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and his follow up shot ripped right through the seythra’s gut. Ret tackled one of the others and used him as a shield. Bullets from the remaining duo of seythra descended on Ret’s seythra shield, and Ret charged forward. As bullets began to penetrate the corpse, Ret threw the body aside and took cover behind the building.
    As soon as Ret was out of the way of gunfire, another seythra charged toward him. Ret aimed his revolver, but the seythra tackled him to the ground and the revolver flung from Ret’s hand. The seythra slammed his fist into Ret’s jaw. Just as the seythra brought his pistol up to Ret’s head, a shotgun blast blew the seythra’s skull apart. Seraph emerged from cover and ran to Ret and found him lying on the ground, covered in black seythra blood. Seraph knelt to help Ret up, and was about to say something when he heard someone behind him cock the hammer of a gun.
    Seraph heard the deep, unmistakable voice of a seythra. “Drop your gun.”
    Seraph set the gun on the ground and raised his hands. Ret followed suit. The seythra advanced on them from behind. Seraph didn’t hesitate. He jumped up and pushed himself backwards, slamming his elbow into the seythra’s face. Seraph spun around and grabbed the seythra’s arm and twisted hard. The seythra cried out over the sound of his bones cracking. Seraph didn’t stop. He grabbed the seythra by the throat and squeezed with as much force as he could muster.
    The seythra gagged and tried to claw at Seraph’s hands.
    Seraph held the seythra in his grip far past death. Seraph eventually dropped the seythra and slumped against the wall, exhausted. The pain in his shoulder spiked.
    Ret knelt beside Seraph and studied his shoulder. Fresh blood dripped from the wound and stained Seraph’s uniform. He was going to need something to stop the bleeding, and fast.
    “Alright . . . here . . .” Ret draped Seraph’s left arm around himself and helped him up. “There’s got to be something inside the building that can help you.”
    Seraph took his arm back, “I’m fine.” He picked up his shotgun and headed toward the rear entrance of the building. He’d push on. He’d done it before.

 
    CHAPTER 9: FOYER
     
     
     
     
    Seraph and Ret entered the building and took cover behind a large counter. The lights above them flickered and gunshots echoed around them from the floors above. The room they were in was empty. Bullet holes lined the walls and counters. Smears of blood painted the walls.
    “Move up!” Seraph whispered to Ret.
    They moved to the only door on the other side of the room. The door led to a landing with a staircase. Seraph couldn’t see any seythra from his position, but the gunshots were a constant reminder of their presence.
    Seraph planted his shotgun firmly in his shoulder and ascended to the higher levels of the building. There were about twenty, but from what he could recollect, the seythra were primarily positioned in the middle, floors thirteen or fourteen if he had to guess. As they made their way up the stairs, Seraph returned to wondering what the hell was going on.
    The seythra chose to confine their military forces to Trini 5010, their massive ship that served as their home world. Seraph figured their forces had to be coming from there; they were raining all over Vidron. There weren’t enough forces in the seythra military outpost to launch this kind of attack. Their perseverance had commanded respect, but now they were using it to destroy what they’d promised to protect so long ago. Why?
    Seraph was so lost in thought that he didn’t realize they’d already reached the thirteenth floor. Ret grabbed him and pulled him below the waist-high siding of the stairs. The gunshots had grown louder and more frequent. Seraph could see a few splatters of blue blood against the white walls. Fesar had been here. His thoughts fell back to Sadhis for a moment, wondering what had become of his friend.
    The door directly in front of them