She stopped her advance when incoming fire came from the sides, and realized she’d walked a little too far. She quickly crouched and retreated, moving the Ban’Shar through a half-circle pattern around her to protect her front and sides.
When she was close to her Wardenites once more, she dropped to one knee and continued to deflect the bolts at her enemies. Meanwhile, the men behind her provided backup. She considered simply rushing the enemy, but decided it was too risky. Not only would she have to worry about an attack from the sides, but there could be enemies lurking within the stalactites overhead, waiting for her to commit such a mistake so they could mow her down. She’d essentially have to rotate the Ban’Shar through a half sphere if she wanted full protection—a very tricky maneuver, in her mind.
And then a large, glowing ellipse arced through the air toward her. It lit up the surrounding cave with its blue light. She attempted to bat it aside, but it detonated as soon as her Ban’Shar touched it, and she was thrown back. She had to shut down the Ban’Shar, otherwise the disks would have cut into her face.
“Energy grenades!” Will said.
When she heard those two words, something instinctual activated in her mind.
Two more energy grenades came in. This time, instead of waiting for the grenades to come to her, she scrambled to her feet and rushed toward them. With gritted teeth she reactivated the Ban’Shar and held the plasma disks before her, so that when the grenades impacted, she met them with her full forward momentum.
She braced her arms against her abdomen as the devices detonated, and this time she was only shoved backward a half pace.
A few more grenades came in. She noted that the men who had thrown them slumped a moment later, shot down by her Wardenites.
She rushed these new grenades, braced her elbows against her belly, and similarly absorbed them.
More incoming fire came in, and she segued into her deflection routine. It was like some artistic dance from the Far East, except instead of weaving fans through the air, she wove Ban’Shar. Deadly bolts bounced back into her enemies by the dozens.
“Enough!” Veil shouted.
The incoming fire ceased.
Floodlights clicked on across the room. In the light, she could see where the Black Hands were hidden behind some of the stalagmites ahead. They crouched lower.
Rhea left her LIDAR mode active, just in case her enemy decided to unceremoniously shut off the floodlights again. It meant she could still see white wireframes outlining the fully lit objects of the cave.
From a large stalactite in the center of the room, Veil leaped down. Her black robe fanned out majestically around her until she struck the ground.
“I challenge you, one on one, to a duel,” Veil said. “Leave my men alone.”
“You actually care about your men?” Rhea side. “I find that hard to believe. I’ll accept, on one condition. When you say one on one, you have to mean it: I expect you to drop those spare robots you have connected to your body.”
Veil studied her for a moment, then sloughed her cloak entirely.
The cyborg’s arms and legs fell off, along with the lower half of her torso. Those parts sprouted limbs, and individual robots, humanoid in shape, stepped off to one side. They promptly ducked behind nearby stalagmites and out of the firing line of the Wardenites.
The smaller humanoid that Veil had been reduced to stood straight, and she spread her arms as if to indicate she wasn’t hiding anything. “Satisfied?”
Veil was about the same size as Rhea now. The cyborg looked identical to the smaller robots that had formerly composed her, save for the fully animated woman’s face glued onto her metal skull. And though that face was beautiful by itself, taken as a whole it was grotesque, and definitely unsettling.
Veil appeared unarmed, but Rhea knew her enemy was harboring a weapon somewhere.
“Don’t do it,” Will transmitted. “She’s lying. She’s not going to grant you anything close to a fair fight.”
If there’s a chance I can end this faster, I have to try, Rhea returned over a mental channel. Chop off the head of the snake… besides, if she betrays me, it’s open season, and you can fire at will. Shoot her in the back, even.
“Maybe I’ll do that anyway,” Will said.
No, Rhea transmitted. Wait until she betrays me.
Rhea approached, well aware of the pistols and rifles among the hidden Black Hands tracking her. Veil stepped forward, so that the two would meet at the middle.
When they were four meters apart, a blade jumped from Veil’s wrist. It was coated in plasma. Some kind of later variant of the X2-59. Longer. Deadlier.
She leaped at Rhea and attacked.
Veil moved so fast that all Rhea could do was defend at first.
Rhea backed away beneath that flurry of blows, parrying as fast as she was able. She couldn’t go on the offense. Didn’t have time. But even if there were openings for an attack, she was too far away from Veil, thanks to the length of that sword, for the edges of her Ban’Shar to even get close enough for a hit.
She brought both disks forward to deflect against the latest attack, and as the blow deflected, she pointed her index fingers forward. The disks transformed into blades, and she slammed her hands together, combining the plasma blades into a single, long sword that rivaled Veil’s.
The enemy cyborg stepped back. “Impressive.”
Veil came at her with renewed strength, the blows coming fast and furious. Rhea instinctively blocked them with sword forms she didn’t even know were in her repertoire, forms buried deep in her muscle memory.
Rhea parried one particularly powerful blow and then issued a rapid riposte, catching Veil off guard. The cyborg twisted, trying to avoid the blade, but the Ban’Shar partially cut into her side. Only a glancing blow, but Rhea had drawn “first blood.”
Veil slapped away Rhea’s weapon with her own and immediately stepped back. “You have
