Rax's shield shattered with a crystalline chime that rang through Blake's bones. His finger tightened on Verdict's trigger—and at the exact same moment something invisible yanked the barrel skyward. The shot went wide, punching a neat hole in the ceiling instead of through Rax's smug face.
Telekinesis? Blake questioned as he registered the triumphant look spreading across Rax's features. Some kind of invisible force manipulation, probably tied to whatever strange cultivation the man used to control his soldiers. Blake's assessment was interrupted by a guttural roar and the blur of impossibly fast movement.
Pure instinct saved him. Blake dove into a combat roll as the enforcer's massive fist crashed into the floor where he'd been standing. Metal buckled and shrieked, forming a crater that spoke of strength far beyond anything Blake had seen short of the Alpha Ferroghest. Despite barely being grazed by the strike, pain flared along Blake's arm—the kind of deep tissue bruise that would paint his skin in spectacular colors if he survived long enough to see it develop.
Blake came up firing, Verdict's report thundering in the confined space. But sheets of twisted metal debris lifted from the floor, arranging themselves into an impromptu barrier between his shots and Rax. The rounds sparked off the floating shield, and Blake had just enough time to register the enforcer charging through the metallic curtain like an enraged bull.
A massive hand shot toward Blake's face, and he had a fraction of a second to realize the brute wasn't going for a chokehold—those massive fingers were spread to crush his skull like an overripe fruit. Blake dropped low, years of training taking over as he drove his shoulder into the enforcer's gut. He channeled a burst of Force Manipulation through his legs and core, amplifying his throw as he heaved the much larger opponent over his back.
The enforcer hit the already-damaged wall with enough force to buckle the reinforced metal, but the impact seemed to barely faze him. Blake didn't waste time watching the brute recover, however. He pushed off hard, charging toward Rax with Verdict already tracking. Two shots rang out in quick succession—the first went wide as Rax jerked once more pushed the weapon aside, but the second caught him high in his organic shoulder. Dark blood sprayed across the wall behind him.
Rax's face contorted in pain and rage. He made a sharp, violent gesture with his cybernetic arm, and the metal floor directly in Blake's path suddenly curled upward like the tongue of some mechanical beast. Blake kicked off the makeshift barrier, bleeding momentum rather than risk impalement on the jagged edges.
His mind raced as he landed in a ready stance. The way Rax moved the metal, the floating barriers, the way Verdict's barrel had been forced up—it wasn't pure telekinesis. The man was manipulating magnetic fields somehow, which meant...
Blake's thought was cut short as a flat shard of metal whizzed past his head, leaving a cut on his cheek and splitting the cartilage of his earlobe. The piece of scrap flattened itself against the floor-turned-barricade in a shocking demonstration of force.
Blake twisted aside as another chunk of metal panel whistled past his head. The enforcer's movements had grown more frenzied, purple veins pulsing beneath skin that had begun to split from the strain of containing his augmented muscles. The brute tore free another section of wall, metal shrieking as he wrenched it loose with inhuman strength.
[Warden's Insight] highlighted the network of compromised blood vessels spreading beneath the enforcer's skin like a roadmap of corruption. Whatever Malrik had done to enhance the man's strength was destroying him from the inside out. The ability also picked out optimal strike points where augmented muscle strained against its organic housing.
Blake's boots found solid purchase as he pushed forward, weaving through the storm of improvised projectiles. The enforcer's throws were powerful but predictable—all force, no finesse. Blake could work with that.
Movement caught his eye—Rax bolting for a partially concealed side door, his cybernetic arm trailing sparks. But something about the motion felt wrong. [Warden's Insight] peeled back layers of reality, revealing the fleeing figure and the supposed escape route both as nothing more than skillfully crafted illusion. The real Rax was trying to circle behind Blake, footsteps nearly silent against the metal deck.
Clever, Blake thought. But not clever enough.
