Subcasters are individuals who are not full Mages and have an extremely limited range of abilities. Sparks can only cast small spells of a single element that they are tied to. Embers, similarly, can only use spells containing a single element they have a tie to, but they are capable of using this element in combat. Dyads are a very special form of subcaster. A Dyad only has access to two elements, but they are always two opposites of a Duality. So a Dyad of The Cycle can use Life and Death Myst, and a Dyad of Choice can use Fate and Chaos Myst.

  Even as I inspected my hand, I saw the bio-synthetic material fade from the green-black of its natural color to a fragile and flacking gray. I stopped at the top of the stairway down and rolled the fingers of my right hand while maintaining my grip on my sword. The graying and flacking texture had stopped at my wrist, and my hand was still functional, but I could feel that my once enhanced grip strength had been cut down to a quarter. While I could maintain melee combat with the hand, I would likely lose the hand from a direct blow to it, and I didn’t dare use it for anything strenuous.

  I was shocked back into the situation when the Orc snapped at me, “Move your horned ass. This place is packed full of gangers, and I doubt the strike team we just fled is alone.“

  I turned to him. “Who are you, and why are you helping us?”

  “Right. You don’t recognize me.” He said in realization. “This might help.”

  Suddenly, the gray-skinned Orc began to shrink and warp. Within seconds, a familiar Half-Star Elf girl was staring at me with an annoyed look. “You get it now?” She asked with attitude. Even her clothes had shifted with her.

  “I-uh. What? Zynna? How?”

  “Oh, don’t break your brain over it, horn-head. I’m not a Half-Elf. I’m a Copkin, Mr.Genius.”

  For those of you who have never encountered one, Copkin are Halflings, like Darklings or Brightlings. Only their strange parent was a doppelg?nger. That means that these select individuals can change shape into any humanoid species, any breed, and any gender. Copkin are almost always mistrusted because of how easy it would be for them to steal, cheat, or deceive. Copkin normally only reveal what they truly are to their most trusted friends. But I think this would be considered an extenuating circumstance.

  I stared at Zynna for a very long moment, just blinking as I tried to process this development. “Okay. So shape-changer. Got that. But the magic?”

  Zynna gave me a look from under her brow that told me I was an absolute idiot. “You’re in the middle of a war-zone where everyone else will kill you on sight, and you’re wondering what kind of Mage I am? You really need to straighten out your priorities, horn-head. If you seriously need to know, I’m not a Mage. I’m a Dyad of The Dichotomy.”

  Before I could say anything in understanding, the doors we had just passed through burst open. The force was hard enough to rip one door clean off its hinges and send it spinning. The flung door struck the wall not even eight feet from us. Lynn stepped through the doorway with her revolver at the ready. The false skin that had covered her arms was in tatters, exposing the synthetic muscle fibers beneath that bulged to an unnatural degree.

  “I’m not about to let you parasites go.” She said in a steel-laced voice.

  I shouted to the others, “Move! I’ll buy you time.” as I pointed Devil’s Tail at the Ceangar.

  Zynna stepped up beside me. “I’ve got a better idea. Nel, you and the boys head down. Wait for us at the first floor.” She tapped her therra and spoke to someone else on the other end. “Hey, scale face, we need a crash and bash. Third floor, stairwell in the center of the west wall. Come in blasting.”

  “What?!” I asked as my panic spiked. Did Zynna just call in an artillery strike or aerial assault somehow? Were we about to get blown to kibble?

  “I’d recommend that you take a step back, horn-head.” Zynna advised.

  I did as she said, taking two steps back as I lowered my blade and aimed my pistol at Lynn.

  “I don’t care who your new friend is, or what that threat was supposed to mean. I’m out to make you a corpse because of what you di-” Lynn was abruptly cut off when the wall to our left erupted inward. Bricks and mortar blasted across the hall and filled the air with a thick cloud of dust.

  I reflexively covered my mouth with the crook of my arm, despite my filtering mask. When I realized that I had stopped aiming my firearm at the gang boss, and moved to correct my mistake. I had almost lined my aim back up when I froze as I noticed something.

  Standing just in front of the fresh hole in the wall was a figure veiled in the dust. They raised up from a crouched position to stand over six feet tall with board shoulders, a draconian head, and a matching tail. I recognized who it was when I saw the dancing mane of green and white flames flowing behind her horns and matching flames engulfing her gauntleted fists.

