Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

will not risk you escaping. So prepare yourself, Jack Random. Company's coming.
    A dozen Grendel aliens appeared out of nowhere in the metal corridor before Random; huge and terrible, scarlet as Satan, unstoppable killing machines.
    Random drew his sword and his gun and knew they weren't going to be enough, even with his powers to back them. The Grendels turned their broad heart-shaped heads to look at him, grinning with their steel teeth, slowly flexing their metal claws. The black smoke drifted among them, curling around their spiked crimson armor, like demons newly escaped from Hell.
    Goodbye, Jack Random, said Lionstone's voice. Have fun. When you're dead, we will learn much from your body. Or whatever's left of it.
    Random shot the nearest Grendel in the head. The energy beam ricocheted harmlessly away, and all the Grendels surged forward impossibly quickly. Random boosted, pushing his strength and speed to the limit, and went to meet them with
    his sword at the ready. They were much bigger than him, and stronger, and even in his boosted state it was all he could do to match their speed, but he was Jack Random, and he never backed down from a fight. Particularly when he had a blazing inferno behind him, and nowhere to run.
    He danced among them, evading their spiked and clawed hands, prizing at their exposed joints with the tip of his sword, and hacking at their necks with great, two-handed blows. Sometimes the scarlet armor cracked or splintered under the strength of his blows, but he didn't seem to be hurting them, or even slowing them down. There wasn't much room to fight in, and the Grendels constantly moved to keep him from getting past them, but Random made the most of the space, dodging and ducking, moving too quickly to be hit, never where they expected him to be.
    He stuck the barrel of his disrupter into a gaping steel-jawed mouth, and hit the stud. The energy beam blew the back of the Grendel's head off. It fell clattering and twitching to the floor, and Random laughed harshly. His victory put new strength in his arms, and he fought on fiercely, cracking open the Grendels' crimson armor again and again. No human could have done it, but Random hadn't been human for a long time. He tried summoning up his fire again, but alone he couldn't generate enough heat to really hurt the aliens. They responded with fierce crackling energy beams from their mouths and eyes. Random hit the floor, and the energy beams shot through the space where he'd been, striking down two of the aliens. They died, as they fought, in silence. Random scrambled to his feet, thinking perhaps he was still in with a chance after all, and then his spirits plummeted as three more Grendels were teleported in to replace those who had fallen. Shub had no intention of allowing Random to escape. He clutched
    his sword firmly anyway, and prepared to fight on, because that was what he did.
    Such a stupid way to die, after everything he'd been through, but then, he'd never expected to die in his sleep. Legends didn't, mostly.
    The Grendels hit him in a solid wave, and there were steel teeth and claws everywhere. Random was slammed back against the corridor wall, with no room to swing his sword. He fired his gun point-blank at a Grendel's gut, and the energy beam punched right through the alien and out its back. The Grendel didn't even flinch. An energy beam shot from its mouth. Random jerked his head aside at the last second, and the crackling energy seared away his right ear and set his hair on fire. Steel jaws slammed down and buried themselves in his left shoulder.
    Claws cut deeply into his flesh. Blood streamed down his body, and pooled on the floor at his feet. And still he went on fighting, struggling to use his sword, lashing out with his fist, forcing himself on despite the pain. Because that was what he did.
    And then Ruby Journey came sprinting down the metal corridor, sword and gun in hand, howling her war cry, and everything changed. The Grendels hesitated for a moment, caught between two forces, and that was all the time Random and Ruby needed to reach out and join their minds. They called up their fire, so much greater than anything they could manage alone, and together they filled the corridor with an unbearable heat. The Grendels sank to their knees, cooking inside their silicon shells, and finally fell forward and died. Random and Ruby shut down their flames, entirely untouched by the heat they'd produced, and looked grimly at