Chapter 294: Team-Building Exercises

I dropped from the balcony.

The fall was maybe fifteen feet, but I stuck the landing like I’d planned it that way. Water exploded around my boots. Black ichor from the Angler’s severed arm splashed against my tactical suit.

I didn’t look at the monster.

I looked at my team.

"Natalia! Emi! Soomin!" My voice cracked through the chaos like a whip. "Get the trash out of the splash zone! Everyone else, on me!"

Natalia was already moving before I finished the sentence. Her eyes glowed with telekinetic power as she reached out toward the cowering Sentinels. Julian had pressed himself so far against a pillar he’d practically become part of the architecture. Aaron was unconscious, his expensive armor crumpled around him like tin foil.

She grabbed them both.

Not gently.

Julian screamed as invisible force wrapped around his torso and yanked him off his feet. He flew backward through the air, arms pinwheeling, dignity abandoned somewhere in the black water. Aaron followed like a ragdoll, his limp body carving a wake through the murky surface.

"Careful with the merchandise," I called out.

"I’m being extremely careful," Natalia replied sweetly. "He’s still alive, isn’t he?"

Fair point.

Emi rushed past me in a blur of sapphire hair and determination. She skidded to a halt beside Celeste, who was still kneeling in the water with that thousand-yard stare people get when they’ve just watched their teammates die. Blood ran down Celeste’s cheek from a shallow cut, and her white combat suit was soaked through with water and monster blood.

"Can you walk?" Emi’s hands glowed green as she pressed them to Celeste’s face. The wound closed in seconds. "Move! Now! The big boys need room to work!"

Celeste blinked. Looked at Emi. Looked at me.

Then she nodded and let Emi pull her to her feet.

Good girl.

Soomin was a pink-haired missile aimed at Monica, who had frozen in place near the breach we’d created. The fox spirit inside Soomin must have been screaming bloody murder because she moved with a speed I’d never seen from her before. She grabbed Monica by the collar and practically threw her toward the exit corridor.

"Sorry sorry sorry!" Soomin squeaked as Monica tumbled through the water. "But we have to go now please thank you!"

The Angler recovered.

Its remaining arm twitched. The stump of the severed limb had stopped spurting black blood, the wound already sealing itself with some kind of organic membrane. The empty eye sockets turned toward me with hateful attention.

The child-lure continued to cry.

"Why?"

it sobbed.

"Why does everyone hurt me? I just want someone to love me!"

"Yeah, that’s not going to work on me," I said, adjusting my grip on my bat. "I’ve got mommy issues, not daddy ones."

The monster roared.

GRAAAAAAOOOOOOM!

The sound was like a garbage truck mating with a chainsaw during an earthquake. It hit my chest like a physical blow and sent ripples across the black water. The surviving Sentinels flinched. Even Kenjiro, who had been helping drag wounded teammates toward the corridor, paused at the sheer volume.

But my people didn’t flinch.

Because they’d been waiting for this.

"FINALLY!" Raphael’s voice boomed across the chamber. Kinetic energy crackled around his fists like he’d caught lightning and decided to keep it as a pet. "Something that can take a punch!"

The Angler’s remaining claw swept toward him. A horizontal strike with enough force to bisect a lesser fighter.

Aaron had tried to block a similar attack. Aaron was now unconscious with crumpled armor and possible internal bleeding.

Raphael didn’t block.

Raphael punched.

"KINETIC REJECTION!"

KA-POW!

The impact was visible. A shockwave that displaced the water in a perfect sphere around the contact point. The Angler’s claw bounced off Raphael’s fist like it had hit a steel wall, and Raphael slid backward through the water. His boots carved furrows in the stone floor beneath the surface.

But he stayed standing.

"Heavy hitter!" He was grinning. Actually grinning, with blood running from his nose and his knuckles split open. "I like it!"

The Angler’s attention fixed on him. The predator had found prey that fought back. It was confused. Interested. Momentarily distracted.

Which was exactly what Hikari had been waiting for.

She came in from the creature’s blind side, her massive flail already glowing with accumulated virtual mass. Water parted around her as she spun, her entire body becoming a rotation of devastating momentum. The glow intensified until the weapon looked less like metal and more like a falling star.

"GRAND SLAM!"

CRUNCH!

The flail connected with the Angler’s knee joint. The sound was horrifying. Wet and organic and final. The massive monster buckled, its entire body listing to one side as the leg partially gave way.

First time it had lost its footing since emerging from the water.

Beautiful.

[Protection From Arrows]

screamed.

I saw it before it happened. The tail. Massive and whip-like and aimed at Hikari’s exposed back while she recovered from her swing. She wouldn’t see it coming. Wouldn’t have time to dodge.

"Juan! Three o’clock! Anchor it! Skylar, eyes!"

Juan sighed from somewhere behind me. I could actually hear the exasperation in his voice. "So demanding."

Three cards flew through the air. They moved with a lazy grace that belied their lethality, spinning end over end before embedding themselves in the chamber wall and the Angler’s tail.

"Kinetic Tether."

ZIIIIP!

Beams of kinetic energy connected the cards like an electric fence made of pure force. The tail jerked to a halt mid-swing, pinned to the wall by Juan’s improvised trap. The monster screeched in frustration and tried to yank free.

It bought us exactly enough time.

Skylar materialized from the smoke.

Not beside the monster. Not behind it.

On its face.

She’d used her Phantasm ability to move through the steam and chaos unseen, positioning herself with the kind of patience that shouldn’t exist in a punk rock teenager with an attitude problem. Her matte black knives were already in her hands.

She stabbed them both into the empty eye sockets.

SHLICK!

The Angler howled. Its head whipped back and forth, trying to dislodge the girl who had just made its blindness permanent. Skylar rode the motion like a rodeo champion, her knives buried to the hilt in the creature’s skull.

"This is disgusting!" she shouted, black ichor spraying across her face. "Why is it so WARM in here?!"

"Less complaining, more stabbing!"

"I’M STABBING AS FAST AS I CAN!"