The upper portion of Markus’s torso sprouted plates of black armor, the device clicking into place as it spread from the nape of his neck and down his arms and back, before ending at the midriff. It was cut into large, scale-like patterns that glowed a ruby red at their rims, and it caused the edges of Markus’s daggers to shine the same color as it covered his hands. All of this was capped off by a sleek multi-piece helmet, mostly black but with striated seams and a visor of the same red as the scales’ edges. The old veteran felt his perception slow as he stared up at his giant opponent, the armor already getting to work and increasing his mental processing speed. His vision focused on the back of the construct’s hand, and he vanished in a flash of sunset colored light.

  Markus reappeared on the back of the creature’s house-sized hand, knives digging into the Psionic surface with relative ease. They began to shine with an orange light of their own as he scrabbled upward, stabbing the weapons into the beast’s surface like an expert climber and using those holes as footholds. The monster reacted by standing up straight and shaking its arm violently, but Markus was implacable. He held on tight, even climbing higher before teleporting to the top of the creature’s shoulder.

  However, the Xenos had been ready for that, and it lurched backward in a violent movement meant to throw off his footwork. At the same time, it lashed out with a powerful bite, draconic maw closing around the tiny opponent. In response to the well-timed maneuver, Markus activated his Hypersight. The creature’s movements weren’t terribly fast to begin with, so it seemed like it was moving through molasses after activating the ability. Still, there was no easy way around the attack, since the creature’s jaws covered such a wide area, so Markus improvised.

  He dug one of his blades into the side of one of the teeth closing in on him from below, feeling the impact from the strike vibrate up his arm. He endured, using the momentum to leverage himself upward. His other blade caught the side of one of the construct’s uppermost teeth, and Markus used that handhold to flip gracefully up to the creature’s snout. He cancelled his Hypersight as he did, the soldier always mindful of his mental energy consumption. Nevertheless, more of his energy was pouring into his daggers, which were glowing even brighter now as he ran up the creature’s snout.

  It reacted by stepping back again and shaking its head violently, ‘skin’ shining more harshly as its owner took drastic measures to save its construct. Unbeknownst to Markus, the B class Behemoth had popped an Enhancement sphere as it watched the human grow closer. They were under strict orders not to use such devices unless under imminent threat of death. But when this Greater Behemoth, known to its people as Gnar Torahkin, gazed upon this human foe, it felt a deep instinctual dread. So, it consumed the sphere and fought back, its construct growing faster and more potent as it did so.

  The swift movement finally shook Markus off, but he considered the change a minor obstacle. Before the Pioneer could go far, he teleported back to the side of the construct’s snout, latching on with his knives and holding on tight. The enemy brought its hand up to smack him, but he jumped off to avoid the attack. Markus lodged his daggers in the creature’s wrist, scurrying on top of its hand before it brought the attack down. Then he teleported again.

  This time, he reappeared in midair above the crown of the Xenos’s head, eyes calculating and deciding it was finally time. The power in his knives had reached its apex, both weapons glowing like tiny stars, so as he fell, he brought both blades down in a dual stab and unleashed everything:

  “Layered Strike: Compounding Reality Warp.”

  In a blinding detonation of amber and ruby colored light, the construct’s head vanished. Some might say ‘exploded’, but that expression didn’t really cut it, as the creature’s head evaporated so quickly that it was like it was never there in the first place. The force of the attack was so great that it sent Markus flying through the air in a sequence of flips before he righted himself and looked downward. The Pioneer had positioned himself such that he was now just above his Kharnidd target, his flight calculated from the very beginning.

  Markus’s most deadly attack, the Compounding Reality Warp, blended two of his strongest abilities. His Compounding Strike was a Capacity that allowed him to steadily stack Psionic power in his weapons before unleashing said power all at once in a devastating blow. But the other piece came from his Integrated Tech. The Dimensional Armor was weaponized Warp tech that gave its user a variety of abilities, one of which was the Warp Slash. The attack coated the edges of the user’s blade(s) with the power of the Warp, allowing it to erase anything it struck. There were limits to such a power, of course. Small portals created purely on a blade's edge could be resisted by sturdier Psionic powers, and the attack could be countered by other Warp or Meta tech as well. However, its scope and power could be amplified by Markus’s Psionic abilities, such as the Compounding Strike. The two combined to create an explosion of annihilatory power, erasing even the mighty giant’s head in a blink.

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  Without its head, the construct vanished into motes of orange light behind Markus, and he angled his body downward toward the Greater Behemoth’s real body, speeding toward it like a bird of prey. Gnar Torahkin hurriedly struck back, shooting out a lightning barrage of Shadow Punches toward the falling man. Markus responded by activating his final Psionic Capacity. His arms glowed orange as he raised his daggers and slashed away at the incoming attacks, blades carving through the enemy’s onslaught with ease. Myriad Arms increased the speed and dexterity of Markus’s arms exponentially, allowing him to perform countless attacks within a single breath. Between it and his Warp Slash, he easily cut through the storm of attacks as he continued to fall.

