Chapter Forty Three
Around her stood storage units spreading from ceiling to floor with research tables and labs set up throughout. At the end of the room stood a man next to the huddled form of her third ranked officer.
“Horan,” she said coldly and sent a blast fueled by rage.
“Dahlia,” he greeted her, grunting as he swept up a hand and caught the blast, redirecting it to the side. He wore a strange glove studded with a metal that resembled the disk she’d been incapacitated with during one of the first attacks.
Dahlia threw a scatter shot at him, vertical so she wouldn’t hit Genji. He caught one but two more hit him. His eyes glazed as he stumbled.
“Try to block that, jackass,” she said as she walked towards him, getting off another shot.
Horan staggered but she felt a sudden pressure behind her as a cold band of metal wrapped around her throat.
“Fuck,” she screamed as the band bit into her. She felt her shield collapse but she swung a fast strike behind her, catching cloth from the jacket of the man who had just snapped the band around her neck.
She wrenched at the metal but it stayed in place.
“Hello Ahriman, looking for me?” she greeted the swallow, thin man who had backed quickly away from her. She darted towards him and swung. If he thought he’d left her defenseless then he was severely mistaken.
Before she could reach him he pulled out a thin, curved blade and caught her swing against it. She felt something cut into her wounded arm and her vision swam, giving him time to bring the hilt of his sword towards her temple. She shot her arm up and it crashed into her forearm, the chains wrapped around her shielding her from the blow.
“That hurt, bitch.” She heard Horan snarl behind her. She threw herself to the side as air compressed into the span of a blade sheared by her.
Her roll carried her back to her feet and she turned to face her attackers. Ahriman looked on at her, expressionless, holding the curved sword. Horan looked pissed. Good. She hoped he had a nasty headache.
She knew she couldn’t hold both of them off. So far Ahriman was an unknown. As the leader of research he must have been strong, but she knew Horan had a ranged attack. Eventually he’d hit her hard enough to deal serious damage. She took the best bet she could and went after him. She’d have to take him down quickly.
She threw her ax at him as she darted to his side, trying to put him between her and Ahriman. Horan threw up a hand and the ax was deflected by a sharp push of wind. Dahlia pulled it back to her and threw an all-or-nothing attack as she came in reach. She swept her second ax at his throat then let the momentum power a sweeping kick.
He brought his sword up to block the ax but his eyes widened in surprise as her shin connected with his ribs, sending him backwards. Dahlia followed him, taking a hastily aimed shot from him that sliced into her own ribcage. She went for a two handed attack. She might take damage, but he couldn’t block both blades and attack so she had a better chance of taking him out.
A small metal object landed between them and suddenly a light flashed all around her. The brightness was so intense and painful she had to drop her attack and shield her eyes. She heard Horan fall back in surprise as well.
A blow to the head made her vision swim and dropped her to her knees as the light vanished and she saw Ahriman standing over her. She grinned, the pain feeding her fire, and turned her drop into a tackle, bulling her shoulder into his shins. He dropped but managed to twist and connect his knee with her clenched jaw as he came down. She saw stars.
“Damn it girl, go down,” said a voice from her nightmares. Ahriman’s. Then she felt Horan’s presence above her. She threw a wild swing but he moved easily out of the way and dropped her with another blow to her head.