Caitlyn PoV

  The two Twenty-Threes burst through the smuggler’s tunnel, hot on my tail. Although I was confident that I could wear one of the creatures down, given the strength of my lance and áine’s agility, two were a serious problem.

  With a single thought, I opened up the missile racks hidden on áine’s rear haunches and unloaded them on the pursuing Antithesis. I turned to watch, as the foot long explosives smashed directly into the closest monster’s face. Unfortunately, it did little more than stun the Twenty-Three for a moment. The massive creature shook its head, shedding some of its damaged armor, and immediately took off after her again. I frowned, leaned closer to áine’s neck, and pushed her a little harder.

  Since we couldn’t outrun the Twenty-Threes, and I couldn’t stop them with my missiles, we’d have to try to out maneuver them, at least until her backup arrived. I pulled áine into a hard turn, slipping between a pair of parked cars and down an open street on our right. The Twenty-Threes tried to follow, but didn’t quite have the agility required.

  The first creature dug its claws into the road, in a desperate attempt to make the corner, but it's extra mass caused it to skid past the turn and slam into the building on the corner. The second didn’t fare much better, and when it tried to make the turn it slammed directly into the first monster and sent it tumbling further into the building. The second beast swayed for a moment, almost fell into the building itself, but quickly found its footing again and once again took off in pursuit.

  [I could use a little help here guys!] I yelled into her Augs. Facing one Twenty-Three was definitely better than two, but I still didn’t like her odds on narrow streets, especially against a pissed off Antithesis that was twenty percent teeth.

  [We’re here!] Angeline replied excitedly. [Evelyn is going to help you with that one, while the bears distract the other. Take a right at the next intersection!]

  [Great.] I could hear the sound of cars being crushed behind me, and I decided to spare a glance backwards, only to find the Twenty-Three MUCH closer than I expected. It was gaining, fast. “She better be close,” I muttered.

  áine and I slid around the corner and into a wide, empty, street. The Twenty-Three only a few steps behind. “Evelyn!”

  Just as the monstrosity stretched out, preparing to bite down on my position, a fuzzy black projectile fell from above, smashing it in the face. “Bob, what the hell are you doing? If you get bitten, and I have to repair you again, I’m going to be pissed!” Evelyn’s voice echoed from the nearby rooftop.

  With a quick flick of the reins, I turned áine about, only to see an absurd sight. The Twenty-Three, the massive forty foot long plant based killer, was staggering about with a massive teddy bear stuck to the top of its head. The bear had one set of claws embedded in the creature’s head, while the other arm slashed the Twenty-Three’s head again and again. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be doing much, beyond pissing the giant Antithesis off. While I watched this odd display, Evelyn leaned over the top of the corner building and fired some sort of heavy rifle which dug deep into the Twenty-Three’s side but failed to do any significant damage. The diminutive girl immediately threw that rifle to the side, and grabbed another, identical model sitting beside her. “Look, I’m helping the best I can, but you’re going to have to kill this thing!” Evelyn yelled.

  I grit my teeth, lowered my lance, and charged. The weapon started glowing a pale blue, as I triggered the laser capacitor, slowly growing brighter as áine accelerated. Thankfully the Twenty-Three was too distracted by the bear attached to its head to notice, or dodge, and the lance struck home, embedding itself deep within the creature’s abdomen. As soon as I felt the impact, I triggered the built-in laser to cut deeper.

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  The Twenty-Three paused for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was out of confusion or pain, then the beast began to thrash about violently. It smashed its head repeatedly into the wall until Bob let go, then locked eyes on my position.

  “That's not good,” I muttered, as I yanked the weapon out of the creature's wound. áine danced between the Twenty-Three’s legs, just barely avoiding its stomping feet, as I unload a full salvo of rockets into the monster’s open wound the two of us shot off down the street.

  The Antithesis twisted around to follow, but it wasn’t as quick as before. The wounds had obviously affected it, they just weren't enough to put it down. Evelyn took another shot from her rooftop perch, smashing into the creature’s side, but now it was focused exclusively on me. I managed to make it to the end of the street, before I wheeled my horse about, and charged again. The Twenty-Three put its head down, and prepared to counter-charge, only to get interrupted, once again, by Bob. The bear shot out of the building it had just been buried in, and slammed into the creature’s face, causing it to flinch. That’s when I embedded my lance squarely in the Antithesis’ face. The beast didn’t even have a chance to react as I once again activated the built-in laser. The weapon burnt straight through the Twenty-Three, and the beam exploded out the back of its thick skull. All the fight went out of the colossal creature, it slowly teetered for a moment, then finally collapsed.

  “Fuck yeah! Eat it you oversized tree” Evelyn cried from the top of the building. Her bear kicked the Twenty-Three in the head, apparently double-checking to make sure it was dead, before wandering away.

  “What’s happening with the other Twenty-Three? Have you heard anything yet?” I yelled at the diminutive girl, slightly out of breath after the intense melee.

  Evelyn shrugged, “Angeline’s handling it. We can go over and check, but I’m guessing it’ll be over by the time we get over there.”

  “Angeline isn’t combat focused, we should definitely head over there to help her.” I reminded her, before rushing back to where she last saw the other Twenty-Three.

  It didn’t take me long to figure out where it was, I could see a swarm of squirrels circling over the rooftops, while some vaguely rabbit shaped silhouettes bounced around the rooftops.

  Snaking my way through the streets, I just caught sight of the Twenty-Three’s tail as it disappeared around a corner. I pushed áine harder, trying desperately to catch the monster. Just as I was about to catch up, a little green bear jumped out in front of áine, blocking the way.

  “Please stay here for now” The bear said, in a female voice. “If you interfere at this point, it may endanger the operation.”

  I stared down at the bear in confusion. “What operation, who the hell are you?”

  “Dyana. Angeline’s AI. Nyx lent me this bear so I could intercept you.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  The bear just held up a hand, silencing her. It pointed to an intersection further down the street, where a group of rabbits were jumping from roof to roof. A few seconds later, the remaining Twenty-Three rounded the corner. The creature, apparently frustrated that it couldn’t reach its quarry, saw me and dashed in my direction. Once it got halfway into the intersection Evelyn’s bears appeared in multiple windows, all with one of her heavy rifles, all firing simultaneously. Every single round went into one of the Twenty-Three’s legs. It wasn’t enough to take the leg off, but the attack did hobble it.

  “You might want to stand back from the street, and plug your ears.” Dyana said.

  “Why? What the hell is going…” I didn’t get a chance to finish. There was an earth shaking boom, which was followed by a pressure wave which nearly unhorsed her. “What the fuck was that?” She asked.

  Dyana just pointed at the Twenty-Three, which was now missing a large section of its torso. I urged áine forward, cautiously, and glanced down the sidestreet. There was Angeline, literally jumping in joy, next to a massive cannon. Angeline waved, grinning from ear to ear. “Evelyn was right, this thing is WAY too much fun to fire.”

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