  The monster roared louder, activating its Hardened Body and striking at the flying man as they collided in a bright flash of light. Markus’s two knives met only one of the beast’s fists, Warp energy crackling as it clashed against the mighty foe, but the human was sent flying away after the collision. For once, the Pioneer was surprised. The Enhanced Greater Behemoth had resisted the power of Markus’s tech better than he’d expected. But it didn't matter. The human teleported forward, arresting his backward momentum and keeping the pressure on. Markus manifested his Psionic Blizzard again as he did, the snow swirling around the battlefield and weakening his enemy.

  The monster kicked out with thunderous force, but Markus slashed horizontally in a perfectly executed defense. He used the force of the attack against it, glancing off the front toe and spinning to the left as the attack passed harmlessly where he used to be. His Myriad Arms fizzled out, but it had served its purpose. Markus’s daggers glowed with the light of the Compounded Strike as he approached the enemy from behind, but the flesh and blood Kharnidd was more agile than its massive construct. It spun around in a leg sweep, which Markus dodged with a running flip. His knives caught the skin of the creature’s shin as it moved, dragging him along before he used the attachment to hoist himself upward.

  As he flew, the Xenos swatted at him with an open palm, forcing him to teleport to the creature’s chest. Markus attached himself to one of the pecs, only to throw himself to the side to avoid another slapping hand. He latched onto the other pec, only to feel gravity flip underneath him. Markus was somewhat surprised once again as the monster pulled out a desperate tactic. The Xenos leaped forward in a flying belly flop, the ground suddenly right behind Markus as the Kharnidd sought to crush him with its whole body. The Pioneer was forced to think fast.

  He looked ‘up’ and teleported toward the open air near the creature’s head. Its jaw swung up to bite at him, but Markus had already stepped off the creature’s shoulder muscles and sent himself flying horizontally. Hooking into the side of the creature’s jaw, he vaulted himself over the Behmoth’s head. And into the creature’s follow-up attack.

  Agile as a snake, the monster had arrested its fall with one arm and brought up its other in a backhanded strike that covered the top of the beast’s head. Markus’s vision was covered by the back of the creature’s hand, and he didn’t have time to look elsewhere, so he couldn’t teleport away. It was all he could do to bring up his daggers to block before the attack smashed into him and sent him flying. He crashed into a nearby hillside in a cloud of dirt, and the Greater Behemoth sprang to its feet, sensing its only chance. It pummeled the place Markus had flown to with a litany of Shadow Punches, leveling the hill and kicking up an even larger cloud of debris. But the Kharnidd had badly misjudged the situation.

  Arms glowing with light, Markus dashed out from that dirt cloud and back toward his enemy, bleeding but undaunted. His Compounding Strike was reaching its apex, knives blinding in their light. The Greater Behemoth recognized what was happening, eyes glowing with fear as it attempted to retreat. It shot off more Shadow Fists, but Markus carved through those. It roared, causing a Corpse Explosion with several of the bodies that their fight had indirectly generated, but Markus teleported around them. Even as the monster backpedaled, Markus closed the distance.

  It struck downward with a flurry of kicks and punches, which Markus swiftly blocked and dodged. The Xenos managed to barely keep him at bay, but both parties knew it was only a matter of time before the human finally closed the remaining gap. However, Markus knew that time wasn’t entirely on his side. He could only hold onto the energy in the Compounding Strike for so long. If the Greater Behemoth could hold him back long enough, he’d need to let go of the attack. The Pioneer stayed calm and on the move, circling the Kharnidd and forcing the creature to twist around constantly to keep him away. And then he saw his chance.

  The monster placed its weight down awkwardly on a slope in the ground, a minor shift, but one that Markus picked up on immediately. He dashed forward, dodging a clumsy retaliatory kick and teleporting up to the beast’s knee. Teleportation had a short cooldown after usage, a fact that Greater Behemoth knew, so the Xenos struck out at Markus the moment he reappeared. However, the monster was off balance, its slap a little slow, and Markus managed to leap out of the way. He climbed up and jumped onto the beast’s forearm, evading an attack from the other arm. In response, the arm he was on began moving violently, the Kharnidd trying to shake him off. Markus locked his blades in the skin to avoid that. He was forced to stop moving, though, and the Pioneer sensed the energy in his knives beginning to run wild. He didn’t have much time.

  The Greater Behemoth brought its other arm down in a powerful slap on his location, and he made a split-second decision. The human jumped forward, teleporting to the top of the Xenos’s chest and bringing his knives down with all his might:

  “Layered Strike: Compounding Reality Warp.”

  MESSIAH OF STEEL

  When faith meets firepower… sparks will fly.

  Derek Steele was once a man of science, a brilliant engineer who built his own power armor from scavenged alien tech. He believed in data, not destiny. Then a relic from a forgotten civilization ripped him from Earth… and dropped him into a realm where magic spheres grant power, and gods rule through their chosen champions.

  Messiah of Steel.

  “Iron Man crashes into epic fantasy and nothing will be the same.”

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