A roar—not a man, something else—tore through the air. All around me the fighting stopped. There had been so many, but I looked now and I saw far more still bodies than standing ones. They paused in their fighting, all of them, and backed away from us. I stood tensely, ready to crush skulls or alternatively, run away. The man across from me looked at me warily, then around, as if he could determine the source of the sound.

I set my suit to scanning and it pinpointed the noise instantly, about two-hundred metres due west.

I looked in that direction. I could see instantly why everyone had stopped fighting.

“Holy shit. Larsen, are you seeing this?” I instinctively moved closer to her, safety in numbers and all that. There was something primal in that roar. It sounded pissed off, or maybe hungry. Was this the type of thing ancient humans had felt, defending themselves against predators twice their size with little more than a pointy stick? If so, I could commiserate with them.

“Trying not to.” She answered bitterly.

“Is it friendly?” I asked dubiously.

“I don’t know… it’s kind of hard to say.” Larsen snorted, her sarcastic wit rearing its head. Whatever this thing was, it clearly wasn’t friendly. “Are we running, or fighting?”

I scoffed lightly. “A Marine doesn’t surrender, you should know that by now. These folks sure do though.” I watched as the remnants of the massive mercenary outfit fled—mostly east—directly away from the sound.

“I said ‘run’, not surrender.”

I took a look around. All of the former combatants were running, scattering in all directions. I frowned. They were scared of this thing, clearly, but did that mean we should be?

After a moment's thought I answered my own question aloud with bravado I didn't feel. “Well, I’m not running away from some… what the hell is that thing any way?” I asked.

The source of the noise that had everyone running scared could best be described as an ethereal black wolf summoned from hell itself, large ashen ribs and softly glowing eyes, the colour of a sunset were its most distinctive features.

It was about fifty odd metres away, just standing there, watching us. Slowly, it began to pad towards us. It reminded me of a cat with the way it moved, but it’s face was unmistakably canine in nature. Those eyes had a kind of feral intelligence to them, I couldn’t shake the feeling it wasn’t just a stupid dog or some kind of hungry animal.

The sable sheen of fur covered muscles that seemed to ripple with power as it stalked towards us. The way it moved had a distinct wrongness to it. It was like it was lighter than it should be, its gait more fleet-footed and flowing than my brain expected. I would’ve loved to examine the thing in more detail, if only to sate my curiosity and learn more about it, but that would have to wait until after it was dead.

Our first real look at the wildlife of this place was some kind of badass canine wolf with an edgy aesthetic. It was pretty cool. Well, I thought so at least, right up until reality reasserted itself and I realised we were going to have to kill the damned thing. That dampened my enthusiasm somewhat.

“It’s no fun when the awesome killing machine wants to kill *you*.” I muttered.

“Are you seriously- No, you know what? Shut up and help me kill this thing. I’m not getting eaten by an alien dog.” Larsen growled defiantly.

“If you’re hoping to intimidate it by growling louder, you’re not going to scare it off.” I smirked.

“I’m not, but what I *am*, is offended this thing thinks it can turn me into dinner. Go for the eyes?”

“As good a place as any.” I agreed.

I gripped the barrel of my rifle and unlocked my knife, slotting it into the scabbard on my chest. Then, I let my rifle fall away as it clung to my armour from a small cable. It wasn’t long enough to swing during combat, which was important. I didn’t want to worry about a chunk of metal and polymers getting in the way if I needed to move quickly.

I scoffed. “That thing looks more like a wolf than a dog.”

“Whatever, same damned thing, isn’t it? It’s still going to try and eat us. I’m nearly black on ammo, how’s your sidearm?”

“Irrecoverable.” I scowled, remembering how someone had knocked it from my hands with a damned spear of all things. The memory disgusted me.

Another roar sounded, this time I could *see* when its mouth stretched open. The collection of jagged white teeth and the powerful jaw muscles I saw did not put me at ease.

Larsen exhaled forcefully. “Great. I’ve got… twelve rounds left in my pistol and then I’m down to my knife.”

“MOVE!” I screamed.

The beast—and it *was* a beast— cleared the distance between us like a missile. One moment it was stalking us, the next it was in front of Larsen. It looked a bit like a wolf, but it sure as hell didn’t move like one.

Larsen dived out of the way, dumping what remained of her magazine as the thing lunged at the spot where she’d been. It had long claws, at least as long as my own knife. It whirled, intent on closing in for the kill and finishing her.

Twelve shots at close range slammed into the side of it’s head. Admittedly, they were only pistol rounds, but against any normal animal its size even one would have put it down instantly. Clearly, this was something of a different breed than any animal on Earth, or even the colonies.

