Johnny’s good mood had lasted as long as it took them to make their way from the supplies and into the hab block proper. They’d discussed going over the side again, but neither had felt like dangling so high in the air again.

Mai moved silently along the corridor. Johnny was behind her, on his insistence and much to her disconcertion. It felt as though his eyes were boring into her back.

Better than a knife in the back, she thought. It made her itch and not in a nice way.

Ever since the battle at the supply drop his constant gripes about how well she was doing were starting to wear thin. She hadn’t said anything because she didn’t want to rile him up anymore, but she was on her guard at all times. Everything seemed to be a back-handed compliment.

I just wish it was like the old times, she thought. She rarely looked back on the days when her parents were still alive. It hurt too much. Although she still remembered how it felt to be hugged and loved, her parent’s faces were fading. Unlike Li’s. She still had the memories of her sister, and just thinking of her and how she must be missing Mai made her all the more determined to get back to her.

If it wasn’t for the holos of her parents that they had at the apartment she knew she would have completely forgotten them. But even whilst she was still in the apartment they had been fading in her actual memories, as if they were slowly being deleted. As if they were information that no longer mattered to her continued existence.

“What was that?” Johnny whispered. “Up ahead. Sure I saw something move.”

She dropped into a crouch, trying to see past the network of pipes criss-crossing the corridor.

“I don’t…” her shoulder blades itched so strongly that her back arched, moving her forward. There was a clang as a heavy object hit the metal grating where she had been just a split second before.

Rolling she twisted and came back up to her feet, spinning to face Johnny. It was then that she realized her passive TUNNEL COMBAT had just saved her life.

“What the fuck!” She cried out at the sight before her, her heart breaking.

Johnny was in a fighter’s crouch. Twin blades extended. Coiled, his eyes were wide with fear. He’d clearly thought he could finish her off quickly, avoiding a fight.

“Bitch, don’t think I didn’t know what you were planning!” He spat.

“I wasn’t planning anything, you utter lichen spore! We’re friends!”

“We’re cullers!” He roared and leapt into the attack.

Screaming in both fear and pain caused by using her own body to form them, she quick-clicked a buckler and tomahawk combination, blocking one of his blades with the small shield and the other with her tomahawk.

SOAK! 15%

Johnny was still screaming in incoherent rage, pausing only to draw breath. Pushing, he shoved her back, following up with a u-shaped attack. One blade high, one blade low.

Her shield deflected the high attack, taking a mere one per cent in SOAK, but her tomahawk wasn’t able to stop his lower attack. Not properly anyway.

DAMAGE! 10%

BLEED @5% PER SECOND

HEALTH 85%

“Johnny! Please, stop!” She begged, tears of pain and hurt spilling down her cheeks. But he was too far gone to listen to reason. His eyes were practically bulging out of his face and he blew snot and spittle out with every breath.

Another attack, just as fast and determined as the other.

DAMAGE! 15%

HEALTH 70%

“Please!” She panted. “I don’t want to fight you!” She managed to block the next couple of attacks, but her bleed status effects were taking their toll.

She could block every other attack from now until the end of time, but with the bleed effect applied, she was going to die.

Activating HEALING would only slow the moment down rather than prevent it. No matter what, she would have to fight Johnny.

Activating her TUNNEL COMBAT and DIRTY BOXING, she blocked another of his attacks. Target boxes appeared all over him. Due to her higher culler level, the chances of striking them were considerably better than she had hoped. Not that she knew what skills he had, or whether they were higher than what she had. Her TUNNEL COMBAT might have given her a twenty per cent passive boost in defence and those without it a twenty per cent penalty, but there was nothing to say he didn’t have skills which would cancel that out. And there certainly wasn’t time to SASS him.

Can I just disable him? There was a target box showing at thirty-five per cent chance on the back of his knee. As they moved around each other it decreased and increased.

