up into a boxer’s pose and she took one tight step forward, cocking her fist near her shoulder and rotating her hip in a small, hard stance. The motion carried through the abrupt collision with the creature’s head pod.

The collision changed its trajectory, issuing a sound like a tire being struck by a bat. The creature was sent spinning into the row of lockers, destroying many of them.

Titus almost fell in surprise, also blood loss, but mostly surprise.

He realized the tattoos across the colonel’s body were glowing a dull color. Titus’s mind tore it apart. She was sacrificing whatever she had put in her mouth, maybe some type of spice, to fuel the Thai strengthening prayers. The circles activated the body’s adrenal system, triggering the fight part of the fight or flight response, wea...

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