Thirty-Two

Kon had never run with mag boots on, each step slapping hard to the ground, sending reverberations through his knees. Holding himself vertically was a strain on his body, but the lighter than average gravity and his own growing strength kept him moving forward with ease. Benny ranged ahead of them, acting for all the world like it was a normal hall they were traversing and not a sheer lift shaft.

"This exit here," Benny said, stopping suddenly, his head swinging back and forth like a bloodhound catching a scent. Diur surged ahead of Kon, swinging to the side as Kon lumbered up to the doors. He had to bend as if trying to touch his toes to wedge his fingers in the lift doors. He held himself there, frozen, waiting for Benny's signal.

"You're learning boyo. Emp and flash mix through a crack, then Diur, me and you bring up rear," Benny said as he reached into his seemingly endless belt and pulled out a pair of grenades.

"EMP will scramble their suits, hopefully. Flash to disorientate. Diur, he's not right outside the doors, but be careful shooting," Benny finished, nodding at Kon. In his bent position Kon couldn't leverage his full body strength, relying on his shoulders and back as he pulled on his energy reserves to muscle through.

The door creaked open and Benny tossed the two grenades in without hesitation. Kon kept his eyes closed and his visor pointed down, but even then, the strong strobe of light was brutal with his enhanced sight, causing his eyes to water. Kon didn't hesitate though as he threw his strength into opening the lift doors the rest of the way, Diur flying through them.

The whirr of her rifle was distinct as she engaged whomever had been unlucky enough to be standing outside of the lift doors. Benny was right behind her, Kon dragging himself up right after them. Dim lights fought against a curtain of smoke and haze, leftovers from the brief fight. Four goblins lay in broken piles of armor, steam wafting off of them from the laser rounds.

"Down the hall, to the left. Switch to non-lethal," Benny ordered. He followed by slinging his oversized rifle to his back and grabbing a stick on his waist. It telescoped into a long baton that he twirled with familiar ease. Benny took the lead as Diur slung her own rifle and drew her sword as Kon mimicked them, pulling his mace as they ran toward the end of the hall.

Benny abandoned all notions of tactics or appearing to be mortal, his body blurring as he accelerated, hard for Kon to track. The old man flew around the corner and disappeared, the sounds of fighting coming in the same instance. They turned the corner and a pair of armored goblins lay on their backs, their helmets completely shattered, nothing remaining of their faces but blood and bone.

"It does not appear non-lethal," Diur said as they followed a trail of carnage. While Benny had never told them how strong he was, Kon had spent hours in the dojo working with him to the point he thought he knew the old man's limits. Somewhere above Alice, but not by much. Maybe an upper D-Grade.

"No way that's right." Benny had ripped open a four centimeter thick steel door by simply running through it, breaking a half-dozen goblins inside of the room, and then leaving it before Kon and Diur could catch up to him.

"Definitely not non-lethal," Kon said. The room the goblins had been in was filled with weapons, armor, and a map. Some kind of security station. Benny had painted it with their blood in seconds before leaving, hardly slowing his pace.

"Keep up," Benny chided them and both of them redoubled their pace. Diur was close enough that Kon could feel the energy drifting around her, drawing forth from her core as she used it to enhance herself to greater heights. Kon simply willed his body to move faster, burning through the deep reserves at a shocking rate. He pulled ahead of Diur and was able to catch sight of the old man again.

Benny was holding a goblin in one hand, holding the smaller alien off its feet as it vainly struggled, balled up fists bouncing off of Benny's armored gauntlets.

"Found him. Finish clearing the rest of the floor. I want any tracking equipment to be salvageable," Benny said.

"Te'Vin, you are asleep and will wake in five hours," Benny stated and once again his rune flared to life. Even not directed at him, Kon felt his lids droop as a wave of power washed over the room. Te'Vin went limp in Benny's grip and the old Knight tucked the goblin under an arm.

"I'm going to go and store him on the Puca. I'll be back in ninety seconds. I want this place cleared Kon. If you get it done, I'll pay for your final rune you need," Benny said as he disappeared in a flash. Diur came skidding up behind him a second later, panting heavily as she looked around.

"Come on. If we clear this place out I can finish my rune web," Kon said, though there was little excitement in his voice. His mind was filled with the monstrous amounts of death they'd just waded through. The fight on the black market meeting house seemed tame in comparison to the assault that Jurgen and his squad had leveled at the goblin defenders.

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Which all paled to Benny's sudden surge of strength and speed. Broken and twisted bodies lay all behind them, none of them having had time to even try to fight against the Knight. At least the goblins on the asteroid had had the opportunity to fire their weapons.

"I heard the conversation. There is a cultivator nearby, I'm sure of it," Diur said and Benny focused for a moment and felt the pulse of a cultivator close by.

