Jo looked aside from the horde of bugs as she reloaded her rifle, looking over now she finally had time, to see what had become of Nicolai.

  Her eyes widened. He was floating in the air, suspended there half a metre off from the ground, limned in yellow. He was a distant figure that seemed tinier still as the bird rose above him, raising its wings and screaming, a cry that spiked at her ears even from this distance.

  It landed with a crash that shook the earth and sent up a plume of dust, talons as long as swords and thick as tree trunks tearing at the ground, and Nicolai disappeared within the dust and stomps. The bird paused, the shaking ceasing, and stared down as the dust began to fade. Jo swallowed, barely breathing. He was dead, he had to be. Just like that. She couldn’t believe it.

  Within the fading dust cloud a faint shimmer of light was visible. As it dissipated, the shimmer coalesced into a shape made from light. A shield?

  But lying on the ground within it, unmoving, was a man. Nicolai. She stared at his limp form, and a frown worked its way onto her face. He wasn’t moving, but… he should be a red stain on the ground, not just lying there.

  ###

  Nicolai’s Soul Sense was broken, but he watched the bird through the slits of his eyes. Surrounding him was a shield of golden light; his hand was held against the wrist of his other hand, where there was a bangle, one which had once held a small golden feather. Now the feather was gone. He had activated the emergency shield, and directed it to the take a lozenge-shape; space enough to just hold him and his equipment.

  The bird’s attack had been uncoordinated, it had simply held him still then thrashed blindly away. The shield was powerful, and had managed to deflect a couple of the strikes. The rest had simply missed—such great talons weren’t well suited for attacking something as comparatively small as himself.

  That was good, because just the two strikes that had landed meant the shield was already halfway broken. He could feel it, and saw the damage in the cracks running through the golden light.

  He was trapped. The bird’s Soul Sense held his own inside, and from there the yellow force restrained him, clinging to his body, his limbs, his weapons. Every attempt at movement encountered significant resistance. He had only been able to activate the golden shield feather on the bangle because it was touching his flesh and therefore his Soul.

  The bird raised its leg then slammed it down. The shield hummed and snapped, more cracks appearing through it as the great talons glanced off. How many hits now? he wondered, grinning up at the bird. He couldn’t help it. He lived for moments like this.

  The dark poured through him and the thrill burned in his chest, the world shimmering and sparkling around him, and he knew that there was a way, because there is always a way. Threat Analysis and Cyberwarfare and even the Mask were merged with him, and together they plotted the path. But it all relied on the dark.

  As the bird raised its foot for another strike, he felt a flexing within and sharp spiritual claws and spikes erupted from his body, tearing at the Soul Sense around him. The bird’s Soul Sense flinched back away from him and the yellow force went with it, and he gained a little more room to move.

  Wriggle, wriggle, he thought as he did just that, arms and legs flexing, more claws appearing, ripping and tearing at the extension of the bird’s spirit, and the more room he gained the more damage he did. His arms went from jerking to slashing, his Soul Sense burst free into the space he’d gained.

  A shadow covered him, and he felt the heat of danger from above. The bird’s great taloned foot slammed down.

  Nicolai jerked like a cat, a twist of pure muscle that sent him springing sideways, and the foot slammed into the ground behind him. The bird screamed with rage, and its Soul Sense abruptly grew tighter, denser, heavier.

  It kept tightening even as he tore at it, the yellow force pressing closer, gumming up his movements. The bird had been surprised by the shock of pain, given him some room as it flinched, but now it accepted the pain as it clenched tight around him.

  His mind grew still and clear, as he worked out the only way forward. He didn’t have room to wriggle out from it for much longer. But for now, he could still move a little. It all came down to one thing, as always. If you predict what your opponent will do, nothing else is necessary. He watched it with eyes and Soul and drone, and the dark felt at the ripples in the Aura. The next strike came, monstrous talons looking to spike him. He began to move as it slammed down towards him, but the dark whispered a warning. This was a trap, a feint.

  So instead Nicolai threw himself at the bird’s claw, even as it descended toward him. Just before it hit, the claw abruptly stopped… as the bird paused, waiting for his reaction, looking to catch him out.

