"My blade is ready, human," Gorrok growled. The giant mutants stepped heavily onto the back raft."Start the engines," Oliver ordered.Old, noisy diesel engines roared to life. Thick black smoke puffed into the air.00:25:12.The three rafts pulled away from the stone docks. They moved out into the middle of the wide, black river. The sickly green mist swirled around their knees.The boats moved in a perfect, straight line. Raft One in the front. Raft Two in the middle. Raft Three in the back.Oliver stood at the very front tip of Raft One. He did not hold a gun. He held his sharp titanium combat knife in his human left hand. His black metal right hand was empty. He stared into the thick green fog ahead."Lira," Oliver whispered in his mind.The air grew freezing cold. The pale-eyed ghost woman floated out of the green mist. She hovered just above the dark water. Her blind white eyes looked terrified."Oliver, the clock is running out," Lira whispered sadly. "I can feel the panic in y

Oliver flew through the air. He crashed straight into the monster’s massive, scaly face."Commander!" Miller screamed in pure horror.Oliver grabbed the thick, jagged crystal armor on the monster’s snout with his human left hand.With his black metal right hand, Oliver reached directly inside the beast’s open mouth.The plasma cannon inside the monster’s throat was burning hot. It was milliseconds away from firing.Oliver shoved his dark metal fist straight down the monster’s throat, grabbing the red-hot barrel of the plasma cannon.KSSSHHH!The heat burned Oliver’s alien arm, but the metal did not melt. Oliver’s mechanical strength was absolute."Calculation complete," Oliver roared with his metallic voice. He squeezed his metal fist with all of his terrifying power.CRACK!He crushed the thick steel barrel of the plasma cannon completely flat. He sealed the gun shut.The plasma energy inside the cannon had nowhere to go. It overloaded instantly.Oliver kicked off the monster’s face,

"I am creating immobilization pulses," Oliver explained. He quickly touched the blue human batteries with his black metal fingers. He pushed a tiny spark of dark magic into them. The batteries began to glow with unstable pink light.He handed the pink batteries to Rax."When I give the signal, Rax will throw these batteries at the golems' feet," Oliver ordered. "The pink energy will explode like a sticky net. It will freeze their stone boots to the floor. Then, I will use the Anchor discs to break the environment."Oliver looked at his squad. His one human eye and his one glowing red machine eye stared at them. "If you step out of your assigned paths, you will be crushed," Oliver said perfectly. "Move."The squad split apart.General Vega, Miller, and Davis ran quickly to the left side of the massive tunnel. They hid behind a large pile of broken black rocks. "Aim for the chest crystals!" Vega yelled. "Fire!"PEW-PEW-PEW! THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!A storm of bright blue lasers and heavy bull

The blinding blue light slowly faded.The underground cavern was completely silent. The terrible, deafening hum of the overloading plasma cores was gone. The bomb did not explode. The world did not end.Thick white smoke rolled across the stone floor. It smelled like burnt metal and hot ozone.Sergeant Miller lay on the ground. He coughed. He slowly opened his eyes. He pushed himself up onto his knees. His ears were ringing."Is everyone alive?" Miller asked. His voice was rough and shaking."I am alive," Private Davis whispered. He crawled out from behind a pile of broken rocks."We are here," General Vega said. She helped Billy the hacker stand up. Billy was holding his cracked computer tablet tightly to his chest. Rax, the giant mutant, shook the heavy dust off his purple scales.They looked toward the center of the room.The pile of broken Stone Golems was covered in black ash. The glowing human energy cores were completely black and dead. All of their deadly power had been draine

Oliver put the black coin back into his belt pocket. He did not need to hold it to see the map anymore. His new brain was permanently linked to the Echo Sense. The purple map stayed glowing softly in the back of his mind."We are moving out," Oliver ordered. "Pace is exactly two steps per second. Do not run. Do not stop. Maintain perfect rhythm."They left the broken tunnel. They stepped out into the massive, dark cavern that held the Overlord's Citadel.The heat was terrible. The smell of burning blood filled the air.Far below them, the magma rivers bubbled. All around them, the sounds of monsters screaming and fighting echoed in the dark. The underground city was ripping itself apart.Oliver walked at the front. He moved with flawless, robotic precision. His metal boots hit the stone. Clack. Clack. Clack.He led them down a steep, winding staircase carved into the side of a massive black rock. They descended into the lower levels of the Citadel's outer walls.Oliver watched the men