One of the runts was backing away toward her as it eyed the man in the treetops, and she decided that one would serve as her next target.
The thought lasted for only the briefest of instants, because a different runt had spotted her and was fast barreling down upon her.
Another Werang noticed the creature dart past and turned to see what the other tracked; that one, too, spotted Rhea. Squealing in delight, it joined in the rush.
Uh oh.
Those heads bobbed up and down as they ran, making it difficult to track the eyes. She aimed, letting off several quick shots at the closer Werang. Her first shot missed, hitting the surrounding tissue; the creature shut its eyelid so that her subsequent shots struck only thick skin.
She switched to the rightmost eye and was unlucky again. Her first shot struck just below the target, and the creature closed that eye, opening the left one instead.
Rhea had left behind the outbuildings and was close to the perimeter of the dead forest at the moment. She raced for the treeline, but quickly realized she wasn’t going to make it.
The two Werangs continued straight for her, shark-like mouths open and salivating. They were almost upon her.
She pivoted her torso to fire, but the first creature lunged at her.
She dove to the ground, rolling underneath. The tentacles lining the head narrowly missed scooping her up.
While the Werang was still passing by on top of her, she stood up from her roll and jumped in one smooth motion—an acrobatic movement she instinctively knew—and latched onto its underside, balling her hands into the thick fur.
The creature turned around, looking for her. Apparently, it hadn’t yet realized she was hanging from its belly. The other Werang was just as confused and spun about uncertainly.
Then suddenly the Werang above her reared, as if trying to toss her aside. It did that twice, then slammed its belly into the ground, and scraped her across the hard surface. Pain sensors flared across her body, and she let go. An ordinary human would have been pureed by that.
She hastily accessed the “biological functions” menu of her HUD and disabled pain, leaving only tactile sensations active. The flaring agony was replaced by an uncomfortable scrubbing feeling that ran along her upper body and abdomen as the Werang continued to drag her forward.
And then its heavy weight left her.
She stood up immediately. Though her legs were wobbly at first, none of her servomotors seemed damaged—this body was sturdier than she thought. But she barely had time to contemplate that, because the second Werang shoved its head underneath the body of the first, its maw open to swallow her.
She leaped out of the way and fired her pistol at its exposed eye: the Werang screamed but did not die. It did withdraw its head and retreat into the forest, however.
Meanwhile, the other Werang stepped backward, glancing to and fro with its head as it searched for her. Rhea dove behind a downed tree, and lay flat, keeping her pistol aimed upward.
When that head tilted her way, she lined up her shot with the eye just as the Werang spotted her.
She squeezed the trigger.
The Werang screeched as its eye exploded. Rhea fired into the gory hollow that remained, and the Werang backed away, attempting to shield its eye with its tentacles.
Rhea managed to score three more quick shots in succession, and that was enough to slay the creature: it collapsed, its hulking form causing the ground to shudder when it hit.
She turned her attention to the other Werangs, half-expecting to find several more of them running toward her in that moment. But the remaining runts had moved deeper into the forest to pursue the cyborg and seemed entirely oblivious to her presence.
She ran a quick diagnostic check and confirmed that all of her systems were fully functional. There was some external shell damage to her torso and appendages, but otherwise her servos were operating within expected parameters.
She raced forward. When she passed the perimeter of the dead forest, she threaded between and leaped over the fallen trees, following the path the Werangs had trampled. As she got closer, she fired at the backside of the Werang in the rear. It started in pain, then swung around to look at her.
Rhea couldn’t suppress a smile.
She fired at the exposed eye and scored a hit. The creature screamed, causing those nearby to glance its way.
One of them spotted her.
Rhea decided it was time to take the high ground. She somersaulted onto a fallen tree trunk and leaped upward, holstering her pistol to grab on to a protruding branch. She swung upward, landing on an upper bough.
The Werang plowed into the tree below her, and the impact nearly knocked her from her perch. She withdrew the pistol and aimed at her foe, but the creature was already slamming its thick shark head into the lower trunk again. The tree uprooted and began to topple over.
Rhea leaped from her roost, aiming down at the eye below her, but the Werang tilted its head to the side before she could fire. She landed on the top of that head, and tentacles reached up to grab her.
She leaped sideways, weaving her body between the angry appendages, narrowly avoiding contact. Momentum continued to torque her body around, so that she was facing the head once more as she fell. Her pistol arm swung toward the eye, and she squeezed the trigger.
Yellow blood splattered from the wound, and the creature collapsed.
Rhea returned to the dead branches once more, and followed along the trampled path, leaping from tree to tree. Her hood had long since fallen—she didn’t bother restoring it.
Ahead, the Werangs had surrounded the cyborg, who was clambering toward the top of a particularly big tree. So far, the creatures had been unsuccessful in tearing it down. They’d certainly trimmed a lot of the lower branches, however. And a good portion of them continually assaulted the base,
