SSS Rank: Strongest Beast Master

The Beta-Weaver charged at Seraph.

Seraph threw herself out of the way. The creature's fist smashed the floor where she had been standing before. The hit made the whole car shook.

WHAM!.

She hit the wall, rolled and stood up firing. The bullets bounced off its skin like raindrops.

Behind her, through the blown door, she could hear Draven fighting. She heard him grunting with effort.

She had to make this quick.

The Beta-Weaver turned, tracking her movement with its empty eyes. Up close, it was even worse. She could see the stitches where different parts had been sewn together.

It roared again.

Then it charged.

Seraph quickly took cover under a table. The creature couldn't stop in time. It rushed past her and crashed into the back wall hard enough to bend the metal.

She needed a new plan.

The Beta-Weaver turned around, grabbed the table she was hiding under, ripped it from its bolts and threw it across the car.

CRASH.

Seraph scrambled backward. Her hand touched something on her belt. The flashbang. She had taken it from Torres before they left, thinking it might be useful.

Looks like she was right.

The creature moved closer, shaking the floor with every step. Kaine whimpered in the corner, curled up in a ball.

Seraph waited. She let the Beta-Weaver get close.

Its massive hand reached for her.

She pulled the pin and threw it.

The flashbang went off right in the creature's face.

BANG.

The Beta-Weaver stumbled backwards, roaring and rubbing its eyes.

Seraph didn't waste the opening. She ran forward, dropped into a slide and went right between the creature's legs.

On her belt, the sticky-bomb felt heavier than usual. Torres had given her one. "Emergency use only," he had said. "This thing will punch through a tank."

Well, this qualified as an emergency.

She stuck the bomb onto the Beta-Weaver's spine as she slid past.

The magnetic charge clicked, locking in place.

Seraph rolled up to her feet and kept moving fast. She tried to get as far away from the monster as she could.

The Beta-Weaver turned, still half-blind, trying to find out where she had gone. It reached its back, searching for the thing stuck to its spine.

Too late.

Seraph hit the detonator.

BOOM.

The explosion wasn't huge. Torres had said it was a special type of bomb. All the force directed inward, designed to break through armor rather than blow out sideways.

It broke through the Beta-Weaver's spine.

The creature stopped mid-roar. It just still with is mouth opened. Then it collapsed.

It crashed to the floor like a felled tree.

THUD.

Seraph stood there, trying to catch her breath. Her ribs hurt really badly where she had hit the wall earlier.

"You are coming with us," she said, turning to Kaine.

The High Overseer had stopped whimpering. Now he just stared at her, eyes wide. Like he couldn't quite believe what he'd just seen.

"You're insane," he whispered.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." She grabbed his arm, hauled him to his feet. Not gentle. He yelped. "Move."

Behind them, through the door, the sounds of fighting had stopped.

That was either very good or very bad.

Seraph dragged Kaine back through the doorway. The corridor was a mess. Bodies everywhere. Most of them wearing Sterling's colors.

And in the middle of it all, Draven. Sitting with his back against the wall, sword across his lap, surrounded by unconscious mercenaries piled like sandbags.

His eyes were half-closed. Blood soaked his entire left leg now. But he was still breathing.

"Got him?" Draven's voice came out rough.

"Got him." Seraph knelt beside him, still keeping one hand on Kaine's arm. "How bad?"

"I've had worse."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting." He tried to smile. It came out more like a grimace. "Mission accomplished?"

"Mission accomplished." She looked around at the carnage. Torres and Kira were still standing, barely. Two others from their team. That was it. Everyone else was down.

Out of nine, five were still functional.

"Extraction?" Draven asked.

"Nomad's inbound. Should be here in ten minutes."

"Good. Because I don't think I can walk back."

Despite everything, that almost made her laugh. Almost.

Then Kaine started laughing.

It was the kind of laugh someone makes when they know something you don't. When they've got a secret that's going to ruin your whole day.

"What's so funny?" Seraph tightened her grip on his arm.

"You're trapped," Kaine said, still laughing. "You think you won? You're on a train moving three hundred miles per hour toward a bridge that's about to explode."

Seraph's blood went cold. "What?"

"Protocol Delta. If the VIP car is breached, destroy the bridge ahead. Kill the kidnappers and the target if necessary. You've got maybe two minutes."

"Torres!" Seraph's mind raced. "Can you stop the train?"

Torres scrambled toward the control panel at the corridor's end. Punched buttons. Pulled levers. "It's locked out! Remote control from the capital! I can't do anything!"

Through the car's windows, Seraph could see a bridge ahead. Steel and concrete spanning a massive ravine.

And at its base, tiny figures were running away. Setting charges.

They had seconds. Not minutes.

"Emergency hatch," Seraph said. "Now."

"We're going three hundred miles per hour!" Kira shouted.

"And we're about to go zero miles per hour very suddenly when we hit that canyon floor!" Seraph grabbed Draven, started hauling him up. "Torres, blow the roof hatch!"

"That's insane!"

"Do it!"

Torres planted a charge on the ceiling, hit the detonator.

BOOM.

Wind roared in through the opening. The sound of the train's engines, the rush of air, everything was suddenly deafening.

The bridge was getting closer. Seraph could see the charges now. Placed perfectly to drop the whole structure.

"Jump!" She pushed Kaine toward the hatch. "Now!"

"I'll die!"

"You'll definitely die if you stay here!" She shoved him. He went through the opening, screaming.

"Kira! Torres! Go!"

They went. No hesitation.

Seraph turned to Draven. He was barely conscious, leaning heavily on her.

"This is going to hurt," she said.

"Everything hurts already. What's a little more?" He tried to smile again. Failed again.

She got him to the hatch, pushed him through, and jumped after him.

The train was moving so fast. The wind caught her like a giant's hand, spun her around. She lost track of which way was up.

Then she hit the ground.

Not the ground. The side of the ravine. Dirt and rock and scrub brush that tore at her clothes, her skin.

She tumbled. Rolled. Couldn't stop. The world was spinning, pain everywhere, something cracked in her arm and suddenly it wouldn't work right.

Above her, the train sailed past like a metal comet.

The bridge exploded.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Charges going off in sequence, dropping the structure.

The train had nowhere to go but down.

CRASH.

The fireball lit up the ravine. Heat washed over Seraph even from where she'd landed, halfway down the slope.

Seraph lay there, tasting dirt and blood, trying to remember how to breathe.

Her arm was definitely broken. She could see it at a weird angle, which was never good. Her ribs felt like someone had taken a hammer to them. And everything else was just pain without a specific source, which was almost worse.

But she was alive.

She rolled onto her back. Looked up at the sky. It was blue. When had it gotten so blue?

"Draven?" Her voice came out as a croak.

Nothing.

She tried again. "Draven!"

A groan, off to her left. "Still here. Unfortunately."

Thank god.

Movement nearby. Kaine, crawling through the mud, trying to get away. His suit was ruined. His hair was a mess. He looked almost human now.

Seraph pulled her gun with her good hand. It took three tries to get her fingers to work right.

She fired into the dirt right in front of Kaine's face.

BANG.

He froze.

"Move and you die," she said.

He stopped crawling.

Seraph's head fell back against the ground. Above them, the train still burned.

They were stranded in the wilderness. Wounded. Being hunted. With a hostile prisoner and Sterling's forces probably already moving to investigate.

But they had Kaine. They had the codes.

Mission accomplished.

Sort of.

In the distance, she heard engines. Search teams. Coming fast.

"Anyone got any bright ideas?" she called out.

No one answered.

That was about what she'd expected.