Zubair meant it more as an observation and not a boast.
The words hung between them anyway.
Sera glanced up at him, the smile still there, and something about it made his creature lean forward inside his chest, alert and restless. Not alarmed. Not threatened.
Attentive.
"That's because you're very good at removing obstacles," she said lightly.
Zubair exhaled through his nose and shifted his weight, eyes sweeping the land again before he let himself answer her. "It's because they weren't prepared."
They never are, his creature added. Humans assume systems protect them. They forget systems are made of bodies.
Psycho laughed quietly behind them, wiping his hands on his pants like he'd just finished a chore. "Prepared or not, that was generous of Bishop. Fifteen. That's barely a warm-up."
"Which is why I'm bored now," Hattie announced. She sounded genuinely disappointed.
