Page 12 of Hunter's Valentine

“Thank you and good luck!” I yelled after him as he stepped outside.

I knew the moment he turned on the lure because every single bug in the area stopped, turned and started toward us, completely forgetting where they’d been going. Several flyers were coming in at the same time, and I held my breath as I aimed and fired. I didn’t manage to kill all of them, and the ones I missed went straight for Mur’k.

He was back on the roof near the now-destroyed garret, his body moving with lethal grace as he faced the deadly creatures. It was like he was built for this. The stories that they had been created specifically to fight the scourge had to be true. I couldn’t help but admire his speed, strength, and agility.

I didn’t have much time to ogle him, however, because more flyers were coming. Mur’k was correct—there would have been far fewer to contend with in the morning, when the bugs were first coming out of the nest. I focused on my targets, taking down as many as I could. There was no time to celebrate each victory now.

Just when I finally had time to stop for a breath, I spotted the centicreep climbing over the buildings, making a beeline toward Mur’k.

Shit! Was this the same one from before? I couldn’t tell.

I had to get rid of it before it could reach him. Mur’k was already occupied with two flyers.

I tried to aim toward the creature, but the shuttle refused to lock on. I tried a second time but got the same result.

“Argh!” I shouted into the shuttle. “Why won’t it work?”

“The blaster is in turret position. It cannot aim at that angle.”

I whipped around, but there was no one there. It took me a moment to realize it was the shuttle itself that had spoken to me.

“Can you put it in the other position?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it would answer, but it was worth a try.

“I must lift off to do so.”

“Can you do that?” Then, to be extra safe, I clarified, “Turn on the cloak, lift off, hover stationary in the air, and put the blaster in the other position.”

“We are already cloaked.”

“Okay, then maintain cloaking and do the rest.”

There was a sudden sense of vertigo as we lifted off, and something on the screen changed, though I didn’t see what exactly.

“Actions completed.”

I tried to aim for the centicreep again, and this time, the reticle locked on it. A good thing too, because it was almost at Mur’k’s location. If it got any closer, it would be too dangerous to fire.

I double-tapped, sending two shots hurtling toward it. The shuttle shuddered from the power of the blasts but both shots hit, breaking off huge chunks of the creature.

“Ha! Take that, asshole!”

To my surprise, the centicreep kept moving like it didn’t even realize that half its body was missing. It turned and started toward the shuttle. I fired again, taking another big chunk of its body off, but it kept coming.

It either couldn’t see me because of the cloaking or couldn’t reach me up in the air, because it just circled on the roof below me. By now, more flyers were coming in, and I needed to getthem off Mur’k’s back. I fired at them, but every shot shoved the shuttle back, the movement making it much harder to take my next aim.

The flyers seemed to be able to see the shuttle despite the cloaking. They all veered in my direction.

“Oh, fuck!”

It was either land and risk the centicreep pinning me down or stay in the air and possibly crash in a flyer dogpile. Mur’k wasnotgoing to be happy if I fucked up his shuttle. What was I supposed to do?

Suddenly, blaster shots hit the centicreep.

Mur’k! He’d realized my predicament. I hoped the damage was enough to give him the upper hand.

The centicreep moved away from the shuttle and toward its new target. With it gone, I quickly instructed the shuttle to return to our original location and move the blaster back into turret position, figuring it was impossible to crash if I was already on the ground.

I kept shooting until there were no more flyers and Mur’k had turned his attention to the bugs on the ground. He must have switched off the lure. As he rounded up the remaining scourge, I planned my escape.

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