The explosion bloomed like a beautiful, deadly flower behind him. As fast as I was, even I couldn’t dodge that.

The shockwave lit up his field and flowed around him. I was not so lucky. The blast carried me out of his path and threw me a good ten feet back and down a set of stairs. My shoulder broke as I hit the concrete wall and my left knee twisted until it tore out of its socket. Rolling down the steps in slow, painful motion, I was aware of every injury I suffered.

When I came to a stop it was a scream of anger, not pain, that ripped out of my throat. A piece of metal two inches long pierced my left arm, through the armor. Grimacing, I yanked it out and tossed the bloody shard away. As I did, I felt the muscles in my arm writhe and reconnect. In an instant, the wound was closed and there was no pain as I flexed my arm. Grinning now, I rose up on my broken leg, fighting down nausea caused by the motion of my ligaments and knee cap pulling themselves back into place. They were finished before I could put any weight on the leg and I stood as though nothing had happened. Rolling my shoulder, I felt the bones reconnect.

I’d throw up later. What was happening, how had I healed so quickly? Fuck it. Right now, I wanted to kick some ass. Grabbing my rifle off the ground, I ran up the steps.

Bedlam greeted me when I came out of the stairwell. In the short time, it took me to fall and recover the world had turned to shit. Fires burned all over the stadium. People cried out as they lay, hidden and dying. I saw the angel bearing down on Stone, who was dragging a bloody and wounded solder with one hand while firing his regular rifle with the other. I moved, running with blinding speed, faster than I thought possible towards him while putting shells in the angel’s back. But I was not fast enough; there was no way I could reach them before the angel did.

The angel raised its fist, over Stone, who kept firing and moving as fast as his human legs would carry him and his squadmate.

Before the fist could fall, a blur came at the angel from the right side. Claire smashed into the angel, smiling and screaming as she did. The field erupted in a different kind of display from any I had seen so far, almost catching on fire where Claire touched it. Off-balance, the angel had a moment to look down at her before they both toppled over the side of the balcony.

I skid to a stop in front of Stone. He just had the biggest look of surprise on his face.

“Get him out of here,” I yelled, pointing at the soldier. Before I had a chance to see if Stone did what I told him, I turned and leapt over the balcony.

I managed to land alright. Almost. The chair I hit broke my fall, but also my ankle with a sharp snap. I did not care about the pain. Dragging myself up, I felt the ankle shifting back into place. As I looked over the chairs in front of me, I was greeted with the most unexpected sight.

Claire and the angel had landed on the center aisle of the stadium, on the concrete. She stood on its back, pressing its face into the ground with the heel of her boot while pulling both of its wings at awkward angles with her hands. For the first time, I saw something like emotion on the angel’s face besides disdain; it looked like it was in pain. Her hands burned where they touched the angel’s field, blue fire licked up her arms and cast her face in terrible shadows.

She was laughing.

I put a shot in its face as it raised its head. More cracks splintered the field and the glowing characters were torn and half-formed.

“Help me pull this thing’s wings off!” Claire shouted to me, her face the image of pure, joyful malice.

I’d never heard such a good idea in my life. Clambering over the seats, I started towards them, still putting shots in the angel as I did.

Before I could reach them, it slammed its fists into the ground with such force that it threw its whole body backward, dislodging Claire. As she fell, it spun and smashed her with a wing, throwing her up into a high arc towards the stage, a good fifty feet away. I sped up, but as I reached it, the angel sliced its other wing towards me. I tried to dodge at the last second, but it slashed through my armor and my shoulder. As I was thrown back by the blow, it ran across the distance to the stage and, before she hit the ground, smashed Claire with its fist. She disappeared through the wall, stone, and metal crumbling to powder.

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