The Kharnidd’s senses were suddenly obscured by a thick purple fog, and the Xenos felt a severe pain in its back. Blindly, it swiped backward with its free hand, claws tearing through the blacksteel haft of another spear. It let go of the Andrako, whirling around and slashing at whatever was stabbing it, but the culprit was gone. The Xenos was about to turn again and finish off the Andrako when it sensed another presence. Turning, it saw Forsythe coming right at it with a blacksteel longsword. With contempt, it easily slashed out and destroyed the Decoy, the human himself likely shooting off into the distance and out of its reach.

  Right as it thought that, its back exploded with pain again. Forsythe had used his ability to run around, rather than away from, the enemy, hoping against hope that the purple smog would obscure his movements enough. The gamble paid off, and his blacksteel blade sank into the Xenos’s back, alongside five purple copies that he'd materialized. The Kharnidd’s muscles tensed as it turned to strike at the annoyance, but its breathing had become extremely labored. It swung at Forsythe, and he was fast enough to dodge without using Decoy this time. The Kharnidd was so angry that it coughed up a stream of purple blood, yet it didn’t have time to do much else before it was hit in the chest with a blaster bolt. The Xenos tried to shrug the attack off and keep moving forward, only to realize it couldn’t. When had these green energy bolts become so painful? Forsythe manifested his blaster and started shooting at it, and the Kharnidd found itself being pushed back under two different streams of green fire. What was happening?

  These were its final thoughts before the Delta class Thrall finally died.

  Forsythe found himself heaving like the bellows, totally spent from the fight. Looking to his left, he saw his savior. Leka the Forsica, looking every bit as tired as he was. She looked back at him, giving him a toothy grin in between heavy breaths. She opened her mouth, and with a raspy voice she spoke the first words he’d ever heard from her: “Not bad for a human.”

  …

  Earlier

  Emily’s spirits were high as she duked it out with her Kharnidd foe. It seemed a little uncomfortable underwater, hacking and slashing wildly as she danced around adroitly. The strength boost from earlier had run out quickly, but it had been enough to help her score a critical blow. She’d severed the tendons in the creature’s right armpit, rendering the arm a bloody and useless mess. Now, the Kharnidd desperately cut at her with only one arm, bleeding profusely from several large gashes in its chest and limbs. Eventually, it would run out of steam, and she’d close in for the kill.

  Then everything went sideways.

  Emily felt a thrill of danger and a sudden, brutal pain in her shoulder blade. The Thrall that had been finishing off Li had finally swum over to help its compatriots. It snuck up on Emily and slashed her in the back, with only a last-second flinch saving her from certain death. She tried to swim away, but both enemies were right on top of her. She took a few more cuts, feeling the darkness closing in as she started to bleed out herself. There was no opportunity to use a stim. Then suddenly, much of her exhaustion outright vanished. Reggie had noticed her plight and sent down a few orbs of light to bail her out. They restored her lost blood and healed her cuts, allowing her to stave off death for now.

  Emily went into damage control mode as she tried to dodge the duo while holding their attention. If she just let them go, they would go and help kill the others. That said, the status quo couldn’t go on forever. Her ability had a very limited lifespan, forcing her to re-activate it over and over again as the fight ran onward. Each time her ability ‘turned off’, she needed a second to get it going again. These moments left her vulnerable to attack, and they were when she sustained the most damage. She received a few healing orbs from Reggie to help keep her alive, but those orbs didn’t heal everything. With every scratch she took, Emily felt a foreign substance flowing into her veins. It weakened her, making her more vulnerable to future attacks, but there was little she could do about it. The edges of the Kharnidd’s Psionic claw constructs were rimmed in a shade of dark purple that was distinct from the rest of the constructs, making it little mystery as to what was happening here.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Emily was slowly being poisoned to death. The increasing weakness meant that her battle to dodge the enemy’s attacks was a losing one. Any moment now, she could slip up and give the Kharnidd a fatal opening.

