I hesitated a second . . . then turned back to Caldera, bending as I did to yank my focus out of the icecat. The mantis golem brought all its weapons to bear, striking at Caldera with three limbs at once. Caldera blocked a downward slash, ducked under the laser, and almost dodged the stab. It didn’t impale her, but blood sprayed and Caldera staggered and went down. The golem moved in to finish her off.

I charged with a shout. Futures shifted as the golem retargeted on me, and I felt a spike of terror as the golden eyes turned to look down at me. I feinted at the golem; for a second I had it on the defensive, then it moved into its attack routine.

All of a sudden the futures were a whirl of violent deaths, all of them mine. Move that way and I’d be impaled; move the other way and I’d have a severed arm; stand still and the laser would burn a hole through my chest. I ducked and dodged, staying half a step ahead of the gleaming blades. I caught flickers of futures in which I hit the golem, and none of them did anything. My dispel focus wasn’t recharged, and even if it had been, it wouldn’t even scratch a monster like this. I’d forgotten all thoughts of Leo, or the force mage who’d been shooting at me, or the ice mage who was still lurking around. My world had narrowed to the next two seconds, and nothing more.

The left sword came at my head and I half-parried with my forearm. Even using the angle to limit the blow, I felt the shock go up my arm, sending me lurching back. There’s this terrifying sense of power to golems, a kind of smooth, unstoppable force. So many of the machines we meet on a daily basis have checks, safeguards; it’s easy to forget how lethal they are until one’s turned against you. The laser fired and I ducked, letting the beam pass an inch or two over my shoulder, feeling the air heat and seeing the armour of the golem’s body backlit in the glow. Caldera was somewhere behind but I couldn’t take the half second to check. The golem still hadn’t used the device on its fourth arm: it looked like a torch with a gaping barrel. No time to study more closely. Swing, sword thrust, laser. Dodge and block and twist. There was a rhythm to the attacks, and I fell into it, matching the golem’s movements like a dance, and for a moment I was holding my own.

But only for a moment. I’m losing. Had to change tactics. Couldn’t break its armour. What to do?

Evade. Run.

I stepped into the next swing, catching the golem’s sword arm. The blow was too powerful to stop and I let it lift me, pushing off the ground to let the golem swing me around like a roundabout. The golem stepped back, twisting, trying to bring its weapons to bear, and with the moment’s breather I pulled a condenser from my pocket and smashed it against the wall.