gistfile1.txt

The Shrike did not disappear in its usual manner, did not cease being there to suddenly be here.
Instead, it crouched and opened its arms wider. Its fingerblades caught the light of the violent sky. 
The Shrike’s metal teeth glistened in what might have been a smile.

Kassad was angry; he was not insane. Rather than rush into that embrace of death, he threw himself
aside at the last instant, rolling on arm and shoulder, and kicking out at the monster’s lower leg, below the
cluster of thornblades at the knee joint, above a similar array on the ankle, If he could get it down …
It was like kicking at a pipe embedded in half a klick of concrete. The blow would have broken
Kassad’s own leg if the skinsuit had not acted as armor and shock absorber.

Fall of Hyperion
Chapter 36