  This realization only made her angrier. Far from killing her spirit, it just made her rage at the impossibility of the situation. Had she really come this far, getting bailed out by nearly miraculous events, only to die here? Would she really never get the chance to repay all the people who’d helped her?

  If so, then she resigned herself not to go along quietly. The Thrall she’d already injured seemed more interested in killing her than anything else, giving her an opening. She began swimming away, making as if to retreat and watching as the Thralls began to follow her. The healthier Thrall closed the distance much faster, leaving its compatriot behind, and Emily reversed her direction. She weaved around the healthy Kharnidd, suddenly blitzing the wounded enemy in a flash of steel. Emily didn’t need more than a second before she dragged both daggers across the throat of the enemy, accepting a shallow set of cuts to the stomach from the weaker Thrall in exchange. Emily took another set of deeper cuts across her back as well, the other Thrall apparently unbothered by the death of its comrade yet eager for her own destruction.

  Emily turned again, trying to block with her daggers, only to have the weapons knocked out of her hands. As her ability winked out again, a part of her quietly accepted her incoming destruction. Then, she heard the battle cry.

  Leka the Forsica hit the Kharnidd from the side, scales glowing with her own enhancement Capacity as she darted through the water. The other Thrall had delayed her for a while, but Leka had a natural advantage in this environment. She’d grown up in waters not too different from these, and she showed it as she rained down blows on her surprised opponents. The Kharnidd had been caught totally off guard, and though it defended itself as best as it could, Leka eventually drove her spear into its throat. In the meantime, Emily loaded her whole body with stimulants, though they did nothing to alleviate the poison in her system. Emily manifested her blaster, but when she tried to aim it, she found that her hands were too shaky to get a clear shot. Her eyelids grew heavy, and try as she might, her muscles only grew more non-responsive. Just as Leka was finishing off the enemy, Emily’s arms fell to her side, her head lolling as she passed out cold.

  Leka swam over to help Emily, but she realized that she couldn’t do much for the human, and the other Pioneers were in trouble. Leka grabbed her spear and swam up to help them, activating her second Capacity to create a Psionic fog, and the rest is history. With the Delta class dead, the last of the Kharnidd Thralls were finally taken care of. Now it was time to account for their losses. Li, of course, had been thoroughly killed. Gronik, like Emily had passed out due to acute poisoning. Both had gone pale, their breathing shallow and expressions pained. It was uncertain as to how long they would live.

  On the bright side, Forsythe, Reggie, and Leka were all mostly unscathed. Leka had been poisoned a little, but she seemed able to walk it off. These three picked up Emily’s and Gronik’s bodies and moved to track down Allen Praxis’s listless body. They were grateful to see that he was also still alive, if badly injured. Praxis had saved himself by buffing his own defense at the last moment, turning a deadly attack into one that only incapacitated him. A stimulant woke him right up, and they took a quick moment to consider the situation.

  Harold Goldstein had disappeared entirely, and no one was particularly interested in looking for him. Cowardice and abandoning your comrades were cardinal sins in the Federation of Pioneers, and he would almost certainly be court martialed on both charges. After writing him off, they considered what to do about Arnold. Last they’d seen of him, he was being chased by that D class Leviathan, with no easy option for survival. Chances were good that he was dead, and if that thing was still out there, looking for him would probably get them killed. Going back to the facility immediately was probably the smart option.

  With that fact acknowledged, the Pioneers started looking for Arnold. There was a chance he was still alive, and if he was, they would do their best to help him. The fact that they were in no shape to fight another D class was not the point. The Pioneers had no intention of leaving Arnold to his fate. And so, they went to find their lost comrade. They were delighted to see him eventually, triumphantly floating over the dead Leviathan in the Luxamar forest below. The Pioneers swam over to him, waking him up with a few shakes. They weren’t out of danger yet.

  Just as they had that thought, they heard the sounds of countless alarms in the distance. Then, the whole world began to rumble.