  But the bird hadn’t encountered a bug like Nicolai before. He was already winding around its talons as it realised its mistake, and then he was above them.

  The chain whip stolen from a Warden moved around him like a killbots auxiliary tendrils, hooks and blades jabbing into the bird’s leg. Just in time, as the bird screamed with rage, and pain, and confusion, then extended its leg and flailed it side to side, trying to get him off.

  Nicolai was stuck fast like a limpet, the chains wrapping tight around him and the bird both, and he cried out like a child on a rollercoaster as the world spun around him.

  The bird’s Soul Sense struck him like a hammer, but Nicolai simply pulled his Soul Sense back inside of him, then as the bird’s Soul Sense crushed at him he resumed wriggling, tearing, making room. He had space enough in the clutch of yellow force to drag free the spent magazine from the AA-12 and slot in a fresh one, thirty-two live rounds ready to go.

  The bird’s Soul Sense clenched, and the yellow force wrapped tight. He freed some of the chains to give himself room, tearing with the dark spiritual claws emerging from his hands, fighting back as it tried to pin him down.

  He felt the attack before it came, saw it coming through the sudden rage and decisiveness he felt in the bird’s Soul, the rustling of its feathers, the flexing of the muscles in its leg.

  Its head lunged down toward him, beak snapping. Nicolai’s chains rattled and hooked at its leg as he wrenched himself around it, getting to the other side. The crack of its beak snapping at the empty air he’d occupied sounded like a gunshot.

  As it reared up, he threw himself once more around the leg. Just in time, as its other one lifted into the air, and came down tearing at the space he’d occupied as it tried to brush him off. The beak was ready and waiting for him on the other side, and he had no time to sit and had to dive around once more.

  This time he threw himself up and caught onto the other leg as it descended, attaching himself with the chains on the other side.

  The bird shrieked with frustration, and then it stopped moving, both feet settling.

  The weight and pressure of its Soul Sense intensified, and he could feel its focus. The Soul Sense was locking tight around him as simply ignored all things physical to focus entirely on the spiritual. He tore at it as it clenched tight, but the bird ignored all pain and only gripped tighter. His Soul Sense was squeezed inside of him, and as it pressed tighter so too did the yellow force squeeze at him.

  His arms, still with the black claws, tore at its Soul Sense but he was barely holding it back. His legs locked together, only his upper body remaining free, and the yellow force rose up him.

  The bird had gone full offensive, given up entirely on defence.

  It thought that he had no weapons capable of damaging it, but it was wrong. Nicolai followed its example; he stopped tearing at the Soul Sense around him, and instead the dark and the thrill purred through him, aiding him as he used the last of his time to get his body into position, the whip-chain digging tighter into the bird and around him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  He aimed the AA-12 directly upwards, at the bird’s stomach, and he squeezed down the trigger.

  The rapid thumping boom of gunshots burst from it, one after the other, endless and incessant. Blood sprayed above as the bullets blasted through feather and into flesh, and each round of buckshot went into the exact same spot.

  Nicolai held himself tight around it, his body turned entirely to firing at the bird, the chains keeping him aimed perfectly even as the yellow force wrenched at him, trying to drag him off position.

  The bird stumbled sideways, screaming, beat its wings, and its Soul Sense attack was forgotten as its other talon tore at him reflexively. Locked up tight, he couldn’t move away.

  His shield took the hit but the force of it tore him away from the bird’s leg; the chainhooks ripped great furrows in its flesh as they came away, but they did come away.

  Nicolai tumbled through the air, and he felt the bird bend preparing to throw itself into the air.

  It was trying to get away.

  I don’t think so.

  A chain hook flailed through the air and caught at one of its legs, digging into the flesh between the talons, and as the bird threw itself into the air, Nicolai went with it.

  The chain hooks worked, more of them catching, and then they reeled him in. Nicolai slithered around its snatching talons, and once more he was onto its leg. Already they were far up in the air, just a few beats having carried them hundreds of metres.

  Snarling, he took aim and squeezed the trigger once more. Shotgun rounds dug a bloody furrow into its guts, and now the hole he’d made had fat loops of intestine dangling out.

  Its other leg flashed at him, smashing down, but Nicolai ignored it. He focused on shooting. It was close to death, he could feel it. A little more and it’d be dead, unable to heal such grievous wounds.

