The mercenary's laser sword flickered and died, its core drained. Rex's claymore snapped in two, the molten metal flung across the battlefield.
The backlash sent both men flying, crashing into distant buildings like comets, shaking the ground with twin impacts.
"Rex! Rex, are you alright?!" Cleo's voice came through the communicator, sharp with worry. From her vantage aboard the Cleopatra, she had watched the whole battle while simultaneously directing her forces against the siege fleet above the planet.
Rex coughed, blood flecking his lips. His body ached in ways he couldn't describe. "Cough… I'm alive... barely. Actually, scratch that... I feel like I've been run over by a battleship..." He groaned and slowly sat up, surrounded by dust and twitching corpses of the infected.
"It's hard enough fighting a Tier 6 with stable energy. But when your body keeps flipping between Tier 4 and Tier 5 every few minutes…" He let out a tired laugh.