Nicolai turned a corner and at the same moment saw the AssassinBot modelled Cyborg coming into the corridor at the far end.

  She didn’t waste any time, immediately firing at him with the anti-material rifle.

  Nicolai hadn’t wasted time either, having ducked back around the corner before she’d finished fully emerging. The great boom of the rifle came at almost the same moment as the round impacted the wall, spraying chips and chunks of stone.

  Through Soul Sense he watched her. His Soul Sense was back at its typical range, as he was not using the Soul Snake. It couldn’t be activated at the same time as the Blue Hornet, which was currently limning his body in crackling blue sparks of lightning.

  He had a plan, but to enact that plan he needed to get close enough to use the lightning. He felt the lightning wasn’t likely to stun her for a long time, considering she was a Level 2 with numerous additional mods, and would have some a decent level of shielding and countermeasures. But it had worked on Vikrum, if only for an instant, so it should be able to stun her for a short time.

  That was all he’d need.

  He saw small drones flit forward from the Cyborg, who had paused. At the same time he heard a buzzing from behind, and saw a recon drone arrive some distance away. He knew she had plenty of drones, had been able to detect them.

  Now he could no longer detect them, and doubtless they would be converging on his position to give the Cyborg continual information on his location.

  Too sophisticated, Cyberwarfare had told him a few minutes ago, when it met the Cyborg in virtual battle. Her defence is very solid. I am unable to do much against this opponent without better hardware. At the most I could buy a moment of Local access once or twice. It was understandable. A Cyborg modelled after an AssassinBot should share such a bots capabilities to a large degree. That included powerful Cyberwarfare capability, more than was typical for a Level 2.

  He might have shot at the drone behind him, but he had a bigger problem in the small ones she had released. They were hunter killer drones, darting down the corridor while the Cyborg followed behind them.

  However, where he was defeated in the cyberwarfare arena, Nicolai had complete dominance in that of Soul Sense. He sensed that the Cyborg had a Soul Seed, but she wasn’t bothering to use it. Even if she did, it wouldn’t have mattered.

  The blue lightning crackling over him dimmed, beginning to fade, as he deactivated the Blue Hornet in favour of the Soul Snake, extending his Soul Sense. He raised a hand as the first of the drones came into his range, still around the bend of the corridor.

  There came a series of sharp detonations as he alternated with the Grasping Finger and Repulsive Finger, something he’d found was slightly faster than using the same repeatedly. Drones were either flung away or pulled toward him as Nicolai worked to send them into the walls.

  Though his Soul Sense turned the corner and then moved in a straight line towards the drones, and thus it appeared as if the yellow lines of the Grasping Finger and Repulsive Finger moving through them should pull them directly back or forwards within the corridor, still they moved only directly toward and away from Nicolai. This was because regardless of how it appeared, the Fingers always worked in a straight line from the location of the user and the location of the target. As he was at an angle, this meant he could send them into the walls.

  The drones were taken care of quickly, but the Cyborg behind them was closer and closer. The lightning crackling over Nicolai’s body continued to fade, its charge dropping below the halfway mark as the Art dissipated.

  He would have reactivated the Blue Hornet but at this moment the Cyborg raised a hand and two grenades were launched from ports with hissing noises, accelerating down the hallway.

  As she had domination over the Local around them, he had no means to prevent her using these grenades via Link. But even though the grenades came fast, Nicolai was faster still. He’d known she would fire those grenades because he understood what she was equipped with and he’d have done the same.

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  So instead he employed the same trick, pulling and pushing the grenades to send them into the walls of her corridor, rather than allowing them to clatter around the corner and into his. The Cyborg arrived at those grenades a moment later and passed by them. They remained inert, as she simply opted not to activate them following his deflections.

  He felt a ripple through the Aura, one he recognised. He’d sensed something similar during his last fight. A kind of murderous desire.

  He wasn’t surprised when the Cyborg abruptly halted before turning the corner, raising her anti-material rifle and aiming straight at the wall.

  He was ready for this, too, already reaching with the Repulsive Finger. Her weapon was an M99 Barrett 50.cal anti-material rifle, and it was a weapon he had familiarity with. It was single shot with no magazine so his trick against the last four Cyborgs wouldn’t work, but with his Soul Sense permeating the weapon there was more he could do.

