I thought it was an unmanned robot at first, but when I got a closer look, I was able to see a cockpit. It was a suit of brick-colored armor, standing at least five feet taller than me, being piloted by a seemingly normal moggodrackin. The mech suit raised its massive sword and brought it down, aiming right at Sven.

Another trick I had been working on was increasing the size of my weapons when needed. It was very much still in development, and it wasn’t something I had been ready to show off just yet. When a sword bigger than me was about to be brought down on my friend, that was a good enough reason to bust out the prototype. A massive Shimmer-Sword to rival the mech’s appeared just below the incoming swing. The sound of the two swords clashing echoed off the surrounding buildings, leaving both Sven and the Savant looking stunned.

I blocked it, but I was already losing ground fast. My blade already had a deep crack in it where the mech’s sword hit it. With all my might, I lifted my sword up to make the mech stumble backward. After that, Sven went to work on fighting the Savant, thankfully not wasting more time by paying me any extra attention. There were flashes of blue lightning, silver blades, and red lasers. I’m sure it would have been cool as hell to watch, especially if real people and their lives weren’t at stake. Sadly, without my sight being at a hundred percent, and my attention being on the mech, I had to hope that there was a recording I could watch later. That way, I could justify watching it by saying I was trying to find weaknesses in my fighting.

We were in a little stalemate, getting a feel for the other’s defenses and weaponry. It was an odd way to feel each other out. I was using a massive sword, fighting at range, while they were in a huge suit of armor, protected from most conventional forms of damage. I tried to keep my focus on its body, both for blocking and striking. I wasn’t expecting much, though I wasn’t going to say no or throw up my hands in disbelief if I managed to snag a lucky hit.

I learned quickly that just because neither of us could land any solid hits on the other, it gave me a good enough idea of just how much power the mech suit was packing. I had a bad feeling that its hits weren’t nearly as strong or efficient as they could be. The mech didn’t have the disadvantages of getting tired or being poisoned either. Unless its pilot had a nasty case of narcolepsy I could exploit, I was going to run out of gas long before the machine was.

We continued our little dance for a few minutes. Slashes and stabs here and there from our comically oversized weapons, neither of us pushing too hard for risk of leaving an opening to take advantage of. I did what I could to pull the mech away from Sven, at least enough to give him some room to work efficiently. I decided I needed to keep him close enough in case everything started to go downhill, though what he could do to help I wasn’t sure.

Our swords clashed again, both of us pressing just hard enough to keep our blades locked. I took the chance to scan my surroundings, mostly looking for pjulsen survivors or moggodrackin ready to sneak attack me. I found neither, something I wasn’t sure was a good or bad sign. If our fighting got bad enough to start toppling the surrounding buildings, I had to hope all the civilians had been evacuated and the only loss would be someone’s property.

Like the Savant, the mech seemed surprised to see me. Whatever tactical advantage we had by keeping me hidden was gone. Soon, the entire moggodrackin military force would know that there was another person with powers defending Clamor. And they’d know that he wasn’t a pjulsen. I prayed that they’d never be able to find Earth. We had enough on our plates with humans, the revelation of Anomalies, and possibly the pjulsen. Adding an outwardly hostile species to the mix was not something we needed.

“A giant robot suit is pretty cool,” I admitted, bringing my full focus back to the fight at hand. Rough and ragged, my voice sounded like a knife being dragged across a rock, but the moggodrackin didn’t understand or didn’t care. They just prepped for an attack. What was the point of having a voice if no one could tell you called their big mech suit cool?

I tried to crouch for a roll to avoid whatever attack was coming, stumbling and nearly falling right on my face. I was learning why Sven referred to the poison as Heavy Green. My right arm was useless, completely unable to assist in any maneuvering. It hung limply at my side and I could only get it to twitch sporadically, and not always when I wanted it to. I had no way of moving it enough to help aid my body. In reality, I would have been better off slicing the thing off and working without that dead weight. It double-sucked because I was right-handed, and making my poor left arm pull the load for both wasn’t something my brain naturally agreed with.

With the realization that my arm was immobilized fully settling in, I felt that the poison was starting to spread throughout my body. My right leg was heavy and slow to respond, with painful tingles occasionally jolting through it like I had some nerve damage on top of having it fall asleep. I had a serious case of foot drop, which I thought looked bad for athletes when we learned about it in biology class, but when I tried to dodge a laser blast, it hit me just how bad it really was.

I dodged just enough of the blast to be sent flying through the air awkwardly. The laser hit my right shoulder, so the only damage there would be to my already-failing arm. Good. Well, maybe not good, but probably the best place for me to have been hit at that time. The issue was how it made my landing so awkward. Instead of being sent backward cleanly, I landed in a heap with my head slamming against the sidewalk. Dazed and barely able to register my appreciation for my improved armor, I got to one knee to prepare my defense as best I could after I shook off the cobwebs.

