045 MOTHER
Eryn pulled a bulky stand from her pack and planted it between them. Her fingers raced across the control pad, activating the device.
The fra unfolded like a great tallic umbrella, and with a sudden pulse, a shimring do of energy surrounded them.
"You're carrying a portable force field?" Dan asked, stunned.
"Yes, but this is the last one I've got. The others are already destroyed," she said breathlessly.
"Then let's hope it holds."
A deafening crash cut through his words as sothing massive slamd against the do. The barrier rippled violently, but held—barely.
Then they saw it.
A towering female form erged from the dark, muscles plated with a steel-like carapace that glead in the glow of the force field. Her body was almost human—except for the jackal's head that snarled above her shoulders, jaws dripping with blue ichor.
Dan froze. "How the hell does a Blue Blood have a human body?"
Eryn's face drained of color. "She's no ordinary blue blood. She's one of the Deacon of Annubis… the leader of the Shadow Hounds."
"So, we've stumbled onto the boss," Dan muttered grimly.
The Deacon struck again, her claws hamring the barrier. The field groaned under the impact, its glow stuttering. One more hit and it would collapse.
"The shield won't last…what do we do now?" Eryn cried hopelessly.
Eryn was a kind of irony to Dan. For soone who dared to venture into a dangerous alien world five tis knowing fully that it was dangerous and fatal… in the end she still fears.
"Stay inside," Dan ordered. "I'll handle her."
"No, you'll be killed if you go outside!"
"If I don't, you'll die when the barrier breaks. Keep it running as long as you can."
With no choice, she opened a gap in the shield. Dan slipped through, his Fist Form Blade extending from his hand with a tallic scrape.
He dashed forward, his strike aid at the Deacon's throat. The Deacon twisted aside with fluid speed, his blades missing her by re inches.
"You're fast," he growled, circling her with boxer's footwork.
Her jackal eyes glead with cruel amusent. Then she lunged. Her claws raked across his chest and shoulder, sending him crashing into the stone wall.
Dan's bones cracked and his blood sprayed around.
"Dan!" Eryn scread in horror.
"Dammit… she broke my shoulder," he snarled, forcing himself upright. His left arm hung useless. He realized with dread that his human body couldn't match the blue blood's strength.
The Deacon stalked closer but didn't finish him. She was toying with him like a cat playing with a mouse.
"You think I'll die here?!" Dan roared through clenched teeth. "I survived the gangs. I survived the hounds. I'm not dying to you!"
The Deacon lunged again, her strike shattering his conjured shield and tearing into his other shoulder. He collapsed to the ground, the pain he felt was blinding.
"Damnit, she's got both my arms," Dan cried.
But then—sothing inside him snapped.
The tattoo of the eye on his chest flared with a blinding light covering the dark cavern in daylight.
The Deacon scrambled to the back, her eyes scorched by the light.
"What is this ta skill?" Eryn asked surprised.
Dan didn't answer her. His body convulsed with a guttural growl not entirely his own. His wounds seared shut as muscle and sinew surged, his fra swelling with unnatural strength, his body covered with unnatural armor.
"What… am I becoming?" Dan gasped, his voice half-human, half-beast.
The Deacon paused, for the first ti looking uncertain.
"Focus on the fight! Think about this after," Eryn shouted from within the do.
Dan rose with strange dark flas licking from his skin, and his eyes burning with a godlike fury. For the first ti, he didn't just look like a man facing death.
He looked like sothing that could kill a Deacon of Annubis.
-----
The empowered Dan drove forward, his blades flashing. His speed now matched the Deacon's—her strikes no longer found him so easily, though his counters couldn't land cleanly either.
They circled each other like predators, sparks scattering each ti bone blade t claw or carapace.
"Think, Don't just brawl around," Dan forced himself to recall the simulations hoping that his training could help him win the fight.
The Deacon looked like a woman, but her movents carried the instincts of a Shadow Hound. That gave him an angle- sothing that he honed from the shadow hound fighting simulations.
When she lunged with her jaws snapping forth, Dan sidestepped and rolled into a sorsault. He sprang upward, his claws slashing for her throat—
—but his aim slipped.
His strike tore into her chest instead of her neck.
"Dammit, I missed!" he spat, frustration flashing on his face.
The Deacon snarled and leapt backward.
She'd tested his strength, and she knew continuing a straight fight would only drag her into danger. Slowly, she raised one clawed hand—and conjured a weapon.
A long black staff appeared, its head crowned with a curved blade that shimred with malevolent energy.
"What the hell is that?" Dan demanded.
Eryn's eyes widened in terror. "That's Annubis' Staff—be careful!"
"Be careful of what?!" he shouted back, but her warning ca too late.
The Deacon slamd the staff into the ground.
A blinding surge of light erupted from its blade and shot straight at him. The heat crushed him before the beam even landed. His body froze in place, his muscles locked under its searing radiance.
"Damn it—I… I can't move!"
The blast struck as alien fire was engulfing him. Any normal human would've been vaporized instantly. But Dan remained standing, his body enduring even as flas ate at his flesh.
"This body… it can withstand even this," he gritted out.
His skin peeled, muscle smoked, and yet he still lived. But every second tore more from him. "I can't… take it much longer!"
Eryn's heart pounded as she watched helplessly from inside the shield. She was no fighter, but she was no fool either.
"Think. There has to be a way
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