Two monsters. Two fatal strikes descending simultaneously. And only one of him.
Darian's survival instincts screamed, but his legs turned to lead. The corrupted bone-scythe was inches from Zeri's neck.
A heavy body dropped from the balcony above.
Captain Halden landed squarely in the kill zone, stepping into the creature's blind spot between Zeri and the blade. She didn't raise her arm. She simply flicked her wrist.
The hex-shield gauntlet on her forearm flared. A segmented, hard-light disc shot outward, expanding mid-air into a brilliant kinetic wall. The bone-scythe slammed into the shield.
The deafening shockwave shattered the jade tiles beneath them, kicking up a cloud of dust and sending deep fissures spider-webbing across the pristine promenade.
Halden didn't flinch under the crushing weight. An unlit, chewed-up cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth. Her uniform jacket hung half-unzipped, the tie loose around her neck.
"Man, I leave you kids alone for five minutes," Halden drawled, her voice carrying a distinct, exhausted, big-sister energy. "And you start getting yourselves pureed."
She snapped her fingers. The hard-light shield surged, repelling the monster before retracting into her gauntlet with a sharp metallic whir.
Halden glanced over her shoulder, tossing Zeri a lopsided grin. "You still got all your pieces attached, kiddo? I really don't feel like filling out paperwork for a decapitated cadet today."
Zeri scrambled up, face flushed with adrenaline. She crossed her arms, projecting total arrogance as if she hadn't just been a millimeter from death. "Please. I was baiting it into a vulnerable stance. I had it handled."
"Sure you did." Halden chuckled, scratching the back of her messy hair. She pulled a battered lighter from her pocket, lit her cigarette, and exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
Her laid-back demeanor vanished, replaced by the cold authority of a Captain. "Squad 9. Form up."
The shift was instantaneous. The uncoordinated teenagers vanished, snapping into position as a flawless military machine.
"I'm anchoring the center! Get behind the shield!" Halden barked, stepping forward to draw the aggro. Her gauntlet flared, projecting a reinforced barrier that absorbed a rapid flurry of scythe strikes. "Ravion! You're the spearhead! Break their roots and shatter the armor!"
"Tch. Obviously." Using Halden's shield as cover, Ravion surged forward and dropped low. He drove his plasma spear in a wide arc, severing two of the beast's root-legs. The monster shrieked, toppling sideways.
"Zeri, fall back! Suppressive fire! Blind the optics, keep them off Ravion!"
"Hey, ugly! Over here!" Zeri yelled, blurring backward out of the strike zone. Her holographic blasters whined to life, raining searing light into the creatures' faces. "Let's see if you can hit something smaller than a dropship!"
"Darian!" Halden shouted, holding the line against the second hybrid. "Crowd control! Get civilians out!"
"On it, Captain!" Darian turned toward the paralyzed citizens still sitting at their tea tables, pretending the monsters didn't exist.
Before he could reach them, the larger hybrid shrieked. Blinded and crippled, it didn't strike at the squad. It reared back and drove both massive bone-scythes down into the cracked jade floor with the force of a meteor.
"Brace!" Halden roared, snapping her shield upward into a dome to catch the concussive shockwave.
The jade tiles shattered into jagged shrapnel, but the floor held. Infuriated and trapped, the beasts whipped their scythe-arms, lunging blindly toward the oblivious civilians.
"Formation! Do not let them touch the civilians!" Halden ordered. She thrust her arm out. Her shield detached, shooting across the promenade like a glowing buzzsaw. It snapped open into a shimmering umbrella directly over a family frozen at their table, deflecting a scythe strike that would have cut them in half.
"Darian, tactical evac!" Halden yelled, recalling her shield and stepping into the path of the larger beast. "Get them out of the crossfire!"
Darian sprinted toward the civilians, mag-blade unignited. "Move! This way! Get behind the pillars!" He grabbed a paralyzed teenager, physically throwing him behind a sturdy decorative column just as a corrupted root smashed the table where the boy had sat.
With Darian clearing the lanes and Halden absorbing the assault, the heavy hitters went to work.
"Ravion, open them up!" Halden commanded, blocking a downward strike.
Ravion vaulted a shattered tea stall, twisting his spear to overload the plasma tip. He drove the weapon into the first creature's armored chest, unleashing a concussive blast that shattered the blackened bark. Using the momentum, he spun and drove the butt of his spear into the second monster, cracking its chest plate in a shower of purple sparks.
The pulsing amber cores of both beasts were exposed.
"Armor broken," Ravion stated flatly, dropping into a crouch to clear the airspace.
"Goodnight, ugly!" Zeri laughed, launching off a decorative railing and flipping backward. She leveled both holographic blasters, targeting reticles locking onto the amber cores.
She fired a concentrated dual-beam blast. The plasma pierced both cores.
The monsters froze. Blinding light spilled from their jaws. With a muffled thud, they exploded inward, collapsing into steaming heaps of rotting sludge on the ruined jade floor.
Silence slammed back into the promenade, broken only by the hiss of melting biomass, the distant hum of the sector's ambient music, and their own ragged breathing.
Halden stood up slowly, dusting debris off her slacks. She pulled the lighter from her pocket, re-lit her cigarette, and let out a long exhale. She lazily ruffled Zeri's hair, ignoring the cadet's annoyed swat. "Well. That was a messy one. Everyone still breathing?"
"Never better," Zeri shot back, leaning slightly into the touch before spinning her blasters away. She smirked at Darian. "You actually dragged them out of the way."
Darian leaned against a cracked pillar, catching his breath. He looked around the ruined promenade, making sure the unresponsive citizens he'd shoved to safety were unharmed.
Halden, however, wasn't smiling. She walked over to the dissolving sludge, her boots crunching on the broken jade. She crouched down, her eyes narrowing as she studied the glowing remains.
"Did you sense Halvek?" Ravion asked, stepping closer.
"No," Halden replied, her expression darkening as she sifted a piece of blackened bark with the tip of her boot. "There are absolutely no traces of him on them. None." She stood up, looking back at the squad. "But... I sensed something else entirely. Something underneath us."