The heavy silence was however quickly dispelled the moment when the strange terran-zerg hybrid decided to take a hesitant step closer while opening her mouth. 

The horrifying thing could only say a single and a half word before it was interrupted. 

- I am-...

-KILL THAT THING IDIOTS!

Screamed the adept who until just a second ago was kneeling in the background frozen from shock similarly to the zealots. Said zealots sensing the vivid emotions and fear pulsing through their psionic links immediately springed to action. Four blue energy blades ignited in the darkness coloring the dim corridor this time with a sharp blue light as the shadows quickly retreated back to farther and darker corners.

Zyl was the first one who jumped up to his feet without a moment of further hesitation he rushed forward sending a low starting upward cut towards the infested girl. 

The creature had been taken aback by the sudden aggressive attack and tried to back off reflexively. However, it was nothing, but a pitiful attempt doomed to failure. It was almost impossible to get out of the way of a charging protoss zealot, especially not in such a narrow corridor.

The girl at last seemed to understand that she was unable to get away from this situation in her panic she raised both her hands in front of herself to defend against the incoming psionic blade. 

Seeing this Zyl knew that it was over.  

He maximized his speed then initiated his prepared upward cut. However, his eyes widened slightly when he saw a large shadow pulling the enemy just out of his blades reach in the last possible second. His charge however had already gained too much momentum, there was no possibility to change directions anymore. For that reason, he laid into the momentum of his attack and jumped up from the ground about three meters high into the air. Cybernetic exoskeletons were powerful equipment, and they should never be underestimated.

With that jump he created a safe distance from any attacks of opportunity, and he even had enough time to kick himself off the wall propelling his body back to the battlefield with an even greater speed. 

Meanwhile Gadun also managed to get up and charged forward following Zyl's attack only a few steps lagging behind. From this height as he was falling back towards the floor Zyl could clearly see what had managed to save the weird girl from his surprise attack. It was that winged zergling that pushed her out of the way.

Understanding this was quite shocking as Zyl never saw even one zerg to try to save another one from its free will. The swarm even sacrificed queens without batting an eye, if it was profitable enough or necessary, the only true exceptions were starting with the hatcheries and its evolved versions. While the first priorities of defense were the Cerebrates and the Overmind itself. Then why did it try to save that girl so desperately? Is she one of those? 

Zyl was unsure what to think, and it didn't really matter as Gadun was about to finish what he started. 

At last, Zyl fell back to the metal floor, at the exact same moment when Gadun this time using both of his psionic blades from two different directions crashed into the winged zergling that tried to defend its infested master. 

There was a loud animalistic screech filling up the place, as both of the blades pierced into the side of the creature. To Gadun and Zyl's surprise, the blades did not pierce even half as deep as they were supposed to. This beast seemed to be more than simply bigger than normal zerglings. The very moment Zyl came to that thought the beast lurched forward with a seemingly impossible momentum and crashed into Gadun all that from a standing position, as if it was a spring breaking away from immense pressure. 

Gadun was surrounded by a thin layer of blue energy which seemed to blow up under the heavy attack. The blowing up pressure of the breaking energy shield and the delivered momentum from the beast slamming into him had sent Gadun flying backward crashing into a pile of rubble next to Zyl. 

Immediately a large cloud of red rust powder flew up in the air as the rubble was made out of rusted metals that reacted to the acid attacks of mutalisks and corroded to their current state.

There was a sharp screech coming from the zergling as it aggressively vibrated its wings and screamed at us about to charge forward. Zyl looked at Gadun as he was half covered by metal pieces trying to free himself. It will still take a while, he understood, and prepared his blade to take on the beast's charge. Suddenly there was a thought coming from Uzruh warning him to dodge to the left, he followed her advice without a second thought. 

Soon after he dodged to the side a disk of pure energy flew through the corridor crashing into the zergling and blasting its body backward a few meters. Another loud screech came from the beast as it tried to stand up even against its heavy injuries. The first part of its chitin body was burned black and many of its chitin plates were cracked or broken off completely revealing the red veiny muscles hidden under them. 

There was a thick cloud of rust powder and black smoke from the partly burned creature mixed together filling a large chunk of the corridor. It was becoming bothersome for the warriors to see. 

Zyl would happily finish off the injured zergling, but something was holding him back. In the chaos of the battle, he couldn't see where the other one had gone, as if it just disappeared. Did it run away? Possible, maybe even logical. He thought, but he still refused to let down his guard.

The heavy dust cloud moved around slowly as Gadun finally crawled out of the wreckage. He stood up and grunted heavily, then reignited his blades and looked around the hazy space still confused somewhat. 

