Crane Park is beautiful in summer. Wildflower meadows, tall trees and the gentle flows of the Crane River all turn it into a soothing, relaxing place to rest or ramble.

With thousands of soldiers and nearly a hundred tanks concealed along its length, the Park was a lit less soothing right now.

I crouched behind a tree, watching Nanocloud’s updates. Radio still wasn’t on, so the rest of the troops had to rely on her nanobot-scripted messages; nonetheless, every soldier and ultra knew their task.

Unity crackled her knuckles beside me. “How long before the creature shows up?”

“Anytime now. The paras are leading it towards the park.”

“Can’t they go faster?”

“They’re normal humans, trying to present themselves as lunch for the Carnotaur. They’ve got to lead it without tipping it off. Be patient.”

Two British paracommandos dashed through the gate, firing as they retreated. Behind them came the crunch-crunch-crunch of cars being crushed under the feet of a large, powerful beast.

Sixty feet of Carnotaur smashed through the gate.

The beast roared. Not the capital R Roar, but a loud, tearing sound that made ears ring nonetheless.

The paras split up, one running left and the other continuing forward.

: You’re up.

“Now,” I told Unity.

The Herculean grinned, then bounded out, yelling at the creature.

The Carnotaur’s gaze swiveled towards her. It opened its mouth to roar again.

JAVELIN STRIKE!

PRECISE TARGETING BYPASSES SHIELDS! LESSER CARNOTAUR -6,400 HP!

The Fullersteel Javelin slammed home into the creature’s tongue, driven by the mechanical power of the Greyhound’s launcher.

It had been a guess, of course. Since the Carnotaurs were actually snapping up soldiers, body and all, we’d guessed that the shield didn’t cover their open mouths. A difficult target, if you could hit it, but a vulnerability - assuming we could exploit it.

CONDITION INFLICTED: BLEEDING TONGUE! -30 HP/SECOND!

The Carnotaur snapped its mouth shut, lesson learnt. Its gaze swiveled to the woods where I stood.

“Come on, you big lizard,” yelled Unity, “he’s not the only one.” She smashed into its leg, the full power of her body behind the punch.

LESSER CARNOTAUR -500 HP FROM ALLY.

The Carnotaur decided it had had enough of being a target and lunged.

Unity dodged out of the way, the claws missing her by an inch. Close.

I fired the Mass Driver Rifle.

LESSER CARNOTAUR -1000 SHIELD STRENGTH. CURRENT STRENGTH: 999,000 OF 1,000,000.

So getting through the shield would take as much power as killing the Carnotaur itself…

NEW QUEST ALERT: RESONANT SHIELDING.

RESONANT SHIELDS ALLOW YOU TO CREATE A SHIELD LAYER EQUAL IN STRENGTH TO YOUR ARMOR. REACH LEVEL 10 IN SHIELDING SYSTEMS TO UNLOCK THEM.

REWARD: NEW BLUEPRINTS UNLOCKED.

The impact had the effect of pushing the Carnotaur back, however. Its baleful gaze fixed upon me.

With a roar, the Carnotaur charged.

I ran.

Maybe ‘tactical retreat’ is more polite, but the truth is, I was running. Having a beast the size of a building chasing you tends to make you do that.

So Curry had planned to have me run along the track leading to where the tanks - and Chequers - were hidden.

And with the Carnotaur chasing me, I Powerjumped.

Not far. A simple hundred-foot horizontal jump, over a particularly wet and muddy stretch of road.

Three hundred tons of Carnotaur stepped into the muddy riverside soil, and promptly slipped.

The fire engine at full blast had been able to do what the tanks couldn’t - turn the normally soft and loamy soil into a mud puddle, one guaranteed to cause trips and falls. Now, the Carnotaur fell face down in the dirt, plastered with mud across its shielded body. Mud which went through the shield unaffected.

LESSER CARNOTAUR TAKES 322 FALL DAMAGE! CONDITION INFLICTED: KNOCKED DOWN, DURATION: 8 SECONDS.

I pirouetted and fired.

Another Mass Driver round slammed into the Carnotaur, depleting its shield but leaving the creature unaffected. The Carnotaur growled, but stopped getting up.

KNOCKED DOWN DURATION EXTENDED. TIME REMAINING: 7 SECONDS.

Two seconds later, Chequers activated the disrupter.

The Carnotaur’s shield flickered out.

We’d needed to hold it in place for a few seconds, until the frequencies and cycles matched - but Chequers had gotten it right.

: FIRE!

I fired, this time with everything I had.

BOOST! SNIPER SHOT!

LESSER CARNOTAUR -6,000 HP!

SNIPER SHOT EFFECT: BLEED!

LESSER CARNOTAUR IS BLEEDING! -150 HP/SECOND!

And with me, nine hidden tanks also fired.

Shells slammed into the Carnotaur, arriving within seconds of each other.

CARNOTAUR ACTIVATES SKILL: HARDEN! 75% DAMAGE REDUCTION!

TANK SHELL IMPACT! LESSER CARNOTAUR -37,500 DAMAGE!

TANK SHELL IMPACT! LESSER CARNOTAUR -37,500 DAMAGE!