"Have to pay more attention to that." Kon shook his head in irritation as he turned to follow Diur who'd flown back down the hallway.

The level they were on was the nerve center to the facility. Security stations mixed with meeting rooms and observation rooms. Goblins were everywhere, but most wore lightweight armor that was more to battle exposure than fighters. Diur and Kon flew through them, striking them down as they ventured forth. Diur chased after the faint traces of the other cultivator, her sword weaving a pattern of death in front of her.

"Up ahead. I think he's all that's left," Diur said as blood dripped off her sword, a line following behind her made of scarlet.

Kon had twice struck attacking goblins, his mace cracking their paltry armor with ease. He'd managed to keep from making as severe a mess as Diur though.

Together they turned to the corner to see a slender figure waiting for them. Like all the others the goblin wasn't armored well, but the long, curved sword in their hand was exquisite. Blue with red sigils burned along its length, the swordsman raised their blade as Diur raised her own.

"If I fall, retrieve my blade and return it to my clan," Diur said. She blurred as her aura exploded around her like a blue wave. In the tight confines of the hallway it was like watching water slosh across metal.

The goblin's own aura rose, a steady pulsing brown, rich and vibrant it sang of life and strength. Sparks danced as the blades met, lighting the hall as the two of them locked together, bodies nearly touching as they twisted this way and that, trying to overpower each other.

On unspoken accord they both leapt back in a shriek of steel, before lunging back at each other again. Diur's lunge was deflected, scraping along the edge of the goblin's breastplate to leave a furrow of parted metal. A snarl emerged from the faceless goblin as they twisted, ducking low to rise in a powerful blow that would have bisected Diur if it'd landed.

Diur spun away, twisting and bending in ways Kon thought was near impossible. She struck as her weight shifted to her backfoot, a simple, deceptive, lazy strike. The goblin was too slow, the blow spearing through their defenses to sink into their thigh. Blood welled out of the wound as Diur pulled out, dancing back as the goblin's leg buckled a bit.

"It's over," Diur said, her voice cold and final. The goblin simply lifted their blade up in front of their helmet, silent in their defiance. Diur nodded her head and then was upon the cultivator again. They sped up, trading a flurry of tight blows, their swords hardly having the space to swing in the hallways.

Then it was over.

A head fell from their shoulders, clattering to a stop as the truncated body slammed to the ground a second later. Diur stood over her fallen foe, flicking her blade to clear it of blood before sheathing her sword. She reached over and plucked the blue sword from her opponent's clenched fingers.

"What's up with collecting weapons? Alice was the same way with her axe," Kon asked as he walked closer to her, his own heart rate slowing now that he saw she was fine.

"I am victorious. It is the victor's due," Diur said.

"Then why did you ask me to grab yours in case you fell?" Kon asked. Diur scoffed.

"This is an ancestral blade of my clan. I would never find peace in the next life if I lost it permanently. A part of a cultivator's strength is those they collect as brothers-in-arms. Mine are stronger than most. Hers weren't." Diur swung the blade a few times, twisting it this way and that as she admired the way the light reflected off of it.

"Got it. Winner takes all unless the loser has better friends," Kon said as they turned to leave the hallway.

"Yes. Alliances are a key part of any martial endeavor. We have each other. If you fall I'll retrieve your body and weapons and return them to your family," Diur said as they looked through the rest of the floor. Nothing remained living and they had managed to not destroy any critical equipment this time.

"I appreciate that, but we don't really care too much about our bodies. Normally fire them out of an airlock when we die. Towards the nearest star," Kon clarified as Diur paused and cocked her head. He knew that behind her tinted visor she was either horrified or curious. Or both.

"Nomadic culture without excess space to store the remnants of your mortal life. It is understandable that this practice exists, but I wonder how you honor your ancestors?" Diur asked.

"Generally try not to make the same mistakes. I don't know, I grew up on a planet with a cemetery. I guess some older, established Chapterhouses or the Orders have something to keep of former Knights," Kon guessed. He stopped at one of the rooms that had caught his interest in their mad dash through the building. It was packed with equipment, none of it familiar with him, but it looked expensive and important.

"Now, I think this is the room Benny is going to want to see," Kon said as he looked over the equipment. Diur grunted in amusement and Kon sighed as he turned to look at his mentor staring at him from less than a foot away.

"Your senses are still shit. I was leaking enough energy that you should have felt me coming forty seconds ago. And you are right, this is the room I want. Jurgen's men are finishing their work, I want you two to watch the doors while I download everything here. Might want to start thinking about the post battle analysis we'll be going over. I want you to find all your mistakes," Benny said as he crouched in front of the central station and began to work on it.

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