Blue light flashed. The sabertooth tiger froze mid-air. Then both Gravel and the tiger were propelled away by a wave of gravitational energy.

  “What—” he growled. In front of him was only the orange-tinted sky, thickened by wave-like, rippling clouds. Coarse sand infiltrated the dry air as it assaulted his nostrils. Then gravity wrestled him back down.

  Morkanium, like having a mind of itself, coated his knees, elbows, arms, legs, and neck. Gravel landed, but the pain was numb—the inky substance had absorbed most of the impact. With a thud, the tiger hit the ground several feet away from him. He coughed uncontrollably.

  Hunter wasn’t faring much better. The second tiger had pinned her beneath its massive weight, its jaws snapped inches from her face.

  Can’t use laser, she thought. What to do what to do what to do . . .

  She yanked free a compact, cylindrical device. Boxhit—high-impact shock charge. With a sharp flick, she twisted the activation ring. The cylinder hissed as she jammed it, praying this tiger’s flank would be exposed the same way as the last one she fought.

  The charge detonated. The beast flew, spinning in a circle before ramming into a tree. The bark splintered and woodchips splashed as its diamond skin plowed into it.

  Hunter rolled away, gasping for air as she twisted the spent charge off its grip and reached for another. The only other one she had left.

  “Gravel!” she barked.

  “I see it!” Gravel shouted, already ducking as his tiger lunged again.

  She pivoted, leveled her next charge launcher.

  Then she fired.

  A shockwave ripped through the clearing.

  The tiger was hurled to the side, rolling across the dirt as it let out snarling, ragged growls.

  Inky-black metal solidified from Gravel’s knuckles to his shoulders. But it hadn’t yet covered his chest. There wasn’t time. Hunter’s tiger had already recovered, and was clawing through the dirt as it barreled toward him.

  Good enough.

  A single swipe on the chest would rip him in half. I just have to land a good punch.

  “Priest!” Gravel bellowed.

  Then came Priest’s plasma beam. The beam tore into the ground just beside the tiger’s path. The sudden force sent dirt and debris flying, and the beast, mid-leap, lost its balance. Its body twisted awkwardly, claws swiping at nothing but air.

  Gravel surged forward, fist clenched. The angle’s too awkward. But I have to land a hit. Something structural.

  He swung.

  His reinforced knuckles slammed into the tiger’s joint like a meteor punching through a glacier. Crack. The diamond plating shattered on impact as spiderweb fractures split across the beast’s hide.

  The shockwave from the punch traveled through bone, muscle, and nerve. Snap. Then came the second break.

  The tiger’s back leg gave way with a pop, bending at a twisted angle. The creature howled as it landed head-first into the ground. It crumpled onto its side, tumbling across the dirt, leaving deep gouges in the ground as it writhed.

  Gravel landed on his knees. His arm throbbed from the impact, and his grin was stupidly lopsided, and just a little unhinged. “Thank fuck.”

  The second tiger remained unshaken by its mate’s agony. This one was slightly larger, its muscles were bulkier, its movements sharper.

  “Don’t these things know fear? Wild beasts shouldn’t act like this,” Hunter said as she backpedaled, trying to put some distance between them. But the beast was faster.

  “Keep them at a distance, Priest,” she asked.

  “I cannot do consecutive charges. I will—” Priest’s words cut off as his cybernetic arm spasmed. “—Overload.” He then pulled out his sidearm, a Voltek-9 plasma pistol. Not designed for cutting through diamond-plated monsters.

  Priest fired anyway.

  The bolt of condensed energy struck the tiger’s hide with a sharp snap, but soon refracted off its surface like water sliding off glass before dispersing.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The creature did not lose its aim on Hunter. It burst into a sprint. She wouldn’t be able to outrun it.

  The plating stretched over the tiger’s upper face like a jagged mask, starting from the ridge of its snout and fanning out across its forehead. Sharp, angular layers formed a natural helm, shielding its skull like an exoskeleton.

  But it doesn’t cover the eyes.

  Hunter’s grip tightened on her rifle.

  She had one shot.

  The instant its hind legs coiled, she fired.

  The bolt screamed through the air, cutting clean between the shifting plates of its helm.

  A searing pop echoed as the plasma round punched into its exposed eye. The tiger let out a hideous, choked snarl as its ruined socket sizzled with acrid smoke. Its lunge turned into a flailing collapse, then it slid on the ground. A shrieking, high-pitched keening resounded. The diamond plating along its face and limbs scraped against the dirt, and sparks flared where the jagged edges met stone. As the beast met and obstructing Hashimote syndicate corpse, it crashed over the body and shattered the skull with a crunch. The body’s limbs jerked as blood smeared on the diamond.

