“Jean!” The scream of a queen bought Jean back to reality. As soon as her eyes were opened, she was met with a very red psi blade.

Someone else would’ve been paralyzed by shock or fear, but not Jean. Step 1, dodge to the side. Step 2, transform her right arm. Step 3, punch a hole through the zealot’s shield and into his head. Jean made a perfect demonstration of the three steps to kill a zealot.

Looking around, Jean realized something was very wrong. A squad of zealots and one hybrid managed to somehow sneak into the command center of the swarm without being detected and then start slaughtering the zerg commanders. The guards she made sure were in place were nowhere to be seen.

The queens were commanders, but as lieutenants in an army based upon strength they had quite the fighting power. Their claws could rip open the CMC armor of a marine in one strike, and their spines could penetrate the shield of a zealot in a few shots. Their large body and thick carapace protected them against most attacks.

The zealots weren’t the problem. The several dozen queens in the room were enough to keep them back or even, eventually, wipe them out. It was the hybrid that posed a threat.

Already the hybrid had ended two queens. The first imploded from inside out, likely the result of a feedback. The second was literally ripped open inside out. With a few seconds and two dead queens, the hybrid mastermind demonstrated the strength of the combination of protoss and zerg.

Realizing the situation, Jean’s arm extended into two bone blades. She psionically commanded the queens to back off and continue commanding the swarm while she put herself between the invading forces and the queens.

“For Amon!” The half a dozen left simultaneously launched themselves at Jean in a blur. They were more of a distraction than an actual mean to an end.

Jean’s eyes turned blue. The zealots transformed from energy form back to physical form as their charges were cut off in midair. Reaching her psi energy out, Jean pressed down on the bodies of the zealots, crushing their shields, armors, and eventually their bones. The zealots were the best of the best, but the amount of damage they could do to someone at Jean’s caliber was negligible.

Didn’t matter. They were a mere distraction. A sacrifice to give the hybrid mastermind a slight upper hand.

Jean felt the psi energy inside her getting restless and out of control. She knew what it was: a feedback. Anyone weaker, like the queens, would’ve bursted out into flames after losing control of the rogue energy, but she was slightly stronger. Her mutated body gave her a bit more control and some extra time to save herself.

Facing the mastermind, Jean directed the psi energy within her toward her target. She could barely control the energy, but the amount of damage it could do outside her body was much less than the amount of damage inside her.

A line of fire appeared in the middle of Jean and the mastermind as the psi energy ignited. Had Jean being a second too late it would’ve been going up in flames inside Jean. Not the prettiest sight.

The mastermind was slightly surprised. From what he thought a feedback should be enough to kill the infested terran before her. Didn’t matter, the infested terran was a psionic unit, which meant her melee would be bad. It would take her a while to get enough psi energy within her to use them in combat. Meanwhile, a psionic user without psionic energy would be an easy prey.

He was not exactly correct.

---

The hybrid mastermind smashed into the wall of the cave. The soft creep did little to minimize the impact as it was shattered.

Jean resumed from the punching status and walked toward the hybrid. The hybrid stood back up. The punch was intimidating, but the hybrid mastermind’s powerful psi energy generated an almost impenetrable plasma shield that protected him from taking too much damage. He was merely taken by surprise. Jean’s actual strength was very different from her real power.

“Who are you?” The mastermind asked. “You are not just some nameless infested terran. Psionic and physical mutation? The queen of blades will not waste such essence on a mere lieutenant. Who are you?” Of course he was just buying time to form a psionic blast.

Jean remained silent as she suddenly speeded up. Only fools would talk in battle with no reason at all, and the killing monster bred for the purpose of destruction was no fool. The closer she could get to the mastermind the better.

Realizing Jean didn’t take the bait, the mastermind pushed out his half completed psionic blast toward Jean. The concentrated ball of void energy held an explosive surge of energy and was capable of doing a large amount of damage in a short period of time.

Jean wasn’t taken by surprise. The void energy was too fast to dodge, but that didn’t mean Jean was vulnerable. Ever since Jean met the first zealot she had transformed to zerg mode. A thin piece of durable specialized zerg carapace protected her whole body. The armor was as durable as it was menacing.

The void energy hit her in the chest and knocked her back. The concentrated energy blasted a bloody wound through her carapace, revealing burnt flesh, dried blood, and small areas of battered bones. And yet this wound, critical to a normal human being, was like a common cold to a zerg. Cells multiplied. Bones recovered. When Jean was in front of the mastermind she was pretty much healed.

Everytime Jean was in a situation like this she would be grateful of her decision to get mutated. Without this mutation she would’ve been killed a dozen times at least.

Sometimes Jean wondered what the Supreme One that sent her here was thinking. Her chance of completing her mission was extremely low.

Back to the battlefield, Jean’s bone blades connected with the mastermind. Again the attacks were deflected by the mastermind’s shield, but this time the blue layer of life shook violently. Another knee bump/stab sent the shield shattered into a hundred pieces, making the hybrid mastermind vulnerable.

The mastermind was stuck in a sad situation. He was undoubtedly powerful. His psionic energy could easily change the tide of a battle, but these powerful abilities needed some time to prepare. A psionic storm required a few seconds of concentration from the user. During this time period the spell caster needed his or her full attention fully dedicated to the preparations of the spell, making them completely vulnerable. The psionic blast, for example, required a few seconds to reach maximum damage. That was why he tried to talk with Jean to stall her attack.

Appearantly Jean saw that weakness, and she kept on attacking him. Melee units were slightly less powerful than psi ones, but they also had less limits. To the mastermind, powerful spells took too long and he would die in the process, and less powerful ones couldn’t do enough damage. The psionic orb he used in a hurry was a prime example. Jean merely shrugged off the damage and continued on.

If the mastermind had another chance, he would use his element of surprise and form a spell before charging blindly into the room, but time travel wasn’t present in this universe, and that was why Jean’s bone blades were inside the mastermind’s body.