“That’s the way it’s gonna be?” I growled.

            Two more users were down thanks to my blade and Imona’s ingenuity, yet they were relentless. These people had no clue who I was, yet they wanted me alive for some reason, and that was the sole reason I was not dead alongside the others. Now, another user flew down in front of me. He flew, like with actual metallic, angelic wings. Each feather shone with a brilliant chromatic glow that spoke danger, stretching across a span of at least fifteen feet if fully extended.

            I was… somewhere. I was disoriented and unaware of my location, but I estimated being ten miles away from where Morgan's people attacked me. I was clueless about where Athea and Camilla disappeared to and the identity of the old man, but my immediate action was to run and resolve it later. This hundred foot long alley was roughly ten feet wide with tall red brick buildings trapping me in. There were no windows, no doors, nothing to move through, but this time I couldn’t.

            The angel’s wings dug two feet deep into both buildings. Too large were the wings to slow his descent with their intended purpose. He rather used their razor edge and the tough brick to come to a gradual stop in front of me by means of the destruction of public property. For some reason I don’t think he cared. He held a woman, one hand covering her mouth, the other holding a dagger over her throat.

            “You git be coming with me.” He drooled.

He spoke with the accent that I realized was the more common one on the planet. I hated it. His voice was squeaky, not of a child, but of a man who never grew up. It dripped indifference to the life he held in his hand, and then I knew. He wanted a fight, but someone must have ordered him to do this. They probably had seen what I did to protect the innocent earlier, and are now using their innate cruelty against me.

            He was a Class Five, like me. He was strong, like me. He was probably fast, but not like me. There was a whoosh of air, a slight thunk, a heavier thunk, a scream, some scraping, and I was off once more. A quick glance behind told me all I needed to know. One of my few remaining daggers was hilt deep in the man’s forehead. His Hud was rapidly consuming the corpse, then the woman surprised me. Rather than fleeing for her life after screaming bloody murder, she lifted the dagger the user had dropped and sliced open the man’s chest. Tearing out the Hud. She, in turn, started screaming. Apparently, the consumption process needed to be complete before removing the device. Dozens of finger like cilia stretched out before burying deep into her palm. Spontaneous combusting, the device gorged on her like an appetizer.

            Seeing the woman I just saved die so suddenly, had stopped me up. Nearly tripping over a toppled trash can, my momentum and imbalance had me skitter off the brick wall to my right, only a few feet from the main street. That saved my life, for if I hadn’t paused, by the time I exited the alley, six spears would have impaled me. The solid metal chunk of fifteen-foot shafts shimmered out as the microscopic nanites broke apart and traveled back to their owner by means of the Interspaces. All thoughts of the woman gone in an instant.

            There was a moment of delay, a slight lag, when something shimmered out of existence and return to the mortal plane. With that in mind, I leaped out in a tight roll to give me the leverage to jump further across and into another alley. I didn’t want to be near the people; I didn’t want anyone else to die. But as I tried to escape, the freaking pedestrians appeared to care little for their life as they would jump in front of practically anything just to grab a sword, boot or even a Hud.

            My timing was nearly perfect. More metal spears flew freely through my cape, narrowly missing my body by inches as I dove. Halfway through my roll, I tucked my feet and readied them to kick off the pavement. I did so, but I was only two feet from the ground when…

            SLAM!

            Something massive, metal, and moving quick smashed into me. I was just hit by a car. Well, shuttle, hover car… whatever they called them on this world. I wasn't nearly as hurt as the first time, and within two seconds, I got up, holding a soul gladius in one hand and a dagger in the other, ready to fly. I shook my head again, realizing what had happened…well, what hadn’t happen. I was now an expert, you could say, at being hit by flying vehicles. Most people die in a fraction of a second, having no clue what happened, but I was a Hud user, I can survive such impacts. Though I will say that if it wasn’t my innate racial strength along with increased healing, I wouldn’t have survived. But I was strong, and I did have great healing even if it was significantly less now than what it was.

            That was when I recognized where I was, and the crazy little monster piloting a ship missing most of its plexiclear windshield.

