The rain ran in sheets. Thunder crashed. My left foot slid in the water.

  I fell on my ass. He pounced.

  I could see his dead metalic eyes set in the metal plate of his face. His hands closed around my neck, and he began to squeeze. My gorget, the armor at my neck, could turn aside a bullet, but he didn’t need to pierce my armor. He was going to crush my throat behind it.

  It would all be over in moments. Either I died here, just outside Boston, failing my brother, and disgracing the Knights, or maybe — just maybe — I proved to myself this war thing wasn’t all that hard.

  God, he was stronger than anything I’d faced in my life. And this was a little one! This was the weakest of them. A strange sound that sounded like a mechanical hiss of static and garbled oscillating tones came from him. They weren’t words really, but I could gauge the maliciousness from his tone. Also from the fact that he was trying to kill me.

  This wasn’t how I died. I hadn’t even started.

  I grabbed him by his scrawny metal throat, and pulled him close. He made a surprised sound. The pressure on my neck lessened. I’d rolled with stronger people before. Now I was the stronger person. I could do this.

  I hooked my feet behind his body, closed my guard, and scrambled to reposition from beneath him. I got it! Hooking my arm around the back of his head, I was able to get his face in my armpit. I shifted my hips forward, pulled back on the guillotine, and popped his head right off.

  His body went limp in my lap and some kind of oil splattered over my helm.

  “Auagh,” I screamed, “gross!”

  I crushed his chest for good measure. Then, I had his head in my arms, his dead eyes staring up at me. I shoved his body off me with my feet, and threw his head into the woods at the side of the road.

  That was awful.

  The clapping cut through the music in my helm. The woman lay in a pool of water next to her car. A cheer broke out, as people left their cars, and huddled all around us.

  Ah, crap! They saw that?!

  They clapped, cheered some more. Did they see that fight? I could have died. You people shouldn’t be clapping!

  I shook my head.

  If I was going to wear the suit, though, I had to say something to her. I willed the ballistic bubble that enclosed my helm to open, and it did. I knelt next to her.

  “Are you okay?” I asked gently.

  “My arm hurts,” she said, cradling one of her arms.

  “Let me see,” I said. I touched her other arm to let her know that everything was okay and made a show of looking at the hurt arm. I had exactly zero medical training. But it looked like it hurt.

  “I think you’ll be okay,” I said, lowering the pitch of my voice a bit to sound more confident, but not cartoonishly so. She gave me a smile, and tried to stand. I helped her up. “I need to head into the city,” I continued. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I think so,” she said softly. Her eyes were very blue, and she looked at me like, well, like I was somebody far more special than I was. Like I was a hero. I wasn’t a hero.

  “I need to go,” I said. I cringed a little at that last part. That did sound cartoonish.

  I picked up my sword, steaming hot, and burning red from the frictional heat it gained when cutting through the metal. I ran.

  Now what? Did we have any info on Kalea, where she was? The song in my helm shifted into something more percussive. The driving rhythm pushed me forward towards the center of the city. That made sense. If I couldn’t find her right away I could at least maybe get to the top of one of the office buildings, and get a better view of the situation.

  I shook my head, and ran faster, making it into the city in no time at all.

  I stopped at the edge of an overpass. I could feel Morrigan, the song, leading me directly away. The street lay at least thirty feet below me.

  An explosion sent smoke, and debris into the air. Sounded further into the city, many blocks away. Morrigan opened a map of the city in my HUD, and pointed out where it was exactly.

  Well. That had to be her.

  Here goes nothing.

  I sheathed my sword, hoping it was cool enough, and stepped off the overpass. I fell. My feet hit the ground, and I rolled. All the energy of my fall shook through my armor, and I was fine.

  Wow.

  The rain stopped, but the world was still silver and grey. I kept running.

  I tucked around the corner down the street. Cars swerved to miss me.

  That office building over there had to have a better view of where I was. I was running blind. It was only five stories tall, quaint red brick.

  Maybe I could jump it?

  I overshot the lip of the apartment building’s roof by several feet, and slipped on the concrete as I came down. I cursed under my breath, and scrambled to my feet. Where was I?

  The music picked up.

  I ran for the edge of the building, and lept to the other. Every leap was like being pushed by a strong wind at my back. Once I started, my momentum led me forward, pushing me faster, exhilarating and terrifying. My heart leapt up into my throat.

  I knew I was running towards danger. But it was enough just to run, to use my new abilities.

  I was a fool.

  I found the street with the robots. It was filled with them. Hundreds of them.