  Demierra stood in the orange-red light of dusk that flowed in through the wall behind her. She looked like an avatar embodiment of wrath and justice. That was the truth of a Fury, even if I didn’t know the details of the class at that moment.

  Lynn moved to aim her Executioner Revolver at the Fury, but she was too slow. Demierra launched forward as if shot from a cannon and struck Lynn in the chest with an uppercut carrying enough force to launch the Ceangar as if she was struck by a cannon blast. She flew backward and struck the wall hard enough to crack the surface. The revolver fell from Lynn’s hand just before she fell herself.

  I had to assume that the gang boss had to have cybernetic-reinforced bones, given that she wasn’t dead and was still partially conscious. Lynn struggled to reach for her weapon with a shaking hand.

  Demierra strolled forward with hands on her hips as she kicked the weapon further out of Lynn’s reach, before turning to me with a proud grin. “Did I make a good entrance or what?”

  “Uh, yeah.” I numbly agreed.

  Zynna gently shoved my shoulder to turn me toward the stairs. “Move your ass, numb skull. We need to meet up with the others and get the hells out of this place.”

  It was at that moment that the sound of gunfire intensified before a group of gangers rounded a corner of the hall to our right, retreating as they fired in blind panic. My stomach dropped out when I saw several chains ending in spikes rounded the corner, and attacked the retreating gangers. Each time a chain struck, a ganger fell with a scream.

  The source of the chains rounded the corner at a steady, unhurried pace, and my fears were confirmed. A familiar Ceangar Arsenal named Kellden attacked every target he could reach with lethal ease. Only a few moments after he rounded the corner, he noticed me. “You!” He snarled with enough venom to kill a griffin.

  Demierra was the first to act. She conjured a javelin of lightning, took three strides forward, and hurtled the attack with brutal force. The electrical lance punched through three of the fleeing gangers, one after another, with ease. With each target the javelin punched through the bolt glowed brighter and flew faster. I watched the shot fly true, and I was positive it would strike the Arsenal.

  Then Kellden dodged it with unnatural reflexes and simply let it slide by to strike the wall behind him, blasting a hole in it much like the one Demierra had caused when she entered. “I’ve caught your trail, Taint-Blood.” He called even as I led the way down the stairs.

  Nennel, Ferris, and Kharmor had already started down the stairs, and following on my heels were Zynna and Demierra. I told the two behind me to take the lead while I slowed Kellden and Lynn down. I stepped to one side and let them pass while I holstered my firearm, and felt along my utility belt for what I was looking for. My fingers landed on my sought-after device, and I pulled the tube free. I held a Gas Cap-Shell full of Oleum Gas, a powerful magical corrosive gas. I depressed the timer with my thumb. My thumb hadn’t been on the trigger for a whole second when a shot rang out. The Cap-Shell was launched from my grip to fly, spinning, down the stairs to bounce off the wall of the landing.

  I threw my gaze to follow where the shot came from to find Lynn, aiming her gun at me. She hissed a curse and adjusted her aim. I spat a curse in turn and backed down the stairs to leave her line of sight even as the corrosive cloud ejected from my Cap-Shell. The last thing I saw before I entering the cloud, when I was forced to hold my eyes shut, was Lynn climbing to her feet and Kellden stepping into my sight and toward the stairs.

  Lynn was right. I did need a full face cover mask. Despite sealing my eyes and hurriedly rushing down the stairs, using the wall as a guide, I could feel the acidic gas clawing at my eyelids and unprotected upper face. In my hurry, I tripped over my own feet on my way down the stairs when I was almost to the ground floor. I left the acid cloud as I fell face-first to the ground floor. I had only been four steps away from my near destination and struck the tile floor forehead first. My horns protected my cranium, but my brow still ached from the impact.

  I let out a growl as I clawed my way back to my feet. Ferris grabbed my natural arm and helped me up. “You okay, dude?” Then they all got a look at the exposed skin on my face.

  “By the gods! Iver, your face. Are you okay?” Nennel asked in panic.

  My face burned and stung, but I could see just fine, and that was what mattered. “I’ll live.” I grumbled. “We need to keep moving. They’re not far behind us.”

  “Ozwald has our escape route mapped.” Zynna said as she pointed down the hall. “He should be waiting for us in the mess hall.”

