmlord’s body. “Yoing to be a mena the battlefield if you tinue on like this. I think you could sughter a the stro Chapter Masters already.”

  “Well, the goal is to be able to sughter anyone I e across,” Selene said with a shrug as she turo gaze at the still-f body of the Swarmlord. I was taking my sweet time building it, wanting some time to just chat with Selene.

  “Mhmmm,” I nodded. “What do you think of this pce by the way? I think it's quite fun.”

  “Fun for us,” Selene said, looking around at the dense foliage that covered this part of Vallia. “I hought I’d ever sider hiking through the forests of a Deathworld to be a fun little adventure. I feel like I’m losing all sense of what’s normal … “

  “Well, I hought I’d find My Love sughtering a Tyranid particurly hot either,” I said, running my fingers over the shoulder bdes of her armour that I knew she felt through it. We had made sure the carapace transmitted tactile sensations to her skin. “We might be going a bit crazy, but I don’t particurly mind if I’m not alone in being a bit crazy.”

  “Down girl,” Selene said with a smile in her voice, pyfully swatting at my shoulder. “Let a girl work up a sweat before y her off to your bedroom, will you?”

  “Aye, Captain,” I said with a smirk, my hand trailing down her back before I pulled her in by the waist for a quick hug. Let my firail down towards her hips before I pced a kiss on her armoured cheek that I knew she felt. “Doesn’t mean I ’t work on building up some tension in the mea’ll only make it more fun ter on.”

  “I ’t believe you,” Seleed with mock affront, her head falling on my shoulder. “Why did I have to fall for the naughtiest alien in the gaxy?”

  “I think there are some Dark Eldar I’d have to tend with to win that title,” I mused.

  “Naughty does not equal deranged,” Selene admonished me. “Naughty is fun, what they are is not.”

  “I’ll take your expert opinion oter,” I said, giving her rear a little swat as I danced away from her retaliatory attack at my own backside. “Your foe has risen, oh mighty hero! Will you be able to defeat this dreadful beast and save your helpless lover from its clutches?”

  As I tinued my little monologue, I danced behind the now plete Swarmlord and made my clothes ge into skimpy rags of some noble dress. I fell bonelessly behind it, dropping myself against a nearby tree as I fluttered my eyeshes at Selene who I could just tell was rolling her eyes with a grin on her pouty lips.

  The moment Seleook a step, I let the autonomous bat ‘algorithms’ ingrained into the Swarmlord drone’s brain take trol of it. The only modification I made to it was to and it to disregard my existend ignore my general standing orders for all of my droo protect Selene, ging the tter t to kill her.

  My Selene was a tough cookie, she could ha. Even if she died a little, she could crawl her way back to the world of the living with her growing trol of internal biomand over the bio-energy every cell of her armour was brimming with.

  She surged forth, sword in her hahening into a spear that ended in a wickedly sharp point. A faint to the tre of mass had the Swarmlord stepping forward, a scythe already aimed to parry, but Selene reoriented her attad sent a ssh at its knee.

  The bde’s edge was not made of Norn Emissary materials, but it was made of the exact same bio-material the Swarmlord’s scythes were so while it didn’t quite cut through the knee like a hot khrough butter, it did leave behind a gash dripping green ichor.

  The Tyranid’s terattack caught Selene in the fnk just as she twisted her body to dodge, tearing into her armour and sending blood flying through the air as she spun. I felt her energy pulse, the biomancy she was learning from both me and Val ing in handy as it guided and sped up the passive healing her armranted her.

  She nded with feline grace, taking a few dang steps back as her spearhead lengthened into a give as she sshed out, keeping her foe from following up on its attabsp;

  I could feel Selehrill through our Bond easily enough, she wasn’t b to hide anything from me at the moment and just the sheer feeling of joy surging through her at being able to go toe-to-toe with something that left some of the greatest heroes of Mankind dead or nearly so was making her ecstatibsp;

  I smiled adly her way, leaning back against the thick bark and just taking itle, enjoying her happiness like it was my own. Cwed arms snapped out, parried by long gives, sometimes morphing into maces that had force behind them enough to send even the gigantic Swarmlord staggering.

  Scythe met sword, spear met carapad scythe pierced armour. Still, they fought and while Selene healed from everything in seds, the Swarmlord couldn’t keep up with that.

