The creature bellowed and all eight arms flailed, but it didn’t fall. The lightning hit and the creature’s body absorbed it.

Bits of electricity whirled around its arms before disappearing.

Still impossible to understand, the giant’s mouth opened and shrieked, but that wasn’t the attack. The attack came in the form of lightning thrown from its hands.

We were lucky that we’d been training with Vaughn for years—meaning that we were lucky that I’d designed even our most basic suits to be Faraday cages and guide the current around our bodies instead of through them.

The giant’s lightning hit Cassie, Haley, Daniel, and me. Imagined or real, I thought I felt some heat, but no hint of electricity as sparks crossed our bodies.

Jaclyn, Amy, and Rachel missed out—Rachel because she wasn’t tangible. Jaclyn and Amy weren’t targeted—Jaclyn because she was still facing off with a Cabal soldier who stood between her and the giant. Amy happened to be behind Vaughn and Cassie at that moment.

Instead, the giant had targeted Urin, Ruthie Shaw, and the remaining guards. They missed Urin because the lightning dipped into the ground before it hit him. The lightning hit Ruthie and even though she shuddered, unable to do anything else, she didn’t fall.

When the lightning stopped, she stood there gasping for breath but then stumbled forward toward the giant, sword in hand.

The guards weren’t so lucky. It might be that wearing medieval armor worked against supernatural monsters, but it wasn’t great against lightning. Three guards wearing chainmail fell to the floor after being hit. Whether they were alive or dead, I didn’t know.

Cassie pointed her gun at the giant, but at the last moment fired at one of the two Cabal soldiers running with him. She hit the soldier multiple times, burning him each time and the soldier fell forward, moaning.

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And to think the guy’s intestines had only healed up in time to be shot by an alien weapon.

You might think I’d be mystified as to why Cassie changed targets. I wasn’t. I was relieved. I’d worried that the giant might be one of those guys who absorbed certain kinds of energy and then repurposed it.

You’re right, Daniel told me. She guessed the same at the last moment.

We didn’t have time to say more. Haley spoke over the comm, “Cap and Accelerando take out the Cabal soldiers. The rest of us need to concentrate on the giant.”

She wasn’t wrong, but I couldn't do much against the giant. My mini-laser would help against the Cabal soldiers.

There were two running with the giant. Cassie had taken out one. I shot the other, concentrating on his right knee, burning it.

He stumbled, caught himself, realized who was holding the laser, and launched himself at me.

I jumped sideways, wondering if it would even matter that I tried, given his velocity as reported by my HUD.

It did matter, saving my life.

I’d moved maybe an inch out of his reach when he landed, trying to grab my arm, pull me in, and maybe crush me.

That didn’t happen. Cassie shot him in the side with her gun and he screamed, that side of his body (including his arm) burned and blackened. This was the same guy who’d jumped out of the room when I’d hit him earlier but this was worse.

He tried to run away, but whatever damage I’d done to his knee caught up with him and he fell. He didn’t even try to get up, moaning, “Leave me alone,” over and over as he lay on the ground.

I wanted to find out what was going on with Jaclyn and the final Cabal soldier, but the giant had charged toward the main group.

Cassie, Vaughn, Daniel, Haley, and I dodged to the side—which only worked because Amy had used her spear to absorb the powers of the Cabal soldier she’d stabbed.

So, when the giant charged the rest of us, Amy charged in toward him. Though a regular Cabal soldier might have been worried about being burned by the giant’s orange glow or whatever he could do with absorbed energy, Amy didn’t.

With two long steps, Amy bounded up to him, her last leap putting her fist level with the giant’s face. The hit knocked him backward twenty feet, bloodying his nose.

Her next punch made an audible crack when it hit. For a moment, I worried that she’d broken the giant’s neck.

She hadn’t. She’d broken something else. The giant fell apart, glowing orange pieces of his body falling apart, some igniting, burning, and melting like wax.

A normal-sized man lay unconscious on the floor in the middle of it all.