The body hit the cliffside with a thunderous boom, rock and body armor shattering before it collapsed, four hundred pounds of furry, fanged, feline humanoid hitting the dirt with a thud.

  “Just for the record, are you insane?”

  Mira’s energetic voice sounded through the comms as I sent another of the beasts flying with a brutal elbow strike to the gut. That one had tried to cut me in half from behind. Rude. I rolled my eyes and suppressed a slight chuckle.

  “You’re one to talk, huh?”

  With a powerful leap, I launched myself straight up the entire height of the cliff, crashing straight through a nanolaminate wall, likely some portable field fortification, and right into another beast, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the ground in a single fluid motion. I looked up, hand still on the ground as I stared down the barrel of a mobile anti-aircraft gun that had just finished training its sights on me… only for it to be reduced to slag in a furious display by a salvo of fusion missiles from a Reaper Mk. II strike fighter from overhead. With a shrug, I threw the body off of the cliffside as Mira launched into a concerned tirade that made me glad we weren’t on an open channel, more for her sake than my own,

  “Xylan, there’s at least ten thousand elite Kymarans, over a dozen Kaiju grade war machines, backline intel from Esh reported a Headhunter and… what’s gotten into you?!”

  Despite not being face to face, I still pictured her wild dramatic gestures and expressions like she was right next to me. “Just a little taste of real tactics, Mira,” I answered as I walked past the burning wreckage and bodies, looking out into the distance. Ash filled the sky as fire and explosions dotted the landscape as if the stars in the sky were somewhere they really weren’t supposed to be instead. “You’ve been grinding front lines for half the freakin day, and unless you’ve got that experimental Mark 69 of yours here within an hour, we’ve gotta take the shipyard before whatever they’re cooking in there wakes up and decides to ruin our day. Besides…” A thunderous explosion erupted right next to me as a high caliber shell hit the ground, flames licking my left side and the ends of my hair as I continued walking. I cracked a smirk as I ran my hand through my hair, pieces of razor-sharp monofilament shrapnel falling to the ground. “Been a while since I cut loose, Praetor. Just keep reinforcing the front.”

  Needless to say, that didn’t work. Calm wasn’t exactly in my fiery redheaded Praetor’s vocabulary.

  “You’re literally in a hot grid square, Xylan! Move!”

  I shook my head as I stopped walking, taking a stance as emerald light flared, enveloping my body as I focused my power. “You think? Keep those guns singing, keep me updated, and stand by.”

  Mira’s voice audibly choked, and a second later I swore I heard a quiet giggle from her end. “Copy that, just don’t die!”

  That really did bring a smile to my face. I looked up to the sky as my body tensed up, power surging further. “Heh, let’s end this!”

  Thunder roared and rocks flew as I leapt into the air, already shattering the sound barrier at least three times over. Almost immediately, a bright bolt streaked past me and vanished into the distance, followed by more and more at a rapid pace. I turned my head to see a small, black, crescent-shaped starfighter closing in, having just barely missed its burst of weapons fire. Identifying the vessel as a Kymaran Kopis interceptor, I reached upwards, grabbing onto the ship’s wing as it flew overhead. The impact, though harsh, barely registered to me as I pulled upwards, flipping onto its cockpit and glaring at the pilot. Before he could react, my fist smashed through the reinforced transparent material and grabbed the feline humanoid by their throat.

  “Surprise…”

  With a powerful heave, I tossed the Kymaran behind me and leapt from the now pilotless craft and into the pilot, clotheslining him across the chest as I fell. With a sickening crunch and metallic squeal, I dragged my fist, and the Kymaran, through the reinforced plating of an unfortunate gunship which just so happened to be in the path of my descent. It was barely even a second later before I crashed feet-first on top of a Sekhmet class scorpion walker. My foot punched straight through the mechanical beast’s outer shell and directly into its main reactor, shattering containment and unleashing a massive explosion of nuclear fire. At the last second, I reinforced my body with energy as the flames washed over me, stinging a bit… but it was nothing. Taking a moment to reorient myself, I looked at the tactical map in my display as I was interrupted by several hard, high speed objects striking me in the back, slamming against my armor as several dozen more orange streaks flew by. The Type-1 Fang assault rifle. It fired rocket-propelled, high-explosive armor-piercing slugs; loud, annoying, and mostly ineffective. A green energy sphere erupted into existence in my right hand and I clenched my fingers around it.

  “Last time I checked, guns were supposed to hurt.”

  I turned around, raising my arm backwards and throwing the energy blast at the group of several dozen Kymarans who were firing at me one-handed with their guns. It struck the guy in the middle, sending him careening away as it continued to grind against his chest, only to explode as the unlucky turd hit the closest object, which just so happened to be another transport in the middle of unloading troops. In a bright green flash, debris and dust went flying as they were all atomized. The other Kymarans had stopped firing, just staring at me.

  “Is that… him?,” one of them turned to what appeared to be his buddy, speaking in a rough gravelly voice. “He just… he’s just some guy, how-”

  I crossed my arms and interrupted him.