The enforcer's massive fist carved through the air where Blake's head had been a heartbeat before. Blake felt the displacement of air against his cheek as he slipped inside the brute's reach. His knife cleared its sheath in a practiced motion, edge gleaming as he drove it up and into the enforcer's forearm with his off-hand. Dark blood welled around the blade, and the massive warrior's roar of pain filled the confined space.
Blake flowed around another devastating punch, pivoting sharply to bring Verdict to bear on Rax's true position. Two shots rang out in quick succession. Both rounds curved away from their target as Rax's magnetic fields redirected their trajectories, but the sudden attack broke his concentration. The illusory copy by the door flickered and vanished like mist in sunlight.
The enforcer's next series of attacks came faster but sloppier, augmented muscle visibly tearing through skin as the brute pushed himself beyond all safety limits. Purple light spilled from the wounds like blood, casting strange shadows across the ruined bunker. Blake exploited the growing gaps in the enforcer's form, ducking and weaving through the barrage of wild swings.
Suddenly the air filled with duplicates of the massive warrior—perfect copies that moved and attacked in concert. But [Warden's Insight] cut through the deception, highlighting the real threat among the phantoms. The actual enforcer's energy signature burned like a beacon through Rax's illusions.
Blake's knife found its mark again, sinking deep into the enforcer's back just beside his spine. The brute's howl of pain and rage shook dust from the ceiling. Blake reached for his mana, preparing to channel it into a point-blank [Kinetic Detonation]—but the enforcer's thrashing knocked him off balance before he could complete the technique.
A wild backhand caught Blake across the chest. The impact lifted him off his feet and sent him sliding across the deck plating. His armor absorbed most of the force, but the blow still drove the air from his lungs. He tasted copper as he rolled to a stop against a twisted section of wall.
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Blake's armor scraped against the deck as an invisible force tried to pin him down. Verdict suddenly felt impossibly heavy in his grip, the weapon's weight multiplying as Rax's magnetic fields intensified. The enforcer's massive form loomed over him, fist already descending in what would be a devastating hammer blow.
Blake released Verdict and rolled, the weapon clattering to the deck as he evaded. The enforcer's strike cratered the metal floor where Blake had been lying an instant before, the impact sending vibrations through the entire room. Shards of deck plating sprayed outward from the point of impact like shrapnel from a grenade.
Rising smoothly to his feet, Blake noted how the enforcer's muscles bulged grotesquely beneath skin that had continued to split and tear. Purple light leaked from all over his body now, creating a ghostly strobe effect as the massive figure pursued him. Each movement seemed to cause more damage to the brute's modified frame—artificial systems grinding against bone, unmodified muscle fibers snapping under impossible strain.
[Warden's Insight] painted a gruesome picture of the enforcer's deteriorating condition. The ability highlighted stress fractures spreading through bone, traced the network of burst blood vessels that turned the warrior's skin into a roadmap of corruption. Whatever cocktail of stimulants and augmentations Malrik had directed Rax to force into the man was eating him alive from the inside out.
The enforcer's next attack came in a wild series of haymakers, each swing powerful enough to take Blake's head clean off if it connected. But the movements were growing increasingly uncoordinated, driven more by rage and pain than skill or even animal instinct.
"Just die!" Rax screamed from somewhere behind his wall of floating debris. The command carried a pulse of mental force that made the enforcer's movements even more frenzied. A particularly desperate swing went wide, leaving the massive warrior dangerously overextended.
Blake didn't hesitate. He darted forward, hands finding the hilt of his knife still buried in the enforcer's back. The blade had worked deeper during their battle, likely aggravated by the brute's own movements. Perfect.
Gripping the knife with both hands, Blake channeled mana through the weapon. The energy responded sluggishly—he was running dangerously low now—but it was enough. The [Kinetic Detonation] that burst from the blade was barely a fraction of the technique's full potential, but buried as it was in the enforcer's back, it didn't need to be stronger.