“Shit!” I hissed, leaning into a run.

I threw myself onto the thing’s back, stabbing with an ice pick grip and the benefit of superhuman strength. Trying to go for the eyes was harder than it sounded. The thing was as slippery as ice and damned near as hard as one. I could barely hold on by grabbing a handful of its fur and anticipating its movements.

The edge of my knife bit into the flesh just above its shoulder, but I was surprised to feel actual resistance. It was like trying to cut through a tire with a machete. Not impossible, but not effortlessly either. That actually shocked me for a little bit. I could cut through *steel* with contemptuous ease using the same blade. This thing was at least half again as resilient.

It roared, throwing me from it’s back as it twisted and turned like a whip. I saw it spin towards me as I tumbled across the mud. It looked pissed, eyes locked onto me like I was attacking its cubs. Did these things have cubs? Puppies?

It streaked towards me, snarling and I raised my arms in defense. I curled up into a ball, left arm covering my face and neck, right arm holding my knife out like a cross warding off a demon. The blade was all the deterrent I had.

“Larsen-“ It raked my arms with its claws and my armour screamed warnings at me. I didn’t need to read any of them to know that I was in a bad position. As it struck again, I could practically feel the muscle and tendon rippling as its claws struggled to find purchase and gouged my gauntlets If I tried to get up, I had no doubt it would try to rip into something more important than my arms. I would rather not give it that opening.

I saw Larsen jump up and sink her knife into it’s skull, driving it down with all the force of her body’s weight and then some. What shocked me more than its speed was that it didn’t go down after that. Her eight inch blade was lodged in its head and it didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest. She hung onto the hilt with a stubborn determination. Silently, I approved.

My feet propelled me upright and I took advantage of the distraction Larsen had created. I ran in and slashed at its legs, hoping to sever something vital and slow it down. I danced back out of range after only two strikes as it turned to snarl at me with those oversized teeth.

Larsen meanwhile, was hanging on for dear life, stabbing at its eyes with all the wrath of a particularly vicious drill instructor.

I knew how to fight a man, I’d been trained on it, but fighting a rabid animal that wanted to rip me into pieces? One that didn’t seem to have a brain? I hadn’t been drilled on that.

Eric appeared at my side and thick bolts of lightning leapt from his fingertips as he thrust his hands out at the creature. I had all of two seconds to witness it being pushed back as he pulled me to my feet, then that thing had another go at me.

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked, slashing at it again as I dived out of the way of its lunge. I hit the ground hard on my stomach.

“I’ve been a little busy fighting off a dozen mages trying to capture me.” He snarled, letting loose a bolt of lightning. Miraculously, it arced in such a way that it didn’t hit Larsen, who was *still* somehow hanging on.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

I let the palm of my gauntlet close over my knife with a tight grip and got to my feet. A split-second blur of movement was all the warning I had before I was knocked on my back and the damned demon-wolf was clawing at my breastplate, weight pressing me into the earth.

“Cut it’s heart out!” Eric barked, throwing another bolt of lightning from his outstretched hand. The energy formed a bridge from his fingers to the monster, lighting up the mud with a harsh glow. Somehow, it didn’t hit me, and the close-up of a lightning strike would’ve fascinated me if I hadn’t been fighting for my life.

Ramming my knife into its chest, I felt the satisfying bite of my knife as I drove it through its skin and up towards the thing’s neck in a long line. What should have been a killing blow spilled no intestines, no viscera and gore, just copious amounts of a dark, thick fluid that was several shades darker than my armour.

“Where the fuck is it?” I screamed.

It wasn’t just trying to kill me, the creature was in a frenzy. I wasn’t an expert on animal facial expressions, if such a thing existed, but it didn’t take one to see that the thing hated my guts and wanted me dead.

“I don’t know! The heart should be there somewhere!” Eric said as bolts of lightning hammered its rear.

Larsen slammed her knife into its side but it simply ignored her, it was like she didn’t even exist. It was entirely fixated on me. In a peculiar way, I suppose I was flattered that it wanted to kill me first, and with such single-minded focus. Still, I wasn’t flattered enough to just lay there and die.

It clawed and snarled at my chest and arms as I tried to put something less vital between my ribcage and the thing’s teeth. It responded by opening its maw and trying to crush my shoulder. Flashes of fire began to replace lightning as Eric decided on a different approach.

“Just fucking die already!” Larsen screamed.