  Injured legs didn’t bleed the acidic ichor of their kind anymore, but it was slower and didn’t fully support the beast’s weight. A mier a scythe-arm hung limp, nearly detached at the elbow, for that Selee a ko the gut and was set crashing through three trees like a wreg ball before her momentum slowed.

  She came flying back like a loosened arrow, telekinesis giving her momentum beyond what her legs could have achieved on the slick wet dirt. The beast she fought was no slouch though, even with its tactical mind honed over aeons now repced by my shoddy programming. It evaded her attack, a nasty bad smashing Selene aside as she came at it and she was sent rolling through the dirt again, though she stopped mere metres away and bounced right back like a coiled spri loose.

  The way she was incorporating telekinesis inthting style was a joy to watd I wasn’t too prideful to admit that a dozen of my mind-cores were busy taking o steal her many tricks. This was the problem with having too much variety, too many kinds of powers right at my fiips, I ook the time to really master any one of them.

  Selene in trast, was limited to her healing, and telekinesis in a fight and it showed. Months of tireless training was showing its worth.

  Five mier, after Selene had disabled both arms of the Tyranid on one side she mao pierce her spear just a few inches into its side. I could feel her vicious glee as she detohe pressed psychic power at the tip of her spear, tearing out a sizable k of the Swarmlord’s side.

  The beast screeched, its acidic ichor hissing as it spttered across the undergrowth and started dissolving it. Still, it fought with the feral wrath of a ered beast that k would not e out of this fight whole or even alive.

  Selene faltered uhe onsught, losing her left arm to the one remaining scythe the beast had. I grimaced, feeling her pain and shock, but I didn’t step in. Stepping in now would have me bao the couch for the week.

  She took a grazing blow to her side, barely twisting out of the way as she closed her armour over her lost arm before her mind rebounded from shock straight bato bat mode. Her ferociousness doubled, and she turned into a storm of bdes, snapping at the weakened Swarmlord from all sides even with one less arm.

  The Tyranid fought on admirably, but Selene was now in the flow and it was a stomp from then on. She took out arms oer the other, cut off its injured leg at the knee and widehe hollow wound in its torso a few more times with well-aimed pierces.

  Her spear went through its neck, her telekiic shockwave tearing it right off its shoulders a moment ter before another psychic bst sent the body crashing back. It nded with a thunderous thud, shaking the grouh me and kig up a cloud of dust as birds as that had the gall to stay throughout the fight fled.

  Seleumbled over to me, exhaustion clear in every motion of her battered body and I beamed up at her, g cheerfully. Her armour dissolved around her, revealing her clothes cut and torn in so many pces they could barely even be called rags, but still a satisfied grin read wide on her lips.

  “How was it?” She asked, stumbling over and colpsio me, her head falling on my shoulder as she snuggled in. “Damn … I didn’t know losing an arm could hurt so much.”

  “You did magnifitly,” I cooed, a hand ing up to caress her hair and hug her close. “It was an amazing fight, you’ve e far.”

  “Mhmmm,” Selene murmured, nodding a little. “ you give the arm back? I don’t want to mess up by doing it myself. Also, leave the clothes and the other wounds … “

  “Of course,” I said, tinuing to work my fihrough her tangled hair. Meanwhile, I dragged the detached arm back over with a thought, quickly reattag it to Selene. I could have remade it from scratch, but I was trying to be effit with my bio-energy, even if I had an abundance of it now. “Feels right? It should be good.”

  “It’s perfect,” she said, using her newly reattached arm t herself up and pce a lingering kiss on my lips. “I saved the helpless heroine from the big bad monster, didn’t I? I deserve a reward, wouldn’t you say?”

  “That you do,” I purred, leaning in for another kiss. “I’m at your serviighty hero. You have won my heart and love … as well as my body for the night.”

  “Make a tower,” Selene said breathlessly, her nose nuzzling against my neck as she pced kisses along it. I shuddered, feeling a familiar thrill run down my spine and gather in my core. “With a nice bedroom fit for a noble girl of your stature. We’ll tihere.”

  The building she asked for was done in a moment, springing up behind us just a heartbeat after the illusion of the unged forest I made snapped ie wouldn’t do for the Tau peepers in orbit to see a new building on Vallia’s surface growing in mere moments and ect the dots that we had absolutely igheir refusal of allowing us entry.

  A bit of bio-energy pulsed through Selene’s body and a moment ter I felt her arms slipping under my knees and back as she lifted me up. In response, I ed my arms around her ned giggled, swinging my legs bad forth as she set off towards the rge gates of the tower.

  P3t1