In answer, that tail lunged at her. Rhea leaped aside, and the bladed tips smashed into the cave floor beside her, sending up rock chips.
The cyborg withdrew the tail and circled anew. A probing strike. “I needed you to get out of that forest alive. The Werangs and Kargs weren’t supposed to be there. You got lucky. But that wasn’t the only reason I delayed. The fear I saw in your eyes held me back: these were not the eyes of the Dagger of Khrusos, but of a child. A deadly child, but a child, nonetheless. Killing you would have been little different than killing my own daughter. So I stayed my hand. But I knew I was merely delaying the inevitable. When the bioweapons attacked, I knew I could dally no longer. I had to kill you and be done with it.”
“Why do you call me the Dagger of Khrusos?” she asked.
“I wish I didn’t have to do this,” he answered, ignoring the question. “It’s obvious that your mind has been wiped, and you are no longer the threat that my master perceives you to be. I truly wish the two of us could walk away from this fight. But you see, if I return without your head, my master will take mine in your stead. And perhaps my daughter’s. So unfortunately, one of us will not leave this cave today. I thought to slay you while you slept, but there is no honor in that, not for someone who has risked their own life for me. I considered destroying your friends, too, but there is no price on their heads. I hoped it would be you who would follow me when I left that cave. You who would come to face your doom alone. And so here we are.”
Once again that tail reared, and Rhea leaped aside, but it was a feint. She prepared for the follow-up strike, but it didn’t come. The pair merely circled one another.
“Why turn on me now?” she pressed. “You say you needed me earlier, but the fact is, you still do. Bioweapons are camped outside the mountain, with some of them probably penetrating these very caves as we speak. We still have to fight.”
“Doubtful,” he said. “The tunnels are too cramped. Some of the bioweapons might crawl for a few hundred meters into the mountain, maybe even a kilometer, but eventually they’ll give up and retreat. The rest will linger outside, this is true, but they, too, will depart due course. Whether it takes six days, or six months. I’m prepared to wait. Thus, I don’t in fact need you. And I will end you, here. Now. And your friends, if I have to.”
“You don’t have to do this, Sebastian,” Rhea told him.
“The Scorpion,” he corrected. “My name is The Scorpion.”
Those spinning blades came in once again. It might have been a feint, but she wasn’t going to risk it.
She dove forward, tilting her body to the horizontal as that tail sliced past below her. The blades narrowly missed her underside and were a millimeter from touching her outfit.
She rolled to her knees when she landed, having successfully closed the distance with her target. Sebastian—The Scorpion—towered over her. She slammed one elbow into the side of his knee, but the blow caused barely a vibration. She stood up, swinging her fist at the same time, targeting a region on his lower torso—
But, moving faster than she thought him capable, the Scorpion reached down with one hand and scooped her up before she could strike. Her punch missed its mark and she landed only a glancing hit against his side.
The Scorpion held onto her by the neck; she reached up and wrapped her hands around that arm in an attempt to wrench herself free, but he spun her around with help from his other hand and slammed her chest and face into the rock floor three times, hard, causing her hood to fall. After the third strike, he tossed her toward his tail and the spinning blades.
But after he released her, Rhea got lucky: her foot caught on his opposite arm in midair, and the impact altered her trajectory just enough to avoid the deadly metal. She landed on the floor beneath the tail, which stabbed downward repeatedly, trying to cut her in half with the blades.
She dodged the deadly metal for several tense seconds, then rolled toward the pool, passing beyond the cyborg’s range.
She came to a stop right next to the stagnant liquid, then stood up, switching to a low crouch. The flare was beside her on the cave floor, along with the damaged rifle The Scorpion had abandoned.
She picked up both, one in each hand, then spun to face her enemy.
The Scorpion was approaching. Though he still crouched, there was a barely perceptible swagger to his walk. He had clashed with his opponent, and apparently already judged her unworthy of the respect deserved by a dangerous foe.
As he got closer and stepped into the more intense light closer to the source Rhea held, she could see his face beneath that hood. His mouth was twisted into a smirk, while his eyes shone with arrogance, confirming that he had indeed lost his former respect for her. And thus, his caution.
She could use that.
Underestimate me at your peril!
When he was within striking distance of the tail, Rhea grinned.
“You called me a bitch?” she asked.
Before he could answer, she darted diagonally in front of him, forcing him to rotate to keep his tail within the necessary striking angle.
Then she veered directly toward him, moving at right angles to her former course, and before he could react, she tossed the flare into his face, momentarily blinding him.
That tail was already swinging toward her, but she dodged it with relative ease, and rapidly moved
