Hydra's challenge echoed in the vast, green-lit lab. "I am pleased to meet the man who made me leader." He was thanking me for killing his predecessor. This was not a man driven by grief or loyalty. He was driven by pure, brutal ambition.
He roared and charged.
The sound was a signal. The three other Red Team members opened fire. The lab, which had been silent and eerie, erupted into a storm of noise and violence. The air filled with the sharp crack of rifle fire. Bullets screamed past my head, ricocheting off the metal walls and glass vats with loud pings.
"Get down!" Anya yelled.
We dove for cover, sliding behind two of the large, cylindrical glass vats. The thick, curved glass distorted the view of the room, turning the enemy soldiers into blurry, indistinct shapes. I could feel the thud of bullets hitting our cover. Cracks began to spiderweb across the glass. The eerie green liquid inside, thick like oil, started to leak out in slow, heavy drips.
The sensory overload was immense. The constant roar of Hydra's chainsword was a terrifying bass note under the sharp percussion of the rifles. The hiss of the leaking vats added another layer to the chaos. The air filled with the smell of ozone from the blaster fire and the strange, chemical scent of the bio-agent. My mind struggled to process it all. We were pinned down. We were outnumbered. This was an unwinnable fight.
"We can't fight them all at once!" Anya's voice cut through the noise, sharp and tactical. She was already thinking, adapting. "We have to split them up! They're too coordinated!"
She looked at me, her eyes intense. "Leo, you have to take Hydra! He's only focused on you. You're the VIP, the Marked Man. He wants the personal glory of killing you. Use that. I'll handle the grunts!"
It was a desperate, insane plan. She wanted me to fight the giant with the chainsaw sword by myself, while she fought a three-on-one battle. But she was right. Hydra was a singular threat. His eyes were locked on me. He was ignoring everything else. If I could draw him away, it would give Anya a fighting chance.
"Okay!" I yelled back. There was no time to argue.
I made my move. I broke from cover and ran. I did not run away. I ran deeper into the maze of glass vats, forcing Hydra to follow me.
"That's it, little man!" Hydra roared with glee. "Come and face your death!"
He was surprisingly fast for a man his size. His heavy armor did not seem to slow him down. He charged after me, his chainsword held high. He did not bother going around the vats that were in his way. He simply smashed through them.
CRASH!
He swung his roaring weapon, and a huge glass vat shattered, sending a tidal wave of green liquid and broken glass across the floor. The bio-agent splashed around his feet.
A new notification appeared on my HUD. It was not for me, but for him. [ENEMY SUFFERING FROM MINOR BIO-AGENT EXPOSURE. MOVEMENT SPEED SLIGHTLY REDUCED.]. The goo was sticky. It slowed things down.
An idea sparked in my mind. A crazy, dangerous idea. The vats were not just cover. The goo was not just a hazard. They could be weapons.
I changed my tactics. I stopped running from Hydra. I started running around him, weaving between the vats like a matador baiting a bull. He roared in frustration, trying to keep up, his heavy boots splashing in the growing pools of green goo.
I raised my shotgun. I did not aim at Hydra. His armor was too thick. A shotgun would be like throwing pebbles at a tank. Instead, I aimed at the vats around him.
BOOM.
I fired. The blast shattered another vat. A fresh wave of the sticky green bio-agent exploded outwards, drenching Hydra's legs. He slowed down even more, bellowing in rage as he tried to slog through the thick liquid.
BOOM. BOOM.
I shot two more vats, creating a massive pool of the slowing goo all around him. He was trapped in the middle of it, his charge slowed to a frustrating crawl. I had turned his own destructive power against him.
But I had forgotten about Anya.
While I was playing my dangerous game with Hydra, she was in a desperate fight for her life. I glanced across the lab. She was pinned down behind a small console, trying to fight three Red Team soldiers at once.
The chatter of her assault rifle had stopped. A new, weaker sound replaced it. Pop. Pop. Pop. She was out of rifle ammo. She had been forced to switch to her basic P-19 pistol. It was a pea-shooter against three armored enemies.
She was losing. Badly. As I watched, one of the Red Team soldiers landed a solid hit. Anya cried out in pain. I saw her health bar on my HUD plummet. [ANYA HP: 45/100]. She was in critical condition.
A private message from her flashed on my screen. It was desperate.
[CAN'T HOLD THEM FOREVER. NEED HELP.]
I was frozen. My gaze went from Anya, who was about to be overwhelmed, to Hydra, who was still trapped but was slowly, powerfully, pulling himself free of the goo.
I had a choice to make.
Do I press my advantage on the enemy VIP? Do I try to finish off the heavily armored Hydra while he's slowed and vulnerable? Or do I abandon him to go and save my only ally?
I could not do both. There was not enough time.
Hydra saw me hesitate. He saw my eyes flicker towards Anya's fight. A cruel, knowing grin spread across his face. He stopped trying to pull himself free of the goo. He plunged his massive chainsword into the metal floor of the lab. The screech of metal on metal was deafening. A shower of sparks erupted around him.
He pointed a massive, armored finger at me.
"Face me, coward!" his voice boomed, echoing through the lab. "Or stand there and watch your friend die!"