I spun like a cat and landed in a low crouch beneath the Serathid’s midsection, having already prepared myself for the following moves in my gambit. In one swift motion, I snatched up the detached scythe in my free hand and lunged out to my left, darting from the cover of one bulbous carapace to the next. My brain took a single moment to admire the curved weapon in my offhand: impossibly light for such a large blade, and impossibly thin for the structural integrity I knew it held. In the next moment, the blade flashed out in front of me, cutting through both back ankles of the next monster with little resistance.
The surrounding beasts had grown wise to my strategy by the time I rolled out from beneath the flailing, footless Serathid, and I flipped backwards over the thrashing monster to avoid another pair of overhead stabs. Three more enemies awaited me as I landed; I caught two blows against my shield and barely deflected a third with my improvised greatsword. Without any sort of proper handle by which to hold the blade, I had gripped it near the tip at its thinnest point, and the serrated edge sliced at my palm through my heavy gauntlet. Rivulets of crimson blood forked along the blade as I lashed out at my closest foe and caught it full force in the face, leaving a glistening purple gash in the pale orange chitin.
Three ahead. Three circling. Two wounded at my back. Push in further, lead them away. Second switch, reverse, fourth lever, spin, slash, duck, fourth lever, strike, dodge, strike. The plans all screamed through my head at once as I performed a new batch of battle calculus in every changing instant. My shield rocketed ahead and slammed against the wounded Serathid, further fissuring the bloody gash in its armor. I pirouetted as the shield reversed course down its geared track, using my body’s angular momentum to rotate the aegis into place to block two more horizontal strikes. Parallel lines of heat flashed across my back as one of the flanking beasts raked me with its talons, but the pain of the cuts failed to register. Faster.
The Serathid’s raking kick knocked me sideways towards one of its swarming allies, and I narrowly dipped beneath a blade destined for my throat. Three ahead. Two left. Two right, one wounded. Slide forward, third switch, leap to—
A massive weight caught my shoulder and slammed me into the floor face-first. Swirling lights filled my vision as I scrambled away from the threat on pure instinct. Dropping from above. Though my eyes refused to completely clear, a momentary dimming of the firelight clued me in to the location of my nearest enemy. I rolled onto my back and brought my scythe up in a crescent slash that bisected the Serathid that stood above me. A wave of steaming viscera covered my face and further obscured my vision, and the beast’s corpse collapsed onto my chest. My impromptu sword bounced away as the breath was knocked from my lungs.
Primes preserve me now. Until my soldiers are safe. Give me strength to fight. Primes, give me strength. A burst of pain rushed up through my shield arm, burning its way through my shoulder and into my spine before it bolted down into my core like lightning. Energy crashed through every inch of my body in a sudden, overwhelming surge, and I knew my prayers had been answered. I rose to my feet and hurled the hulking Serathid corpse forward, knocking two beasts onto their backs with the unexpected projectile. Slamming my shield into the ground before me, I let out a defiant roar. “NOT YET!”
I took an ungainly step forward as my body struggled to calibrate to the pulsing energy in my limbs. My second step came with newfound confidence, and I scanned the ring of Serathids around me with a calm, collected eye. My third step shattered the stone beneath my feet and sent me hurtling towards the closest beast, my shield drawn back with more power than I had ever felt in my entire life. This is how they moved in the throne room. This is how Lia fought against me so easily. Her actions were blessed by the Primevals themselves.
The sudden dash placed me inside the nearest Serathid’s guard, and I bashed in its face with an earth-shattering uppercut. The beast sailed up into the shadows above us and landed thirty feet away with a hard crunch. Its companions immediately converged on me, but I was already spinning away to ready my next attack. I felt like a passenger within my own body as the fight continued; my actions appeared to be predetermined, with each parry, dodge, and strike prepared and launched before I could consciously follow the line of battle through cause and effect. The Primes themselves are acting through me. They may have me, for as long as I remain alive.
Contented to spectate my own fight, I let the battle play out before me. My shield snapped from side to side to parry a flurry of blows while I shifted and slid around the Serathids in a graceful dance. Blood coated a majority of my armor from my wounded hand, back, and face, but I felt no pain. Each successful strike propelled me faster towards my next target, and each grazing cut and jarring parry I received in turn further strengthened my resolve. Despite the dire circumstances and the inevitable end to come, I felt more alive than I had in months.
There are more of them now than when the fight began. My final stand had successfully drawn the beasts away from the exit tunnel, but it had also called up a large pack of reinforcements from farther down in the mine. Beyond the immediate seven Serathids surrounding me, another half-dozen approached from