  “Lead the way.” I said as I reflexively wiped my face with my left arm. I regretted the action as it lit a flare of pain across any skin my arm touched. At the burst of pain, I pulled my arm away and saw what only could’ve been scraps of my skin clinging to the sleeve of the severely damaged jacket. “Damn it!” I cursed as we started moving. “I was going to keep this jacket for personal use.”

  “Seriously?!” Nel chided me. “Your skin is falling off your face and you’re upset about a damaged jacket?”

  “What? My face will grow back, and this was a nice jacket, even with the wear and tare.” I defended.

  “I’m coming for you, foul blood!” Kellden called as he stepped from the Oleum Gas cloud.

  “Oh no you don’t, short stack! He’s mine!” came Lynn’s voice, trailing not far behind the Arsenal.

  “RUN!” I shouted to the others. Nennel and Ferris were the first to break into a sprint, likely because they had seen what the Arsenal was capable of. Zynna threw a bolt of shadow at the Ceangar Regulator before following hot on the heels of Nel and Ferris. Kharmor kept pace with me as I aimed to make some distance, before slowing the lethal attacker. Demierra, the courageous idiot, stood her ground.

  The Dracose Fury conjured an aura of electricity to wreath her. Even as arcs of blue lightning swirled around her and lashed out at the surrounding surfaces, she summoned a javelin of white, vermillion, and gray energy. The moment Lynn had stepped into view, covering her face against the gas, Demierra hurled her energy spike.

  Kellden, just as before, sidestepped the javelin aimed at his chest. The shot flew wide of Lynn and struck the wall of the stairway, which was still filled with the Oleum Gas. I was about to curse at Demierra for the desperate shot when I realized that she had learned from her last attack.

  The javelin of Lumina, Distortion, and Earth Myst struck the wall and erupted with a crack like a gunshot. Lynn and Kellden were both forced to take a step forward to keep their balance as the cloud in the space was thrown away. Then, there was a reverse rush of air with much greater force. Kellden and Lynn were wrenched backward to the landing between the first and second floors. They both landed in a tangled heap and were covered in a dense fog-bank of acid that only covered them.

  Even before the javelin burst, Demierra slapped her hands against the ground and raised them up with a clawed grasp. Following the Fury’s hand motion, three figures of flame rose from the ground. All three of them were armed with short blades and round shields. With the wordless command of a pointed finger from Demierra, the flame entities marched forward, blades and shields at the ready.

  At this point, I had made it ten paces down the hall, Kharmor at my shoulder. Demierra turned and moved to catch up, but another shot rang out from Lynn’s revolver. The massive round clipped Demierra along the side, carving a furrow of blood and meat through her tactical armor.

  “Dreck!” I cursed as I pulled an about-face and hurried back to Dracose at a double pace. “Khar’!” I called as I threw Demierra’s arm over my shoulders. “Cover fire!”

  The Half-Dwarf moved faster than I thought someone with his mass could. He slid to a halt, and turned on his heel, drawing a massive single-round sidearm in the same motion. Kharmor drew his aim as I helped Demierra to safety. When Khar pulled the trigger, the weapon let out a loud ‘Thunk’ like a piece of metal being shot down a tube. A round I honestly couldn’t call a bullet flew over my shoulder close enough that I could feel the breeze. The projectile was the size of a potato and struck a hard surface behind me with a sound like shattering stone. I didn’t stop to look as I half-carried the Fury, who was bleeding like a running hose.

  “Hold in there, Demi’. I’m about, to do something, that might help.” I grunted with effort between every few words.

  “What?” she asked in a dazed wheeze.

  “Oh, frag this!” I cursed before half-turning and trying something. While still supporting the Dracose’s arm on my shoulders, I pulled free another Gas Cap with my left hand. I thumbed the button for a half second while mentally commanded my shield to collapse, immediately after using another mental command to deploy my launcher system LokLink.

  The shield folded into itself and slid back into my arm, followed quickly with a three-inch diameter wrist cannon extended upward to take the shield’s place. The back end of the cannon popped open, and I jammed the Cap Shell into the opening, slapped the seal shut. The launcher dilated its diameter and rifling to fit the Cap Shell, gray-blue smoke already streaming from the muzzle. I launched the small canister down the hall, Secorus Gas trailing in streamers. Before the canister even touched ground, I was already activating a Shock Byte to follow in short order.

