A flash saturated the forest with eerie light. Buckler dove behind a tree as the force of the blast shot past him, feeling waves of static electricity crackle over his alloy skin.
When it subsided he got up, swiftly but noiselessly, and tightened his grip on the knife. There was something out there, and it was big.
Buckler stepped lightly over the forest floor. His soles were soft enough to silence leaves underfoot, but Remnoids were capable of improvising ears ten times stronger than his, if the environment demanded it. He silenced the hum of his vibroknife edge. Weapons silence.
Something strafed into his peripheral vision: the microsecond glint of a metal surface, a claw or shell or improvised weapon.
He turned, eighty-six degrees, and blindly shot towards the attacker. There was contact, and Buckler tackled it, punching it with a taser glove repeatedly before he finally cooled down.
Then Buckler’s hand twitched as he stared in awe at the thing below him: bright, trembling, and humanoid.