  They had a cannon with legs in the thick of it, a mobile gun platform. The barrel ran the length of a school bus. It made an awful groan of steel against asphalt as it scuttled its legs like a crab, and turned to face me.

  Well, shit.

  I threw myself flat on the roof, and rolled away as fast as I could.

  The sound was tremendous. I knew I had hearing protection, but it didn’t matter. The entire quarter of the apartment complex I had been standing on erupted into the sky.

  I fell into the apartment.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as the world spun. Thankfully my VP was only present when my eyes were open.

  I opened them. I’d fallen on someone’s couch.

  I had to move my ass. Who knows when it would fire again?

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I pushed the door from its hinges, and ran down the hall. Another roar of the gun. The hall behind me tore itself from the rest of the building and flew into the air.

  That was ten seconds, my HUD announced.

  It took ten seconds to recycle a round.

  I had eight.

  My legs churned. A window. I had to get closer.

  I leapt through it. Glass bounced off me, and dashed across the ground like the rain.

  Rolling, I stood to take in my surroundings.

  Three.

  I was in a sea of robots. My first instinct was to punch the one closest to me. I did.

  It knocked him off his feet. They fell back just enough to level their rifles at me. I ducked down an alley as bullets buried themselves in the pavement.

  One.

  The cannon fired, and the apartment collapsed, regurgitating debris into the street. Smoke and fine dust hung in the air, oppressively blocking my vision.

  The world was grey. With visibility close to nil, I couldn’t see more than a couple feet in front of me. But neither could they.

  I had no idea what I was doing. I was surrounded by robots that wanted to kill me. There was a crab-walking robot gun somewhere in the clinging dust. I was alone.

  Where was Kalea? She was supposed to be here.

  I was alone. But I had a sword.

  My right hand went to the scabbard at my waist, and my left wrapped around the hilt of the sword. I pulled it free.

  I could see the white material of the double-edged blade shine in the light caught in the dust.

  Here goes nothing.

  Two robots wandered into the alley. I cut them both down in two strokes.

  That was easy! I wondered how long the dust would stay, and if I could just keep doing this.

  The next robot stumbled into the street carrying a ‘pedestrian crossing’ sign like a club. But I’d known that would happen. How? Huh, weird. He swung it at me, and I threw myself back. The metal sign whiffed in front of my face. I lashed out with my sword at his hand, severing it neatly. The sign fell. I advanced, and cut his head from his shoulders.

  My sword glowed red against the dust, and the grey that was my world. Maybe this wasn’t so hard after all! I moved back onto the street, and continued to cut them down one by one.

  The cannon fired. The asphalt in front of me peeled up, and the ensuing explosion threw me onto my back.

  Pain shot through my whole body. I had to get up!

  I scrambled to my feet, and cut down two robots that had yet to stand. Yeah, this was dumb. I was going to die for sure.

  But I had five seconds.

  I ran toward the gun, ducking around robots and cutting down those that got too close.

  Three seconds.

  I’m an idiot. I could see the cannon. What was I doing? My legs pumped hard.

  One second.

  I had a clear shot at it. I fell on my side, and slid like a play for home plate. The gun roared. I could feel the asphalt shower my back.

  I was under the gun, its legs around me.

  Get up, get up, get up!

  I leapt to my feet, took the sword in both hands, and swung at the first leg. The sword bounced off the plate.

  The cannon scurried, trying to get me out from under it, but I moved to keep it above me. A robot leapt at me, and I cut it down. I swung at the leg again, this time at a spot between plates. My sword bit deep. I pulled it free.

  Two more robots came in swinging metal pipes. The first one was crushed by a leg from the Crab Walker. The second I kept at bay with wild swings.

  This was stupid. That could be me! One mistake, and I’m a crunchy jelly from this thing.

  I flailed, batting aside advances from the robots, and taking swipes at that one leg when I got a chance. Only now did I notice the song. It was guiding me. And I could feel them somehow through the music. It was like reading ahead on sheet music to a song I’d never heard. I had an idea of what would happen just seconds before it actually did.

  In the distance, I heard a loud crash.

  I could feel the hair that had fallen out of my bun plastered to my face with sweat. I began to tire.

  I kicked one robot in the chest, knocking it through the window of a quaint red-bricked shop close by. Another took its place. They jostled all around the gun, waiting for an opening. Why wait? A third robot leapt in, and was promptly crushed by a leg of the Crab Walker.

  Oh. That’s why. Right.

  Man, this was dangerous. Why did people do this? The walker was going to kill me!

  That crashing sound again. It was closer. What was it?

