Thorne
Rubbing dust and dirt from his eyes, he sat up and turned around just in time to see a black shape pull itself out from under a large rock chunk and throw itself up and over him, heading for the exit of the tunnel within which he’d ended up.
Thorne might have been addled, but he would recognize that shape anywhere.
“OUTSIDER!” he bellowed, reaching up and grabbing one of its lower appendages.
The matte-black armored creature twisted as he did, kicking his arm away. It landed on its side and bounced to its feet.
Outside the tunnel though, several soldiers that had been running for the bank of tubes along the back wall had stopped, snatched up weapons, and placed themselves between the creature and the portal.
“SHOOT IT!” Thorne bellowed. The bullets wouldn’t harm him; his dragonbone could take it. But they needed to buy as much time as possible.
The two soldiers opened fire, but the creature just walked forward silently through the hail of bullets, and before Thorne could do anything to stop it, reached out and snatched the life from both of them.
Thorne just stared as the two bodies tumbled lifelessly to the ground. He swallowed, stunned. It was his fault. He’d been too slow to act, and the two of them had paid the price because of him. Slumping back to the ground as the Outsider humped and rippled its way across the floor toward the portal, the surface crackling and bursting with energy, he felt the blackness of guilt wash over him like a tidal wave, pulling him down into its welcoming abyss.
They were dead, and it was all his fault. Just like with Corde’s village.
“Thorne!” someone shouted from outside the tunnel. “You have to stop it! You can’t let it go back through the portal!”
The panicked call broke through to him. He recognized the voice. It was Carla. She was calling for him. His mate needed him.
And Thorne was going to be there.
Lunging to his feet, he whipped his hands around his head and tossed a thick net of acid at the outsider. The creature went down, emitting a shriek that was so high-pitched it barely registered to even his enhanced senses. It was enough, however, and he clamped his hands over his ears before his drums burst, stumbling forward out of the tunnel.
The portal, he noticed, was going wild with energy. It must sense the Outsider somehow. That’s why it’s acting up; it knew one of them was close.
Ahead of him the Outsider ripped itself free of the acid net, lunging to its feet. Thorne could see that its armor was creased with burns, but otherwise it seemed none the worse for wear. It did, however, turn to look back at him. The clear black armor was featureless, and though it vaguely resembled a human with two legs and two arm-like appendages and a bulbous mass atop its head, there was no face to speak of.
Seeing the onyx dragon shifter closing in on him, it shivered with what he could only assume was rage, and began to reform its body. One of its arms lengthened and smoothed, becoming a blade, while the other expanded outward into what he could only assume was a shield. Then it came at him in the strange ripple-hump movement that he’d seen on the videos.
Cursing, he realized the weapon he was most familiar with was not going to be of any use to him. Dodging the first swing of the blade-arm, he formed his own weapons. Acid rolled up and around his forearms in a thick defensive layer, coating him from his elbow to his fingers. Then he extruded two blades from his palms that curled up and over the back of his hands, reaching back to nearly mid-forearm. The blades faced outward, and he crossed both arms above his head just as the Outsider swung his arm down at him.
The arm-sword hit his acid defenses and almost immediately it started to eat through the arm. The Outsider reared back in surprise, and Thorne grinned. The harder it hit him, the harder it would drive the acid into its armor.
Which is exactly why the Outsider smashed its shield into his side.
Thorne went down hard. At least one, if not two of his ribs had cracked. Rolling, he got back to his feet and darted in, slashing hard as he ducked beneath the swing of its blade and tried to get around behind it.
Across from him the pile of rubble with Corde underneath shuffled and he realized the red dragon was trying to free himself. If he could just buy enough time, the two of them could certainly take this thing down.
The Outsider noticed it as well though, and it came at Thorne with speed that surprised him, forcing him back toward the portal. He gritted his teeth and stood his ground, battling the Outsider to a full stop. Blades cut through the air and acid hissed as it splashed against the ground and the Outsider’s armor.
Thorne gave it his all, fighting better than he ever had before, even driving the Outsider back a step. A smile ticked his face an instant before the Outsider’s shield smashed through his defenses. He hadn’t seen the blow coming at all. His knives had risen to stop it, but the Outsider had sacrificed part of its shield, letting the edges be sliced off by his blades. The center still drove home, rocking his head back. Thorne went down in a heap.
The black form lunged over him, raising its maimed shield high before slamming it down. Thorne tried to block it, but its strength was immense, and it simply drove his own arms back into his face.
He tried to wrench it off him as it drew back to hit him again, but it was just too strong.
The arm tried to come down again, but he frowned as black metal digits closed around its broken end.
