The thing in the doorway was only a little taller than Gideon. Its body was covered in black, chitinous armor, its limbs ending in razor-sharp blades. Somewhere in the back of his mind—the part that wasn’t currently considering pissing his pants—Gideon reflected that the beast looked like one of the beasties from the Alien movies, but with a slightly different head.

  He ducked back as the creature swung its claws toward his neck, then dodge rolled out of the way as the alien attacker lunged forward.

  Dodge +1

  “What the fuck?!” Red shouted, backing away as Mia did likewise, both of them moving aside as the attacker continued to lunge toward Gideon.

  He scrambled back on all fours, managing to stay inches away from the creature’s dagger-like claws as it raked the floor in an attempt to slice him to ribbons. Gideon’s hand reached out desperately for something to use as a weapon while Bullseye screamed in frustration and anger in his jostled backpack.

  “What the shit is going on, Gideon?!” the little turtle screeched. “Get me out of this back, this instant or I’ll—”

  The turtle’s voice was cut short as Gideon turned aside to avoid a swipe from the alien’s left claw. The dark blade sliced into Gideon’s shoulder, cutting through the knapsack strap so that it swung back and the turtle came tumbling out across the floor, shouting a string of obscenities as it bounced across the floor.

  “Eat it, bitch!” Red shouted, throwing a glass jar at the alien’s face.

  Glass shattered as the jar exploded on the creature’s head, or its helmet, Gideon wasn’t sure which. The attacker didn’t even look to see what had hit him. Instead, it thrust a hand out to either side, aiming for Red and Mia at the same time, but without turning to look at either.

  Dark projectiles shot from the alien’s outstretched hand. One shot through the chamber and thudded into the side of the wall beside Mia. The other went right into the side of Red’s chest, knocking him back as the glossy black handle of what looked like a throwing knife protruded from a wound rapidly expelling blood.

  “Balls!” Red shouted, stumbling backwards.

  It hadn’t been much, but the distraction had given Gideon time to grab a weapon, or at least something he could use to hit the alien with. He pushed himself up off the floor, swinging a chair at the enemy soldier and feeling it crash against the figure’s chitinous armor with a satisfying crack.

  The blows didn’t appear to do any damage, but the force of the chair was enough to halt the alien’s advance and drive it back a few steps. Gideon capitalized on the momentum shoulder charging the enemy and shoving it against the wall with all the force he could manage.

  He heard a satisfying crack which he mistook for the alien’s armor cracking. The splintered wood in his hands revealed the truth. The chair had broken and now the alien had recovered from the shift in momentum, grabbing Gideon around the neck with one wicked claw and squeezing hard as its maw opened and rows of jagged black teeth were revealed.

  Gideon kicked out against the creature, feeling his knee crack against its armored torso. The blow failed to do anything, but he tried again and again, hoping to loosen the enemy’s grip which was currently squeezing the life out of him.

  Mia appeared by his side, attempting to drive the blade the creature had thrown at her into its side, but unable to penetrate its armor. The alien turned to face her, hissing as it dropped Gideon and lunged toward Mia.

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  Gideon fell hard to the ground, his gaze dropping to the discarded knife on the floor as he rubbed his throat and sucked in air. Mia screamed as the alien sliced a savage cut across her right arm. She ran from the creature as Gideon pushed past his pain and reached for the small blade.

  More glass containers shattered as Red started hurling them at the armored alien again. Most of the glass shattered on impact, showering Gideon as he fumbled around the floor, fingers reaching for the discarded blade.

  The alien turned its attention to Red who was grunting in pain, hurling jar after jar at the intruder. Despite the man’s injuries, his aim was good and most of the jars hit the enemy and either shattered on impact or bounced off the alien’s armor and smashed on the floor.

  As Gideon picked up the blade, he moved behind the enemy, looking for potential weak points between the armor where he could slide the blade. The knife itself was light and had a blade only a few inches long, but it felt durable, and Gideon was confident it would perform better than the broken chair.

  Glass continued to shatter around them as Gideon crept forward, the enemy was swiping its claws at the incoming bottles, deflecting the irritating attack with relative ease. Red was beginning to run out of bottles and Mia was standing a short distance away, holding the wound on her arm as she looked around desperately for something to help them survive.

  He wasn’t altogether sure, but Gideon thought he saw a point just beneath the creature’s head where the chitinous armor plating didn’t quite meet. It was a tiny sliver only a little thicker than the width of the blade he was holding and there were a dozen ways this could go very wrong, but Gideon decided this was his best chance.

  A thousand different hunts had proven that hitting the weak points between armor was a solid strategy. Of course, Gideon had watched all of those fights from a distance and quite a few of the hunters who had tried to sneak in close and stab an enemy like this ended up badly wounded, or worse. The preference was always to stay at a distance and take down the enemy with arrows, but this wasn’t Artemis, and he didn’t have a bow.

  Driving himself up with a powerful push, he half jumped, half climbed up the back of the alien, driving the knife up toward the gap between plating and slamming it home in one brutal thrust. He felt the blade scrape along the side of the chitin, resisting at first and then suddenly giving way as its cutting edge sunk into soft flesh.

  The alien bucked and spun around but Gideon was still gripping the knife with one hand and holding onto the creature’s back with the other. It was like riding a mechanical bull set to the hardest setting, but this bull had long claws and was attempting to rip Gideon off his back with savage sweeps of the long claws.

  Pain ripped through Gideon’s back as the claw strikes bit into his flesh, but he held on for dear life, pushing the knife further into the creature’s head, muscles straining and sweat pouring from his brow.

  The pair crashed into the wall and Gideon was dimly aware that he was screaming. Blood was now pouring down his back and sides and he’d sustained multiple wounds, but he couldn’t really feel the pain.

  He clung on as the alien fell to one knee, its mouth open and a strange keening sound coming from its gruesome maw as Gideon took the opportunity and drove the blade further still into the creature’s head. Something snapped inside the alien’s head, and it fell to the floor in a heap with Gideon lying on top of it.

  Heaving with breath, covered in sweat and blood, Gideon tried to loosen his grip on the knife but found that his fingers refused to let go. His strength failing, Gideon wrenched his hand free of the creature. It gave a disgusting squelching sound as it slipped out of the hole in the alien’s neck and a mixture of green blood and goop sloshed out.

  Gideon fell off the body, rolling on the floor and instantly regretting the move as a sudden rush of pain cascaded down his back where the alien had raked his flesh with its claws. He turned to one side and managed to get to his feet, still gripping the bloody blade in one hand.

  Nearby, Red slumped to the floor, a glass jar in one hand, blood leaking from the wound where the throwing knife still jutted from his chest. Mia was on the other side of the room, holding her wound and shaking her head in disbelief.

  “Help! Help me! I am in immediate danger!”

  They turned to see Bullseye lying on his back, legs scrambling in the air as he wailed.

  “Gravity has shifted! The enemy is using some kind of force field to pin me to the floor!”

  “You’re on your back, you idiot!” Gideon barked, walking over and scooping up the creature.

  Sitting with his back to the kitchen cabinetry and clutching his wounded chest, Red pointed at the turtle.

  “Did that little guy just talk?”

  Mia grinned. “Yup. And that’s not even the weirdest thing about it.”