As they left the room there was one final explosion. Far bigger than the previous ones.

“I’m guessing that’s bad?” Mai asked as alarms blared.

“He’s through.”

Gunfire erupted just ahead of them as a group of panicked rebels ran around the corridor. Before they could say anything a wall of flame engulfed them.

Living torches screamed and flailed, staggering, bouncing off the walls. The smell of their burning flesh filled Mai’s nostrils and she gagged at the stench.

“Buddha have mercy,” Biyu said as she gunned down her friends, ending their misery in a hail of bullets.

Another gout of flame shot around the corner, the heat making Mai flinch.

“He’ll know that someone is here. Killing them only resulted in assists for him.”

“Better that than letting him level up. Some of them were Cullers from previous seasons. Those culls still count.”

Opening up her menu, Mai scrolled down to the suit she was wearing and added ‘FLAME RESISTANT’ to it. Doing so cost an extra twenty per cent bio-mass but considering the alternative it was worth it.

More rebels arrived from behind them, Biyu directing them to take up firing positions. A couple placed large ballistic shields halfway down the hall, whilst others threw automatic turrets in front of them.

Not thought about using an automated turret before, thought Mai. Seeing the rebels who had deployed them resorting to using traditional firearms made her realise just how much bio-mass such things would use.

“What’s taking so long?” moaned one of the rebels, hands shaking so badly that Mai doubted they’d be able to do anything other than suppress Sharktooth when he came around the corner.

“He likes to play with his victims,” she whispered. “Why do you think he’s chosen to burn people to death?”

The rank smell of urine filled her nose as the rebel started to quietly sob.

“Back away Ari, you’re sending out bad vibes,” ordered another rebel. This one had the look of an ex-soldier. He had campaign bars ranked in double columns on his jacket sleeve. Some of them she even recognised.

Life under the Emperor might be deemed to be peaceful in the city, but outside of the city walls in the last remaining wild spaces, and up on the various different moons and planets in their solar system, it was a different matter.

If she’d spotted an army recruitment office rather than the Culling banner she’d have signed up in an instant. Recruitment for the Thousand Year War wasn’t doing so well recently.

“Hey sergeant,” she whispered to the veteran, “if I charge Sharktooth, make sure no-one shoots me in the back by accident.”

“Roger that,” was his curt reply. He didn’t even look away from the corner to speak to her. “Just give the word.”

Another longer burst of flame shot around the corridor. And then another straight after.

“He’s coming,” warned Biyu.

And he did. The flames didn’t stop this time, just got closer and closer with each step Sharktooth took.

He’s using bio-mass liquid, thought Mai, stomach sinking at the thought. Of course someone like Sharktooth had managed to get his hands on the precious liquid.

Fire washed over the turrets, and negative status effects appeared over them. Whilst they weren’t made of flammable materials, the heat was more than enough to blind their sensors. And metal didn’t have to burn for them to actually take incremental damage.

The rebels opened fire, shooting blind into the flames. Mai threw herself down onto the floor, trying to get a shot under the wall of flames.

A foot appeared. Activating TUNNEL COMBAT, since the corridor was essentially a tunnel, as well as her SMG skill, she targeted Sharktooth’s foot.

ARMOUR HIT! 20%

Mai cursed. She hadn’t factored in Sharktooth’s armour having a separate damage profile to the man himself. And from the damage she’d done, she’d need to get a lot more bullets on target.

“Good try bitch!” Sharktooth’s voice boomed, audible even over the sound of his flame thrower and the rebel’s weapons.

Mai flinched from the heat as he continued to advance. She’d have thrown a grenade but, not knowing how these things worked, she was worried it might prematurely explode as it entered the flames.

“Pull back! Everyone move back. He’s going to run out of bio-mass.” It was the flames which had given her the idea. Even if he was using bio-mass liquid, he’d have to stop and replenish at the rate he was sending the fire their way.

And when he does, he’s mine.

“Move back slowly, keep firing at him!” Mai shouted, shuffling back one step at a time. She tried to ricochet shots off the floor, hoping that they would hit Sharktooth.

There were no hit markers, but the rate of the fire slackened as her bullets added a SUPPRESSED negative status effect, the glyph popping into existence above his head.

“Get ready,” she motioned to Biyu. “As soon as she stops firing , he’ll be charging us.”

And with that the flames cut out. Sharktooth was revealed in all of his terrible glory. His suit was highly customised, covered in flickering nanite-flames, the mask carved to resemble that of a grinning mogwai.

INTIMIDATION glyphs popped into existence above most of the rebel’s heads, some of them who had already been intimidated by the fire switched into PANIC.

Not this time, thought Mai as she unloaded her SMG’s twin magazines into Sharktooth’s armour, Biyu adding the firepower of her machine guns to the hail of lead.

Sharktooth staggered, then bent forwards as if he was walking into a strong wind. His fire thrower morphed into twin blades and his artificially amplified voice filled the corridor as she laughed.

“Oh, this is a good challenge, nothing like a good fight!”

ARMOUR HIT! 25%

“Dammit, where the hell did he find this armour?” shouted Mai as he continued his inexorable advance.

“We had news that another cell was lost yesterday!”

“Dammit!” her SMGs clicked on empty. Mai immediately switched to a gladius and tomahawk combination rather than wait on each round reforming to fill the magazine again.

She couldn’t wait for him to close with them, she had to take the fight to him, put him on the back heel. He was a predator with a self-image that he had to preserve.

His victims didn’t attack him, they waited in fear until he attacked them and then they died.

And indeed he took a step back as she ran towards him. Swinging her weapons she activated every skill she had on her list. Who knew, maybe there was something to CLEANING that would help.