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  I did notice that the acidic gas that was still lingering in the stairwell was mixing with something other than the Secorus I had just gifted our intrepid hunters. An almost clear gas that was already causing Lynn and Kellden to be wracked by gagging coughs. With my new gift, their life was about to get even more unpleasant.

  I hurried to half-drag Demierra to safety. When I heard a gunshot go off, there was an immediate sound like a mine going off afterward. Kharmor was suddenly helping me pull Demierra along, holding her waist and hurrying to keep up with me.

  “What in the Hells did you hit them with, Khar’? A cloud of Blast Powder?” I asked.

  “Na.” He grunted. “Just tear gas. I wanted to buy us a few seconds.”

  “What about that blast?” I asked.

  “That, would, be, me.” Demierra wheezed. “Servitors, blow, on death. Must’ve, died, from, your cloud, of, whatever that is.”

  “I want details when you aren’t dying.” I said as I heaved her into what I recognized as the dining hall.

  Ferris, Nel, and Ozwald were all waiting for us in the room, and they all moved to help Kharmor and me carry our wounded comrade to a nearby table.

  “What happened?” Ferris asked as we slid her atop a dining table.

  “What does it look like?!” I snapped at him. “She’s been shot.” I turned to Kharmor, then Nennel. “We need Quik-Klot, right now.”

  “I’ve got some.” Ozwald said in a panic. He was holding a package of the powder in one shaking hand as he stared at the gaping wound in horror. Kharmor snatched the substance from the Human without a word, ripped it open, and started packing fistfuls of the powder into Demierra’s wound.

  When her bleeding was slowed enough to keep her breathing when we escaped, I told Kharmor to stop and check her wound. “What?! Why?” Ferris snapped at me.

  Kharmor took a seat beside the Dracose on the table and looked at her wound. “Because, Iver wants to know if there is any residue from the shot that hit her. If it was a Stain-Glass Round, she’s dead, no matter what we do. If it was a BloodBurn Round, we might have a chance.” Khar’ explained as he examined the wound, desperately looking for any hint of danger to Demierra’s life. I stepped up to take a look for myself, not sure if I knew what I was seeing if there was anything beyond caked blood and gore. Mixed in among the white-tan Quik-Klot were specks of mat black grains. Kharmor sat back and gave a sigh of relief before moving to continue applying Quik-Klot. “She’s only been hit with a Mage Killer Round.”

  “What!” Ferris panicked. “She’s going to die?”

  “No.” I explained. “That type of ammo uses Scaiben Crystal, which cancels all magic it comes in contact with. She won’t be able to cast any spells while it’s in or on her. And we also can’t use any healing magic on her. But Quik-Klot isn’t magical. It only makes blood congeal much quicker.”

  I paced back and forth, desperate to leave, but worried to move Demierra. I looked at the crew to check each of them for wounds and found none. Kharmor was already moving to pull Demierra from the table with Ferris’s aid. Nennel was watching the door we had come through with a sidearm at the ready. Zynna was watching every other entrance to the space with twitching eyes. Ozwald was attempting to wipe blood from his hand onto a nearby seat with little success. When he realized I was looking at him, he made brief eye contact before bashfully looking away. “Thanks, Oz.” I said in a serious tone. “You just saved Demierra’s life. Zynna said you had our exit ready?”

  “S-sure.” He nervously answered before pointing to a pair of doors to my left.

  “Lead the way. I’ll watch our backs.” I said.

  “Fer, Nel. Can you two take her shoulders?” Kharmor asked. “I’ve got her waist. I can take most’ve her weight, but I need you to keep her upright.”

  Ozwald led the escape, with Zynna on his heels, weapon at the ready. Ferris, Nennel, and Kharmor followed behind with Demierra in hand. I took up the rear and watched in tense anticipation. If Kellden and Lynn were still following us, I’d need to buy the others time, given that they were carrying a quarter-ton wounded Dracose.

  I waited for a spare second at the doorway before passing, and that was our undoing. Kellden and Lynn stepped through the doors at the same time and locked eyes with me.

  I inwardly cursed my pause to check, even as I goaded them. “You two working together now?”

  “Shut it, fell-spawn.” Kellden snapped as he marched toward me, throwing tables and chairs aside with his chains. “We’re both hunting you. After that, I’ll deal with her.”

