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He had never seen such a thing before. Monsters, yes. But never one like that--and more importantly, never one that at first appeared perfectly human.

He didn't get the opportunity to consult Worwal on it. Just as he finished wiping most of the blood off his visor, a warning of incoming attacks arrived. Blodeye's two remaining men were both blasting him with materialization, and he needed to evade.

Simple enough. But a third attack came with even less warning attached to it.

A flock of crows on his right side. Acid, flames, and lightning all obscured the assault, making it difficult to tell which direction to evade in. Even with the visor's aid, which was now flickering, he couldn't be sure. He had only a split second to guess.

He chose to dive down.

That was incorrect. The birds appeared like a hundred tiny spears with the speed of a freight train, shredding his entire right side and sending him into a tailspin as system alerts flashed across the HUD.

Armor integrity critical. Multiple power failures. Impact mitigation errors. Flight assistance errors. Weapons systems failing. Hostile targets closing in.

He was nearly in freefall. He had to stabilize. Flight assistance be damned. The jets were still working, the beauties. He could do it all in his head.

He twisted his body and angled himself down as he activated a hard burn. With the computer drilled into his thalamus and cerebral cortex, he could tell the suit exactly what to do with only his mind. It was more difficult and dangerous without the benefit of guidance vector calculations being pumped straight into his brain, but he'd practiced this scenario hundreds of times.

The suit swooped down low, clipping a line of tall trees and taking their tops off before finally achieving stable flight again.