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Rin was content to stay behind with the argila and Eli was still fussing at Wroahk. Kira whispered to me before we left that Wroahk loved it when she did that, so apparently everyone back in the valley is content.

“I smell braceaaer,” Drasuk rumbles.

“It’s on, motherfuckers,” Kira responds with glee.

There is an answering grin on my face and my tail dances more wildly behind me, pulling me off balance for a moment before I get my excitement under control.

“Get behind me, Kroaicho,” Drasuk orders and then there is a long moment of shifting as they squeeze by each other in the tunnel.

“Go already, Lizard Brain,” Kira hisses out… and then it is pandemonium.

30

Olivia

Drasukletsoutaroar and barrels out of the end of the tunnel. There is a crash of glass and screech of metal, then pops of gun fire and Kira’s cackling laughter. I’m bouncing on my heels in my impatience, claws digging into the soil, as everyone boils out into the facility.

Thivoll lets out a roar that makes me shiver and soon after I stumble out into the room, taking a quick look around at a carnage of broken screens and some sort of interfaces, then Kroaicho is beside me, shielding me with zha’s body as we run into a hallway to catch up.

There are multiple dead bodies in the hall, none of them genali, just what look like the little green men Kira said braceaaer look like. Some have been shot, some completely crushed, others slashed with the knife I can see Kuret holding as he dashes down the hall in front of us, yelling his own war cry.

It seems insane to run in like this, but I can’t deny it feels pretty amazing. Or it will be if there is anything left to fight. I increase my pace, Kroaicho grinding zha’s tusks together loud enough beside me to be heard over all of the sounds of battle.

A moment later we burst through into a large room. There are multiple fights happening. Kira has abandoned her rifle and is holding on to Drasuk’s spines as he rears up and crushes a pair of aliens. Kuret is slicing another. Thivoll and Ree’s tails are whipping around them, eliciting keening screams from the few braceaaer they have engaged.

“Dammit,” I mutter once it’s clear that nothing will be alive long enough for me to get over to it.

Then Kroaicho chitters, pushing me to the side right before a chunk of the display next to me shatters. I fall, my extra limbs hard to balance, but then scramble back up. Kroaicho’s large limbs are swinging, the braceaaer dumb enough to take a shot at me screaming as it flies through the air before crunching against the wall on the other side of the hallway we just left.

I dig my claws in, running into the hall to help zha. Kroaicho is lit up bright purple, anger clear in every swing into the group of braceaaer that flanked us. But from where?

I stop thinking about it and hurl myself into the fray, screaming out my rage as my own limbs start swinging.

As my claws rake through the alien closest to me and the blood starts flowing, I feel just as amazing as I remember with the bugs. Not as good as it was to be with Kroaicho… but close.

Then I hear a sound of pain from Kroaicho and my skin lights up with such a bright purple every one of the braceaaer’s wide, overly large black eyes reflect my whirling outline. I whip my tail around and slice through the alien about to stab Kroaicho’s back segment. They are still screaming as I use the momentum of my tail to swing my body, holding all four arms out, fists tucked back and wrist claws positioned to gut the one to Kroaicho’s right.

Another crash lets me know that Kroaicho has launched another one into a wall and I have a vicarious shot of pleasure.

It’s over far too fast for my liking. The hall falls silent for a long moment before Kira skids back into the hall.

“The fuck? Where did they come from?” she calls out harshly.

I shake my head, trying to slough off the pleasure and move over to check Kroaicho’s wound. “Are you alright?”

“I am. It will heal,” zha responds

Thivoll slides past us, pulling in a long breath before pacing up and down the corridor. “There’s too much blood.”

“From there,” Kroaicho says, a claw pointing at a section of the wall.

“Are you sure?” Kira says skeptically. “It just looks like stone.”

I take a closer look, then see where the striations of the cave move from the subtle blue glow that seems to be common in the rock here to a dull, obviously fake section.

“It’s not real,” I tell her.

“Oh. Nice eye, glow bug,” she says before whacking Kroaicho’s middle right limb.