I felt the pressure increase, which was a bad sign, but my armour held, even as it tried to crush me into the dirt. I bucked and twisted beneath its form, held immobile against the ground by my lower half. It had my legs and waist pinned beneath its bulk. I realised that the damned thing must way at least as much as a car, if not more.

I roared as I tried to get my legs out from under its own. Something inside me broke, like a dam of primal instinctive knowledge. Some long dormant genetic memory maybe, or some ancient survival trait rearing its head.

My body knew this was a predator and that I was its prey. I stared not just death in the face, but a vicious, hungry beast and my back was against the wall, or ground in this case.

That kind of unconscious knowledge lent me a kind of unnatural emergency power. I’ve never been so strong or fast. This was a level above the fight, flight, freeze response. Filthy, incomprehensible words rolled off my tongue as though my voice tried to weaponise itself in defense of my body and I began to turn animal, a defiant biped against an enraged quadruped.

I dragged the edge of my blade in thoughtless, feral patterns. In the blink of an eye, it collapsed on me, lifeless and stilled by my steel. I almost didn’t realise. When I suddenly felt it go slack on top of me the shock was enough for my heart to skip a beat.

I laughed. A crazy, manic feeling bubbled up inside me. I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to. I laughed and laughed for the longest time, wheezing when my lungs finally gave out. My face began to ache and I smiled.

“I’m alive! Fuck you, you skeleton dog!” I finally got out, coming down from an adrenaline high and a bout of what some would call giggling.

“You alright under there?” Larsen asked.

“Are you well?” Eric echoed Larsen’s question, his concern much more intense.

The heights of euphoria, and the bliss of a battle won began to fade. I held off on checking myself over for a moment, squeezing myself out from under my kill to lay next to it.

I turned my head as I lay flat and gave the beast an appraising look. Even in death it still managed to look hungry and mean.

I mustered the energy to check my suit sensors for more danger. When none reared its ugly head and I saw only two friendlies nearby, I slackened, laying back and sinking into my exhaustion. I didn’t know how long the fight had taken and I didn’t care to check, but fighting from the ground against tooth and claw had been the furthest thing from restful.

“Everything is fucking tired.” I said thoughtlessly, floating in an odd state of peaceful exhaustion. I refrained from speaking further, aware in the back of my mind that anything that come had even odds of being gibberish, or else short and simple.

“Fight’s not over yet. On your feet.” Larsen held out her hand, hoisting me upward as I gripped it.

“You look like hell.” Larsen snorted as I steadied myself and a slight feeling of dizziness passed.

“Bad?” I asked.

“It *looks* bad.” She replied, concern lacing her words.

I glanced at an armour diagram imposed on the top right of my HUD. The gauntlets had some hard scratches in them, but their effectiveness didn’t seem compromised. I turned my arms this way and that, inspecting the deep gouges and scratches. Checking the bite mark in my armoured shoulder gave me a fright. The entire thing was crumpled and crushed, but it had done its job marvelously.

“The damage is mostly confined to the armour itself. Internals seem to be fine, though the gel layer ruptured around my forearms. Shoulder’s sore and the plating there is toast. The worst of it is my upper back right near my shoulder blades. My armour’s not quite bricked, but it won’t do me any good if I get hit in the back.”

I grimaced, eyeing a splash of crimson on my HUD.

Now that I had the time to read the annotated diagram, I’d realised the slightly cold feeling around my forearms was the gel leaking out from my armour’s underlayer and that my back was now effectively unarmoured.

I replayed the battle, or the sensor data, overlaying an omni-directional view across my HUD. I watched carefully as I sped the footage up. A large lightning strike had slammed into my back from the sky. I watched long enough to see the man’s windpipe crushed by Larsen’s armoured fist and then returned my HUD to its normal state.

“Thanks for the save back there, Vic.” I nodded to her.

“What?”

“Discount Thor?”

“Ah.” She nodded back. “You’re welcome, and lucky.”

“Another hit like that in the same spot and we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.” I agreed.

She made a noise of agreement, pacing back and forth, head turning this way and that.

“Nothing else shows on my scans, I think we’re safe for the moment. Did that seem a bit too easy to you?” Larsen said.

“Yeah… kind of. Weren’t these mercs supposed to be top-tier or something? I believe ruthless was the word he used.”

“I admit, I am confused as well. I have no proof but… it almost seemed like they threw all their recruits at you and the real warriors were elsewhere.”

I nodded. That fit with my own assessment. I’d barely faced much magic and there had been precious little in the way of tactics on display. Even a moderately trained soldier should have known better. Fresh recruits though? That made more sense.

The ones I’d known in my time would’ve been lucky if they’d found their own asses with two hands a map.

