THE LAST GUARDIAN OF GREYFENWOOD

Chapter 6: Rain of Steel

"Fire! Kill that demon now!"

The Iron Fang squad Captain's voice cracked with panic. Three heavy-class assault rifles barked simultaneously inside the cramped cave chamber. RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

In seconds, hundreds of tungsten bullets obliterated the stalactite where Finnian had stood. Limestone dust exploded, filling the air. However, their target—the green-glowing man—was gone.

Not vanished, but moving too fast for normal human optic nerves to process, even with tactical HUD assistance.

SHING.

A green blur flashed between the ranks of soldiers.

The squad Captain felt a cold breeze on his neck, followed by a warm, wet sensation. He looked down, puzzled why his vision suddenly tilted. His body collapsed, his head rolling off his shoulders, cleanly decapitated by a shard of quartz crystal swung at supersonic speed.

"Dammit! Where is he?!" screamed the sergeant next to him, spinning his body encased in a hundred-kilogram Exosuit.

"Behind you, idiot," Finnian whispered.

Finnian clung to the back of the Exosuit like a spider. His fingers, glowing green, gripped the armor gap on the back plating. His new muscles—the gift from the Dryad—screamed with power. With a primal roar, Finnian ripped the steel back-plate until its hinges snapped.

CRACK!

The steel tore like wet paper. The pilot's back was exposed. Without hesitation, Finnian plunged the quartz crystal directly into the soldier's spine.

The sergeant convulsed violently as his nervous system was severed, then collapsed, falling onto the third soldier who was firing blindly in panic.

Finnian leaped off the falling corpse, sliding out through the hole made by the giant drill earlier. He inhaled the outside air—air thick with gunpowder smoke, diesel fumes, and the smell of death.

He stood on the lip of the freshly blasted cliff. The view was an industrial hellscape. The ancient forest below was being raped by Iron Fang's war machines. Dozens of trees had been felled, replaced by floodlights and temporary barricades.

And in the middle of it all, a monstrosity stood.

A "Titan-X4" model Walker Tank. A six-meter tall, four-legged machine with a railgun on its back and two chaingun machine guns on its mechanical arms. The machine was sweeping the forest area, knocking down massive trees as if they were toothpicks.

"Nice toy you got there, Thorne," Finnian muttered, his pupils constricting as he scanned the battlefield.

He could see 'lines' of energy in the air—visualizations of bullet trajectories before they were fired. The world felt slow. Too slow. Finnian felt like he was running underwater while everyone else was frozen.

Whirrrr...

The Walker Tank's turret head swiveled. Its infrared sensors picked up Finnian's excessive body heat on the cave lip.

"Priority target on the ridge! Destroy!"

The Titan-X4's main cannon glowed blue, charging up.

"Let's dance," Finnian grinned.

Instead of taking cover, he jumped down.

He landed on the neck of the giant drill sticking out of the cliff, then sprinted along the length of the boring machine, using gravity's momentum. As the railgun fired—BOOM!—the cliff behind him shattered into dust, but Finnian was already fifty meters ahead of the blast radius.

He darted between burning tree stumps. Machine gun bullets chased him, tearing up the earth behind his heels, but Finnian's Core-enhanced running speed kept him one step ahead of the enemy's autotargeting system.

He reached the hind leg of the Titan-X4.

The machine stomped its foot, trying to crush Finnian like a cockroach. The ground shook violently. Finnian slid under the ten-ton steel leg, then used his claws—fingernails now as hard as stone—to climb the hydraulic hoses on the machine's thigh.

"Hey! Got something on the left hull!" the Titan pilot shouted over the external speakers.

Finnian climbed agilely to the top of the chassis, right behind the armored cockpit. He pressed his glowing palm against the emergency hatch panel.

"Knock, knock," Finnian whispered.

He channeled green energy from the Core into his palm. Static electricity exploded. A small Bio-EMP discharged from his hand, frying the hatch's electronic locking system.

The lock indicator light turned from red to green.

PSHHHHT.

The hatch popped open with a hydraulic hiss.

The pilot inside the cockpit turned in shock, just about to draw the pistol from his waist. He wasn't fast enough. Finnian leaped into the cramped cockpit filled with screens and buttons.

A brutal struggle ensued for five seconds. Cramped, bloody, and vicious. Sounds of snapping bones and muffled screams were heard, then silence.

The pilot's corpse was thrown out of the hatch, falling to the ground six meters below.

Finnian sat in the pilot's seat, which was still warm and wet with blood. "Okay... how do you drive this damn tractor?"

He stared at the complex control panel. His former elite hitman hands took over. He might be retired, but he still remembered basic heavy vehicle hijacking training from his military service.

He pulled the dual control levers. The Titan-X4 roared, its steel legs shifting position.

"Control overridden," the machine's AI voice sounded flat. "Welcome, Operator."

On the tactical screen, Finnian saw two Iron Fang Drop Ships deploying an infantry platoon right in front of him. They hadn't realized their tank had changed hands yet.

Finnian grinned wickedly. He pressed the primary weapon triggers.

"Eat this, assholes."

BRRRRTTTT!

The twin chainguns on the Walker's arms barked. A rain of 20mm bullets swept across the landing zone. The bodies of Iron Fang soldiers exploded in red mist before they could even touch the ground. One Drop Ship was strafed until its engines caught fire and exploded, crashing down on the remaining troops.

Total chaos.

"Sector 4! Titan-01 has lost control! Friendly fire! I repeat, Titan-01 is Rogue!" Enemy radio in the cockpit screamed in panic.

"Rogue? I prefer the term Under New Management," Finnian replied over the intercom.

But the victory was short-lived.

A giant shadow swept over his cockpit. The VTOL aircraft hunting him since Chapter 1 returned. This time, it was carrying a full payload.

"Destroy that unit," Thorne's command sounded cold on the radio channel Finnian had hijacked.

Two Hellfire missiles launched from the VTOL. White smoke trails sped straight toward the glass face of the Titan-X4 cockpit occupied by Finnian.

"Ah, shit," Finnian cursed. The danger warning system inside the cockpit screamed red: IMPACT IMMINENT.

No time to maneuver. This Walker was too slow for Finnian's current reflexes.

Finnian punched the emergency 'EJECT' button. The ejection seat was jammed—damaged during the fight earlier.

"Perfect. Just fucking perfect."

With berserk strength, Finnian kicked the graphene-reinforced front cockpit glass. The glass cracked but didn't shatter. The missiles were fifty meters away.

Finnian channeled his remaining energy into his right shoulder. His veins glowed blindingly bright. He slammed his shoulder into the cockpit glass with all his might.

SMASH!

The glass shattered outward. Finnian leaped out at that exact second.

KABOOM!

The missiles slammed into the Walker Tank right in its chest. A thermobaric explosion engulfed the massive machine in a ball of blue and orange fire. The shockwave hit Finnian in mid-air, flinging him far beyond the perimeter of the landing zone.

He flew like a kite with a cut string, spinning uncontrollably through the smoke-filled air.

Far below him, it wasn't hard ground waiting. But a stretch of black swamp, bubbling and emitting toxic green steam—illegal chemical waste that had settled in the valley for years, now stirred up by war.

"Hold breath!" Finnian thought a split second before impact.

SPLASH!

He fell through the surface of the thick black sludge. Cold, viscous, and burning the skin. The green light on Finnian's body extinguished instantly, covered by the darkness of the toxic swamp that swallowed him whole.

***