  He pressed his finger forward as she pulled the trigger. Within the gun, the movement of the trigger should have caused the sear to move out of the way of the firing pin, allowing the spring behind it to force that pin forward until it impacted the butt of the bullet.

  Instead the sear remained stuck in place, held by his effort, and the gun did not fire.

  The Cyborg didn’t have time to escape as he lunged around the corner. Just as he’d hoped, she’d been drawn in close and he was free to enact his strategy. Blue Lightning crawled over his arm as he raised it, and his shield was ready on his other.

  The Cyborg had a singular shoulder-mounted laser which sprung up and took aim while she threw herself at him. She wouldn’t be in time to hit him before the blue lightning hit her, its targeting line already painted through his Soul Sense, already surging from his hand, and he held the shield raised to block the laser.

  Her laser activated with a hum at the same time as the blue lightning slammed into her. As the Cyborg froze up, her momentum carrying her forward, the red burn of her laser sliced into his shield… and passed straight through.

  Nicolai’s world ignited with pain as a burning bright light filled his vision, catching him in the right eye. He heard and felt something pop, and a brief grunt of pain made it out of his mouth before he wrenched tight on the reigns of his body, already moving, dodging out of the way of the Cyborg as her frozen form tumbled toward him.

  She crashed into the wall as he staggered away. The left side of his head was a pulsing cauldron of red hot pain and he dashed at his face with a sleeve, catching at the hot ocular fluid that covered him. He could feel his flesh burning and melting. His vision was compromised and his body was dizzy and disorientated, the sudden shock of losing a sensory organs, the burning and disruption of his nerves, all coming in to hit him at once.

  With the aid of the others and frantic strength, he dashed down the corridor and lunged around a corner. Just in time, as he heard the boom of her rifle, catching at the corner of the wall and blowing chunks of stone across the corridor.

  He kept moving, and pulled a Rejuvenating Orb as he fled. He’d intended to capitalise on the moment in which she’d been stunned, but losing his eye had shocked his body to the point he hadn’t been able to act with the necessary speed.

  The pain was fading as he sucked on the Orb, but probing with his Soul Sense revealed his missing eye was showing no signs of regrowing in response to the healing vapour he’d inhaled. It seemed the orbs could heal bad injuries… but they couldn’t replace something that was lost.

  He wiped it off and ran, focusing to manage the dizziness his body felt with the sudden loss of his eye. He needed time for his Blue Hornet to recharge a new strike. He needed a plan. Her laser was a serious danger, moreso than any of her other weapons. He hadn’t expected it would go straight through his shield, which was his only solid defence against direct fire.

  He imagined she’d brought the M99 as a counter to his shield, as it would undoubtedly punch through in one. Neither of them had expected that she had a much easier counter built right into her. In fact she had two more lasers, built into her hands. They were secondary weapons, there in the event she needed to tidy up the minor threat of some fleshy, unaugmented humans.

  As Nicolai merged still closer with the others, they shared a thought.

  The loss of one eye was not quite the decisive blow his enemy might anticipate, as he had Soul Sense. He was damaged but still lethal, and the previous plan was still workable—especially now the enemy may be encouraged to overconfidence. He simply had to work out how to deal with the laser and buy time for the Blue Hornet to come back online. The Modules were already collating variables and running simulations.

  He could hear the clatter of metal legs. She was closing fast. Sensing the kill was imminent, pursuing flat out with no thought that he might counter. He turned another corner and reached with the Grasping Finger, launching himself forwards. Threat Analysis tracked her movement and his, and told him that even with the Grasping Finger, she was faster than him and would catch up.

  The Modules calculated and provided him the timings. She would be within range to cause lethal damage to him before the Blue Hornet finished charging.

  The dark and the thrill pressed through him, and Nicolai accepted the thrill but here he reached for the Mask, and pulled on it. Together they held the dark down, kept it at bay.

  Its influence needed to be limited, and in truth… there was no need for it here.

  He and the other Modules had already come up with a plan that would see the enemy dead within the next minute.