  Unfortunately, his shield was also close to death, as it turned out. This strike smashed into it and the shield burst apart, no more than blunting the force. The strike punched into him and through him and Nicolai was hurled away, the chains coming free once more.

  He spun through the air, the wind screaming in his ears. His stomach and his shoulder burned where the bird’s talons had punctured into him, leaving great dark holes from which blood poured.

  He tilted his head and breathed deep from the Rejuvenating Orb he’d affixed to the side of his vest, until there was nothing left in it, and as he did so he activated his Pegasi rings.

  His fall turned into a glide and he looked at the world below him. He was descending towards a tower, one he recognised. The Kill Me tower. He turned his eyes away from it, looking for the bird. There.

  Shrieking with rage and pain, it was descending in an ungainly almost-fall, to the ground. It landed with an earthshaking boom. Nicolai reloaded as he watched it. His eyes were drawn to a place not far from it, the bottom of the tower.

  There he saw flashes of light and heard distant popping noises, seeing some of the others, Jo and Daksh, shooting from out of the doorway at approaching bugs. There were small fires around them, where the vines had been burned away from the door. Nicolai was pleased that they’d made it.

  They disappeared inside when the bird took a staggering step toward them, drawing his eye back to it. It was bent over, and blood and gore covered the ground below it. But as he watched it froze, and he felt ripples through the Aura. A faint green glow surrounded it, one that seemed gentle and life-giving.

  Its stance grew firmer, and he saw its head turn. It looked up, right at him.

  There was hate in its eyes.

  Nicolai was grinning so hard as he stared down at it that his face was hurting. He wanted to kill it. Everything in him wanted to finish this fight. But he was injured, too. One Orb hadn’t been enough. He pulled two fragmentation grenades, popped the pins, and tossed them. Then he grabbed another Rejuvenating Orb, flicked its valve open and took a draw from it, his eyes on the bird.

  It let out a worried squawk, turned and stumbled away. The grenades exploded in the air behind it, and blood sprayed from its back as chunks of metal caught it, knocking it staggering.

  But the bird kept going, the green glow around it intensifying, and Nicolai could see that it was rapidly healing, that already it was almost returned to normal.

  He snarled at it, and considered descending toward it. No. One must know when to attack, and when to retreat. Words that had been with him a long time, necessary at times like this when all he wanted was to kill. The thrill was burning hard, and the dark was through him but he needed to maintain control. How had the bird understood the threat of the grenades? It took him a moment to understand. It had felt his aggression through the Aura ripples. He was leaking emotion.

  He took a breath, held it in, breathed out slow through his nose. He’d had a good chance there, but it was gone now—the bird was healing rapidly, and the window had already closed. If he attacked again, the odds were bad. He needed to fire a whole magazine into a vulnerable area to have any chance of killing it. Now that his golden shield was done, it only needed to hit him once.

  Nicolai touched down on the roof of the Kill Me tower, raising the AA-12 as he peered around. The bird would be coming for him soon, so he needed to find someplace it couldn’t get to him. He didn’t think he had time to go anywhere else, this tower was his only option. He also wasn’t keen on going down to the ground and joining the others, as via one of the drones which was with them he saw that the room they’d gone into was small, with the only other way out blocked by a collapse. It was a dead end, and too small for him to stay out of range of the Bird’s Soul Sense.

  Toward the middle of the bird cage, he saw something. A gap in the stone. He spied stairs, leading down into the upper portion of the tower. There. A way out.

  But his steps toward the bird cage were slowed by wariness.

  The bird cage was odd. It was covered in thick black vines of the exceedingly spiky variety. They ran all through it, collecting on the metal struts then moving inside, all reaching toward the middle. A short distance behind the stairwell, they formed together into a mass.

  From this mass, a voice could be heard.

  ‘Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!’ howled a figure Nicolai could guess at the shape of, from how the vines wrapped them.

  Nicolai drew closer, shotgun raised. At the edge of the bird cage he paused, investigating it closely with his Soul Sense, which was out again now he was away from the bird. It seemed to be merely mundane metal. He felt at the vines next with his Soul Sense, along with the piece of it controlled by Threat Analysis. They found a kind of sleepiness in the vines, a sense that they could react but only if troubled. He sent out a drone which filtered through the vines and then into the stairwell, where he found it spiralled downwards and eventually opened up into a room.