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Our swords clashed, sparks flew and bits of my Shimmer power flaked off and fell to the ground, turning into a glittery dust as it vanished. Trying to read the mech's movements was nearly impossible. My mind was slow to react and my vision was still a blur. I just looked for the silver outline of the giant weapon and did my best to hold it back. Fighting from range with a sword, I didn’t have to worry about taking any direct damage, but they were pressing me by pressing my weapon. I had to slowly hobble back with each strike that my blade took. Since all I could make out was the sword, I had to focus on that, which wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep my eyes—and by extension, my sword—on the mech’s body for both offense and defense.

They started firing lasers at my feet, deliberately not hitting me. I felt like a dancing bear on a hotplate, only with the use of about half my body. If they wanted to hit me, they easily could have, and that pissed me off. I started to slash and whack away at the armor, hoping to at least push the moggodrackin back. More sparks flew and each slash brought a scraping sound that made my teeth hurt. My vision was so blurry at that point that I just guessed there was no discernable damage or hindrance to the mech from my attacks.

The Savant barked something out, its voice nearly as strained and rough as my own. My head was so foggy that I couldn’t even point out the direction he was in. They must have been having a harder time with Sven than I was with the stupid walking bucket of bolts and scrap. Something they said must have put the mech pilot’s butt in gear. The next thing I knew, there was a loud, obnoxious buzzing noise. The silver became outlined in red. I didn’t know what it was at first, but when my sword was nearly cleaved clean in two while attempting to block a single strike, I knew it wasn’t any good.

He’s really got a laser sword.

I tried to back away again, the poison making it impossible to have full access to all of my motor functions. I was sure my bones and joints had been replaced by springs for all the good my limbs were doing me.

I had to create two swords to keep the mech on its toes enough for me to survive. The amount it took for me to create two swords that were nearly as big as the suit itself was almost enough to make me black out right there. Dark spots dotted my vision, and that familiar tingle in the base of my skull was telling me I was pushing it too hard. I knew I had to keep going or I was going to die, and then that robot would be all over Sven. Keeping up with the laser-edged sword was hard enough, but trying to throw an entire other sword's worth of offense in there had to be one of the hardest things I’d tried with my Anomaly. It was taxing my mind as much as the poison was taxing my body.

Another laser I couldn’t process hit me in the chest, sending me tumbling backward on the street. The force from the hit was enough to knock the wind out of me, the protection of my chestpiece be damned. I felt the armor break away after my landing and I did not want to feel what a laser would do on my unprotected skin. The landing from it was bad enough. My shirt was soaked through with sweat and I could barely muster the energy to lift my head. Trying to fill my lungs with air was impossible. How could I have taken breathing for granted all my life?

The mech approached slowly, sure that its prey was done for. In defense of its cocky actions, I basically was. The poison and lack of air I was getting were proving to be a deadly combination together. The thing cast a shadow over my prone body with the wicked red light of the laser breaking the darkness. Triumphantly, the suit of metal slowly raised its sword, savoring each moment of the impending kill.

I wasn’t sure I had a moment where my life flashed before my eyes, but it was probably as close as I’d been. I thought about all my friends and family. I was still damn sure I was going to see them and I was going to go down swinging. If the mech was going to finish me off, I was going to take it with me. It was going to fucking earn killing me. I remembered the beatings that Sven put on me while training up my armor, which was the biggest thing I could have possibly recalled at that moment.

When he had his sword all the way up in the air, I thrust my sword in the equivalent of its armpit. The tip of my sword emerged through the other side at a slightly downward angle. The mech stopped moving and gravity took control. The sword started to drop toward me and what was left of my rational brain started to panic. It’s funny how, even foggy, my brain could still try and move a million miles an hour while my body just remained motionless.

I had no way to dodge, not with the Heavy Green firmly taking its hold on my body, so I did the next best thing I could. I created a barrier to my left and slammed it into my body. I narrowly avoided getting cut in half hotdog style. The wicked laser sword managed to leave a small scorch mark at the end of my shirt. I rolled over to the other side of the street, coming to rest on my back.

The mech suit crashed a few feet away from me, kicking up dust in my peripheral vision. I didn’t know if I hit its weak point. I didn’t even know if the thing had a weak point. I tensed for a few seconds, not sure if I should try to carve it up with my sword or not. When I heard the metal of the suit groan for a few seconds, I was waiting for its second wind. After a few more seconds, that never came, and I allowed myself to relax in the street.

Looking up, and through the black at the edge of my vision, I could make out Magnus running toward me with the kid in hand. He was shouting something at me. His panicked voice hit my ears muffled, my brain unable to parse anything he was saying. I wanted to yell something back. Maybe cry out in celebration at taking the massive mech down with me. It wasn’t my style to gloat, but come on, it was a massive mech I’d managed to topple. How cool was that?

At least I had some happy thoughts to accompany me as the blackness continued to claw at the edge of my vision. The kid was safe, and that was great. I hoped they still had a family to go back to. They were in great hands with Magnus taking care of them. And more than being cool, taking out the mech suit meant Sven could fight the Savant without having to worry about that thing landing a cheap shot from behind. Knowing I did everything I could, and it was up to Sven to beat the Savant, my body and mind finally gave out on me. The last thing I thought about before I blacked out fully was how nice it’d feel not to deal with the poison anymore.