Alien- Lion-Worm Xeno Dura

  Something snarls, and I know what she’s shooting at, even as I’m unholstering my own gun and drawing up level with her. I whip around, barely taking the time to aim. The recoil from the shot travels all the way up my arm, knocking me back against the wall even as the bullet strikes the creature squarely in the middle of its armored, chitinous chest. It’s paler than the others, pigmentation stolen from the lion-worm whose corpse gestated and fed it. It bellows at the impact, the sound a mixture of creature and lion-worm, and the cilia along its side waves wildly.
...

  “Vi, I’m sorry,” I breathe, voice barely even loud enough to qualify as a whisper, and fire again.

  This time, the recoil slams me against the wall so hard that I worry, briefly, that I’ve broken a rib: the pain is immediate and immense, filling my entire body. The bullet strikes the creature in its right shoulder, sending a spray of blood onto the wall, where it begins to eat its way through the metal. I don’t see whether any of it lands on Kora. Oh, I hope it didn’t. If I’ve killed her …

  The creature bellows, and the sound is nothing but pain and fury. It doesn’t care about territory anymore, or about whatever confusing signals the lion-worm pheromones may be feeding to its hybrid brain. It only cares about getting vengeance against the thing that’s dared to hurt it. I can’t worry about Kora anymore. I have to worry about myself.

Echo, Chapter 22