“Great. Now, Eric…” I turned to the man, finding him crouched beside the slain creature.

“Yes?” He looked up at me.

“What the *fuck* is that thing, and are there more?”

“You mean more coming to kill us? Or more in general?”

“Either.” I answered.

“I concur with your friend here, I sense nothing amiss nearby.”

“Sense? If you can sense these things why didn’t you sense it earlier? And again, *what* is it?”

He looked disturbed at that line of questioning, maybe guilty?

“I… I don’t think you want to know.”

“Trust me.” I scowled. “I want to know. More than that, I *need* to know. If there are more of those things in my future here, I want to know everything about them and the best way to kill them.”

Eric looked between Larsen and I, trading uncomfortable glances with us.

“Just tell me.” I was getting tired of his theatrics.

“Vampires.” He said, reluctant dread tinging his words.

Fucking. Vampires?” I said, flatly.

“Vampires. What you just killed was a vampire’s construct, its familiar.”

I looked over at the familiar, a construct. It looked more like a twisted version of a dog than some kind of vampire’s pet. Weren’t bloodsuckers supposed to have imps or bats as pets or something?

“Vampires?” Larsen asked sharply. “As in people with pale skin that suck the blood out of you with fangs?”

Eric grimaced. “They don’t drink your blood. They *eat* you.” He shuddered.

“They’re zombies too?” My eyes widened slightly. “Man, fuck this planet. No offense, but I really can’t wait to leave.”

His eyes twinkled with amusement. “It’s not for everyone, but there isn’t anywhere else for us to go. Most of us are used to the danger. Those of us who spend time outside the walls, I mean.”

“Used to vampires?” I clarified haltingly.

“And vampire familiars, yes.”

“Well, shit, my opinion of you rises. I guess I’ll start carrying garlic around.”

“What? Why would you carry garlic on you?”

I shook my head, smirking. As much as it was a bit tiring to explain cultural differences so often, it was kind of fun too. “Garlic’s said to be a defense against vampires where we come from. Though I haven’t a clue why.”

“You have them too, then?” Eric asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Not… exactly? We don’t know. That history—and a lot of other knowledge—was lost a long, long time ago. Most of this, most of all the magic, the monsters and crazy shit I’ve seen so far just doesn’t exist on our homeworld, or on any other world for that matter. It’s just stories and mad ravings, not actual fact or history.”

“Ah. Well, it sounds peaceful.” Eric offered.

“Yeah, it is. Peaceful place.” I kicked the corpse of the familiar. “This thing makes the problems we have back home look tame by comparison.”

“Unfortunately, the one we pursue has doubtlessly made his escape by now. I have already verified he is not among the dead.”

“Can we catch up to Davian?” I asked. If we’d come all this way only to be stopped dead in our tracks by a vampire’s pet monster then I was going to be very annoyed.

Eric frowned. “I don’t know, but we have to try. Are you well enough to travel? That was… nothing short of a miracle. I’ve never seen anyone take hits like that.”

I rapped my knuckles on my armoured chest. “Just the miracle of advanced metallic alloys and materials science. I’m sore, but I’ll be fine in a day or two.” I grinned.

“What?” He looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a third head.

“My armour’s very expensive and it took a long time to build.” I explained in a dry tone.

“Ah, I see.”

All the things we’d need to explain to the locals, even just basic definitions of everyday devices, it could fill a library or three, I figured.

“Which way to Davian?” I asked.

“I saw men flee in several directions, but I saw only three mages among those assembled. It was dark, but I believe that the one fleeing on his own would be our best prospect.”

He turned to a northern direction. “I can’t sense any magic, but the ground here shows a lot foot prints. I don’t suppose either of you are trackers of great renown where you’re from?”

I cocked my head and muted my voice for a moment. I wasn’t, but my suit was pretty smart and it was loaded with various bits of useful software.

“Proc, we need to track a specific target. Analyse and highlight likely departure vectors based on initial input.”

“Specify input.” The voice stated.

“Eric, do you know where Davian’s footsteps are? I may have a way to track him, but I need to know which set of footsteps is his.”

“I believe so, yes. At the very least I can get you in the right area. Will that help?”

“It’ll be better than standing around here.” Larsen chuckled.

“This way then.” Eric said, walking off as we trailed behind him.

“What about that thing?” I asked, eyeing the dead familiar.

“What about it?” Eric asked, stopping and half-turning.

“We don’t need to worry about it coming back to life or anything, right?”

“That would be alarming.” Larsen remarked.

“Alarming’s a word, fucking terrifying is another.” I muttered.