The blast ripped through augmented muscle and artificial support structures, sending a spray of blood and strange fluids across the bunker's walls. The massive enforcer stumbled forward, frame wracked by spasms from his many augmentations as they began to fail catastrophically. Smoke poured from split seams in his armor, carrying the acrid smell of burning synthetics and scorched flesh. The sound of grinding metal filled the air as the warrior's altered skeleton strained against itself, pieces moving in ways they were never meant to.
Through [Warden's Insight], Blake watched the enforcer's aura fluctuate wildly. The puppet strings of Rax's mental control wavered and snapped as the leader's concentration fractured. Natural survival instincts warred with programmed aggression, leaving the massive figure caught between contradictory imperatives. The enforcer's movements became erratic, swinging wildly at threats both real and imagined as his mind struggled to process conflicting commands.
The corrupted warrior staggered drunkenly, servos in his legs whining in protest as artificial muscles tore themselves apart. One arm hung limp and sparking with violet power, while the other lashed out with decreasing coordination. Purple light poured from dozens of wounds now, creating a ghostly nimbus around the massive figure.
Blake kept his distance, looking for an opening to end this quickly. No one deserved to suffer like this, no matter whose side they were on. But between the enforcer's pain-induced frenzy and Rax's desperate attempts to reassert control, finding a clean finishing blow wouldn't be easy.
"I own you!" Rax's voice cracked with strain as he tried to force his will through their broken connection. "Kill him! Kill—"
The enforcer's head snapped toward the sound, movements jerky like a malfunctioning machine. Whatever remnants of the man's original personality remained seemed to recognize the source of his torment. With a roar that was equal parts rage and pain, the massive warrior charged toward Rax's position, completely ignoring Blake.
Blake wanted to laugh. He allowed himself a moment to catch his breath as he watched the Brute chase his abuser, desperate for one final taste of revenge. Blake could respect it.
Blake watched as Rax's metal barriers whirled in desperate patterns, trying to keep the enraged enforcer at bay. Sheets of deck plating lifted and twisted into makeshift spears, but the brute's momentum proved unstoppable. Purple-tinged blood sprayed from fresh wounds as metal tore into augmented flesh, yet the massive warrior barely seemed to notice.
The enforcer's remaining functional arm shot out with surprising speed, massive fingers closing around Rax's cybernetic limb. Rax's eyes went wide with sudden terror.
Metal screamed in protest. Synthetic fluids sprayed across the bunker wall in an arc of fluorescent green as the enforcer wrenched backwards. The sound of tearing metal and synthetic nerve clusters filled the air, followed by Rax's agonized howl as his prized cybernetic arm separated from his body at the shoulder mount.
Two for two, Blake chuckled mentally.
Rax stumbled backward, more of the green fluid streaming from torn connection points. His remaining hand made a sharp gesture, and a forest of razor-sharp metal spikes erupted from the deck. They punched through the enforcer's chest and back, the points emerging slick with purple-tinted gore.
But even impaled on multiple spears, the massive warrior refused to fall without getting what he was owed. His remaining hand still clutched Rax's severed arm like a grotesque trophy as he toppled forward. The enforcer's considerable weight drove both of them to the ground, crushing Rax beneath his bulk. The leader's scream of defiance cut off in a wet gurgle as the metal spikes he'd created were driven through both their bodies by the impact.
Blake surveyed the gruesome tableau, lips quirking into a half-smile as he retrieved Verdict from where it had fallen. He was glad to see it relatively undamaged and happy to have it back on his person.
"Well, that was anti-climactic," Kitt said. "Here I thought you'd get to punch his ticket yourself."
Blake shrugged, holstering Verdict. "Honestly, there's something poetic about it. I'm not mad that I didn't have to waste anymore ammo on him, personally."
"True. Though I had some excellent one-liners prepared for the occasion."
"Save them for next time." Blake wiped blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. "There'll always be someone that needs killing."
"Fine," Kitt huffed. "But I'm setting the turrets to fire on anything that walks out of that room, just in case."