  Then—thud.

  The tiger’s body came to a stop, mere inches from her boot. Its chest rose and fell in weak, stuttering breaths.

  Hunter raised the laser gun again, but there was no longer a target. She swallowed hard, gripping her weapon as she looked at the body. One more shot. Just to be sure.

  Then she shot at an exposed part of its flank. Then shot at another exposed part. Then another.

  Then she dropped to the ground on her butt. Her trigger finger shook uncontrollably amidst the lingering hiss of scorched flesh.

  For a long moment, no one spoke. Except for one sound.

  A ragged, wheezing growl.

  The tiger with the shattered leg was still alive. Its golden eyes were still glowing with undeterred aggression, locked onto Hunter.

  Gravel exhaled, pushing himself to his feet. His Morkanium-coated arms shifted, the inky black metal pulsing as it coiled tighter around his knuckles. He rolled his shoulders, winced at the soreness, then walked toward the downed beast.

  Priest flicked his wrist scanner back online, his visor palpitating as he ran a scan. “No more hostiles,” he reported, though his voice carried no relief. “At least, none within immediate range.”

  He stopped next to the writhing tiger, watching as it tried to move. He tilted his head slightly and muttered, “Persistent fuck. You really don’t value your life, do you?”

  Then he drove his fist down. A wet, grotesque crack echoed through the clearing. His fist tore through, past diamond and bone, punching straight into the beast’s chest cavity. The tiger spasmed violently beneath him, its remaining eye going wide.

  The tiger spasmed violently beneath him, eyes agog. A deep, rattling puff shuddered through its throat. Finally, its body sagged. Lifeless.

  Gravel ripped his arm free, flinging off excess blood and viscera. He turned to Priest and said with his hands extended, palms upward, “Don’t ask me why I didn’t just punch through the meat. I wanted to test my strength against diamond. Again.”

  Priest nodded once before flicking his scanner again. “No additional movement detected.”

  Gravel rolled his shoulders, tapping his own scanner to confirm. “Good.”

  Only then did they turn their attention back to Hunter.

  She was still sitting on the ground, catching her breath. Even as the adrenaline wore off, it seemed as though she could feel the phantom weight of the tiger’s charge pressing against her chest.

  “You can see how these two might have killed all those people,” Priest commented as she walked up to her, offering her a hand. She hesitated for half a second before accepting his help, pulling herself to her feet.

  “Love that you’re always so well-prepped, Hunter.” It was Gravel this time. He was brushing the dust off his battered jacket, and despite everything, despite the blood on his hands, despite the soreness settling into his bones—

  He finally grinned like he always did.

  “I’m baffled you’re still grinning.” Hunter looked at him, bewildered.

  “What else am I supposed to do?” He shrugged. “Not grinning?”

  Priest had already moved ahead, stepping over the massive corpse of the tiger Gravel had finished off. His scanner pulsed again as he swept it over the area. “Six bodies in total.”

  “We can see that without scanning, Priest.” Gravel laughed. “We have these things called eyes.”

  Gravel and Hunter weaved through the wreckage of the battle. The jungle floor was littered with Hashimote Syndicate mercs, their bloodied forms twisted where they’d fallen. Some had been ripped apart, others left in barely recognizable heaps.

  Gravel knelt next to one of the bodies, flipping it over with the back of his hand. The corpse’s rifle was still clutched in stiff fingers, the barrel partially embedded in the dirt. He pried it free and turned it over, inspecting it with mild curiosity.

  “Old Republic gear,” he muttered.

  Hunter raised an eyebrow. “How old?”

  Gravel pulled back the rifle’s charging handle. The weapon let out a dull clunk, its systems sluggish with age. “Let’s put it this way—this model, the Havoc-77 Gauss, was discontinued before I was born.” He tossed it aside and picked up another rifle from a different corpse. This one had a chunk of its stock missing, the exposed internals rusted and corroded. “And this? Tyrex Ballistic Carbine. Republic stopped making ‘em decades ago. They only bother producing the tungsten rounds for ‘em now.” He scoffed, shaking his head. “No wonder they all died. They stood no chance against these crazy beasts.”

  Hunter exhaled, letting her gaze drift to the massive carcasses of the sabertooth tigers. She took an unconscious step away from the tigers.

  She turned to the others, her brow furrowed. “Why are the sabertooth tigers here?”

  Nobody said anything. Before either of her crewmates could speak, Hunter answered it herself. “Project Variant Genesis must’ve created these monsters.”