The beast pounced on Seras, and she couldn’t move fast enough to escape its razor-sharp claws. They raked across her skin, and sparks flew from were claw met metal exterior.

Seras had been knocked off her feet by the force of the blow. She only had a moment to gather her wits when a second strike came for her. This time the beast spat on her, and its green slobber blenched her open wounds.

Cavern Lurker, venomous spit has been resisted due to ‘poison immunity’ from Biomechanical Physiology.

The beast stood there watching Seras, as if waiting for her to react to the venom.

Had she still been a flesh bag then its attack may have killed her then and there. But very little of Seras was still flesh and blood. She took its pause to assess her situation. Above the beast was floating a name plate

Iron rank Cavern Lurker

She knew by its dark fur and feline body that it was an ambush predator, with a strange hunting strategy. Usually, venomous creatures had fangs or stingers, but this thing had cut her open then flung its venom. That’s when she noticed the slick black creature had no mouth to speak of. Just an overlarge snout.

Was this goo snot? Ugh, that was way worse than spit.

How did it eat?

Did it eat with its big nose? Did it stop breathing when it ate?

Didn’t matter. Beyond its claws and venom Seras didn’t see any other means of offense. It was small for a predator, coming up to her mid-thigh and lacking in much visible musculature.

While it was still waiting for her to keel over and die from her wounds Seras shifted her weight onto her ankles and sprang forward with all the power her athletic grade tendons could manage.

She could have gone for the more reliable military grade tendons, but Seras had always been dazzled by the high-flying flips of highball players.

Even from her prone position Seras cleared the distance between her and the beast. Her left arm cracked forward with all the power of a bullet and buried her fist into the Cavern Lurkers jaw. She felt flesh cave beneath her metal knuckles, and the creature was sent flying back.

“Ha, if all the threats here are this weak then I don’t need magic powers to deal with you” she quipped as she saw the Cavern lurker’s form crumple against a wall.

Only then did she see the other dark figures slinking out of the shadows. Mentally Seras updated her description of a Cavern Lurker from ambush predator, to ambush pack predator.

“Why did I have to open my mouth” she groaned.

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As the words left her mouth all five of the remaining beasts leapt forward. Two flanking her to either side while the lead snorted more venom onto her wounds.

Cavern Lurker, venomous spit has been resisted due to ‘poison immunity’ from Biomechanical Physiology.

“That’s not gonna work!” Seras roared as her legs snapped forward, and legs pumping like a piston, body slammed the lead Lurker.

Seras slammed it against a wall and felt it go limp as its spine cracked.

Then with a brief warning from her HUD she kicked against the wall and back flipped over the Lurker pouncing for her back.

Her tactical advisor program had used the slight sound of scuffing stone to infer that an attack was coming, and had given her a warning just in time. It had cost her nearly half a mil to buy the program, and half the time it gave her false warnings. But when it did its job correctly it really came in clutch.

The creature she had jumped over tried to copy Seras’ wall kick, but it didn’t get the chance to as Seras grabbed its hindleg to swing it at one of the other Lurkers.

The two went sprawling and were tangled with each other's limbs. The other two backed up half a pace, and Seras roared at them. Hoping to scare the beasts off in order to find easier prey.

But either hunting had been lean making them desperate, or the Lurkers were too dumb to back off, because the two backing off stopped their retreat and instead launched forward.

Seras ducked, and noticing that the other two had gotten awfully close to the edge of the step pyramid, decided to let gravity do the hard part of killing these things.

She dashed forward, put her weight on her right leg, and with a powerful kick from her left she knocked the two dazed Lurkers off the side of the pyramid. They made a snorting sound as the they fell.

The two remaining beasts had recovered from their leap and were now once again flanking her.

She tried her best to keep an eye on both beasts as the prowled around her. But their instincts were sharp, and they knew how to best leverage their remaining numbers.

The one on her left jumped, while the other charged in low to the ground. She could get one but not the other.

In a panic and without any better ideas she opened her pocket space in front of the one low to the ground. The portal once again opened midair and the beast flew headfirst into it. she attempted to close the portal around its neck, but a pop up appeared as she gave the mental command.

Object obstructing rift, clear the object to close pocket space.

Because that would have been too easy. Whatever, it had earned her a few precious seconds to deal with the second one.

As it pounced onto her she gripped both hands around its neck and squeezed. Her vise grip clamped down with the strength of an industrial claw, suffocating its air way, and surprisingly popping its head off its slender shoulders. Hot blood coated her hands as the beasts body fell through her fingers.

Seras was reminded that for all the natural weapons these beasts had she was still a killing machine. Rebuilt to handle threats way above their weight class. It had been so long since Seras fought actual flesh and blood opponents that she forget how weak the flesh really was.

She had replaced the last bit of surface flesh years ago, and had since only delved further into the world of cybernetic transhumanism.

Her confidence bolstered she fixed her eyes on the remaining Lurker, who had just managed to pull its head free of her pocket space. It watched her more warily than before, its floppy oversized nose twitching as it like smelled the blood one her. It stepped.

“Oh no, you already had your chance to flee.” She growled before charging.

It wheeled around, scrambling on all fours, and tried to flee. But Seras’ ceaseless piston like legs were faster, and she caught up to its panicked sprint in no time. For once she was the one to pounce, and just from the weight of her chrome she snapped the Lurker’s spine as she fell onto it elbow first.

The beast now dead beneath her Seras stood and let out a sigh, her racing heart slowing down now that the fighting was over.

Then she heard a sort of howl in the distance. It was nowhere near her. But it did remind Seras that she was still exposed.

Rule number one of survivability: don’t be seen.

They can’t kill you if they can’t see you. Usually. Bombs and orbital strikes didn’t really need to know your exact position to kill you, just a general area.

She was exposed on this pyramid. Which left her with two options. Try to find another room within the pyramid, or go down into the city. She needed a weapon, and she needed it now. While there was no guarantee that the pyramid would have any, it was the closest structure she could search.

But the idea of being potentially trapped in a room when something else decided to wander in left her uneasy.

But with the cleared space around the pyramid, she would be exposed before she could get to the urban sprawl of the city where she could disappear. She looked down the side of the current level she was on and judged the distance down. To high even for her to jump. There had to be a staircase around here. Either on the exterior or within. That meant she would need to explore the pyramid regardless of what she chose.

Her choice made for her Seras walked into the shadow cast by the glowing quartz and began to walk the perimeter of the pyramid.