The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) by Chris Eisenlauer Read Free Book Online

form undulating wings. The men that had accompanied Peshil and Suunts backed away to allow Suunts more freedom and to avoid being crushed.
    Suunts stepped over Gim Peshil towards Jav and Hilene, neither of whom budged. He made as if to swipe at the two invaders with the talons of his gnarled paw, but those were sheared away when they came in contact with Nils Porta.
    Besides converting his bone to alloyed steel, Nils’s Artifact enabled him to spin his four-pointed middle and outside sections independently along the horizontal axis of his inhuman body, turning him into a mobile, three-bladed buzz saw. Suunts snatched his paw away, blood streaming from the stumps of two digits removed farther down. Porta zipped forward and rammed his whirling blades into Suunts’s broad, reptilian face, but buzzed ineffectually there. Suunts had closed his eyes and though Porta had some success casting away scales and a thin spray of blood mixed with underflesh, a strange reaction was taking place where the blades dug in. A gray substance foamed out as fast as Porta cut through, but soon Porta’s blades were mucked-up and slowing down.
    Porta thought that the heavy bones of Suunts’s face were mostly responsible for preventing him from crushing through to shred the brain beyond, so he backed away, spun himself clean of the hardening gray substance, and proceeded in a powerful arc into Suunts’s belly. He met with the same luck there, however. Worse, the gray foaming substance coated him to such a degree now that he could no longer maintain his spin. For a moment Porta remained there, stuck in the expanded bulk of Suunts’s stomach which bristled with fresh, hardened scales, until his own weight dislodged him and he collapsed inert to the ground with a heavy clang.
    Hilene shot Jav a glance. He stood there, arms folded and impassive, acknowledged her, but gave no indication to move.
    Porta exploded. Suunts threw his head back in coarse, booming laughter, unaware of Porta’s particulate mass rising up to enter his open mouth. Suunts choked suddenly on the grit rubbing against his throat, and coughed several times. He cocked his head, sensing something not right inside him. He glanced down at Hilene then at Jav, whose imperious posture made his horny features settle into a frown. His eyes went wide suddenly and blood began to seep from the bottom lids. Then it began to run from his slit nostrils and the narrow holes that were his ears and finally from out of his mouth, his lower jaw slack and hanging open. Suunts swayed. His eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed, not to move again. His eyeballs disintegrated as Porta’s Cloud of Gnats poured out of both sockets to recombine into the Porta Fighter.
    Hilene turned again to face Jav. “May I, General Holson?” she said, referring to Gim Peshil.
    Jav shook his head. Our Mr. Peshil is no longer here. Jav relaxed his arms as Hilene glanced back and forth between him and Peshil. She shot forward for Peshil and passed through him, which was not unusual for her, but he merely flickered.
    “A hologram?” she blurted. “But their technology…”
    Jav had never seen Hilene quite so flustered. Without looking, he leapt up and back, landing squarely upon Gran Mid’s brow. “He called himself the Light Smith, remember? Clear the way, Hilene.”
    She moved through the air to join him.
    With their leaders killed or impotent, the eight hundred men milled about, unsure of what to do. Not a one with a firearm put it to use. Jav addressed the unmoving, strangely stoic image of Peshil, standing more or less where he had been before Suunts had attacked.
    “Peshil, I don’t know if you can hear me, and it doesn’t really matter. Your planet is doomed. You are doomed. Summon all the help you like. It won’t make any difference in the end.
    “Gran Mid! Fire !”
    Gran Mid raised its ivory head, spread its jaws, and belched liquid fire out through massive, inward-curving fangs. The fire washed