Mikasa leapt sideways, dodging the huge sword's slash.

"Your soul will be mine!" screamed the wielder, swinging Soul Edge along the ground. Mikasa jumped, the blade barely passing under her. The demonic knight pulled back for another strike. The scout watched the blade move back, and stop at the top of its arc. With ridiculous speed she swung her own swords, meeting the huge zweihander in mid-strike. With her entire upper body tensed, she held the sword back.

"You fool!" growled Nightmare. "Now you cannot strike!"

"Yes, I can," stated Mikasa, who delivered a tremendous scissor kick to the knight's helmet. It stumbled backward.

"Impossible! No mortal can strike with such force!"

Mikasa patted her 3D Maneuver Gear's storage box. "All in the lower body."

Nightmare charged again, barreling toward the scout. She noticed a small gap in the knight's armor, just underneath the heavy breastplate. She crouched, like a sprinter waiting for the gun- except she would be her own gun. Nightmare continued to draw closer. Three meters, two meters, one.

Mikasa focused on the weak point. She pushed off of the ground with her unnatural strength, kicking dirt and grass skyward. A click of one of her sword's triggers, and a burst of the 3DMG's gas propulsion added to her momentum. She extended the sword ahead, and felt the softer mail give way, running over her hand, arm and up to her shoulder. She had run the demon through, front-to-back.

"Uuugh," it moaned, hanging limp over her arm.

Great. How am I supposed to get this thing off?

***

Ryu was not having such troubles. He dodged another swipe from the Predator's wrist blades.

"Good, good, but predictable," he noted, delivering a fierce punch to the creature's face. Its mask absorbed a good deal of the blow, but it was still dazed from the strike.

"You see, you've left me an opening," continued Ryu, leaping into the air. He spun in place, unleashing a barrage of spinning kicks. "For my TATSUMAKI SENPUKYAKU!"

The martial artist landed artfully on his feet. The Predator reeled, but shook off the blows, growling. A metal stalk extended from its shoulder plate and began to whine.

"Oh," whimpered Ryu.

The plasma caster fired a bolt, and the martial artist responded in kind with a hadoken. The two blasts of energy collided in the air, erupting into a blue cloud of dispersed plasma. Ryu had raised his arms to guard against the backblast, and saw between them that the alien hunter was running toward him.

"If you insist," he said, reading his arm.

The Predator tore through the blue cloud of energy to find Ryu prepared. A muscular arm soared up from the ground, buring itself under the creature's chin.

"SHIN!" called out Ryu, leaping off the ground, carrying the Predator aloft on his fist.

"SHORYUKEN!" He extended his striking arm, tossing the Predator even higher into the air. Ryu dropped to the ground, wiping the green glowing blood off of his fighting gloves. A second later, the Predator slammed onto the ground with a thud, its mask tumbling off. Ryu moved over to his fallen opponent. The creature's eyes spun aimlessly in their sockets.

"That's a knockout, then," he confirmed.

***

Twilight circled her foe nervously. The creature was constantly eyeing her, despite the fact that it had no eyes.

Oh man oh man oh man that thing is scary. Nopony would like to run into one of those in a dark alley, that's for sure.

Twilight continued to sidestep, only to trip over her own hoof. She righted herself, but the creature saw its opportunity. It pounced toward the unicorn, shrieking madly. Twilight screamed before teleporting in time to dodge the creature's attack. She reconstituted behind the Xenomorph, which seemed surprised that it had not snagged her.

OK, let's see here. It looks like a Changeling… but I doubt an anti-changeling spell will work on it.

The creature turned and laid its not-sights on her again. She lowered her horn and fired a small bolt of magic, which bounced off of the creature's carapace. It growled menacingly.

Silicon based life. Interesting. Basic magical attacks won't work on it. But perhaps I could try and bait it into doing something foolish.

The Xenomorph flicked its tail forward, its bladelike tip tearing through the place where Twilight used to be. She fired another bolt of magic at it, then turned tail and galloped toward the burnt forest. She looked back as she ran, the creature's spines and terrible elongated head appearing over the horizon.

