We arrived too late, said Cornwall as Vikrum dashed through the hallways. He spotted another destroyed drone and knew he was going in the right direction.

  I want him dead, he told the AI simply.

  He is gone and he leaves no signs. The odds of finding him are negligible. Even if you do find him, victory is not certain. You did not bring any hunter-killer drones, only recon, and the Smart Gun is of limited effectiveness in the corridors of this area, You should return to your Chosen; they will need you up top. If you lose too many Chosen, the quest will be impossible to complete and you will die, and he has already killed your Loyal in this area. There is nothing to gain here, and much to lose.

  Vikrum ignored his assistant’s nagging, pressing on. He came to an outside area, and saw many different routes and entrances. Many places Viper could’ve gone. He scanned the environment carefully, searching for signs of recent movement.

  Where has he gone? What do you see? He asked Cornwall. He felt the AI focusing, felt the data pouring through his mind.

  That way, it said.

  Vikrum pressed on as time spun by. As he moved, a terrible, bitter anxiety was growing within him. A certainty which he didn’t allowed himself to truly think on, but which floated in the depths of his mind regardless.

  Where now? he snapped at Cornwall as he came to another crossroads, and he felt his assistant calculating. A calculation that took twice as long as the last time.

  That way, it said at last.

  He kept going. He encountered a group of dead and smashed his way through them.

  Where now?

  This next pause lasted even longer, and he paced restlessly, his eyes scanning the ground and the many passageways and the whole bewildering, groaning coffin of stone he was trapped inside.

  I don’t know. There are no signs. I may have made a mistake. I recommend we go back and check the area around the last clue. Though, that clue is may also be a dead end.

  Vikrum turned, his thoughts empty but for the rage, and in a blur of movement slammed his fist into the wall. Dust and tiny chunks of stone burst out and hit him like a puff of smoke as his fist cratered it.

  He knew what the AI wasn’t saying, and now the thought he’d not allowed himself to think engulfed him.

  Viper had gotten away.

  ‘FUCK!’

  ###

  Nicolai hefted the grenade belt, finished setting the combined timer which began to tick. He’d taken all the grenades from the others and sent them on. After doing so, he’d returned, slipping through the corridors. Then, he’d found his spot, and lain in wait.

  It was a gamble, one that could go wrong, or, more likely, that would bear no fruit.

  But he’d gotten lucky. The sound of Vikrum’s scream of frustration echoed off the walls.

  The man was right around the corner and down the corridor.

  Nicolai turned in a single smooth movement and hurled out the grenade belt, his arm and body snapping with the force of the throw.

  The Cyborg’s head snapped toward him, then his body pivoted as he raised his gun in an inhuman blur, but as the gun raised Nicolai was already stepping back around the corner. Bullets blew chips of stone off the corner. Those bullets came from a Smart Gun, and would steer themselves to the target; but they couldn’t turn around a ninety degree angle. It was a weapon that could wreak havoc in an open space, but so long as Nicolai was around a tight corner it was effectively just an assault rifle.

  The cyborg, visible in Nicolai’s Soul Sense, had shoved hard at the wall to launch himself backwards, his feet churning at the stone.

  He was too slow. The timer Nicolai had set across the grenades hit zero and all of them detonated at once in a gigantic clap of light, heat, and concussive force, the epicentre of an explosion which drove many sharp fragments of metal in all directions at thousands of feet per second.

  The explosion caught Vikrum and launched the cyborg down the corridor. The previous beauty of Vikrum’s form was tarnished and now he was a smoking, battered chunk of metal.

  Nicolai stepped smoothly out, feet a fluid blur as he pursued. He used the Pegasi rings to speed and balance his movement, allowing him to keep his upper body still while sighting down the AA-12.

  The shotgun roared and a hail of armour penetrating slugs raced out ahead of him, slamming into Vikrum as the Cyborg crashed into the ground and rolled in a heap. But Vikrum was moving, scrambling in an ungainly blur of hands-and-knees down the corridor, skittering like a bug as he raced towards the next bend in the corridor.

  Nicolai’s Soul Sense strained out ahead of him, reaching for Vikrum, and blue lightning crackled over his body. Its charge was as rapid as his movement.

