Second Genesis

Grey wasn’t entirely sure what he expected to find on the other side of the Instance, but sliding down the side of a mountain made of slick stone at speeds that would have turned a normal person into paste definitely hadn’t been high on the list, especially not while carrying three people.

Still, the moment his feet hit the slope and gravity tried to rip him downward, a grin spread across his face. He dipped into a small hop, shadowy fog bloomed beneath his feet, and when he landed again his hips twisted as though he was shifting a snowboard beneath him.

"Are you fucking serious?" Mauve grumbled from his back.

Grey ignored her, leaning into a sharp curve and ripping around a jutting pillar of stone.

He hadn’t snowboarded much back on Earth, and if someone asked him if he had been good at it, the answer would have been a very confident no, but apparently superhuman reflexes, Resonant Sense, and the ability to cheat physics made up for a lot.

He carved down the mountain, Brad hanging over one shoulder while Mauve and Elowen were bundled awkwardly against the other, and somehow Grey was still having the time of his life.

"Grey," Elowen said through gritted teeth, "if you drop me—"

"I would never drop my wife."

Elowen rolled her eyes.

"We are sliding down a mountain! Can you be serious!?"

"Just trust your husband, baby girl. I’m killing these slopes right now."

"Someone’s coming," Mauve suddenly said.

Grey glanced back.

Far above them, something small was tearing down the slope even faster than they were. At first Grey thought it might have been a Dormaji because of the rocky exterior, but the closer it got, the more obvious it became that this was something completely different.

The thing had a midget-sized body, a head almost twice as large as it had any right to be, and enormous gemstone eyes that looked carved directly from polished crystals.

"Well that’s fucking unfortunate," Grey mumbled.

"What?" Mauve asked.

"Nothing. Just racism developing in real time."

The alien closed the distance frighteningly fast, going from a distant speck to something Grey could make out clearly in a matter of seconds. Grey still wasn’t great at reading expressions from species that looked like somebody had let a toddler design them, but his Resonant Sense didn’t need a face to tell when killing intent was gathering.

Grey’s eyes narrowed.

Both his arms were occupied.

’Of fucking course.’

Light gathered in the alien’s gemstone eyes, then two beams fired.

"You’ve gotta be shitting me."

Grey jumped.

The alien’s mouth twisted into something Grey assumed was a grin. Now that Grey was airborne, there was nowhere left to dodge, at least not if gravity and common sense had anything to say about it.

Luckily, Grey had stopped respecting both. Red-gold magnetic rings pulsed into existence behind him.

BANG.

His body snapped sideways in midair, the beams cutting through the space he had occupied a split second earlier. Grey twisted, dropped back onto the slope behind the alien, and his shadowy foothold screamed against the stone as he regained balance.

Then he inhaled with a deep breath.

The alien glanced back.

Grey grinned.

"EAT SHIT!"

BANG.

A cannon of compressed air exploded out of Grey’s mouth.

The blast slammed into the alien’s back, sending its tiny body pitching forward. Its oversized head struck the mountain first, then again, then a third time as it began tumbling uncontrollably down the slope.

Large chunks of rock broke away from its skull.

Grey laughed.

Then the pieces cracked open and bright emerald light leaked through them.

Grey’s smile vanished. "Ah, fuck."

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The entire path erupted.

Green explosions rolled across the mountainside, tearing stone apart and swallowing Grey in a cloud of debris. Mauve screamed something into his ear, Elowen shouted something considerably less dignified, and Grey was pretty sure Brad remained unconscious because honestly, the bastard had picked a great fucking time to sleep.

The alien kept tumbling ahead of them, its oversized head bouncing against the slope often enough that Grey would have felt bad if it hadn’t been so fucking hilarious. The little imp looked like an oversized bobble head, its little feet trying to land firmly against the ground and failing every time.

Then the top of its skull struck the ground, its neck flexed backward, and the bastard used the impact like a spring.

WHOOSH.

It flipped upright.

Its heels slammed into the mountain and it began sliding backward, staring into the destruction with what Grey could only assume was smug satisfaction.

Then it coughed up blood.

"Yeah, don’t look too proud," Grey muttered from inside the smoke.

SHUUU.

He shot out of the cloud.

The alien’s gemstone eyes widened.

Grey was still carrying all three of them, and grinning at that.

"Hey, short stack," Grey called. "That was kinda cute, but you should look behind you."

The alien’s expression twisted. It wasn’t falling for that.

Grey could almost see the thought.

’As if I’m stupid enough to—’

BANG.

The alien’s back slammed into something solid.

Its entire body jerked to a halt.

The Virtueless.

Grey had thrown the rod past its blind spot while it was tumbling earlier, embedding it directly into the alien’s path. The bastard hadn’t noticed.

The moment it stopped, Grey jumped.

Both legs shot forward.

"Goodnight."

BANG.

His double spear kick landed squarely on the alien’s face, crushing its enormous head between the soles of his feet and the rod behind it.

The gemstone skull shattered.

Fragments exploded outward like broken emerald glass, sparkling down the mountainside before disappearing into the distance.

Grey’s momentum carried him forward, but he hooked his feet around The Virtueless and let the rod bend backward under the force, using it like a giant spring until he finally came to a stop.

He exhaled.

"Fuck, this mountain’s slippery."

A notification chimed.

—

[Regional Territory of Melix has progressed forward.]

—

Grey blinked.

"Who the fuck is Melix?"

Light exploded around him.

A teleportation warp swallowed Grey, Brad, Mauve, and Elowen whole.

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