Looking at Alexei approaching from below, the first thing that caught my attention was his armor.

“Isn’t that the same armor as that pretty boy Tixus?”

I quickly realized I was caught in my delusions for a second. It's not good to get distracted during a life-or-death struggle.

I snapped out of it after hearing Alexei’s screams.

“I’m going to fuck you up,” he said loud enough to be heard all the way back to the auction house.

He had just activated his plasma armor, too, so he had some strength to back up his words.

I couldn’t be negligent in my defenses, so after connecting with the spinning back elbow against Renault, I quickly somersaulted about 10 meters away from my position, landing in the street just as Alexei arrived. That provided me with some space to reset myself.

We were at a standstill as Alexei didn’t move, and I just kept my distance for now. Sooner or later, the other attackers were going to show up.

A bright blue electric flash caught me by surprise as an anti-personal stun grenade was thrown in front of me by someone on my left; they were hiding behind the middle transport.

“What the fuck,” were the only words I could muster before a plasma projectile hit me in the chest after momentarily being blinded by the flash, knocking me back about 5 meters.

“Ahh, that fucking hurts,” I screamed out as I grabbed my chest while lying down on the street.

I hadn’t had the opportunity to activate my wind wall skill; that shot went straight to my chest, knocking the air out of me and leaving me feeling like I had just taken a shot to the chest from a sledgehammer.

I tried to get up, but I was having trouble breathing.

“This fucking sucks big time,” I said as I sat up.

As I got to one knee, I felt something terrible approaching fast from above. I looked up only to see a bright red beam about three feet away from me.

“Fuck Me!!!”

BOOM!!!

Another explosion sounded, and this time, I flew out and hit the first transport vehicle hard.

From the pain, I knew I had broken some bones.

Alliance New Network

“Ladies and gentlemen, to recap the action so far, if you are just tuning in, prime engaged and incapacitated two of the attackers earlier. Now he's engaging two other attackers at the moment,” said Jerry as he approached the first transport vehicle.

“Oh, he just stopped the assault of the big guy in mid-air and even countered his attack with a beautiful spinning back elbow to the ribs, sending the attacker crashing to the ground,” he said in an exhilarating tone.

“Prime has just moved away after dealing with the third attacker. He is in a standoff with what we believe to be the leader of this attacking group. This is getting more interesting by the minute, folks,” exclaimed the reporter excitedly.

Even though the danger was very present, people kept trying to flock towards the fighting area. The four strike teams, plus some of the Alphas from zone 3 who had already gotten free, started setting up a perimeter around the fighting area to keep as many people out as possible.

The people watching from home on the holo-displays were glued to the news networks broadcasting live from the scene as they didn’t want to miss a thing.

“Boom! Folks, a big explosion just happened; yes, it looks like Prime was targeted by a sniper shot from afar. Tragically he was hit in the chest and thrown back about 10 meters,” said the reporter somberly.

“He is lying on the floor, not moving very much. This isn’t good, folks,” Jerry reported worriedly.

“Oh, no, an ionized plasma beam has just been fired by the group leader, hitting Prime as he was attempting to stand up,” said Jerry, full of fear and apprehension, seeing how the fight was turning for the worst.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“This is not looking very good for Prime folks,” he said nervously.

That plasma shot was a doozy.

It hurt me badly, and I now lament not having acted first. Even though I had better skills, what good were they to me if I didn’t know how to use them or wouldn’t want to?

The only thing that saved my life right now was that, out of pure instinct, after seeing the beam almost on me, I deployed a wind wall for a second, blunting part of the beam's power.

“That was too fucking close,” I said as I tried to regain my bearings after being almost knocked out by the blast.

All my body ached from that shot. Instantly, my Healing skill activated, trying to restore some of my health.

“His healing, don’t let him do it. Attack now; don’t let him heal,” said Alexei to the rest of the Night Slayers in haste.

This was their one chance; if they let Prime heal, he didn’t know if they would be able to beat him.

As I got back on one knee, I saw another plasma beam and projectile approaching quickly.

I raised my wind wall to try to stop the approaching attacks, thinking I needed to get help.

“I’ll have those guards go fetch Damian. That way, we can finish this quicker,” I said, determined.