She made her helmet’s visor clear as she attacked again.

“Well, if it isn’t the little bitch,” he grunted as they circled each other.

Mai didn’t bother replying. She’d rather save her breath for the fight that was to come. It was already hard to catch her breath properly as his INTIMIDATION tried to set its claws into her brain.

She jabbed with the gladius, and then chopped downward with the tomahawk. They were weak attacks and he easily blocked them.

His follow-up attacks were the exact opposite. One of his arms had been transformed into what she could only refer to as a thorn sword, whereas the other was a wicked-looking battle axe.

Everything about him is designed to scare people, it was a clever tactic. Even as she fought it, his INTIMIDATION was making it hard to concentrate. Making it increasingly difficult for her to stand up against him.

“Wassa matter, wanna go home to mummy?”

He liked to taunt, clearly. So she just laughed as best as she could. It wasn’t that convincing, but it had the desired effect. He got angry.

With a roar he attacked again. Blocking every one of them, she started to analyse the hit boxes which her active skills had painted on him. There was no doubt he was doing the same as he angled for different places on her with each and every attack.

Mai continued to fight defensively. Trying to learn his patterns and see if he had another skill up his sleeve.

Biyu finally darted in. She’d chosen a katana and wakizashi combination. Sharktooth blocked and parried both blades with his thorn sword before kicking out, striking her in the sternum.

Biyu staggered away, a CONDITION MARKER appearing above her. She already had the INTIMIDATION glyph and Mai was highly impressed she’d been able to attack.

“Just me and you then,” laughed Sharktooth.

It’s like he’s living some sort of stupid evil-villain role, thought Mai.

And then she saw it. They’d moved along the corridor as they fought and tested each other. Just beyond Sharktooth were the rebels Biyu had been forced to kill.

Blood had pooled around the corpses and her CLEANING skill was not only highlighting how long it would take to get the stains out of the plasticrete floor, it was also telling her the chances of someone slipping.

Laughing at the absurdity of it, Mai attacked again. She thrust high, chopped low, turned that chop into an upward cut and the thrust into a downward slash. All of them were blocked, but Sharktooth was forced ever backward.

Spinning, she dummied high with both blades, masking what was actually going to come. As his weapons rose to block her attacks, she kicked out, sending her heel crashing into his chest.

ARMOUR HIT! 5%

STAGGERED

Sharktooth was sent flying, stumbling away into the blood where both feet lost their grip, sending him crashing to the ground.

Mai swapped the gladius for a spear and thrust it deep into Sharktooth’s thigh.

HIT! 15%

BLEED @12%

Her gladius changed into a shotgun, bio-mass levels dropping as she selected the most expensive shells there were. Bullet shot. Each one held six 9mm bullets. And her drum magazine had thirty shots.

BIOMASS 10%

As Sharktooth tried to get her spear out of his leg, screaming with pain, she opened fire.

The effect was devastating.

HIT! SOAK 90!

HIT! SOAK 100!

ARMOUR DESTROYED!

HIT! 10%

[email protected]%

HIT! 30% CRITICAL HIT!

HIT! 40% CRITICAL HIT!

Her shells shredded his flesh as easily as they shredded his amour. Somehow he’d also managed to boost his body’s health and ability to take damage.

What would normally have killed a whole slew of people, merely ate away at his health as she kept her finger firmly on the trigger, fighting the bucking weapon.

The hammer clicked onto an empty chamber and silence filled the corridor.

Sharktooth lay in a pool of blood. His pinned leg had been amputated at the thigh, whereas the other had been severed at the knee.

The rest of his body was similarly wrecked. One arm was completely gone, the other shredded. His rib cage had been blasted open and sick surged into her mouth as she stared at his lungs as they struggled to inflate.

“This wasn’t…,” he coughed, blood welling up out of his mouth. “Supposed to be a simple mission. Not part of the ga…” He choked as she thrust her spear directly into his heart.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 1000000 ELIMINATED!

SCOREBOARD UPDATE

TOP 10000!

NEW TITLE! ESTEEMED CULLER!

You can keep your fucking title, Mai thought bitterly. It meant nothing, just that she’d killed more people than other Cullers. She felt dirty at the thought that she was being given a title for being nothing more than a glorified killer.

“S .. sorry I didn’t help,” Biyu whispered as she joined Mai to look down at Sharktooth.

“You did what you could,” sighed Mai. She was exhausted. Tiredness seeped bone-deep. “Look, I’ve completed the mission. Do I have a message for Anna to take back?”

“We can’t support the attack. Not now. We’ve lost over half of our members, and the rest aren’t in any shape to fight, mentally or physically,” Biyu said, sighing once she’d finished. Her eyes kept meeting Mai’s before darting away. It was clear to Mai that Biyu felt more than slightly guilty about their lack of support.

Mai looked at Biyu for a few heartbeats, wondering just how well Anna was going to take the news. Not well, was Mai’s thought. In fact, she rather suspected that Anna would have a complete and utter meltdown, and blame her for this.

“Nothing for it then,” Mai said. “I’ll head back and let her have the update. Thanks for welcoming me better than her lot did.”

Biyu shrugged her shoulders, looking distinctly embarrassed. “Sorry we couldn’t do more. And don’t mind Anna. She might come across a tad fierce, but she’s got a heart of gold and absolutely hates the Celestial Court.

“Something we both have in common,” Mai gave a wry chuckle. Her hatred of the Celestial Court was rapidly changing from a slow burn to a building rage.

“Good luck Mai.” Mai shook her hand and then made her way out of the base.