  “Like hell, creep.” Lynn said as she aimed at me. “I’ll put you down before you can even look at me. But, Dark Horn here, is dying first.”

  With those words, I slipped through the door and used it for cover, crouching down as I pulled a vial of blood free from my shoulder. I popped the seal on the tube with a thumb and drew Devil’s Tail along the outside of my left arm as I readied my ability. Blood from my arm dribbled to the floor in gushes timed to my pounding heart.

  A hole the size of my fist burst through the door, just above my head, in time with a thunderous gunshot. I took that as my cue to act. I shouldered the door open as I rolled through while casting my ability. The blood in the vial vanished. The blood on the floor and flowing down my arm pulled together into a series of crimson bullets.

  I flicked two fingers toward Lynn to direct my volley toward her. Even as the bullets flew, I twisted the pommel of Devil’s Tail to trigger its first change. The individual segments that formed the length of my sword separated into the form of a Serpent Blade. The blade segments separated into a loose whip-like form, each segment linked by a controlled magnetic field to allow for maximum flexibility while maintaining the serpentine form. That magnetic field could be directed through commands from my Mental Command Module in my arm, allowing me to pull off impossible moves. And I was about to put that to the test.

  I struck out at Kellden with the lengthened blade, extending the sections even further with a simple mental command. The head of the blade and two following segments struck the Arsenal’s faceplate, carving a gouge through the metal, exposing a sliver of his face. With a swift redirect of my blade hand and another mental command, the blade retracted from the previous strike like a true serpent and struck like a cobra toward Kelleden’s chest.

  The attack from my blade was sent flying off by a simple bat of one of the Arsenal’s chains. I caught a glimpse of one of his glouring eyes through the fresh slash in his helmet as he made his next move. Two of his spike-ended chains launched toward me.

  Expecting this action, I lunged to my left as I reached to draw my sidearm. There was an instant of panic when I realized that my timing was off and I was about to take a spike to the leg. But I was saved by an unlikely action.

  Lynn kicked out one of Kellden’s knees before cracking off another shot toward me. The Arsenal’s attack was diverted and thrown wide by Lynn’s kick, but the gang leader’s shot missed me by several inches. She didn’t even check to see if her bullet landed as she breached her revolver, ejecting bullet casings, and any unused rounds. I struck the ground and shoulder-rolled. My tumble came to a stop beside a concrete support column just in time for me to see Lynn fast load six new rounds with rust-colored tips.

  Seeing the ammunition change, I knew it couldn’t mean anything good for me, so I made an impulsive choice. I fired three shots at the ganger from my sidearm, but I didn’t take the time to aim. Two of my bullets flew wide of the mark, and the third bounced off her bicep, confirming her arms were cybernetic. I quickly learned that my impulse was a massive mistake when she fired a single shot at me, even as I tried to take cover behind the pillar beside me.

  I got to cover, but not before I felt a hole get punched through my right thigh. I cried out in pain, dropping my pistol to clutch at the wound. At a glance, I saw that whatever Lynn had shot me with had passed through the armor plate covering my thigh with no issue, and cleanly exited the back of my leg, only grazing the bone. I thought I was lucky until I watched for a second longer. Rust spread out from the bullet hole across the armor plate at a rapid rate. When the burning sensation in my leg spiked to a very literal sense of scorching heat, I knew I was in serious trouble.

  The iron in my body was oxidizing at such a rapid rate that it produced enough heat to start a fire. If I didn’t do something fast, the oxidation would spread through my whole body, and I would turn into a living pyre. So, I did the first thing that came to mind. I drew on the blood from the bullet wound as fuel as I jammed my thumb into the very same hole and released a large amount of Death Myst into the tissue and bone of the affected area. Put simply, I forced all of the affected flesh and bone to flash necrotize to halt the progression of the Ruinite of the BloodBurn bullet. The pain in the wound peaked before vanishing into a disturbing numbness. When I slightly moved the leg and gray dust fell out of the exit hole, I was thoroughly disturbed, but I shoved that aside to deal with the immediate threat.

  I grasped for any idea of what I could do to get out of this without losing any more of my body. My mind snatched on a desperate idea. “Hey! Reg-boy! How was your sister’s funeral?! I bet it had to be a closed casket, given the mess I left her in!” I taunted. Just saying the jab made me feel like an absolute bastard, but I got a response.