As I turned to talk to the two alphas I had left at the transport, I was stunned to see two bodies on the floor and a black shadow approaching. It took me a second to realize that they had been knocked out again, and someone was fast approaching.

The Plasma Beam and projectile hit the wind wall instantly, creating a massive explosion that tossed rock, dirt, and debris everywhere.

At the same time, the black shadow shot something from her hand when she was a few feet away; it looked like a bolt of fire.

“Shit, Fire Bolt,” I screamed in my head.

I didn’t have a chance to use the air wall again, and the bolt hit me square on. In an instant, I was engulfed in a pillar of fire 3 meters in diameter and about 10 meters high; it was the most excruciating heat that I had ever felt.

“Hahaha, we got you know, you piece of shit,” screamed Kona like a crazy person.

“Weren’t you invincible or something,” she continued to say in ridicule as she watched Prime engulfed in flames.

My DDS armor was holding up against the heat, and my Heal skill was regenerating my health, but I was losing energy fast, so keeping these two skills running at max capacity might not be an option for long. If I didn’t get out of this situation, I would possibly end up dying like a roast duck.

I wanted to move using an wind walk, but I knew I had broken bones in my ribs due to the two attacks I had already taken, which made my breathing erratic and impossible to garner enough energy to use three skills at the same time. My Heal skill could repair them in minutes or hours, but right now, it was busy keeping me from being cooked due to the heat from the fire bolt attack.

Just as I got up to move, to retreat behind the first transport, another plasma projectile hit me in the right leg, cracking my thigh bone and causing immense pain to flow from my leg all the way up my back and into my head.

I felt like crying at that moment; not even when I was younger and battling beasts in the forest of Rayong did I encounter so much pain and suffering.

I fell to the ground again as my right leg gave way. The DSS armor kept me from roasting, but it was doing nothing now to blunt the power of the projectiles or beam attacks; it was more attuned to keeping the fire from burning my skin off than blunting the other attacks.

“Hit him with another fire bolt,” said Alexei to Kona coldly.

“He is almost out of energy, so he doesn’t have much more to go,” he said with a vicious smile.

“Finn, get another projectile ready; we might need a finishing blow here in a little bit,” he said with an evil grin.

“Man, this sucks; I don’t know what to do now,” I thought, feeling desperate.

The Azura Armor popped into my head.

“How did I do it to bring the other armor out last time,” I kept thinking.

If I could bring the Azura armor out, I could turn the tables here and make it out of this fight in one piece.

“I need to concentrate,” I told myself.

I concentrated and tried to enter a transcendent state to try to get the Azura Armor to come out.

“Yes, I can feel it. It seems I’m getting there,” I said in my head.

As I got into the zone, I heard footsteps.

Thunk, Thunk, Thunk,

I looked up only to see a six-foot-six-inch metal giant standing next to Alexei.

“Renault, glad you're back; how are you feeling,” said Alexei nonchalantly.

Renault didn’t say anything. He just kept staring at Prime, and then an evil grin appeared on his face.

“Don’t kill him yet; I want to return the favor he gave me just a little while ago,” he said as he started walking towards Prime.

“Once I’m done returning the favor, I’ll kill him with my bare hands,” he said with a maniacal stare.

“I’m so fucked,” was my only reaction at seeing Renault approach.

Alliance New Network

“Ladies and gentlemen who are tuning in to this broadcast, it looks like Prime is in dire need of help. He is being attacked from all sides, making his defense mute,” said Jerry desperately.

“Oh no, this can’t be another attacker is jumping into the fray, folks. It seems the big guy Prime disabled earlier in the fight is back,” said the reporter bitterly.

“This is not good, folks; Prime might not make it out of this fight alive,” said Jerry with a serious face.

Renault approached with a wicked smile on his face.

“Prime, let's have some fun, just me and you,” he said as he walked into the pillar of fire.

As he walked closer to me, his silver metallic body started turning red, as if it were a piece of metal in a forge, particularly his hands.

“Did I forget to tell you that my body reacts to heat as copper does to electricity? I can harness it and move the heat in my body as I please, creating many of my signature attacks,” he said unnervingly.

The mask covering my face kept Renault from seeing my true emotions, which at that moment were, “I’m truly fucked now!”