“Nobody touches my mate like that you slimy, ugly, sonofabitch,” Carla snarled as she grabbed the Outsider in her battlesuit’s arms, pivoted, and hauled the Outsider up and over her before slamming it into the ground. Then she whirled, whirring and hissing noises coming from the suit as she tossed the Outsider across the cavern, as far away from the portal as it could get.
Thorne watched in stunned awe as she action-pumped her two arms, revealing twin barrels below each wrist, and hit the Outsider with repeated bursts of some sort of bullet while it was tumbling midair. The armor cracked under the impact, but it didn’t kill it. The Outsider hit the ground, bounced once, then slammed into the wall. A shower of rocks rained across it, but nothing impeded it.
“Well don’t just stand there getting a hard-on, get your ass over there and beat the shit out of it!” Carla snarled, blasting the figure again as it tried to get up.
Right. Kill it.
Thorne lunged to his feet and darted across the cavern floor. He poured acid forth, tossing net after net onto the Outsider as it struggled to its feet. Once he got closer a literal fountain of the black liquid shot across the distance, coating the Outsider.
It shrieked again in its unintelligible language, getting to its feet. Acid and chunks of its armor dripped to the floor, but it was still very much in the fight. Thorne didn’t hesitate. He slammed into the creature bodily, riding it to the ground as he rained blow after blow down on it.
“Roll!” Carla commanded.
He did just that, rolling and bringing the creature with him. Its body rocked as she blasted it from up close, hammering round after round into its weakened armor, but still it fought. Thorne rolled again to prevent it from escaping, and resumed hammering it with vicious blows of his fists.
“Roll,” another voice commanded, this one far deeper and angrier than Carla’s.
Again he didn’t hesitate, rolling through the acid with the shrieking, flailing Outsider in his grip. It was clearly weakened, but he still couldn’t penetrate the tough external armor—
A fiery blade pierced it, stabbing through the back and out the front, stopping inches short of Thorne’s own chest. He stared at it wide-eyed, realizing how close he’d just come to death.
The Outsider wailed and one of its legs took Corde in the side, sending him and his fiery blade away. As it was ripped from within purple goop poured out, coating Thorne. But he didn’t care; it no longer mattered.
Corde had given him his way in, the mated dragon’s weapon strong enough to puncture the armor.
The Outsider realized the same thing, and it tried to bring an arm around to tap against his chest, to drain him of his life force.
“I don’t think so,” Carla snarled, grabbing both arms with her battlesuit’s metal hands and wrenching them behind its back. Digging in deep, she tried to slow its progress as it fought to overpower her. It was stronger than her, but not by much. The arms moved downward, but slightly.
Thorne , his arms free, stabbed them both into the hole left from Corde’s blade. Acid rushed up his forearms as he poured it into the Outsider. A rank stench like burned excrement and seared skin mixed together with the odor of rotting flesh assaulted his nose, and while he gagged at it, he didn’t stop. The acid was eating away at the creature’s insides, and as he poured more acid inside, its struggles began to slow.
Wary of a trap, he didn’t halt until the matte-black armor literally dissolved from the inside and covered him in a wave of acid that was no longer trapped by the form. It spashed over him and the entire nearby cavern floor, including some electric equipment he doubted Colonel Mara would be happy about.
But fuck it, he’d killed an Outsider. Between that and the one Vanek had killed, that was two of the supposed three that had initially escaped when the portal was discovered.
“Hell yeah,” he said wearily, the acid around him dissolving as he dismissed it, clearing the area for Carla to come to his side.
She knelt over him, her face exposed in the suit of armor.
“You okay?” she asked, worry lines creasing the beautiful features of her face.
“I am,” he said, sitting up. His body ached and his ribs were definitely broken on the right side, but he would be okay. “Are you? Where’d you get that pretty outfit?”
She snickered. “There are some ready suits over there,” she said, pointing behind her to the tubes on the wall. “It killed the soldiers who could have used them, so I commandeered one.” She looked uncomfortable. “It’s a little tight. Whoever it was doesn’t have much of a butt.”
Thorne laughed, but a sudden glow caught his attention. Hoping that her armor was as strong as it looked, he reached up and pushed Carla backward as hard as he could. Rolling away, he narrowly avoided the downward swing of Corde’s blade as the mighty dragon shifter came charging back in.
“Corde, stop it!” he shouted, backing away.
The dragon shifter stepped forward, but Carla sprinted back over and placed her hands up between the two of them.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” she shouted, the covers beneath her forearms sliding back as she aimed double-barreled weapons at the both of them.