“I got it.” Gael levitated over to Ellie and Hayden, checking their vitals, and then telekinetically carrying them through the debris and into a saferoom down the hall.
“Think you can pay attention now?” Kenzo glared.
“Oh, fuck off, pipsqueak.”
With that, Lena and Kenzo struck out with synchronized precision. Lena’s bubbles continued causing caustic damage to Grim’s bones, while Kenzo’s static created an electrical cage.
“Step on through, asshole,” Kenzo gloated. “I dare you.”
“Well, I’ve never been one to turn down a dare.” Grim’s teeth chattered as he spoke. Not from fear, but anticipation. “You know, my control over my skeletal system is profound.”
“It’s something,” Lena retorted. “Can’t believe this one held his own against Gladiatrix.”
“Don’t be arrogant.” Kenzo scoffed.
“In her defense, she held back quite a bit,” Grim said, slipping off his black robe. “In my defense, so did I.”
Lena’s bubbles sizzled against Grim’s skull, melting pieces away.
“I’ve been told my full strength can be erratic, and The True Witch prefers more delicate attacks.” Grim’s teeth cracked against each other, turning sharp and jagged. “But I won’t tell her if you don’t.”
And just like that, Grim’s bones expanded, growing larger and larger. His hand swatted away the bubbles with powerful telekinesis, sending them crashing into Kenzo’s hexed cage.
“I don’t think so.” Kenzo swirled his strike around, countering to loop around Grim’s hand.
Just as before, he managed to break the bones apart from the whole. Only now they reformed into a smaller skeleton. Several smaller skeletons.
“Soldiers, formation,” Grim demanded with a chaotic cackle. “Kill them!”
His skeleton warriors leapt for Lena and Kenzo. Lena punched one with so much force that it shattered into a thousand pieces. But a second slashed her arm, ignoring her defensive bubble barrier. It ate away at the striking skeleton, but it didn’t matter. A nerve had been sliced, and Lena’s mobility had been hindered.
“They’re pawns,” Lena said.
“Caught that,” Kenzo said, backflipping away from a deadly pair hacking and swiping for him. It didn’t matter if he broke off pieces of them with hexing. They still gave pursuit.
Grim swelled, towering over Lena and Kenzo, and growing so gigantic his mere presence broke through the ceiling. Damn. He was channeling telekinesis from every direction of his body, causing a barrier effect. It’d keep Lena and Kenzo’s strikes fromlanding unless they threw more force behind their blows. The tradeoff being that they wouldn’t last as long.
Kenzo froze, taking in the sight of this gigantic skeleton.
The weight of his body must’ve been too much for Grim, even with his control. He tumbled forward, shifting his shape from a standard human skeletal system to some bizarre monstrosity. Each of his ribs transformed into talon-tipped feet like a centipede. His legs changed into clawed tails, which thrashed about, destroying more of the building.
Grim screeched, running about the facility, breaking through walls, and dodging Lena’s heavy-handed bubble attacks. They pushed past Grim’s telekinetic barrier but didn’t phase his giant bones like once before.
He swatted at Lena with his giant arms, holding his body up with his clawed rib feet. One of those clawed feet nearly impaled Kenzo until Gael reappeared, tackling Kenzo.
Neither concerned themselves with Gael’s spikes, since Kenzo made a habit of pricking himself and declaring it was nothing.
“Sorry,” Kenzo wheezed.
A similar fear choked him up. The same fear from the night Peter Graham attacked the party and nearly killed Kenzo. The night Jamie Novak died. That night still haunted me too, but for much different reasons.
Kenzo buried his fear and focused on what he knew.
“He’s just too big.”
“You’re lucky Gael’s not here.” Gael grinned suggestively.
“Take this seriously,” Kenzo snapped. “This isn’t a joke. He’s massive and a threat and—”