  Vikrum had fucked up. He’d come out here on his lonesome, no backup. He’d chased and chased Nicolai into the endless warren of the castle. Also, he still wasn’t a Cultivator, which meant that when it came to Symbiotes, he was completely defenceless. Finally, Vikrum paused to scream and cry, like a baby, after being unlucky enough to draw close to where Nicolai had hidden.

  Nicolai couldn’t judge him for the tantrum, since he was aware that childish fits of rage was a failure he shared with the Cyborg. But the rest… the rest was a significant tactical error.

  It would be remiss of Nicolai not to punish that error.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  ###

  Vikrum scrambled around the corridor, away from the slugs that were tearing chunks out of him. If he’d had lungs he would’ve been breathing heavy. Instead of that, his internal reactor was burning hot, pumping like a mechanical heart within him, radiating heat from his vents.

  Now away from the bullets, his panic faded enough that he became aware of Cornwall’s blaring warning and the incessant request to enable his Combat Drive. He accepted with the reflexive immediacy of a drowning man reaching for a chunk of wood.

  The Combat Drive drove through him and leveraged Vikrum to his feet in an instant, balancing more on one side as one of his legs was damaged. He could hear the thump of Viper’s footsteps and the Drive triangulated the sounds to give him an exact impression of the man’s location.

  His Smart Gun had been torn apart by the grenades, and the Drive discarded it, attempting to activate his Hand Cannon. To Vikrum’s shock, it was disabled, along with one of his primary lasers. Some combination of the damage from the grenades alongside the enemies shots had put the systems offline. Did he aim his shots purposefully, to disable them? The Combat Drive didn’t waste time worrying about that. It began charging up his remaining laser and moved his arm. He drew the pistol on his hip in a blur. Or at least, attempted to. As he was pulling it from the holster a sudden force slammed into it and wrenched it out of his grip to clatter on the wall.

  Vikrum would’ve stared in confusion, but the Combat Drive immediately pivoted to something new, lunging towards the corner where Viper would momentarily emerge.

  But as Vikrum moved, so too did the sounds change, and he knew Viper was rapidly retreating. The man came into view as Vikrum veered around the corner, all the way wide to one side, which the Combat Drive recognised as a way to ensure he had an angle of fire on Vikrum from the earliest moment.

  Viper wasn’t aiming his shotgun at Vikrum. Instead he had a hand outraised, and electricity was pouring over his arm.

  The Combat Drive didn’t recognise this form of attack, but it did recognise an unknown danger of unknown magnitude and opted to retreat. Vikrum’s feet abruptly reversed and his arms wheeled as he dragged his body backwards.

  He’d only moved a few centimetres when a shock of dazzling blue lightning bridged the gap between him and Viper, slamming into his shoulder.

  Vikrum toppled backwards, his body seizing as the lightning surged over him. But his Combat Drive reacted just as fast, severing the electrical connections to his left side, where the lightning was sinking teeth into him. His left side froze, but the rest of him regained movement, and the lightning was directed down through his leg by his grounding systems. He set his body and prepared to lunge forward again.

  When Vikrum had been younger he’d had a weaker version of his current body. One day, one of his families maids had tried to remove a stray cat he’d found and determined to adopt. She’d been rough with it. He’d grabbed her by the arm as the cat yowled in her hands, and he could still remember how her flesh had pulped and bulged, how it had exploded in a red wave under his enhanced grip as he accidentally used all the strength in the artificial hand.

  It was a bad memory.

  But the coming moment would be a good one. As soon as he got a hand on Viper he’d squeeze until flesh and bone bubbled out around his fingers, and then he’d grab somewhere else, and he’d keep on squeezing. The laser in his palm had also finished charging up, in case he couldn’t reach Viper.

  But Viper didn’t come around the corner, and there was no sound to reveal his location. The Combat Drive determined Viper would be laying in wait. It was uncertain how to proceed, as it worried that Viper might shock them with the lightning again. If he could throw that lightning without pause, Vikrum would be in real trouble.

  Vikrum overruled it and dashed forward. His body was recovered from the lightning now, and both his hands were outstretched.

