Entromancy Read Free Page A

sleeve to drop a long dart from my forearm holster into my left palm, I drew my ceridium-powered stunner into my right.  Finesse would have to take precedence over firepower, or I’d have a building full of ragers on me in no time.
    I took a short breath and looked at my time display.  21:16:34.
    I turned the corner and unleashed chaos into the room. 
    Spinning through the doorway, I allowed my shadow shroud to curl and coalesce around me, throwing the dart across my body towards the troll, who was just looking up from his digitab.  The hulk caught the projectile in the side of his neck, slumping instantaneously from the tranquilizer.  Simultaneously, I emptied the stunner’s two rounds at the aurics directly to my left.  One of them raised an arm reflexively and caught the electrified bolt in a brawny forearm, jittering and falling to the wood floor with a muted thump.  The other, a bit more unlucky, took the round in the face and fell backwards, hitting his head on the side of a chair.
    The other two responded immediately, reaching for cobalt-glowing handguns within their heavy jackets.  I holstered the stunner and darted towards them, jumping and twisting while grabbing another ceridium capsule from my billowing coat.  I caught the closest one squarely in the jaw with a thrust from my boot, landing just as the other stood up from her chair and leveled her gun at my twirling form.  I came out of my spin and grabbed the auric’s wrist, twisting the weapon expertly from her hand and locking her arm against my body.  As she opened her mouth to shout, I spoke a word of power and crushed the capsule in my hand, tossing the blue dust into her face and rendering her instantly unconscious.
    I let the auric’s body slip heavily back into the chair, and glanced at the time.  21:17:02.  Twenty-eight minutes.
    “What are you trying to play, man?” a voice reverberated from the hallway.  “We said five hundred, not…”
    The voice trailed off as I turned around back towards the door.  The pierced auric had returned, standing in the doorway with his eyes wide open and his mouth frozen in mid-sentence.  It must have been an impressive scene, with me standing like a cloak of death amid the carnage.  The man on the floor spasmed awkwardly, latent electricity charging through his body.
    “The hell?” the auric said, bewildered.
    I moved, and he saw me.  My lenses magnified his dilated pupils, and registered his slightly elevated pulse and shallow breaths.  The Oxidium would have enhanced his already superior vision, and improved his reflexes to a near super-human level.
    I took a step towards him, which spurred him out of his daze, and he dashed out of the doorway towards the stairwell.  I raced after him, vaulting towards the door and grabbing the frame to swing around the corner.  The stairs switched back upon themselves, and the auric’s heightened speed had already taken him to the little landing in between the two floors.  I jumped lightly upon the railing that bisected the stairwell, and used my momentum to carry me over the switchback.
    I landed upon the auric’s back like a cloud of smoke, snaking my arms around his neck and under his armpit like a vise.  He lost his footing under the added weight and we tumbled down the remaining stairs, crashing through a light wooden door and knocking into a small stack of empty cardboard boxes.  I rolled with the impact and held onto his neck and arm, clenching like a python as he tried to wriggle away from me.  The spikes on his leather jacket poked through my coat and tore at my arms, but I ignored the pain and locked a foot around the crook of his knee to try to arch my back for more leverage.
    The auric threw his head backwards, catching me cleanly in the temple.  My grip loosened on him as stars exploded in my head, and I could feel him scrambling amidst the boxes as he tried to escape.  I reached out a hand reflexively and caught at his leg, managing to