Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

the other tried to break the giant’s grip on her hammer.

“Aaand you’re dead.” Nina said calmly.

Maintaining her composure despite her face being a mess of mucky slush, the Gigas had her opposite hand resting on Milly’s back as she spat out bits of frozen twigs and mud to one side.

“What? But I got your hammer!” Milly protested.

Nina pulled her weapon arm out of her bond-sister’s grip with ease, before setting the weapon down so she could wipe her face.

“No, you touched my hammer, meanwhile I touched your spine.” She patted her hand against the smooth skin of the cow’s back for emphasis; “How many times do I have to say it? You aren’t trying to win against me, though throwing shit in my face was a good try. Thank you for that by the way.”

Even with what Nina had just put her through, Milly couldn’t help but feel guilty.

“I’m sorr-”

“No you aren’t sorry.” Nina interrupted firmly; “You use whatever nasty business Kar and the others taught you to stay alive. Better to win dirty than lose clean.”

Some time ago Kar had defeated both Milly and Erica by throwing dirt in the Minotaur’s eyes, which was where she had gotten the idea.

They broke apart and Nina cleared her vision of the last of the mess with Milly’s polka-dot hanky.

“The Amazons did good with you babe, but you need to stifle that urge.”

“What urge?”

“The urge to come straight at me, to pounce at any opening. Normally it’s the right call, but not now.”

Without warning the Gigas lunged forwards again and swept the Minotaur’s legs out from under her with her hammer, causing the poor girl to splat into the same mess she had inflicted on Nina.

“And you’re dead again!” She pronounced as Milly groaned.

It took a lot to bruise a Minotaur, but Nina was a lot.

“What am I supposed to do then?” She panted from her place on the ground.

“The only thing you can do when facing an impossible opponent. Run, duck, dive, dodge, throw shit in my face. You do whatever it takes to survive just one more second, because every second you survive is a victory against someone like me. The more time I spend trying to kill you, the less time I have to kill someone else, and the more time help has to arrive. Now, where did my dinner hop off to?”

She looked around but the fat rabbit had long since escaped into the undergrowth beside the broad trail.

“Does that mean I won?”

Milly didn’t hide the smugness in her voice and Nina crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed.

“Volka’s making you cheeky.”

The Minotaur sat up, her big blue eyes finding Nina’s.

And very deliberately stuck her tongue out at her.

__________

Nameless had not seen Escrya since their falling out, and even though Volka assured him that she had smoothed things over between them he was still worried.

But the fact was: he had more pressing concerns.

Today they would be working with lost-tech for the first time, actual hands on experience rather than the scare-tactics of their first introduction to it, so Nameless and the rest of his fellow cadets were more than a little nervous as they lingered around the broad and well-worn work tables of the classroom.

As with many of their lessons, few monster girls were present, as most breeds either had an aversion to lost-tech or were simply incapable of seeing certain technologies as anything other than different forms of magic.

A muscular bald man with numerous scars over his frame stomped into the workshop, his very presence halting the various conversations.

That and the fact he was carrying a blaster.

“Sit down.” He barked with authority as he set the weapon down on the table at the front.

Quickly getting the impression he wasn’t one to ask twice, the class sat on their stools, four to a table.

“I’m Instructor Kavanaugh. Now, which one of you can tell me what this is?”

Unsurprisingly every hand in the room was in the air, including Nameless’s, but Baron Watts spoke without raising his.

“It’s a blaster, sir. Though it’s obviously been modified.”

A murmur of confusion went through the others as their raised hands faltered and lowered, clearly it wasn’t obvious to most of them.

“Nice catch.” The instructor nodded; “Normally you pull the trigger, one blast comes out. But this particular piece of death was tinkered with by someone with half a brain. The modification drastically increases the power draw from the cell, so it won’t last long, and the gun itself will be garbage once it’s through, but if I were so inclined I could hold the trigger down and draw a line across this room to slice every one of you in half in under five seconds.”

That drew a few gasps from his audience, though Baron just nodded knowingly.

“Okay bright boy, you recognized the modification. But can you disable it?”

This time Baron crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t say anything, but Ginger took a page out of his book and leapt to her feet.

“I can sir!”

Besides Baron the young redhead sitting at Nameless’s table was probably the smartest in the class.

Though something in the instructor’s demeanor as he lay the weapon down in front of her set Nameless’s teeth on edge, and as she reached for the weapon he too jumped up and grabbed her arm.

“Wait!”

“It’s alright Nameless! I have a degree from Algrade!” Impatiently she tried to tear her arm out of his but he simply gripped her tighter.

Kavanaugh smiled humorlessly as he took in the sight.

With an emphatic shake of his head, Nameless explained his reasoning.

“And what happens if you make a mistake?”

At first she rolled her eyes, but then she caught the look on their teacher’s face.

“This was a test...”