It only took me a few mio fill the eastern road with enough obstacles and traps that even the Shrimp would have a hard time approag. The oversized crayfish had already proved nigh invulnerable to most of my ons, so instead of filling the street with more mines and sers I filled it with tank traps, snares and quick hardening foam. Anything that could slow the Antithesis down long enough for my new supersized UHR railgun to hollow it out. The gun was already anchored to the ground, and a shell rimed, all I needed was the guest of honor.

  When the drone was only about a block out I pulled up the feed o time. The creature was about half a block baow, following warily. It had attempted to rush the drone a couple times, only to be thwarted by a burst of speed or increase iion, and so the creature had started hanging back. It almost looked like it nning something.

  I took one final look as the dro the end of the street, then disected as it sped around the er. My bears, eae armed with the smaller XR railguns, braced their ons oer wall, and behind me I could hear the UHR charging up. I’d opened up the gate in the wall earlier, so as soon as the Antithesis turhe er the massive gun would have the perfect shot.

  The seds ticked by agonizingly slow. Five, thewenty seds and no Antithesis.

  “You have got to be kidding me, did it give up right at the end? Why won’t this thing just DIE!” I whispered angrily. Pulling up the trag signal in my Augs I quickly checked the far end of the road, nothing. I swept my vision further north, trying to identify where the monster went, when the building to my immediate left shook. My eyes flicked to the building in an instant. “No fug…”

  The closest wall exploded outward, pieces propelled by a massive cw, as the massive Antithesis pushed its way through. The creature wasn’t smart, but it still had some sort of instinbush its prey, and because of that it fucked up my pns, again.

  Thankfully there were still defenses close to the wall, feeble pared to the rest of the road, but still intact. As the Antithesis took its first steps into the street id glue erupted around its legs. The shards had little impact, spreading frost and ice around the creature but doing little to slow it down. It was the glue that finally brought the Shrimp to a stop.

  The bulbous eyes swiveled downwards, trying to identify what had bound its feet. The asphalt creaked as the Antithesis struggled, putting an unbelievable amount of forto pulling itself free from the trap. I wasn’t going to give it the ce. A quiand caused the UHR to swivel as far left as it could without repositioning, just enough to catch the front of the Antithesis. The gun thrummed, power surged as all the capacitors prepared to discharge. Unfortuhe brief dey the UHR o charge up was enough for the shrimp to break free, as it reared back the road gave way and shattered. The shell which had been on target moments earlier caught only the front pair of legs, then burrowed through the rest of the block, detonating a block away. I grimaced, that fuse would have caused the shell to detohiithesis, if everything had gone as pnned.

  I grabbed the XR railgun in frustration and targeted the only soft target on the shrimp, the eyes. Miraculously the round found its mark, despite my ck of skill, causing blood and gore to coat the street. It also caused the shrimp’s other eye to swivel over and lo to my position. The two of us locked eyes for just a moment, just before the creature started to sh out at everything in rahe walls deformed with each blow, the shaking threateo dislodge me and my bears from their positions, so with a thought I ordered the bears on the wall to fire the remaining XRs. None of the rounds mao pee the shell, but they did stuithesis for a moment.

  In that moment I did the only thing I could think of, and evacuated the ptform. Rather than jumping to the ground I leapt up to the building on my right, g to the bars proteg the third floor windows for a moment, before ung myself up to the roof. I immediately rolled to the edge to check the Antithesis’ position. The monster was still locked on to my position, and had attempted to follow, but immediately stepped on to anlue mine and got stuck again.

  “Nyx, get me another shell for the UHR right now!”

  Unfortuhe UHR suffers from the same weakhat it’s smaller cousin does, and requires a signifit cooldown period, it won’t be able tain for several minutes.

  “Wonderful!” I growled. “What else could g?”

  Celestia is calling, probably to find out why you fired again.

  I rolled to my feet, took a few pot shots at the Antithesis, then made my way further dowreet. “Tell her to go FUCK herself. I’m a little busy to deal with her shit right now.”

  The Antithesis slowly made its way towards my location, accumuting more and more of the road on its legs as it went. At this point I retty sure I pissed it off, and heavily mauled the thing, I just needed a way to finally kill it.

  "Nyx I want to get some bears to fnk this thing from the other roof. If it presents even the slightest opening I want shooters ready. Something fast and accurate."

  That be done. If you’re serious about making them faster you could open up the Css I Autonomous Actuators upgrades catalog and…

  "I don’t need a fug sales pitch, just fug do it if I have the points. Put two on the opposing roof with railguns,” I she Antithesis was still approag, so I jumped to the rooftop to make space. Across the road a pair of silhouettes appeared, then mirrored my movement. More bears and XRs weren’t a solution, but they gave me options.

  Running out of ideas?

  “I have throwhing I have at this thing and it’s still pung. I ’t think of any solution with my current catalogs, and I’m not even sure what other Css I catalogs would help at this point. If you have advice, share.”

  Your new frie a couple toys for you, one of them would cause extreme internal damage, even through armor.

  I paused, then reached into the pouch at my waist and pulled out the Sonic grenade. “You’re sure?”

  Do you have any other choices at this point?

  Without a sed thought I yahe pin from the strange, speaker covered orb, then pitched it into the street. Nothing happened for a moment, the Antithesis advanced a few more steps and pced its bulk directly above the device. In the moment my world was filled with sound, and pain.

  The vibrations shook me to my very core. My vision blurred, hearing failed, even my bones hurt. The three seds the grenade was active felt like ay, and when it was done I could do little more than crawl to the side of the roof and check upon my prey.

  The Behemoth’s insides were leaking through every single crad joint in its armor. The part of the Antithesis that had been directly over the grenade had pletely failed and broke open. It wasn’t moving, I'd finally won.

  I colpsed on the roof where I was, half in exhaustion, half in pain, and waited for my healing to ki. I had just closed my eyes when Nyx piped up, in an annoyingly chipper voice.

  Well done, I think that deserves a token.