The smoke cloud parted as a long appendage shot out of the dust hitting Gadun in the side where there was no armor covering him.

-What?!

Shouted Gadun in surprised anger as he tried to cut off the appendage before it retreated but missed by a large margin. He stepped back to ready himself for another attack, he didn't even bother to look at the injury. It must be a superficial wound thought Zyl, and he knew it to be true through their link. 

They continued to focus on the surrounding searching for any movement betraying their enemy's position. Soon a shadow moved just behind the slowly moving dust and another appendage darted forward this time towards Zyl. The element of surprise however was already broken, while Zyl's psionic shield was not broken like Gadun's was. 

That was why he decided to charge forward into the dust without bothering to defend himself. The shot-out appendage of the zerg ricocheted off the shield to the side, harmlessly. One of Zyl's arms shot out to cut off the unbalanced flailing appendage and the psionic blade cut through it without much resistance. 

The strange creature losing one of its wings like appendages suddenly became unbalanced and staggered in the middle of its panicked retreat. Zyl saw the opportunity and pushed forward, he saw the remaining appendage spring forward, but it also glanced off the shield. This attack was panicked, there was no real power behind it. Zyl analyzed the situation calmly as he concluded. Victory was at hand.

Thought Zyl as he closed the last bit of the remaining gap between the creature and himself. Now he could see the small form hiding behind the dust as the blade attached to his left hand cut through his body horizontally. His swing has elicited hundreds of small ghostly screeches in its wake. 

The sound was eery, and he understood that the body against all of his expectations didn't part in two. His momentum however was still much greater than the creature's and on a sudden whim he decided. Instead of redirecting his momentum like last time, he would crush into the creature showing in into the wall, his body was much larger and heavier in every aspect, this should not be too hard to achieve. 

With that thought he slammed into the shadowy form taking it by surprise, as it crashed into the wall at the turn of the corridor. The creature screamed and flailed in pain as its back was pushed against the metal wall. Zyl used his left arm to press the thing even harder while he cut off the other remaining appendage with an agile movement. This elicited another painful scream from the zerg, but Zyl didn't care about that. 

They were the ones who came here in the first place. He thought as another spike of anger ran through his body seeing the failing thing in his grasp. 

-This is over. Let me finish you quickly and... what? 

Zyl felt something small bite into his arm, then another one, and another. He looked down to the arm that was pressing the girl into the wall and saw that his arm was covered by small bugs... no they were larve? His gaze looked up at the form of the girl, struggling for its life. Only now did he realize that the shadowy form of the girl, was not actually covered by shadows, in retrospect it was obvious. How could have been her body covered by shadows, even when his blades were lighting up the environment. 

Hundreds of larvae were covering the girl's body, creating a strange armor a carapace like thing around her. So, these were the source of those screeches, and the reason why she survived my blade. He looked at the ridiculous attack of the bugs and thought. Pitiful creatures they try to protect their host, but such laughable attacks in the end amount to nothing more, than mere annoyance. Even so, I will have to acknowledge the fact that they managed to get behind my shield. This sort of battle shield will only stop projectiles approaching at a certain speed. Slowly crawling bugs like that naturally won't be stopped by it.

Zyl decided to finish the fight and he began to raise his arm to deliver a final blow. 

More precisely he would have raised his arm, but his arm didn't budge more than a few negligible centimetres. 

His eyes widened as he tried again, only to fail similarly.

What is this supposed to mean? I can't move?! He tried to reach out towards his other companions, but the communication link they shared felt sluggish and unresponsive. He realized that he couldn't send any of his thoughts to his friends, but he could still hear them, the slightly worried shouts of Uzruh. 

-What are you waiting for Zyl? Finish her already something is wrong with Gadun... He collapsed and doesn't respond to my calls. 

My eyes turned back to the zerg thing as a new realization dawned upon me. She was poisonous... my mind was becoming even harder to focus... it was clearly a powerful neuro poison, one that was even capable of blocking psionic thoughts. A terrifying weapon, in the hands of the zerg... I shell kill this thing by all means! I pushed all my will into my right arm as I could still sense it barely, but that sensation was quickly waning. With incredible exertion I managed to move my arm and my blue psionic blade slowly pierced into the side of the terrified creature.

Under the continuous heat from the blade the bugs covering the left side of her stomach began to sizzle loudly no doubt cooking in their own carapace and slowly they fell lifelessly to the ground revealing the soft white flesh of the girl under them. I heard as the thing's breathing quickened and soon it began to wail as the blade melted its side... Alas, my arm didn't move anymore, and my mind darkened while still hearing that pitiful wail of that strange monster... My thoughts came back to Aiur, as all sensation from my body left me and I plunged into deep darkness one that I never dreamt to exist before.