I felt as though I walking through a cave. Light pulsing from the ground up the wall. The icy vapour swarmed around me as I made my way down the icy corridor.

Around me, I heard droplets of water, splashing against the ground, giving the hallway a harrowed ambience, haunting even. Goosebumps wrapped themselves around my body, trying to fight the cold, despite the thick turtleneck I wore.

“Not what I expected,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Rex asked me.

“Hallways like a damn cave, cold as hell.”

“Ice cold? That’s the floor with a server room.”

“I figured as much…but didn’t expect it, based on the schematics, we assumed the 6th and 8th floors would be servers.”

“Yeah, but this is a pleasant surprise, see if you can hack into it.”

“I can’t hack shit, Rex. I don’t have Nova anymore.”

“Oh…right, well I’ll guide you then. Don’t worry.”

“You better not fuck me up.”

“Come on Cypher, you just paid 2 Million Credits to get yourself into the damn Underwent, did I fail?”

“No…you haven’t.”

“Good, now get your ass there so I can do my best, hell, I might be able to find out how Akatani found about this serphandias, and even find out what it is.”

“True.”

A loud boom echoed behind, reminiscent of an explosion, but more a muffled one, closer to that a boulder hitting the ground upon impact. It forced me to snap back, raising my pistol in response only to feel me with dread. FUCK!

A female wearing a full exoskeleton armour appeared in the middle of the corridor. She had a katana-style sword in her right hand, blade humming an orange colour with steam wafting around it, as it burnt the moisture away from caressing the blade itself.

The woman’s armour was blue, with white divets separated at various parts in her armour. She had no helmet, but a visor covering her eyes. Her face was pale, whilst her lips were as thin as a snake. I took one step back and whispered the only thought I had at the moment. “Reaver.”

“You dare return here Cypher!” The Reaver howled in a robotic tone. I’ve been made, I thought bitterly.

“Just passing through, I have an audience with The Mangol” I lied.

“Liar.” The Reaver hissed.

“Hardly…”

“We could do this the easy way, or the hard way,” I said, keeping my pistol trained on her.

“Were you so talkative when you spoke with Tela The Reaver said?

“Sorry…don’t know who that is,” I said firmly, zooming in on the Reaver’s armour. I hunted from a chunk to shoot but saw nothing I could use, except her mouth, which was bare.

The Reaver growled, agitated from my words. It wasn’t my intent, by why the fuck would I know a Tela? “Fine then. I’ll make you remember.” The Reaver growled

I fired eight shots in quick succession, and all eight swerved off The Reaver, like a magnet rejecting polarity. Fuck postilion shield! I skipped back using my hands to gauge the distance between us.

She swung her blade at my head, barely missing me as I ducked, stepping in and barged my shoulder into her chest, which only made her skate back, sparks shrieking beneath her metallic boots.

The Reaver jammed her sword into the ground, halting her motion, then spun violently towards me, covering the distance between in less than a second, kicking me in the shoulder.

I bent my arm, then flicked it back, pushing her off, which left her spinning in the air. Before she could fall, I charged forward with a kick, but she saw right through me.

The Reaver twirled midflight, leaving sparks as her sword scraped against the ground aimed towards me. The blade barely missed my nose as I haggardly jumped back.

I hit the wall to the left, dropping my gun in the process which forced me to scamper to my right, as she violently slashed her sword at me, which barely missed me with each jab and stab she lunged towards me

As fluid as my body moved, my heart spoke differently. It thumped vigorously, but unharmonious, as my heart wasn’t in this fight. The most frustrating thing about this was, I thought I’d crept into Underwent unnoticed, but from the looks of it, that was nothing else but a far cry.

The sword flashed past my face, forcing me to step in once more. I shoulder barged her again, feeling the pressure from her weight, which forced me to tilt my body left, leaning into her side, whilst I forcedly kicked her off.

She anticipated my move, stepping out of the way, dropping her sword and kicking me in the gut, which sent me back a few meters.

I hit the ground with a loud thud but pushed myself up, only to see the silver sheen of the blade appear in front of my eye. I grabbed the sword with my left hand, tugging the Reaver to my left, whilst lifting her with my knee, which happened to be in her stomach.

Not waiting to see if she recovered, I rolled back. Raised my arm and fired my wrist at the Reaver’s right hand. It struck the woman’s wrist but tapered off as if she deflected it at the last second. FUCK! There goes my surprise.

“New gadgets won’t help you Cypher, I studied you’re fighting style, your nothing but a lamb to LION!”

“…a what?”

The Reaver’s robotic growled echoed through the corridor, making the goosebumps of my skin shriek into position. I recalled my wrist, only to find a blade appearing in front of me, I danced back, hitting the wall, ducking at the last moment then tackled The Reaver over.

I rolled to the left, barely escaping wild slashes from the sword as it cut my turtleneck right down the middle, nicking one of my abs. I winced from the heat of the blade and touched my wound.

“IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE?” The Reaver howled at me. “THIS IS NOT HOW YOU KILLED TELA!”

“You keep saying that name as if it’s supposed to mean something to me!” I growled. As I stood there, sliding my feet back, creating space between me and the Reaver. I felt my heart thumping intensely. I took a whiff of the cold wind, trying to stead my heartbeat, but before I could swallow the Reaver was on me again.

I barely escaped that lunge, deflecting her stroke to my cybernetic arm which she grazed with her blade, which shredded and exposed the circuits within my cybernetic arm.

I pivoted left feeling as I felt the incoming danger. The pivot was all but a set-up, I baited, because I fainted right, stepped in, shortening the distance between her and me, which forced me to send my left arm straight into her face.

It did nothing.

My fist stopped right before her face as if hitting an invisible wall. The Reaver lips drew into a line, then curled into a smile. She disappeared from my eyesight, then I felt like my chin pulsed in an evergrowing pain.

My legs felt weightless and everything around me began to feel light. Then, my eyes drifted to the ceiling. I looked left and right, realising that I’d been sent to the sky, only to land with a loud boom, pain erupting across my back and sides

The will to move was within my mind, but with only a half-second gone, my body didn’t respond. My back roiled as if electricity was coursing through my body. I tried to ball my hands into a fist, but nothing happened.

The Reaver stomped her boot into my neck and smiled grimly. She stretched out her right arm and a buzzing sound rattled from her body. The sword appeared in her hand like a magnet drawn to metal.

At this moment, one thing came to my mind, my wife and daughter and how I failed them miserably. I know my plan was fool hearty, but this is what Akatani needed from me and I failed. Shin-Lee…Hannah…I’m sorry I failed.

The Reaver drew the blade back, turning it in her arm. I watched as the tip of the blade flared brightly, showing its edge. I bit my tongue and accepted my fate.

“That’s enough Veka,” The Mangol said firmly.

I turned my head and the Reaver placed the blade right next to my throat, stopping me from turning any further. “I said, that’s enough.”

The sound of hustling feet spread around us, followed by the sound of safety being flicked off.

In the corner of my eye, the red, gold and green blinking lights of the SMB for the Mangol’s mutes intermittently changed.

“He killed Tela!”

“Your point?”

“He killed Tela!”

The Mangol released a groaning sigh and kissed her teeth in frustration. “Drop the sword, or you’ll be dropped.”

The Reaver flung the sword to the wall, blade still beaming orange from the heat, whilst it made a hissing sound, cutting through as if it were butter.

“Good. I have questions for him. The Mangol said firmly.

One of the bodyguards stomped him towards me, hitting me in the forehead, knocking me out.