Judith hopped out the back of the strider while her hand still clamped to his neck hard. From this experience, Dan drew a strange parallel with a female cat carrying away one of her kittens by biting down on its neck. Once her feet hit the sand, she hoisted him by the neck. His feet couldn’t even touch the ground as he was carried with one hand by Judith.

  Dan looked at his two teammates. Adam was still face down in the sand. Li was a few meters away from the strider and was already back on his feet and pointed his dual pistols at Judith.

  “You and your teammate have resisted me long enough,” Judith said. “I can either drag you both back willingly, or as corpses.” She squeezed Dan’s neck harder. “The decision is in your hands.”

  Li still kept his pistols aimed at the lead Bloodknight. “I’ve already been trained by the best. My uncle and Jane Sunheiser are better teachers than scum like you. You might have power at your fingertips, but you’re just a maniac. No discipline, no professionalism. You’re no agent I’d ever take orders from.”

  Even with an iron grip around his aching neck, Dan mustered up a proud smile on behalf of his friend.

  “You heard the man Judith,” Dan said in a raspy voice. “No deal.”

  Dan heard something hit the strider tank behind them then saw a dark armored figure flip in the air above him and land on the ground a good distance behind Li. She held a basic Kodak katana in her hand and pointed the blade down at Adam. In the corner of Dan’s eye, he spotted fast shifting afterimages and saw Ada pop into view. She also positioned herself behind the stealth specialist.

  “So much potential, but so much idiocy unfortunately,” Judith said. “You boys could easily stand among my Bloodknights as respected and powerful allies. Instead, you both choose oblivion. You know, suicide goes against our natural instincts as humans.”

  “I’d say bending the knee to you is the real form of suicide, you bitch,” Dan seethed.

  He couldn’t help but glance at Ada to gauge her reaction to the situation. The young Bloodknight stood a few paces behind Li’s left shoulder. She had no weapons drawn, but her hand was firmly wrapped around the hilt of her Bloodluster sword. Li still kept his two handguns pointed at Judith while also periodically tilting his helmet to the side, keeping an eye on Ada.

  Even through her mostly blank expression, he could still catch her uncomfortable glances toward him and Judith.

  “Wow, how rude,” Judith said. “It doesn’t bother me, but it looks like you’re breaking poor Ada’s heart with your harsh words.”

  Dan had enough of listening to her drivel. His hand snatched the pistol on the side of his coat and he blasted a few rounds behind him. He highly doubted any of those shots did much damage, but it was enough for Judith to release her grip on his neck. Dan tried turning his body even before his feet hit the sand. Before he could pull the trigger and get off another shot, Judith rammed her shoulder into his upper torso. While Judith didn’t have the same spikes on her armor that would have stabbed him, the impact forced the air out of his lungs as he flew backward.

  He narrowly avoided smashing into Li as his teammate blasted the lead Bloodknight with a barrage of gunfire from his dual pistols. Dan felt something catch him, preventing him from crashing into the sand. He turned his head and saw Ada. She wrapped her arms underneath his armpits and held him in a lock. She kept her gaze away from him, refusing to make eye contact.

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  A few of Li’s bullets smashed into Judith’s armor but did nothing to stop her. The lead Bloodknight flashed out of existence and then reappeared a few meters behind the stealth specialist, placing her in the space between Li and Dan.

  “You know, there really should be a vetting process and wellness checks to judge whether an agent should ever receive these powers,” Dan said. “I’d hate to imagine more psychos like you running around with corrosia abilities.”

  Li spun around and reloaded his handguns. But Judith was quicker in summoning her golden blade and she pressed it against Li’s neck.

  Judith stared at Dan then chuckled. Then her laughter increased so much that her shoulders were shaking even through her armor. “You say the strangest things sometimes Dan. After I stole as many artifacts as I could carry from my time in the Dead Zone. I kept quite a bit for myself and didn’t share them with the rest of the shard like I should have. The share that I kep for myself and only myself was what gave me all the powers you see before you. Besides, finders keepers right? If I’m the one who fought and bled for these artifacts, why should someone else benefit? Those who take the most risks should get the most rewards, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “See what I mean?” Li said. “So you gathered valuable resources from your dangerous mission but decided to selfishly keep your share instead of distributing it to the shard. You lack so much leadership capabilities it’s disgusting.”

  The lead Bloodknight took her eyes off Dan and glanced at Li. She still had her golden blade pressed closely against his neck. Dan could feel the sweat running down his face and neck. And it wasn’t just from the desert heat. At any time she wished, she could simply just chop the stealth specialist in half.

  “You can hold the moral high ground over me as much as you wish, but my point still stands,” she said. “There are only two known methods to gaining corrosia-based abilities. The first is a serum injection from microbes taken from the meteorite, which is what your Arctic serum is. The second is possession of an artifact, also taken from the meteorite. You see a pattern here boys? Access to corrosia abilities is at a premium and the Church of Nanotology has a monopoly on the supply. I had to take my opportunity to get myself enhanced with these gifts and then convince Overlord to extend such benefits to the rest of the Bloodknight sect.”

  “I think I’ve had enough history lessons in the middle of combat,” Li said.

  Judith exhaled and shook her head. “I guess I’ll have to chop an arm off to truly make you understand how hopeless your situation is. Ada, do the same to Dan. We’ve given them more than enough grace and they simply won’t accept our generosity.”

  Dan gritted his teeth at how their struggle to escape would end here. He activated his warp dancer and attempted to release himself from Ada’s lock. But Ada countered with her own warp dance and matched his speed, preventing him from escaping her grasp.

  “Sorry,” Ada whispered in his ear.

  Both deactivated their warp dance and Dan could only stare at Judith in continued defiance. But then he picked up the sounds of a struggle. He glanced to the side and saw Natalia staggering back from a surprise kick from Adam. The skull-faced agent aimed his rifle at Judith and fired a slug at her.

  The lead Bloodknight took her blade away from Li but wasn’t fast enough to raise it and block the hypersonic slug that smashed into her.

  A flash of light enveloped her entire armor before exploding. Parts of her armor now emitted overload static as her armor’s energy shields had been destroyed.

  Judith reached behind her and ripped out a piece of hardware from her armor. Dan had a brief flashback to his first encounter against Adam and how he threw everything he had at the Kodak agent and only managed to bring down his energy shields. Doing so permanently damaged the module installed into his armor that generated the shields in the first place. “Lucky shot. It won’t happen again.”

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