I looked around as I moved closer to the alien motherfucker in front of me.

I know there are people who say time slowed around them. Like everything suddenly got really fucking intense or something and it felt like their body was moving faster than it had any business moving. I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that's what was happening to me in that moment, though.

When I say time slowed down around me, I mean time very literally slowed down around me. Everything slowed down.

I could see the livisk in front of me. This prince consort asshole staring at me with a smile that said he wasn't particularly concerned about me running at him with a plasma sword out at the ready. Though that lack of concern quickly turned to a look of wide-eyed surprise as he seemed to realize that I was coming at him and I meant business. Like maybe he thought the very idea of me having to fight his vaunted princely ass would be enough to dissuade me.

Maybe that was the kind of threatening bullshit that worked with other livisk, but it sure as shit wasn't going to work with a human who'd been trained for most of his adult life to fight the livisk. Not to mention I'd been playing video games that featured the livisk as the principal bad guys for quite some time.

Like I'd literally grown up playing first-person shooter games like Escape From The Imperial Palace 3D where you were expected to make your way through a very gothic-looking version of the livisk imperial palace until you finally fought a version of the empress with her head in a jar and there were a couple of gatling guns to either side in her mechanized suit.

Supposedly that was a reference to an ancient first-person shooter that had launched the genre on Earth over a thousand years ago, but I didn't pay close attention to video game history. I was always more interested in military history.

The point was, the guy looked surprised as I ran at him. Like he wasn't used to people actually challenging him. Maybe he wasn't used to even getting into a fight. Maybe the knowledge that he was dicking down the empress on the regular was enough to keep the locals from bothering him.

Other things seemed to be weird as well. Like I could see plasma blasts firing from shoulder mounted cannons on Arvie's mech going over the livisk I was about to get in a fight with and slamming into the tanks and the troops behind them.

It looked like he had some anti-personnel munitions he'd been holding in reserve too, the little sneak. Little balls of explosives that landed and started to go up. There were also anti-tank munitions. Some of them landed and some of them didn't. A few more of the tanks that didn't get destroyed in his opening salvo looked like they were about to have a really bad day.

And it was happening ridiculously slowly.

The prince consort started to bring his sword up and around. He still looked like he was surprised at what was going on, but that was fine. I was going to give him the surprise of a lifetime as I brought my sword around and prepared to slash at his midsection.

At least I wanted to look like I was about to slash at his midsection. I'd learned a few fun surprises lately with Varis, and I fully intended to use some of those surprises on him.

His own sword, not a plasma sword but probably reinforced so it wouldn't break in half the first time it made contact with a plasma sword, started to come up and around. Clearly he was going to swipe down and try to hit me where I was exposed as I tried to slice him down the middle.

His look of surprise only got more pronounced as I stopped at the last moment and did a quick pirouette.

Well, it was probably quick for anyone looking at what was happening in realtime. It was slow as fuck for me, but whatever.

I dropped down and brought my foot up between his legs. I tried to put all the power I could muster into that hit. All the power from my power armor. All the power I apparently had been gaining as a result of being part of a battle pair with Varis.

Whatever the ever-lovin' fuck that meant. I still hadn't gotten a clear explanation, and boy was that frustrating.

The foot came up and it slammed in between his legs. His own armor was far more resplendent than my own, but it turns out it cracked just the same as every other bit of armor that took a hard hit.

Though I was surprised my foot was able to deliver that hard hit.

He let out a surprised grunt as my foot made contact in between his legs.

Livisk all had at least one off button where it was easy to get a hit in. Punch them over their two hearts and it interrupted circulation long enough that they were knocked out. I probably should've gone for a hit over his hearts, but I hadn't realized that a kick like that would actually land. Plus that part of their armor was usually reinforced a lot.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I certainly hadn't expected that kick to be powerful enough that it cracked his armor.

Luckily for yours truly, livisk males also had a second off button that could be used. The same off button you saw on all males who had a dick and balls dangling between their legs.

His eyes went wide and then he was flying back clutching at the empress's favorite piece of anatomy, but again, it was in slow motion.

Honestly, this whole thing was getting a little boring, because of the slow motion. I almost would've rather been in realtime combat where everything was happening one hit after another, and I didn't have time to think everything through. Where I was going on pure muscle memory.

But this was pretty damn convenient. I wondered if it was another side effect of the whole battle pair thing, but I didn't have time to think about it.

