Max rolled up to his knees. Pelos was pressed against the near wall, watching at the closest possible place. Garinda did not even attempt to get up off of the ground. Instead, she pushed off of the ground opposite of the side of her body Max was on. She used this momentum to roll a couple flips of her body to Max.

  Max reflexively tried to give her body a lunge when she made contact with him. It was not a successful reflex in this case. It felt like his arms were breaking as they bent at an angle that caused him great pain. Her body was so heavy and dense, with such momentum that what he did was of little consequence. As she finished the roll on top of his arms, she grappled on to him around his neck.

  Max’s vision was completely impaired by Garinda’s chest. He caught a brief glimpse of Pelos leaning over and starting to thwack her on the back with his fists. The blows were of little use. The woman cackled with laughter at the flailing Scion. Max’s vision was starting to blur and his head ached. He was stunned and the woman was not even using any energy except for that needed to clench onto him. He would soon lose consciousness and the fight would be over.

  With his mind so hazy, it took him until that moment to realize that his arms were actually free and limp at his sides. He reached up and started to claw and push with both hands against Garinda. She responded to his new found reserve of fighting power with a painful and shocking move. She leaned her head down and bit him, through his tunic. Her first bite did not latch on, but the second one did. She clenched with her jaw and Max was paralyzed again with pain. Her arms did not budge a bit, and now she essentially had him grappled in three spots.

  Max could feel her legs moving around to attempt to wrap around his lower waist. He was almost completely encompassed by the woman. He heard footsteps moving away down the hall slowly. “Pel... find other... stop this thing... however you... can.”

  “I can. I wiiillll.” He started to run down the hallway, but he kicked the ray gun down back towards Max as he ran.

  His mental capability was starting to become limited. His only advantage over Garinda might be that intelligence. In close combat, she was obviously supreme. Her legs finally clutched around his waist. It was like a cradle of death that he was now stuck in. That cradle would be his final resting place. His eyes closed his body started to go limp. His aura started to turn pale and disappear.

  The woman’s breathing was heavy. Her grip started to loosen just a little, holding a position like this was fatiguing. Then, suddenly and without warning, Max was not dead! He angled his back quickly and broke free of the biting grasp. It was not without sacrifice. His flesh and tunic both alike ripped, sending a shiver of pain all through his body. He could feel blood pouring down his back. He stretched all his limbs out in each direction from around the cradle and pushed off of every bit of floor and wall that he could to change their positions. In the middle of the half roll onto their other side, he quickly reached down towards her waist. He grasped the edge of the dagger he noticed before the fight began.

  Max’s fingers were just barely grasping on to the very end of the dagger. If Garinda moved in the right way at this moment, his chances would be lost forever. He must do something or this last desperate gamble would fail. He focused with intensity on the other world that he understood, the world of the intimate energies of emotion. He saw their energies tangled together. Now that he was so intimately wired in with her aura, he could strike.

  “Byyaaahhh!” He screamed and pressed his body into hers with all the power he could muster. The scream was simply a focus, the true power of what he did was in the energetic world that he focused upon. He saw the tendrils of his energies leap out and penetrate the defenses of Garinda’s energy.

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  She surely did not know what caused her such pain and fear to suddenly strike her, but the result was what Max hoped for. She slacked for just a couple of moments. She hesitated just long enough that his fingers pulled farther up on the dagger so that his hand was firmly planted on the handle of the weapon. Max slid the dagger from its hilt and with no hesitation, he started to use whatever force he could leverage from his position to stab her in the side.

  The force was not much. She was obviously used to more pain and greater impact. The blade did sink deep in her side and there was a grunt. A grunt was all. The blow would not kill or incapacitate her. Max stabbed her twice more before she let go of him with the arm on that side of their fight and she squeezed that arm against her body with Max’s dagger arm wedged between it. As she compressed, Max lost grip on the dagger and it dangled to the floor. His arm was locked. Garinda gazed into Max’s arms with hatred and anger. With that intense look she jacked that arm lock in such a way that Max could first hear a snap and then feel as his arm was broken.

  “Nobody ever survives Garinda’s vice,” she opened her mouth and her breath made Max wretch a bit. A massive tremor shook the facility. That tremor was followed by a constant rumble. The temperature rose a little bit from a blast of heat and the rumble continued to shake the place.

  Her victory only lasted a couple of moments. As suddenly, she was no longer in bodily contact with him. A blast of bright energy impacted her side away from the arm bar. She flew back against the wall. Max’s left hand, ignored had found the ray gun. His useless arm was caught in the blast, which brought the wonderful effect of numbness to his broken arm.

  The rumbling and shaking had changed the dynamics of placement just enough to brush the ray gun against Max’s hand and give him the advantage he needed.

  Unfortunately, the weapon was still on its previous wide burst setting. Such a setting only ever stunned normal people; against Garinda it would only daze her for a moment. Max got to his knees as quickly as he could. He pressed off of the ground just as Garinda executed another roll and lunge towards him. He made it out of the way just in time and now stood on his feet just a short way down the hall. His blood covered all of the access way in front of the doors to the stairs.

  He inhaled heavily, trying to catch up on all the breathing he had been missing. He fired another wide burst from the ray gun down the hall and hit Garinda. This barely even prevented her from standing and preparing another head long rush at him. He ever so quickly adjusted the settings on the ray gun in preparation.

  She started to charge just as another massive shockwave hit their location. The shaking from the shockwave and the slick ground from Max’s blood caused her to slip and slide in his direction. He stepped aside as she slid by, with a trail of his blood right behind her along the ground.

  Adjusting the settings was a real challenge with a useless arm. He leaned the ray gun against himself briefly to try to do so. Garinda was standing up again.

  Max was filled with anger and fear. He needed to get control of himself. The weapon almost slipped from his grasp, pressing against the side of his body. He calmed himself. The world went in slow motion. She was saying something, but the words did not register with him.

  Max leveled the ray gun at Garinda. “It’s time that we stop this. You’ve got no chance. I can squeeze this trigger faster than you can get to me. And this time, my eyes are on my opponent.”

  Garinda was dead in her tracks, her breath was labored. Even with the great stamina that she possessed, the fight winded her. “How can you expect me to give up? Even if I do, my life is forfeit. Everything I have believed in will be in ruins. All of that because of you. You! The one who is supposed to help our destinies be carried through to the next age.”

  Max spoke slowly between his heavy breaths, “Don’t you see now? We don’t have destinies. I have chosen my own way. You can still go choose yours.”

  Garinda looked down at her now shuffling feet. “You have made a point.” She looked defeated, as if all existence was over for her.

  “Go now. Leave this place. Take as many of the other cultists as you can. These world changing events will be stopped. No one ever has to find out about your involvement here.”

  Faced with life or death, it seemed that the cult was not as important to her as she once thought. Garinda turned and started to walk away.