  A black shape crashed into a leg of the walker, utterly destroying it. I ducked out from under the machine as it fell. The gun went off, tearing a line of destruction through the robots that surrounded us.

  It was a Knight — black, and red, and huge — not much taller than me but twice as wide. The red designs on her facemask, hard geometric designs. Two shields, one at her left shoulder and one at the elbow below, were affixed to her left arm. Her right hand held a great axe with a hook at the back.

  Kalea! I’d found her!

  Not important now. We had to fight our way out of this.

  She grabbed my arm, and led me away from the crab walker that was already starting to get back up, and waved her axe in an arc. A shimmering wall surrounded us at chest height. I could see bullets pinging off it like the rain on a windshield.

  “I’ll shoot!” she said, hooking her axe to a spot under her lower shield and pulling the massive cannon from her back. “You keep them off me!”

  “Yes ma’am!” I said.

  “Knights say, ‘Yes Sir,’” she corrected. That first part was in her language, but ‘yes sir’ was clear, pristine english.

  “Yessir!”

  “That’s right!”

  Kalea’s railgun — larger and considerably more dangerous than a coilgun — once deployed, was almost as long as she was tall. It was an older design of weapon. I liked it. I liked it even more when it spouted fire out the front with a roar to rival the crab walker.

  An entire line of robots, all the way to the end of the pack, crumpled in the wake of Kalea’s gun.

  I ran to her at full speed. Two were coming in from her back, crawling over the shimmering wall. I dodged around her, leapt and crashed into the first, dashing him to the pavement, and swung my sword around on the second, cutting him in two. Kalea turned, and aimed the gun at me. I ducked, and moved to be at her back.

  The Crab Walker still had three legs left. It was almost on its feet again.

  I saw Kalea fire behind me, her back blocking my vision somewhat. I wished I could have seen what she did to it, but I had my hands full.

  Because there was a Silv-ite unit.

  Every horde of robots had their elite units that were differentiated from the rest by the intricate armor they wore. And with the heavier armor came the weapons they had brought from the rift. The robots had access to dizzying technology, but reserved the best of it for their elite.

  I’d lucked out. There was only one.

  But that didn’t matter because one would be more than enough. This one had a sword. I had my own. I had to cut him down before I was overwhelmed.

  He came in fast, silver armor flashing, his face a featureless metal helm. I batted aside the first sword blow easily, the next bit into my shoulder, deep. I ignored the blinding pain — my armor was rushing medical gel to the injury already — and I parried the next two blows.

  This was bad. I took a desperate swipe at him, but I hit air, and was forced to return to the defensive. Maybe this was how I died?

  Kalea swung her gun around. I side-stepped quickly out of her way. She kicked the Silv-ite unit in the chest, sending him soaring, and pulled the trigger.

  The fire engulfed him, bisecting him neatly.

  I leapt to defend Kalea’s back.

  “Good job kid,” she said. “You set ‘em up, and I’ll knock ‘em down!”

  I had just enough time to marvel at what she had done to the Crab Walker — she’d torn it into three pieces — before I had to hustle to keep their melee weapons from me.

  Kalea’s gun roared three more times in rapid succession. My ears rang louder.

  I cut down a small one, and turned to engage the next Silv-ite. He had a spear.

  It was all I could do to keep it away from me. I had both hands on my sword, and put everything I had into my parries. Each time I did, pain shot through my arm. I couldn’t let that stop me.

  Maybe I could beat him on my own, this time.

  The end of his spear spun around, and hit me right under my helmet, and I saw stars. I parried wildly, and instinctively as my vision swam. This was bad. He flipped his spear around again, and struck me in the hip.

  I crumpled. The creature stood over me, and raised its spear. I couldn’t see its eyes, had nothing to really look at on its featureless metal face. It grunted something in its mechanical language, and plunged the spear down at my chest.

  I saw Kalea drop her gun, and pull her axe.

  Down the spear came. I put everything I had behind my sword in an attempt to parry the blow just enough to miss. I caught it in a bind behind his spearhead, and it plunked down into the pavement next to me. I turned, and pushed my sword down to keep it stuck there.

  Just in time.

  Kalea collapsed his metal helm with a crunch, and kicked him away.

  Then, she dragged me to my feet just in time to meet two more regular robots that came in swinging. The first struck me in the plate covering my lower abdomen with a metal street sign. I cut him down for his trouble. The second leapt at me with a knife. I kicked him in the chest.

  And there was Kalea again, leaping in to crush his head with an axe blow.

  I turned to cover Kalea’s back, and there was nothing. The robots had fled. When did that happen? I stumbled to my knees.