Sparks flew off of the armored warrior as the barrage hit them. They buckled under the assault, toppling over. Their comrades returned fire. Anara and Eli’s shields absorbed the non-lethal nerve disrupter bolts that the top barrels of their carbines fired. Savaa took cover behind a stall that sold fresh food. Eli dropped the pistols and opened up his coat. A blocky beast of a submachine gun hung from a simple armored vest.

  There was a chorus of screams all around them. Eli feared that the sudden commencement of hostilities might cause a stampede.

  Anara kept firing. The enemy tried to take cover. Wood burned and plastic melted as she blasted their protection away. From there, she started burning away their shield charges.

  Light rolled along her smooth, glossy body as she fired. Eli’s muzzle flashes shown against the waxy surface. A few of the hunters fired careful shots at her with the bottom barrels of their carbines. The incoming rounds hit, popped out in a shower of frayed slime. These wounds quickly sealed back up, as if no real harm had been done.

  The cylindrical guns ran dry. Tendrils appeared, forming out of the waxy surface. They ripped the power cells off of backs of the guns. Fresh batteries broke the surface, were guided into place.

  She didn’t look when she fired. This shouldn’t have surprised him, he supposed, because she had no eyes. How she was perceiving the world was a mystery to him. And yet, she was somehow able to find and accurately shoot the enemy.

  Eli and Anara worked their way into the stall where Savaa was hiding. Incoming fire struck the stand, arcs played across the welcoming mascots and simple menus. Pieces of fruit exploded violently, spraying colorful juices, even as the blood of the enemy was spilled. The blood, as with the juice, came in several different colors.

  Eli shot a foe as he stepped out of cover. One of the rounds hit his shield projector. It exploded in a shower of golden and electric blue sparks. Anara detected this and blasted him with one of her pulse weapons. It melted through the chest plate and burst out the back plate. Flaming and boiling organic matter exploded out of the exit wound.

  One of them got in close, drawing his poison coated knife and moving toward Anara. From under the wax-like substance that her body seemed to made of, blades appeared, high-tech sheaths sliding out of the way. She parried with one knife, cleanly slashed open her opponent’s throat with the other.

  Eli spotted the color red in the corner of his eye. He turned and fired. The enemy fell, revealing a narrow path. At the end of this, a door to a stairwell. Eli pointed it out to his companions. Anara led her protectee toward the exit. There was something hallowed in the way that she moved.

  Before following, Eli emptied his SMG, hosing down the enemy positions, and dropping another foe. He hissed at them before taking off down the stairs.

  ***

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Gami ran along the rear of the enemy’s lines. She decapitated a soldier as she tried to move into a higher position. Then the invisible woman leapt off of a second story ledge and landed amongst a group of reinforcements. Two of them had time to realize what was happening. Only one was able to get their blade clear of the sheath before she felled him.

  Eli on the com, “Gami, we’re heading down the stairs. I hope that we can lead them down and pop back up. Can you tell us we’re to go?”

  “Negative, I’m engaged in combat. They’re pouring in from all over. Not sure how we’re going to get out of here.”

  ***

  Eli let the empty SMG hang from the strap and drew his pistol and emptied it, took a fresh mag out of the pouches on his belt. He ejected the empty one, flicking his wrist to help sling it out of the well. Then he slapped the full one into place.

  The group ran down the next flight of stairs. A quintet of enemies appeared above. A hand grenade broke the surface of Anara’s stomach. It traveled up her body, along her arm. It reached her hand as she reached the apex of a swing. She primed the explosive and pitched it up to the landing above them. The explosion threw several shredded bodies over the railing.

  The group reached the bottom, burst through a set of doors and onto the tower’s main deck. A suit of red armor appeared. A burst of gunfire struck Anara in the torso. Savaa dashed forward, ripping the carbine out of the assailant’s hands. He turned the barrel around before the enemy could draw his blade and emptied the rest of the magazine into him at point blank range.

  Eli looked at the strange, purple being. What appeared to be broken ribs protruded from her back.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” she informed him. When she spoke, the waxy substance on her head moved like lips. There was a mouth with pure white teeth. The broken bones sank back under the surface of her body.

  Tarl on the com, “I’m coming in hot!”

  “Tarl, there’s no hangars in this tower,” Eli reported.

  Cavalier appeared near them. The forward guns fired, blasting the transparent material that the wall was made of. There was a momentary rush of escaping air, before a backup projector kicked in. Tarl maneuvered the ship through the energy field and sat it down in front of the trio. They ran up the boarding ramp and into the vessel.

  Eli keyed his com, “Gami, Tarl just blasted his way into the tower. We’re extracting. What’s your position?”

  “I can’t reach you. I’m on one of the observation platforms,” a burst of gunfire, “Get the principle to safety. I’ll lay low and meet up with you later.”

  Before Eli could answer, Tarl shouted into the com, “Stay where you are! We’re coming to you.”

  Eli looked at the new guests, “Get to cover. It isn’t over.”

  ***

  The stars bathed Gami and her opponents in blue and white light as they fought. One of them had razor claw tipped fingers. Gami ducked under a slash, rose and parried with her sword. Another took aim. Gami drew the pistol that sat on her hip, a high-capacity model with an integrated silencer. She put a round into the shooter’s optic system, purple blood exploded out of the back of his head. Then she parried another slash, evaded the quick follow up.

  The bounty hunter went on the offensive, swinging her sword one handed, taking aim with the pistol as she advanced on her foe. They slipped out of her sights, parried her strikes. A round flew past her head. She double tapped the shooter and kept attacking the one with the claws.

  Cavalier rose up into view. As it moved forward, the freight elevator on the bottom lowered. Gami holstered her pistol and ran, leaping onto the elevator. The enemy followed, jumping onto the elevator as the ship moved away from the platform.

  Gami sheathed her sword and switched to a new stance. The martial art called Namun was based around redirecting an opponent’s momentum. She used this to throw the enemy with the claws off of the elevator.