96 The Strongest

Chapter 23

The Strongest

The one closest to me dropped like a sack of potatoes, sporting a brand new hole through his back. The guy he'd been talking to jerked and sank to his knees; the blast hadn't been strong enough to go all the way through, but it had seared away a few layers of skin. It would probably be enough to kill a human guy, but I knew a yautja would just keep trucking.

I reacted without thinking and surged forward, slamming the butt of my rifle into the side of his head with all my momentum and weight. The blow dislodged his mask and he hit the ground on his side.

By now, the other three who had been sitting around and shooting the shit had leapt to their feet. I unhooked Lockjaw's broken and bloody mask from my gear and tossed it right in the middle of them. It successfully drew their attention while their buddy was on the ground, reaching his own mask, just beyond his fingertips, wheezing for breath.

One of them spoke. "Shum's mask? Wasn't he—"

His friend's mask rammed him in the stomach, cutting off whatever thought he'd been trying to make. Though I was out of practice, the muscle memory from my time as a soccer player came through and I had kicked it out of my victim's reach right at him. He doubled over in equal parts surprise and pain.

I'd put everything into that kick that my leg braces could handle, so he was winded and even bleeding from where a sharp edge hit him.

I fired more buckshot at one of them, but the biggest of them shoved my target out of the way. It zipped by him, harmlessly blasting the rocky wall behind them and raining chunks of stone upon them.

"Return fire," he snarled before disappearing into thin air; the eyes of his mask flashed one last time. Orange and ominous. The second one followed suit.

Gritting my teeth, I managed to get one more shot before the third could do the same. He was still recovering from being nailed in the gut and was moving all the slower for it. The force of my blast made him spin around—his arm was sent flying and he howled in rage.

I really needed to release my camouflage so I could see where I was aiming. All my shots were just close enough, but not exact due to my impaired hand-eye coordination. If I had a few extra seconds to aim properly, it would be fine. The element of surprise was gone, though, and I no longer had that luxury with them invisible now.

I was too nervous to drop my camouflage just yet, as well. It would take them a bit to locate me with a different vision mode.

However, despite my invisibility, the shot I took was a good enough frame of reference for them to return fire; two bolts of plasma came hurling in my direction. They were more or less taking a shot in the dark, so I was able to avoid them as I retreated and sought cover behind a nearby canyon wall.

It was off the main path, tucked into a small crevice that I fit in comfortably, but it had no outlet. I didn't need an escape, at least. I just needed cover.

They pelted the wall protecting me and I waited as rock and debris fell around me. The rifle was still good for a bit: it made a distinct noise when it needed to charge up and the warning tone had just sounded. I wasn't sure exactly how many shots that left me with, but I was going to make them count.

I had to. This was the only thing I had that was guaranteed to kill these fuckers in or two hits and kept me out of their reach. When I couldn't use it anymore, I was absolutely going to struggle.

And now I was pinned, my enemies invisible.

Unfortunately, I was nowhere near as prepared as I would have been if this was an FBI raid. No vest, no SWAT backup. Just me in some armor with a single high-powered rifle that could fire a shot every few seconds.

I just had to wait for them to stop. For the time being, I could only ignore the bits of stone exploding around me and try to stay calm. It gave me a moment to gather myself and change back to the biosignature tracking mode so I could see where they were. Active camouflage bent light to make us invisible; it wouldn't hide them from anything that didn't use light.

When it stopped, I took a deep breath and jumped out of cover, rifle raised to return fire and advance to the next wall. I let out a few blasts, but they were meant to be suppressive and went wild.

Safely to the other side and behind cover again, I got ready for another round.

Just as I thought, the custom setting I made with Wolf's blood let me see them. Bright yellow for two of them and a faded dark green for the third. It made him difficult to make out against the dark background, but I could make it work.

Just then, the de facto leader of the group spoke out. "Hold your fire!" The canyon went silent and I caught my breath, waiting for him to try to negotiate, which he did.

"You have clearly proven yourself capable of catching us unawares. I assume you're the human Shum and N'st-gar went to kill?" he said, his figure was the dark one.

I realized then, he was a hish like Titan. Titan's trail had also been dark green.

Not to mention he was bigger than others.

"What about it?" I retorted, crouching by my cover just in case. I was still using my cloaking device as a comfort but I had to assume that, like me, they were using other means to try and pinpoint my location.

"Then I suppose this means you killed them both."

"And you three are next."

He grunted in amusement. "You are skilled. How about we make a deal? You can fight us fair and square, and if you further impress us, maybe you'll earn your survival."

My temper flared. This guy had the same mannerisms and eloquence as Titan. He must have spent a lot of time with him—perhaps a protégé if not his direct spawn. He sure was getting on my nerves the same way Titan did, like some sort of fucking Mini-Me.

At first glance, his offer seemed like a merciful one, but I knew it was a load of shit.

I didn't particularly care about anything but winning right then, either. Honor? It was still three against one. I wanted to win. Honor wasn't going to do me any good in death.

After letting out a deep breath, I deactivated my camouflage. Then, I took a step away from my cover and Junior over there lifted his arms in some weird, smug, welcoming gesture. The sound of his own cloaking device turning off told me he bought it.

"So, we have a deal?"

His one-armed buddy found himself with a brand-fucking-new hole in his chest when I shot his ass dead. He jerked away, collapsed, and both Junior and the other lackey snarled in rage.

"No. You are earning your survival tonight, fuckers."