  But coming around the corner, he could not grab the man, because the man wasn’t there. Instead, Viper was flying soundlessly down the corridor at high speed. Vikrum raised his hand and a red laserbeam erupted from his palm just as Viper turned a corner, He caught him in the leg as that was all that was in sight, then Viper was gone.

  Vikrum tried to chase after him, but he had to fight against the still engaged Combat Drive. Where he wanted nothing more than to see Viper dead, it was convinced that chasing would be a bad move. It was talking about the enemy being largely undamaged, while he was down to 78% functionality; most crucially, the Hand Cannon was offline. It was simulating more ambushes, in which Vikrum was gradually turned into scrap.

  If you chase him, I predict above sixty percent certainty that you will be killed, Cornwall informed him.

  ‘I want him dead,’ grated Vikrum, his voice garbled by damaged speakers.

  If you retreat, he might pursue. Then you could turn the ambush. More Chosen are on the way, with fresh guns; though none as good as the Smart Gun.

  ‘The Smart Gun,’ Vikrum moaned, pressing his hands to his head. It was just a smashed chunk of metal and plastic and very expensive components, now.

  Tell me the odds, he said, wanting to see it laid out clearly.

  If you pursue: I calculate 63% chance you will be killed. But if you retreat, and he pursues: I calculate 92% chance you will successfully kill him. The one who chases, loses.

  Do you think he will pursue if I run?

  After a pause, Cornwall answered. No. He is too canny and knows what we know. It is almost a certainty that he will disengage if you retreat, rather than chase. If he does pursue, then you must be very wary: because in that case, his pursuing would strongly suggest he has some trick we are unaware of that changes the odds to be more in his favour. I doubt that is the case, because if so he would not have retreated originally; for example, the blue lightning he utilised earlier must have limits on its use, or he would have continued pressing you.

  Vikrum shook his head. He had to face facts. This was over. He’d lost, and it was time to turn around. His metal fist flexed, gears grinding.

  ‘I’ll get him,’ he hissed. ‘Not today. But I will get him in time. He won’t beat me again.’

  We will, Cornwall assured him. He was only able to damage you so heavily via a surprise attack, and even then was unable to press the advantage. If you are able to fight him fairly, he will stand little chance.

  ###

  Nicolai hunkered tight to the wall, peering around the corner with his Soul Sense. He’d found a good spot. If Vikrum was dumb enough to chase, he might be able to finish this. It would be tricky, though. The Cyborg was able to deal with his blue lightning pretty well. He’d had a feeling it would struggle against a Level 3. An expensive body like Vikrum’s would be packed with countermeasures.

  The Cyborg was extremely dangerous and any fight with such an individual needed to, by necessity, be characterised by quick, ruthless engagements followed by a rapid retreat. It would be possible to put Vikrum down with enough shots, but it’d take quite a lot. The blue lightning was his only method of allowing himself a quick attack and escape, so he might build up the damage or disengage safely. The more damage he did, the more of Vikrum’s weaponry and countermeasures would be put offline; he picked his shots carefully to ensure this.

  But he couldn’t simply go for the Cyborg and finish Vikrum off. It just wouldn’t work. If Vikrum got his hands on Nicolai, that’d be it. And where Vikrum could take shots and keep going, Nicolai could be killed by a single round from a pistol if it hit him in the head.

  Other injuries he could deal with, however. This was a significant advantage he’d noticed. Vikrum didn’t seem to be able to use Rejuvenating Orbs; otherwise, he’d already have done so. Nicolai suspected this was because Vikrum was both almost entirely artificial, and had no Soul, as he had found that the Rejuvenating Orbs did seem to work on his own small augments—once he had expanded his Soul into them.

  While Vikrum was unable to recover through such means, Nicolai had already recovered from the blackened, melting hole which a brief touch from Vikrum’s excessively powerful laser had put in his leg.

  So long as he didn’t die, he could keep going and wear his enemy down. However, this required Vikrum to chase. If he tried to be the pursuer, it was unlikely to go well for him. Especially since he felt sure reinforcements would be on the way.

  Two minutes passed, and Nicolai made his decision. Vikrum wasn’t coming.

  He rose and moved off. It was time to link up with Jo and Beth then return to base. Useful information had been gained from this encounter.

  Vikrum was not as unkillable as one might’ve expected.