  “Shut your rotten mouth, Hexxen!” Kellden shouted in a rage as he threw his chains against the pillar protecting me. Dust and stone debris flew with each powerful blow thrown in rapid succession.

  I successfully got the Regulator enraged, but I was certain that if I didn’t do something else soon, he would just carve my cover into a carpet of rubble. I mentally added metal scraps to that unwanted result when I saw a segment or support rebar spin off from the pillar to imbed in a nearby wall.

  “Hey Lynn! I hope that these Regs tear down your whole empire! All you’ll have left is dust and a jail cell if you’re lucky! I can’t say I’m surprised that inviting corporate guard dogs was all I needed to do to ruin you. You did just let me walk right into the gang like a trusting idiot. But it’s not hard to see you’re no intellectual giant! You did play Garden of The Gods like a brain-damaged barracuda. Flopping about, trying to look tough and smart, but just flailing and looking more like a sympathy joke. But then again, you can’t even line up a kill shot on me, even when I’m standing still and not even looking at you.!”

  I was grasping at straws, trying to piss Lynn off, but poking at her intelligence and accuracy did get a response when I heard five more thunderous gunshots. At the time, I didn’t notice, but I should’ve recognized that I didn’t hear any of those shots ricochet to another surface. But even if I had noticed, I could not have foreseen what that meant for us.

  Nice job, Iver. Tactical genius of heckling. I mentally chided myself. I was confused as to why neither of them were trying to close the distance or flank me, until I heard deafening silence followed by a metallic click and the sound of something like a metal can hitting my protective cover. Then I heard Lynn spit a panicked curse, and I knew I had to move. But, I couldn’t move with any deftness with a ruined leg. I threw myself away from the safety of the pillar and dragged myself all of two feet further when the world collapsed.

  If shots from Lynn’s Executioner Revolver were thunderous, what struck me was a sound like a giant clapping its hands at full strength right behind me. I felt the sound as a wave of physical force that washed over me. The support column that I owed my life to gave me one last gift as it dissolved into a gray cloud. Even as shards of stone and metal peppered me, the floor below me simply stopped existing. Then I was falling.

  Those few seconds suspended in the air, hanging in a choking cloud of stone, felt to last forever. I remember seeing a piece of rusted metal rebar frame float by me, dissolving into powder as it tumbled. For those eternal seconds, I wondered what on Anogwin had just happened to put me in this situation. Only later would I learn that through a series of unfortunate events from ill-judged heckling, I was put there. Kellden’s enraged chain attacks against my stone guardian had exposed the metal frame. Lynn’s BloodBurn rounds had contacted those metal support rods and caused them to rust at a horrifying rate, and the rust caused by Ruinite will continue to spread as far as it can unless stopped. Through lazy planning during the construction of this section of the hospital, those metal rods linked to the metal supports of the floor below. Within seconds, all connected metal within ten feet of the pillar was rended to red powder. That wouldn’t have been something I would’ve considered concerning when my life was in parrel, but that metal clatter and click I had heard before everything went to Pandamonium was the sound of the blasted Arsenal Regulator throwing a kinetic concussion grenade. The blast from the metal can shattered the floor and sent me straight into the morgue.

  Before you freak out about that choice of words, no, I did not die that time. Directly under the dining hall was the hospital’s morgue, which sounds rather unhygienic to me. At that point in time, I had bigger problems than hygiene.

  Without any warning, time shifted from seconds creeping by to a lot happening all at once. The next thing I knew, I lay atop a heap of rubble, gasping for air, and everything hurting, my leg particularly so. I gagged on the dust and let out a wracking string of coughs even as I sat up to look around.

  It took me a few moments to recognize autopsy tables and related tools under the jagged carpet of stone and rust. As the dust settled, I briefly took note of the icebox corpse-storage wall across from me. Then I noticed two Ceangar-sized figures lying on the floor between myself and that cold storage. Somehow, I had been turned around during the fall, but that didn’t matter.

