No question now that we’d get our ‘draw’ for this encounter. Skadi pinned down, Oberon still a bit damaged. If it could be called a draw. Fume Hood was still in there if that thing was trying to communicate, trying to pull its punches and scare us off instead of annihilating us.

Horrifying and noble in equal measure.

And we fought by similar measures, drawing out the last of what we had available to spare. Some of us paying our own prices.

I reached the Titan, and I drew on my partner’s power to deliver the first blows of the second round, screaming while I did it, because she couldn’t.

Radiation 18.7

The five-pound phone I carried blared. I had to ignore it.

Through the clouds, I could see thick bolts of lighting the color of deep forest, with finer traceries of gold lightning dancing along and around them. A moment later, those clouds were pushed out of the way by a darker mass.

Traced by Oberon’s power, Skadi plummeted from the clouds, axe-hands swinging down. Legend unloaded everything he had on her as he flew straight down. Chunks of her armor came away, revealing what was beneath—more armor with sucking muscle holding each segment in place.

I flew to intercept, diving down at an angle, dropping my forcefield so I could lose that extra bit of air resistance. With the angle of my flight, I couldn’t see above as much, and only caught the splash. I flipped over, belly to the sky, maintaining my course.

Skadi’s blade had clipped Legend. Flesh became lasers, radiating out, curling back into one another in loops. A defensive measure.

She hit the ground. I flew past her, and forcefield hands became a wedge as I speared through damaged armor plating, cleaving it away from her body. My forcefield gave way before I was all the way through, and I was forced to squeeze out as Skadi moved, the armor plate to my left pressed close to her side.

I got ninety-five percent of the way out before it closed around my foot. I shifted direction immediately, pulling, but twisted my foot in the process.

Fucking stupid, Victoria. She’s barely even aware of your existence, and she just got you.

Fucking hurt. Ow. I was already brimming past full with the kind of emotion that… I couldn’t even put my finger on a word that would encapsulate it. The same feeling that would drive a child to destroy their own toys, in their desire to make an inarticulate fucking point. If I hadn’t been past capacity and on a battlefield, I was emotionally exhausted enough that I might have just curled up, cradled my foot, and cried. I was so damn cold.

Fucking hurt. I bit my lip, blinking away moisture.