I turned my weapon on Junior, but he had retreated somewhat, leaving his minion in the forefront. However, he evaded my shot and it blew a chunk out of the rock wall. They would stop, I would fire, and they would dodge for several more shots. I should have realized what they were doing as I continued to miss shots, but I was too in the moment to pick up on it until it happened.

The rifle's alarm started to chime. That was it.

"You're out of shots, little hunter," Junior sneered. "You have no choice now."

Fuck.

My mind raced. I had barely beat Stranger even with Creature's help. Lockjaw and the other three I killed were directly thanks to my rifle and surprise attacks. I still had two more nerds to obliterate and my rifle was begging me for a break. How was I going to handle taking on both of these guys when one was Titan 2.0 and his minion was still in good condition?

The others. Their shoulder-mounted plasma cannons were still around, and I knew for a fact that they could be used hand-held in a pinch. I'd done it before when Wolf lost his in Gunnison. All I had to do was pry one off of their cold, dead bodies.

"What will it be, little hunter?" Junior asked. Next to him, Minion had also decided to stop using his camouflage.

They were waiting for me to make a move. Fine. I took aim with my gauntlet and fired a net at the two of them as a distraction while I lunged for the nearest dead yautja. As I struggled to prise his shoulder cannon free, Junior and Minion freed themselves from my net and attacked, forcing me to momentarily give up on my goal.

I rolled out of the way of a blade thrust into my space, splitting the skin on my side. The stinging pain made me hiss, but I kept moving and put some distance between me and them.

While I avoided them, I switched back to nightvision. Trying to fight and navigate the terrain in my custom setting was beginning to be a strain on my eyes. The last thing I needed was a headache in the middle of trying not to die.

There was no synergy between the two of them. They attacked me not as a unit, but as two individuals competing against one another. The instigator appeared to be Minion, as he seemed to always be right in Junior's way, attempting to steal a win from and deal a finishing blow, but only ruined both of their chances and I slipped away with a few injuries.

Junior shoved him away and I put some more space between us, considering using the handheld hidden in my boot, but it wasn't anywhere near as powerful as my rifle, now strapped to my back, or the shoulder-mounted ones.

If I wanted to use it, I'd have to be up close and it needed to be directly into a vital area. One shot, one kill.

The large encampment made maneuvering easy. Of the three of us, I was the smallest and most nimble. I used that to my advantage. Since they were so intent on fighting each other, too, I focused on staying out of their way.

I found myself herded into a corner, Junior bearing down on me. I tangled him up with my last razor net and flashed by him, only to have him grab my leg in the process. He growled up at me and I caught Minion coming from the corner of my eye. He had his wrist blade drawn and his arm thrown back in an obvious haymaker, which I easily ducked out of the way of.

Minion would have injured Junior in the process if he didn't let go of my leg, allow me to skitter out of the way and retaliate. I launched an arrowhead at Minion's back, where it stuck in his shoulder blade.

For now, I was relegated to pot shots until something bigger presented itself.

Enraged, Junior shredded my net, now sporting a criss-cross pattern of wounds on his hips and thighs. He leaped up and turned on Minion, punching him in the throat and kickstarting a testosterone-fueled fight.

I used the opportunity to locate the nearest dead body. Junior and Minion were snarling and arguing about which one got to drain the life out of me and I tried really hard to pretend I couldn't hear that. When I'd thought about having boys fight over me in high school, this was not at all what I had imagined.

Teeth gnashing against the various aches and pains and strains, I tugged and pried at the moorings keeping the cannon mounted to the dead yautja's shoulder. By the sounds of it, they still hadn't figured their shit out, but I knew it was a matter of time before they did.

I couldn't get the thing off, though. Panic was making my fingers refuse to work. Caught between a rock and a hard place, I heaved the dead guy over and swiveled his cannon around.

Guess I was doing this shit manually.

Though I could feel the muscles in my back and neck pull with the effort of moving the body, I was able to take aim at the two assholes fighting one another and fired twice. Junior must have noticed me, because he used Minion as a meat shield to take both shots, then cast aside his tattered body.

At this point, I wasn't even fucking surprised.

As he stormed toward me, I tried to predict where he might move to and took aim accordingly. Finally, I was going to—

Strong hands dug into my shoulders and I was suddenly flying backward, thrown through the air to slam into a stone wall. Stars exploded across my vision and I choked out a pained howl, crumpling to the ground in a stunned heap. My ears were ringing from the impact and white-hot pain stabbed through me with each breath, each movement.

Did someone get back up?

When I tried to stand and prepare myself, I was heaved up off the ground by an arm around my neck. My head immediately went fuzzy and I gaped like a fish out of water. Once I was up, though, some of the pressure eased and my vision cleared.

Junior was still in front of me and I counted four corpses, so I had finished the job. I kicked my dangling legs and tried to free myself from the rear chokehold I was in, but I should have known it was fruitless. I had no leverage and the one holding me was three times my size. All I could do was release the pressure on my neck by clinging to the invisible arm around it.

Was there a sixth?

Panic set in. Helplessness consumed me. I couldn't catch my breath; each inhale drove daggers into my chest. This was it. I knew it would be the end if one of them got their hands on me. I'd let one sneak up and grab me, and now all that I feared was coming true.

A familiar laugh sounded directly in my ear, punctuated by the electric sound of a cloak being shed and my enemy finally showed himself.

I didn't have to see him to know who it was. I'd know that cackle anywhere.

"I thought I heard something going on over here and what do I find? A little pest causing all kinds of problems," Jackal sneered. "Hold still a moment so I can talk with my colleague and maybe I won't snap your neck."