TANK SHELL IMPACT! LESSER CARNOTAUR -37,500 DAMAGE!

….

TANK SHELL IMPACT! LESSER CARNOTAUR -37,500 DAMAGE!

… dammit! So close!

The shells slamming into the Carnotaur close together certainly had an impact. The beast roared, then lunged forward, raging with claws and teeth.

CARNOTAUR SKILL REVEALED: HARDEN. REDUCES PHYSICAL AND EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE BY 75% FOR 5 SECONDS AT A TIME. COOLDOWN: 45 SECONDS.

Belessar: Tell the tanks to wait five seconds, then fire again.

Nanocloud: They're a little busy right now.

The kaiju reached the first tank, and kicked it.

The impact smashed the frontal plate in. Undaunted, the tank reversed, trying to fall back, but the Carnotaur was fast. Claws smashed into the turret, wrenching it off like a bottle cap.

A boom! as another tank fired.

The shell slammed into the Carnotaur, the high explosives blowing a massive hole in its side.

TANK SHELL IMPACT! CARNOTAUR -150,000 HP!

The Carnotaur screamed in pain, then jumped.

It sailed nearly forty feet up in the air, bounding from one point to the other.

The crash of its landing scattered a squad of troops, who fired with rifles, machine guns, and rocket launchers.

To no effect.

CARNOTAUR HIDE NEGATES PHYSICAL DAMAGE LESS THAN 100.

And that's why.

The beast's arms and tail scythed out, smashing through the soldiers like skittles.

I raced forward, but the creature had already moved.

Now, it was by the side of the second tank, and stomping down.

The Carnotaur's Instakill ability squashed the tank flat.

The nearby soldiers fired, with everything from sidearms to flamethrowers…. and with little effect.

Nanocloud: It's moving too fast! They can't keep up!

Belessar: Agni. Now.

Less than a second later, a tiny spark erupted on the Carnotaur's side.

Flickering at first, it began to spread. And burn.

The Carnotaur yowled.

It tries to dust off the flame, but to no avail.

My turn…

I launched my 'special' javelin.

JAVELIN STRIKE! LESSER CARNOTAUR -

3,200 HP!

The Carnotaur growled, and bounded away. Soldiers raced after it, but it was already upon the third tank.

I activated the tracker.

Implanted inside my hollow Javelin, a Gravitic Array tracker began to pulse, sending out a signal. One that linked to the hardpoint on my suit, and predicted the exact location of where the Carnotaur was going to be….

Now.

My arm automatically angled at precisely the correct orientation, and I fired.

The Hellfire-X missile roared across the short distance, smashing into the wound left in the Carnotaur's side by my Javelin. Fourteen kilos of high explosive punched through its metal-like skin, propelled by powerful rocket engines.

The explosion that followed was spectacular.

Great fountains of Carnotaur blood sprouted all over. Red, like ours, and sticky.

DEADLY SHOT!

LESSER CARNOTAUR -350,000 HP!

The beast screamed in pain, and the flames intensified.

Fire raced across its skin, consuming organic matter, fueled by the lifeblood of the kaiju.

Grass, trees and shrubs are pulled in and caught flame. The nearer soldiers, perhaps sensing something, fell back.

For Agni was in her element, now.

Fire raced across the Carnotaur's skin and flesh, burning all it touched.

I became aware of shouts, and shots. Plasma, rocket and flaming potato blasts peppered the Carnotaur, but the creature seems too distracted to do anything but fight the flames.

The Carnotaur howled.

Troops nearby covered their ears.

The flame kept growing, covering more and more of the Carnotaur's skin.

Tank shells screamed through the air, smashing into the Carnotaur. The creature staggered.

LESSER CARNOTAUR ACTIVATES HARDEN!

3 TANK SHELLS! LESSER CARNOTAUR -112,500 HP!

The flames grew hotter, and hotter. Troops nearby fell back as clouds of smoke billowed from the Carnotaur's body.

And then, the flames surged.

ALLY USES SKILL: FLAME SURGE.

The Carnotaur let loose an unearthly scream, as its entire body was covered in fire.

Sixty feet of alien flesh now burned, a pillar of flame reaching up towards the heavens.

The creature was still alive, but not for long, and it knew. It raced for the river, seeking desperately to quench the blaze.

Halfway there, it tripped.

The Carnotaur's massive bulk sprawled upon the ground, and the blaze grew hotter.

"Keep firing!" I yelled. "It's not dead yet!"

Shells, bullets, and plasma began to smash into the dying Carnotaur.

LESSER CARNOTAUR DEFEATED.

+25,000 XP.

I watched as the corpse continued to burn.

“Cease fire!” came the cry from Banner. “Cease fire!”

The shells stopped falling.

QUEST COMPLETED: KILL A CARNOTAUR.

+10,000 XP.

SKILL UNLOCKED: HARDEN.

BONUS OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED: KILL A CARNOTAUR AMIDST A CITY ASSAULT TO INSPIRE HOPE.

TEMPORARY BOOST TO MORALE OF ALL ALLIES.

SKILL UNLOCKED: HOPEBRINGER.

BLUEPRINTS UNLOCKED: NANOTHORN HAMMER, NANOBLADE JAVELIN.