  These are dangerous. Alive. Maybe thinking, said Threat Analysis. Perhaps we should seek safety elsewhere.

  Nicolai grunted. You’re right. But I want to investigate this noise. As he’d checked the vines, the endless cry of “Kill me, kill me!” had been ringing out unceasingly from the centre. There is no reward without risk. If there was trouble, he would get out of it, and at the very least he should be safe from the bird.

  He moved carefully, activating the Pegasi ring and drifting through the area, dodging vines by wide margins. It got more difficult as he approached the centre, where the vines intensified until he had only gaps a few feet wide between them. Now he was closer, he saw a golden liquid on the vines in the centre. The source of the cries.

  As he was crept closer to the stairs, there came a sudden shifting and he froze, wary. In the middle of the vines, something was moving. The cry ceased. The vines moved, coming away in links, dripping with golden liquid, until a figure was revealed.

  A naked man, arms and legs spread wide, held up supplicant by the vines which gripped tight around him, digging into his body with cruel spikes.

  As a vine shifted, the man’s head came into view. One of his eyes was missing, spiked by a vine, dribbling golden ichor, but the other was there and it was staring right at Nicolai. A golden eye.

  Behind the man, two great white wings spread, torn and gripped by the vines.

  Despite the sense of danger the movement of the vines inspired, the knowledge that he ought to get to the stairwell now, Nicolai couldn’t help but slow, his eyes wide and fixed on the figure.

  An Angel. An actual, real, Angel. That was the only thing this could be, there was no other option in Nicolai’s mind. It looked like an Angel, and in this world of magic there was no limit on what was possible; therefore, it was an Angel.

  It stood there trapped and torn by vines, but still it lived. A creature of myth.

  ‘Kill me,’ gasped the Angel, blood dripping from his lips.

  The moment he spoke, the vines twisted, and the Angel cried out as they gripped him tight and tore at him, slicing his flesh and body open, gore and golden blood spraying.

  Nicolai felt the vines coming awake, sensed their awareness focusing on him. He lunged forward, reaching with the Grasping Finger. He slingshotted himself forwards just in time to avoid a deluge of vines that crashed down behind him, tearing at the area he’d occupied.

  He was only metres away from the stairwell. He was going to make it, the vines were reacting too slowly.

  Enemies, ambush! cried Threat Analysis,

  Threat Analysis’ warning drew his gaze to the ground around the stairwell, and he saw something moving, something big, something that was not a vine. Light shone on chitin.

  ‘Who’s this?’ spoke a voice, as something rose and slammed into Nicolai. Forewarned, he was able to hunch his body protectively and move his AA-12 to the side, ensuring it wasn’t crushed between them.

  His body crumpled against the great, solid bulk of the creature, air exploding from his lungs in a whuff. The world blurred around him as he was knocked backwards and away, falling to tumble and roll on the ground.

  There came an awful slicing pain from his leg as a vine wrapped it tight, and he saw more of them, a mass of them, coming for him.

  Nicolai sprung out of the roll, activating his Pegasi ring to aid his backwards movement and grasped his AA-12, swinging it around and taking aim. His movement abruptly came to a stop as the vine dragged on his leg, and he froze, balanced on one foot, the other extended. He adjusted his aim and fired a quick burst of rounds that punched through the vine and tore it apart, and his leg was free.

  The vines squirmed with rage, their movement speeding as they rose above and around him, everywhere.

  ‘Calm, little ones, calm,’ hissed another voice, and the vines stilled. They began to retract, slowly moving away from Nicolai. He stayed his finger on the trigger, watching. He wasn’t sure what this was, but they weren’t attacking. Best to wait and see.

  He took a moment to reach down with one hand and rip the barbed vine from his leg, then bent his head to the side and tugged his emergency Orb’s funnel with his teeth, taking a quick breath then clicking it closed. Throughout this his eyes and the AA-12 remained fixed on the two figures before him.

  Two Centipedes, both just as large the one he’d met in the prisons, loomed on either side of the Angel.