The silver greatsword tore through the steam and stabbed toward the falling beast.
The sword point pierced the hand Black Bolt had stretched out to grab the deck, nailing it brutally to the edge of a crack in the deck. Below flowed orange-red molten iron through what had once been the Plasma Reactor's cooling conduits. Maximus's eyes brimmed with complicated emotions. His remaining humanity made him want to reach out, but his vicious subconscious clenched that hand into a fist and smashed it into Black Bolt's rapidly contracting throat pouch, interrupting the sonic blast it had tried to unleash. Black Bolt responded by beating its bat wings and driving the severed bone spur of its other arm toward Maximus's calf. Even with Maximus's supernatural reflexes, the searing pain kept him from reacting to the hurried footsteps behind him.
That was fatal, especially when his opponent was a Praetorian Guard.
The massive blade of the spear pierced Maximus's throat and punched through his jaw. Praetorian Commander Constantine's gaze was cold and sharp. The instant his strike landed, he retreated two steps, dodging the claws the beast swung backward on instinct from the pain. He leveled his spear, and the Explosive Rounds Gun mounted at its tip fired twice, hitting Maximus in the elbow. Flesh and bone formed from supernatural energy shattered beneath the specialized explosive ammunition. Then Catherine, clad in Iron Wings, descended from above and brought a longsword wreathed in white flames down upon Black Bolt's claw pinned in the deck crack. Another Praetorian Guard whom Constantine did not recognize also opened fire, striking the silver greatsword, covered in hardened veins and skin, that Maximus had tried to swing at Catherine.
We had no time, so we had to deal with two things at once. No one observed Black Bolt