Do No Evil (Aeon Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter 4

The destroyed door had twisted left, as Kobus had foreseen, leaving him untouched to the right of the door. This position also favored his right handedness.

The hammer Kobus held weighed sixteen ounces. One end of its head was a classic hammer - just a hardened steel striking surface - and the other a sharp claw. One tong of the claw was short and curved, making it useful for sliding under nails. The other tong was longer and straighter, making it better suited for prying panels of wood or drywall apart.

Already one of the two acolytes flanking the invading soldiers had been killed by their accurate return fire.

Two soldiers ran past Kobus into the room without seeing him. But Kobus saw everything. He pivoted and swung the hammer horizontally with all his considerable strength. It connected perfectly with the throat armor of the third soldier through the doorway.

Splat!

The blow was not necessarily fatal but it would keep that soldier out of the fight for the moment.

Two down, five to go.

As the wounded soldier fell to his knees, Kobus pivoted backwards, switching the hammer from right hand to left as he did so. He struck backhand around the shattered edge of the doorway with the claw end of the hammer as he swiveled. There was not a lot of force behind the movement but not much force was needed. The longer tong of the claw lodged in the eye socket of another soldier who was preparing to come through the doorway, taking her out of the fight as well.

Three down, four to go.

There were still two soldiers outside the room exchanging fire with the surviving acolyte. More importantly, there were two enemies in the room with him. Kobus let go of the hammer and activated his electro-magnetic force bracelets.

The action was moving so quickly that the soldier Kobus had injured in the neck was still falling, dropping his weapon at Kobus's feet as he did so. One of the two soldiers who'd made it inside the room had broken left as she ran into the room.

The other had taken a few steps to the right, then sensed Kobus's presence. That soldier pivoted and brought up his weapon, his powered exoskeleton clicking and whirring as it moved with him.

Kobus gestured with his left hand and the man's weapon twisted, firing its laser beam through the doorway and driving the soldiers' comrades back behind cover.

But despite the casualties he'd inflicted so quickly, Kobus saw that the battle was in danger of turning against him. The soldier on the left inside of the room now realized something was amiss behind her and began to twist towards Kobus. And the two remaining invaders outside the room had killed the second acolyte and were now flanking the doorway.

In the back of his mind, Kobus could see that Nick had sprinted up two flights of stairs. He still had four to go. Too far.

Kobus extended his right hand towards a discarded laser lying on the ground at his feet. In an instant, the weapon rose smoothly up off the ground and into his grip. He fired a long pulse into the soldier on the left, hitting her chest plate at a precise joint so that instead of reflecting the laser beam as it was designed to, the armor melted away. In a moment, the woman's torso was a boiling mess.

Four down, three to go.

But the laser's battery was now exhausted. "Stuk kak," Kobus grunted as he tossed it back to the ground.

Bwomp, bwomp, bwomp! repeated the alarm.

Kobus saw that Nick was up three flights of stairs, and still had three to go.