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Riva’s cybernetic arm glowed as she pressed her palm over the wound, running a rapid internal scan.

‘Vitals erratic,’ she gritted out. ‘Shit, he’s losing too much blood.’

The Rider grunted, pulling a kit from his exo suit, flipping it open, and slapping a patch on Bear’s wound, where it immediately reacted, molding and reshaping around the gaping hole.

‘Tis a shape-shifting fast-acting tourniquet to stem arterial bleeding. It’ll hold for an hour or so. Now get him thefokkout of here.’

Ki’Remi reached into his combat belt, pulling out three metanoid stealth shields, small, compact spheres.

He activated one with a flick of his wrist, and a shimmering field appeared.

It bent light, making them invisible to scanning tech and the naked eye.

‘Riva, carry Bear. Lead the way,’ Ki’Remi ordered, handing over the device to her. ‘Find cover. I’ll locate you.’

Riva locked eyes with him. ‘If you don’t?’

‘You’re insulting me,’ Ki’Remi clipped.

Riva exhaled, then deployed her exo-frame.

The mechanical enhancements along her back and limbs kicked in with a whir, amplifying her strength. Without another word, she hauled Bear onto her shoulder.

Ki’Remi handed similar devices to Juno, who placed them on Zera and Klash’s hover chairs.

The stealth shield unfurled, and Juno nodded once. Then she sprinted, leading the linked hover chairs deeper into the forest.

Ki’Remi turned back toward the wreckage, standing alone in the clearing, his rifle humming as he activated its energy core.

His jaw tightened as he stepped forward.

The jungle rustled.

From the shadows in between the looming emerald trees, they emerged.

The enemy warriors moved like specters, phantoms flickering over their massive frames. They were unlike anything Ki’Remi had ever seen, towering, glowing entities clad in obsidian-black armor, their bodies lined with crackling veins of raw power.

Their eyes, twin, burning suns, locked onto him with unnatural intensity.

His pulse kicked up, and he flicked an eye, checking the charge on his weapon.

He was hot and ready to blast off.

The being in the lead tilted its head, almost in curiosity, as though it expected him to run.

Ki’Remi smirked, leveling his rifle.

‘Bring it thefokkon.’

9

Warlock Assassins

Ki’REMI

The Sableman engaged his noids and moved like a cyclone.

Speed was his meta power, as was his ability to project two, sometimes even three, facsimiles of himself, confusing the enemy as to the location of his true self in their field of vision.