Nanothorns

With my other hand, my knife, I struck, viper quick, aiming for her one, good eye. She didn’t have a good angle, nor time to throw me away, and I swung out from her blindspot, but Alexandria wasn’t one of the top three heroes in the world for nothing; she managed to tilt her head and dodge the main thrust of the blow, probably meant for it to skim off the protection of her helmet.

She had never seen a nano-thorn blade, before, however.

The edge of my knife sliced through her mask as though it wasn’t even there, cutting through glass and steel alike like butter — and, more importantly, carving into the invulnerable flesh of her cheek beneath.

How much she actually felt it, again, I didn’t know. The degree to which she could experience pain, again, I didn’t know. Even so, she must have felt the cut, because she let out a screech — the closest thing to true fear I had ever heard from her, I would later think — and lashed out at me without bothering to control her strength.