Mai stepped out to the outside of one of his attacks, slapping the nano blade away with almost contemptuous ease now that her skills were active. Throwing a knee, she dug it into the meaty flesh of his thigh.

HIT! 5% DAMAGE

Johnny grunted and came straight back into the attack, barely favouring his leg. If she’d been on the receiving end of a strike like that she knew she’d have been barely able to walk.

It was then she noticed that he had a glyph above him, a stick figure man with arms outstretched, arched back, head appearing to be looking at the heavens as if it was howling.

He’s got BERSERKER! It was a legendary skill. One that only the most insane, callous and cold-hearted killers would ever use. Holomyths were filled with villains who used it to maximum effect. The revelation hit her like a bucket of ice water. He was practically immune to pain and would continue to blindly attack until the skill went into cooldown.

If there was any doubt lingering that he truly didn’t mean to kill her, it was well and truly gone.

DAMAGE!

HEALTH 65%

Her bleed damage was taking its toll.

She threw an attack of her own, trying to punch the edge of her buckler into his face, whilst she stepped out to the right of him. She feinted to make it look as though she was going to throw another knee and he dropped his blades in order to block it.

Only she didn’t. As soon as she stepped out to his side, effectively flanking him the hit rate went from thirty-five per cent to sixty-seven per cent.

CRITICAL HIT! 30% DAMAGE

BLEED @8% PER SECOND

INTIMIDATED!

She blanked the notifications. Blanked the way his health bar filled with black. Blanked out everything that didn’t help her survive the next few seconds.

Yanking her blade out of the back of his knee she gulped as she felt it slice through the tendons. Even without being able to feel the pain, there was no way that Johnny’s body could ignore the damage she had done.

Taking a step on the catastrophically ruined knee, he dropped to the floor as it gave way. Both blades dug into the floor as he tried to stop himself from face-planting. He pushed up and for a split second he was completely open.

Using her DIRTY BOXING she jumped forward, both knees extended. With a loud whoof as the breath was blasted from his body, her knees crashed into his sternum, forcing him onto his back.

HIT! 13% DAMAGE

WINDED!

Slipping her knees out to the left and right she pinned both of his arms. Still trying to recover from having his lungs so forcefully emptied, Johnny was in no position to stop her from pinning him.

Trapped, he was utterly helpless. Looking down into his eyes she tried to see the little boy who had once been one of her closest friends. A monster looked back. He was completely gone.

Sobbing, crying harder than she had since her parents died, Mai placed the blade of the tomahawk against his neck and sliced towards herself.

CRITICAL HIT! 30% DAMAGE

BLEED @14% PER SECOND

Blood jetted out. Screaming with anguish, she placed her blade against the other side of his neck and repeated it.

CRITICAL HIT! 45% DAMAGE

KILL!

CONTESTANT 298483 ELIMINATED

CULLER LEVEL UP – LEVEL 10!

It was the last notification that was the kicker. Having come to know this Johnny, he’d have been keeping an eye on her kills and subsequent Culler level. He died, fully aware that his death was going to allow her to level up once again. And to climb the scoreboard even further.

Rolling forward over his head, she came to her feet and looked down at the corpse of her former friend, betrayer, and would-be-killer, already crying at her loss.

He looks peaceful, she thought, scrubbing at the tears rolling down her cheeks, misting up her vision. And he did. In death the old Johnny was back. She covered her face for a moment, giving in to the upswell of emotion that forced its way out of her chest. Then reality, and the Cull, brought her back to the moment.

“This way! The cull was this way!” shouts and the sound of running feet echoed down the corridor towards her.

She was too tired to face anyone else. Crafting a couple of mines, she threw them out behind her. More to slow down any pursuit rather than to actually kill anyone.

Calling up her minimap she spotted a series of pipes large enough to fit her. Taking a couple of seconds to see where they went, she smiled in relief as she saw the final location.

Of course they do!

THE END - If you enjoyed this book, I hope you'll enjoy book two!