  I dragged myself to my feet, my right leg almost barely able to take any weight. Immediately, I tried to find an exit before my hunters gathered their senses. But I stopped and changed my plans when I noticed three things. First, I noticed that the Arsenal, who had made it his single-minded goal to kill me, was struggling but unable to even rise to a sitting position. From the way his chains were twitching like dying insect legs, I assumed he had broken his spine. Next, I noticed that Lynn was farther away from me than Kellden. She must’ve tried to make a break for it when she saw the grenade. The last thing I noticed turned my thoughts from immediate escape to dealing with trouble. Lynn’s Executioner 34SRD was only a few feet from me and looked freshly loaded.

  With gritted teeth, I limped to the firearm. It was heavier than I thought it would’ve been, and more than a little unwieldy in my grip, but it would have to do since my sidearm was nowhere in sight. I cracked the revolver open and checked the cylinder. Six rounds were freshly loaded, and checking each type, I realized just how lucky I had gotten. Lynn was done messing around when she loaded it. All six bullets were Stained Glass Rounds. Just holding one of these bullets was enough to earn an immediate execution in almost any nation. I closed the siege weapon of a sidearm and gave a frigid smirk at the layers of irony at the situation. An Executioner revolver loaded with ammunition that earned execution being used to execute someone who wanted to execute me for something I technically didn’t do.

  I limped up to stand over the Regulator, feeling for all the world like the avatar of vengeance. The crippled man below me had been an ever-looming threat. He had almost killed myself, Ferris, and Kharmor. He did tear Nennel apart and traumatize her. Now I was the one looming over the mad dog, and he was the one wearing the executioner’s collar, to use the saying in a very literal sense.

  I raised the heavy weapon in both hands, took as stable a stance as I could with my leg, and lined up my shot with Kellden’s center body mass. The Regulator shakily raised his head to lock eyes with me. “Do it. If you don’t, I will track you to the ends of the realms. I won’t stop hunting you for as long as I am on the mortal plane.”

  I didn’t respond to his threats. I only took a single long breath and squeezed the trigger. But the trigger didn’t pull. I tried again to no effect. I checked the safety, to find a series of small indicator lights over ‘Off’, ‘On’, and ‘UU’. The light under the letters ‘UU’ was glowing a dim but defiant red. I gave a frustrated hiss of exhaled air through a sneer before gripping the sidearm by the barrel and striking Kellden across the temple with the butt.

  I raised my hand high for another blow but froze when I caught sight of something against the back wall. My sight was locked on a horror scene for only a few seconds, but it was long enough. Lynn came from seemingly nowhere and drove a fist into my damaged leg, snapping my femur like a dry stick. Luckily, almost all of my weight was on my other leg, and my reflexes triggered before the venomous ganger woman could do more. The reflex that triggered was activating the kinetic burst from my grounded foot to launch me into the air. I flew out of Lynn’s reach even as she reached to grip my gun arm. The first burst brought me to eye level with the floor we had fallen from. I activated a second burst from my good foot to gain enough height while I activated a blast from the foot of my ruined leg to throw me far enough horizontally to land on what remained of the floor of the dining hall.

  The burst from my bad leg ripped a scream of pain from me as I hit the tiled floor and slid onto my side. “Give me back my gun!” Lynn screamed at me. At the same time, I could hear a lot of boots pounding their way to my location. The last thing I wanted was to find out if it was gangers or Regs heading my way. But with my bad leg, there was zero chance of me escaping the building in time, let alone making the whole trek to where Teefa was waiting for us. But I still tried to move, at least to a more hidden or strategic spot.

  I clutched the Executioner revolver in a death grip as I definitely crawled toward the kitchen. I had lost almost all of the weapons I had come with. Firearms were all lost at some point along the way. Devil’s Tail was under the rubble in the morgue, but I was not about to face that schizo Ceangar woman in my current state just to get a weapon. Between the Mage Killer round I took in my right hand earlier, and the fall had screwed up almost all the systems in the cybernetic arm. I might not have been able to fire the sidearm I clung to, but it was better than nothing.

  I was crippled, armed with nothing but a dud of a gun, with enemies on all sides can closing in. I refused to just give up. If I had to, I would bite out throats before they put me down. Defiant to the end.

  Suddenly, someone stood over me. I blindly lashed out with the revolver at the stranger’s knees, only to find a pair of hands gripping that same arm and pulling me to my stable foot. “I got you, buddy.” Came Ferris’s voice and I wanted to cry with joy, even as he threw my body over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Ferris pulled me from the hospital and to the extraction point, running like I weighed almost nothing.