Eeek! It's really fast!

She teleported toward the nearest burnt tree, its twisted black limbs echoing those of the creature pursuing her. For a moment, the creature paused to locate her once more. Twilight figured she would lend it a helping hoof.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Hey, ugly!"

Wow, that was more cliché than I thought.

The Xenomorph scurried toward her, hissing with that terrible grating-metal scream. Twilight backed up slowly, only run into the tree.

"I sure hope this works," she whimpered.

The creature drew back its tail, tipped with a deadly blade. The unicorn was afraid to look, so she shut one eye. The tail rocketed forward, and Twilight cast her spell.

You see, she mentally lectured the creature, I realized that I couldn't defeat you using magic or physical attacks. At least, not directly. So I added a reflection property to my Magic Dome Shield.

The Xenomorph's tail struck the shield, and upon touching it, reversed direction. The blade tore through its owner's ribcage, splattering its lower body with its own acid. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief inside her magical sanctuary as the creature dissolved itself.

I'll have to write a letter about that one.

***

Holly's fingers struggled to find purchase on the smooth, reptilian skin that covered Megatron's shoulder pads. Luckily, her light weight meant it was not difficult to hang on for dear life. She attempted to reach for her Neutrino, but the robot moved, tossing her along the surface of his arm.

"Get. Off," he said.

"Give me a good reason!" Holly retorted. She found a sunken-in metallic bit in the robot's armor and swung herself on to his back, landing in an alcove between bulky armor plate extending behind his shoulders, and his head. She finally was able to draw her Neutrino, pointing it directly at the back of Megatron's head.

"Say good night," she said, and fired. Megatron did not say good night. Instead, he reached up and plucked Holly off, dangling her in front of his face.

"Organic fool. Did it not occur to you that I could convert my systems to run on a frequency that would not be interrupted by your energy weapon?"

"No, no it didn't," she said, and shot him in the face. Megatron staggered backward, crying out in pain. He dropped Holly, who executed one of her signature three-point landings. She took off at a sprint toward the stumbling Cybertronian's left leg, which was temporarily at a 45-degree angle. It wasn't too different than a balance beam- except balance beams didn't have ten-ton killer robots attached to them. Holly leapt from the top of his leg onto his outstretched left arm, composed of his dinosaur mode's head.

Megatron caught himself, his stabilizing servos kicking in. He drew his left arm up to his face, grimacing at Holly.

"Do not test my patience, elf," he oiled, reaching for her with his right arm. Holly jumped from his arm onto his chest, which had a convenient platform-esque ridge for her to land on. She now stood directly in front of his metal face, which scowled fiercely.

"How about I test your vision?" she said, and jammed her small hand into his right optical socket. Holly grabbed at whatever she could and tore it out furiously, splattering the Predacon's face with his own Energon. He clawed wildly at his face, knocking Holly to the ground. Holly struggled to get up, and when she succeeded, she found the Cybertronian's right arm leveled at her. The Tyrannosaurus head's mouth was open, and an orb of purple energy was collecting inside.

"That's a gun, isn't it?" Holly moaned.

"Mark my words, Holly Short!" he screamed, cradling his injured eye with his left hand. "You will rue the day you stood against Megatron! For taking my sight, I shall take your life! Is that not justice? I think so, yesss."

Holly, suddenly unintimidated, began to wipe the Energon off of her hand.

"You know," she said. "It must really be a drag, not having peripheral vision."

"Whatever could you mea-"

His response was cut short by the razor-sharp blades severing the oh-so-critical connection between his head and body. The mighty Predacon fell backward, his systems whining as they lost power. Mikasa dropped to the ground, and sheathed her swords.

"I thought you said that 3DMG was useless in the open," said the elf accusingly.

"Almost useless," grunted Mikasa.

Twilight came to a skidding halt in front of the two, with Ryu jogging in behind.

Holly holstered her Neutrino. "Everyone's back. I guess things went well." She received three nods.

She turned and looked toward the point where they had emerged from the forest. There, Katniss was still fighting her father. And it did not look like she was winning.