  “Trust me, you’ll be surprised…”

  I counted 35 Kymarans aside from the guy I’d just vaporized, all with power blades at their hips and most with guns raised. They’d already begin closing in as one marked with a red crest on his helmet roared. That must be the squad leader, perfect. I’d take him out first. The second I noticed the flare of an anti tank missile launcher, I dashed forwards as the flames from the fusion warhead grazed the soles of my feet. The commander’s power blade was already drawn, and he was swinging downwards, trying to slice me in half. Well, tried. My fist collided directly with where his liver should be, and I felt the crunch of bones and metal as the guy flew, knocking over several other Kymarans like they were bowling pins. Looking to my side, I noticed another guy coming in, raising his gun to fire at point blank range. I quickly threw a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, following up with an uppercut right into the chin of another guy who had tried to grab me from behind. Each blow I struck sounded less like a punch, and more like a miniature explosion from the sheer force behind my attacks. Bodies went flying from the shockwaves, and the ground had started to rip up, sending rocks of all sizes everywhere. I heard the distinctive mechanical squeal and hiss of another Kymaran anti tank missile being launched, from the same direction, and I turned. Distance, 100 meters and closing… perfect. I jumped, kicking off of the missile as it flew under me, and clenched my right fist as I focused on the guy with the launcher. Rocks flew at high speed from all sides, encasing the Kymaran warrior, flash melting into lava, and snap freezing, pretty much casting him in a solid piece of obsidian.

  “Heh, nice try hot stuff,” I shrugged as I leapt away, tearing through the battlefield towards the heart of the Kymaran forces.

  “Remind me, Mira, what’s been giving you problems again?”

  I landed next to a giant glassed crater only to immediately leap off again, shattering the glass from the shockwaves.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Xylan, did I hear that right earlier?!”

  I nearly winced from her abrupt exclamation. It was excessively loud even for her. “Guns are supposed to hurt!? Did you just-”

  I cut her off dryly. “Yeah. Got a problem with that?”

  “Oh my gosh…” Mira groaned, drawing out every word longer than it needed to be. “You can’t just take hits like that, you could-”

  There was a flash of light in the distance. No sound yet, but the projectile would reach me far before that. It was a piece of hypersonic coil artillery, likely mounted on another of their assorted vehicles, and a tungsten carbide penetrator was screaming forth at Mach 30 to rudely introduce itself to my face.

  “Hold that thought!”

  I was already on the move, wired reflexes, adrenaline, and the stimulant cocktail rushing through my veins pushing me to action. I leapt into the air, spinning into a powerful crescent kick, energy flickering around my massive frame as my foot met the projectile, sending it flying with a powerful thunderclap into the sky, where it skewered through another Kymaran starfighter in a brilliant reactor explosion. In a split second, I was already behind a rock, having moved faster than most eyes could track. As far as protection was concerned, this hunk of minerals provided basically none, but that wasn’t the idea anyway.

  “Back to the last question!”, I shouted over the roar of battle as a barrage of missiles streaked overhead. Whatever they were aimed at would have a bad day, but it unfortunately wasn’t that artillery. “This on the list?”

  I heard weapons fire over comms before Mira responded, concern from earlier already gone. “Yeah, that’s part of it! See what you can do, I’ll try to coordinate, hold on….” She drew out the last part again, probably as she checked something.

  Another white hot streak split through the boulder as I’d already leapt over the top and kicked off, dragging my forearm through the armored hull of another starfighter and leaping from its wing right as its reactor went up in another brilliant blast.

  “Well, Mira, how about you coordinate the main ground force through this wide open space I’m making!”

  Emerald lightning arced in my palm as I brought it down, unleashing another violent blast at the railgun artillery below. I counted four, not like it mattered anyway. With a brilliant flash and thunderous roar, the sphere of energy erupted, incinerating the two on the left in a green fireball as I landed on the main capacitor bank of the third and drove my fist right into the wiring, ripping out a fistful of primary power conduits before I leapt off in a backflip. Gunfire streaked past me, several explosive rounds striking glancing but completely ineffective blows against my armored form. A wicked serrated blade extended out from along the length of my right forearm and folded out to a good two feet past my hand as I landed behind a Kymaran with fancy red marks on his armor and split him horizontally at the waist without even looking. Six more coming from the left. My gaze shifts, locking on the remaining artillery, already locked on me and charging.

  “Geez, danger close, much?”

  Well, I recognized the model now, and it had a fatal flaw: it couldn’t abort a firing sequence once started, and that was all I needed. I clenched my fist as I raised my arm up and with a powerful downward pull, wrenched the huge gun downwards, redirecting the high-speed tungsten right into the Kymarans that were rushing me. Molten dirt, red hot armor fragments, and a boiling slurry that used to be six guys flew everywhere, even showering all over me. Of course, I just shrugged it off. I could take more than molten glass and biological goo. For a second, I felt as if the gunner had locked eyes directly with me, and I was pretty sure they had, but I just casually raised my right arm and sent a bolt of lightning JUST strong enough to overload the weapon right down the muzzle of the massive cannon. Electricity arced, sparks flew, and capacitors ruptured as the weapon tore itself apart. I shook my head as I turned around to look at the sky.