            “Leval?!” I shouted. “How?” the question on my tongue.

            “No time git! They be on me ass! Hope you use sword!” his mousy voice shouted at me.

            The wind screamed through the massive hole; it was then I spotted the goblin looking man wearing some odd-looking goggles. Also, why was his face blackened? He looked as if he was too close to an explosion. His words confused me. Not only did it take a few seconds to translate in my head, but I wasn’t sure what he meant. If they were on his ass, then it would be a piloting issue, not a sword issue. Right?

            I lurched into the wall on my right as he turned the ship so fast that my feet left the ground, dropping my sword. The maniac was flying through the tight streets and alleys going at least five hundred miles an hour, using reaction time that belittled my own. I was absolutely terrified, but didn’t wasn’t able to tell the little monster down as I understood what he was telling me. Two people, agile enough to only be a user, bent through the shattered windshield and into the room. I expected my new friend to be killed in front of me, but once again, I was surprised. The first leveled a hand gun only an inch from his head, and fired. A shimmering blue shield exploded in place round his little body as the incredible heat of a laser pulse dispersed along its entire surface. A second shot, and nothing. The man attempted to grab the goblin's shoulder, but a powerful electrical shock greeted him, momentarily blinding me. When sight returned, the user was rolling on the ground, crying out and reaching for an arm no longer there. Leval didn’t even turn his head. What a man.

            The distraction was so that I was nearly skewered. The second user, caring little for his fallen comrade, was less distrait. A nasty-looking hand ax came down towards my throat. I bent to the side, as its twin made to disembowel me. Scooting back my stomach, I reached up to catch his wrist from a downward strike. I kicked his right ankle in, hard. I felt the bones bend under the force and his groan of pain was satisfaction to my ears.

            He shoved me back, both of us losing our balance.

            CLANG! CLANG!

            In terrible mockery of the Mika’s symmetrical fighting, we both threw two daggers. One for our heads, the second for our chests. All ricochetted off each other and clattered to the ground. For a moment, we paused, staring at each other in satisfaction and admiration. Then a quick glance down, the two of us jumped. He reaching for the nearest dagger, and me knowing exactly where he was going. Pulling out my last blade, it grew in my hand. He thought I was intending to grab a blade as well, but he was mistaken. He was made aware of this as my last dagger stabbed through his gauntlet, through the palm and into the hull below. He found himself pinned, crying out and pulling tentatively on his wrist.

            I dusted my hands. Smirking at the man, Turning back to see that the first was unconscious. Losing an arm is deadly to nearly all, but this one was a user, and I knew better. I took my first step, when a sharp pain flared up in my right shoulder. I turned to see the man, still pinned, but was close enough to grab the other blades. How did I not notice that?

            One in my shoulder, and another in his free hand. He threw it with expert precision. How was I so foolish? This was no longer about me. My friends were out there somewhere and I needed to find them. I couldn’t do that if I remained thinking like the idiot from the twenty-third century.

            The silver shimmered, light reflecting from the blurring buildings speeding by. It was faster than I could comprehend, yet it was still slow. Slow enough for me to catch it. Yes, it was by the blade, but I still caught it. Alright, the blade stabbed through my hand that I lifted to hide my eyes, but I caught it! Fine… I didn’t catch it, but it didn’t matter to that other user as I tore the dagger out of my own palm. In an eery silence, it left my hand and buried itself in his chest.

            The man went limp, then fell down fully, still pinned, but I didn’t move. I needed to be more observant, and the first thing I noticed was that his Hud was still active. I summoned up the gladius I dropped when nearly getting my head chopped off by a spaceman lumberjack, and stood ready. Then the body began shaking, convulsing as if having a seizure. Mechanically, or perhaps like a marionette puppet, he shot up to his feet, tearing off fingers and half his hand to remain pinned to the ground. He slowly pulled the one in his chest out, still shaking wildly. The buzzing grew.

            “Metempsychosis.” His armor vibrated the word.

            I sighed.

            “Now, why in the hell does your vibrator of a Hud sound normal? Not that stupid accent…”