No, as though in time with my thought that it would be really nice if things sped up just a little bit…

Well, things sped up just a little bit. I wondered if that meant I had some control with the way time slowed down. It was definitely something I was going to have to ask Varis about later, because all of this bullshit not telling me what my capabilities were was starting to turn into a serious liability on top of being a constant source of irritation.

"Arvie, do you have any idea what's going on with everything slowing down and speeding up?" I growled. "And if you tell me it's something I have to learn on my own, then I swear I'm going to go down to wherever your circuits live with an ax and pull an Arthur Dent on you giving you a reprogramming you won't soon forget."

"An Arthur Dent?" Arvie asked, and then he seemed to pause for a moment. I was finally getting some up on the board after Sera had spent so much time getting in dunks on me.

"Wait a moment, William," he said. "How are you able to talk to me this quickly? That shouldn't be possible with a regular intelligence."

"Yeah, funny thing about that," I said. Things moved just a little faster, The prince consort asshole went flying through the air again. He had a look of surprise, and there were sparks flying out from between his hands grasping his junk.

I wondered if the empress was going to be upset about that. I wondered if I'd done away with his ability to show the empress a good time.

I almost hoped I'd done away with his ability to show the empress a good time. I figured that was the least the asshole deserved for trying to kill me.

Looking beyond him, the troops were starting to recover from Arvie's salvo. It looked like not as many of them had gone down as I'd hoped, but they were all wearing reinforced power armor that was designed to hold up against that kind of punishment. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that there were more of them alive than I'd been hoping for.

Damn.

The massive shield wall behind them also seemed to be flickering. I wondered if that meant they figured out some way to get through the thing after all. Maybe Varis was about to have a whole sequel trilogy of a lot of trouble over on the other side, but there was nothing that could be done about it. I just had to hope for the best and do what I could over here.

"William, I am aware of many things when it comes to how a livisk battle pair works, so believe me when I say…"

"You want it that way?" I asked.

"What does that even mean?" he asked.

"It's some ancient classical music from Earth," I said. "Never mind about that."

"I've never heard of anything like this happening," he finally said.

"So it looks like we're in all kinds of fun, uncharted territory here then, aren't we?" I said.

"I think that you are," Arvie said. If he was a human, then I could imagine him shaking his head in disbelief right about now, but he wasn't.

"At least you can communicate with me when I'm moving this quickly."

"Of course I can," Arvie said. "There are some who have undergone the procedure to have an implant put into their minds that allows them to communicate with a Combat Intelligence on a machine level, and they are able to think much faster than this. Communication is all mental."

"Good to know," I said, "But I'm still not getting an implant put in my head."

"I promised that you would survive,"

"It's what you'll make me do after I survive that has me worried," I said. "But maybe we should focus on the combat happening in front of us?"

"Yes, that does seem like it would be a good idea, William," Arvie said.

The prince consort landed as we finished our conversation. I only had more questions than I had answers. I figured me manifesting all this bullshit might be enough to get Arvie to finally tell me a little more about what the fuck was going on with me, but I guess that wasn't in the cards.

Damn. It would be just my luck that the way my freaky battle pair powers manifested was something even the damn computer didn't know about.

The prince consort slammed into a bunch of his troops as they tried to do an encircling movement around yours truly. Others were firing on Arvie's mech that had Sera in there. I worried about that, but I figured a massive combat mech could take care of itself in a way my ass in my simple grunt livisk power armor could't.

"Attempting to fight them off as best I can," Arvie said.

"Yeah, I saw those extra antipersonnel munitions you were tossing out. What happened to being out of ammo?"

"I apologize, William," Arvie said after another pause. "I'm still getting used to being able to use my weapons. I was so used to not being able to use them that I was mentally glossing over the antipersonnel munitions until it occurred to me that I could use them."

"Great. I'm down here with a Combat Intelligence with ADD," I muttered.

The mech suddenly appeared to my left. He went down on one knee and punched out with a mech fist that sent one of the power-armored livisk flying. Then he moved his other hand around and started laying into them with a wrist blaster that sent more of them flying.

The prince consort had finally managed to get back to his feet, though. And when he turned to stare at me, it was with pure murder in his eyes.

Death was waiting for me there, but that was okay. I'd had a lot of livisk staring at me with death in their eyes lately. Like they'd love nothing more than to kill me. Sequel trilogy, I'd had the head honcho livisk literally drop a nuke almost right on top of my fucking head.

And I'd already killed one prince consort. It was time to add another notch to my power armor. Like I was going to literally start adding notches to my power armor when I was done with this sparkling blue prick.

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