  “Ya know, Romulus… maybe try that again and see what happens.” I severely doubted that the piece of crap would hear me unless he somehow was watching direct feeds from the closest piece of hardware.

  “And YOU know,” Mira added with a playful, teasing tone, “You could have taken them all out at once with that big blast!

  I shrugged and let out a chuckle as I glanced up to the sky, where six more gunships, side doors all open revealing dozens of Kymaran troops, had surrounded me. “Well, Mira, my aim was a bit off. So anyway…”

  I brushed a strand of hair from my eye as my feet shifted, and I gave a confident smile. “Who’s next?”

  I was a bit confused that they’d actually stopped and waited long enough for me to even say that, but once the casings started hitting the ground, it didn’t matter. The mechanized roar of two dozen rotary cannons filled the air as a torrential rain of exploding shells hammered down. High powered, close range missiles burst as punctuation, tearing through the steel-filled air towards me. My smile didn’t end as I just stood, resting my left hand on the sheathe of my katana and tensing up my muscles as the first round of gunfire hammered into my body, barely pushing me down as I was assaulted from all sides. But just before the first missile struck, I flicked the handguard with my thumb…

  And drew.

  Fire surged through my veins as I made slash after slash in less than one millionth of a second, pushing my speed and power to the limit. Glowing crimson steel carved brilliant arcs through the air. Thrusters ruptured, venting plasma exhaust as missiles fell to dozens of pieces, bursting before they could strike or veering off into the sky. The world had turned to fire and dust until I leapt to the sky, coming down headfirst over one of the gunships and throwing a full force overhand punch to the point on its top hull just above the center of mass. Armor plating shattered as the flying war machine split in two, both halves slamming into the ground as Kymarans onboard jumped for their lives. By the time any of them could tell what was going on, I was already upon them.

  I leapt from piece to piece of still-falling debris, landed on the closest Kymaran, and crushed his skull under my boot with an ear-splitting crunch. Explosions rang out as I looked up, noticing one of our Reaper fighter wings had engaged the gunships, plasma missile fire hammering into the remaining four. Seems I’d given them a bit of an opening. I’d have to thank whoever was flying later. Either way, I still had twenty remaining Kymarans to deal with. I considered leaving them for the legion to mop up, but I didn’t exactly have a reason not to take them on. With that, I brought my blade back and charged in with a powerful leap.

  “Oh, come on, that was completely unnecessary!” I didn’t register Mira’s quip until after I’d already driven my elbow deep into the ribcage of the first Kymaran with a mighty slam and sent him flying into two of his buddies with an expertly executed joint lock throw. I nodded and cracked a grin as I clenched my fist, causing the guy I’d just thrown to burst into blinding white flames and explode, reducing the other two to ash with a mighty thunderclap. “Well, it was cool, wasn’t it!”

  “Heck yeah, it was!” Mira shouted over the comms, once again, way too loud for comfort, but comfort didn’t matter when I was knee deep in fallen foes. “I’ve got armored columns on the way, and a detachment from my Stormbreaker unit, but heads up!”

  “Yeah, my head’s always up, Mira.” I deadpanned as I caught the next Kymaran, who’d tried to tackle me and eat my face, by the throat, and held him in between myself and the incoming gunfire. Rounds cracked the beast’s armor, pulping flesh as he went from thrashing to limp in five or so seconds flat. I tossed him aside and waved my hand, unleashing a searing wave of flames and arcing lightning towards the gunline before me. If that didn’t finish the rest off or send them running, whatever was left would probably be easy pickings considering their track record for this battle.

  That’s when I heard it, a giant mechanical roar as a colossal metal beast breached the horizon. The torso and legs were deceptively skinny for its sheer bulk. Massive, bulky, clawed arms hung from its shoulders, razor sharp blades the size of buses dragging through the scorched, cratered land as it walked. For a head, it had a massive, metal maw with razor-sharp mechanized teeth and fire burning in its throat.

  “Remember those Kaiju units!?” Mira sounded tense, more than earlier. The worst case was I’d have to take this thing on by myself, and I was pretty sure that’s what she was expecting. My grip tightened around the hilt of my blade as my feet shifted.

  “Yeah. Get me an ETA on that armored formation and direct all free batteries you have to blow that thing into next week! Nuke it if you have to!” I dramatically pointed at the incoming war machine for emphasis, even as the bristling kinetic and laser cannons covering its metal frame locked their sights on me.

  “Well, I would, Xylan, if I had either of those things on hand!”

  I gritted my teeth at Mira’s answer and tensed up, my aura erupting as I focused just the right amount of power I expected this thing to take. “Well it looks like today just got a lot more interesting!”