From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

The severed finger chewed a white groove through the charge cup.

Nessa pressed her thumb against the ceramic and felt each scrape through the holes in her arm. The finger had no joint left inside the cup. It folded anyway, using a knuckle that belonged to something larger than the hand they had cut it from.

When the groove opened, the third cup would face her city again.

Palla wedged her burned key under the charge case. "I can turn the desk, but those two bolts will shear before the floor mounts release."

"Then turn the floor with it and shield the center carriage with your shoulder."

Nessa hooked her working fingers through the desk brace. Her smallest finger dragged across the steel without closing. She tucked it against her palm before the Reaper could notice one more piece of her that felt dead.

Ty had both sickles crossed over the Reaper's hook. His left ribs spread each time the chain tightened behind him. Jade stood between Nessa and the cracked helm, holding the red burn cord clear of the hungry blade.

The heat reached the second ceramic bead.

Davi's voice pressed against Nessa's rear molar. "The last family entered the brewery tunnel, but fourteen brewery workers are carrying the rear gate by hand. The west brace has one strike left."

"Put every rifle on the six-legged Vale and clear the street between it and my breach."

"Our rifles cannot open its chest from this angle."

"I am sending you a better angle from inside the breach."

The Reaper moved its empty hand.

Across the plate, Nessa's discarded rifle lifted from the street.

It rose on the torn cords of her suit arm, barrel hanging low, then planted its stock against the pavement like a foreleg. The muzzle turned toward the brewery roof. Black fibers worked along the trigger guard without touching the trigger.

Davi fired first. His round knocked the rifle sideways. It caught itself on the shed sleeve and began crawling toward him.

"Captain, your weapon has decided that I look edible."

"The pulse cage stayed in my arm. Shed tissue returns to Vale reflex when nothing living keeps overwriting it."

Jade tightened her hold on the burn cord. "Your rifle can draw the large one into our line."

Nessa watched the six-legged attacker turn from the damaged wall. It had sensed the moving tissue before Davi's second round struck. Two front legs left the stone, and the head under its chest opened toward the crawling rifle.

"Davi, stop shooting my rifle and make the west intersection empty."

"The workers still have the tunnel gate above their heads."

"Leave them the brewery truck, then put its brakes through the floor."

Davi relayed the order over the local channel. Nessa heard boots, an engine failing to catch, then a woman swearing about a stripped ignition. No one waited for a better machine. Metal scraped outside as the workers pushed the truck across the rear gate.

The six-legged Vale came down from the wall.

Inside the cup, the finger broke through the ceramic.

A narrow hole appeared beside Nessa's thumb. Heat touched her nail. The cup had its direction again, though the desk still pointed three body lengths left of the attacker.

Palla pulled on the key. The charge shifted less than an inch and stopped against the floor mounts.

"The mounts share one spine beneath the desk, and cutting them in place will throw the case toward the carriage."

"Use my steel pin as the new pivot and throw the desk toward the plate."

Palla looked at the pin holding the broken route open. "That pin comes free when the desk reaches it."

"My crawler will take its place before your brass machine closes the road."

Nessa called the nearest salvage crawler. Its camera rose above the field fingers outside, found the plate opening, and raced over the torn street. One clamp caught the rim. The other reached through and closed around the desk brace beside her wrist.

The Reaper pulled its hook away from Ty.

Ty let the weapon go and dropped onto its forearm instead. Bone struck the floor hard enough to chip at his knee. The Reaper lifted him, but the chain behind his open ribs caught around the fourth desk's rear leg.

"Palla, the chain is tied around the leg you need to move."

"I can see the chain trying to remove my remaining fingers."

Jade stepped across the burn cord and planted her boot on the desk leg. She caught the loose chain with both hands while Ty dragged the Reaper's wrist toward the floor.

"Pull when Nessa gives the order, and let the desk carry the chain."

Nessa disliked trusting strangers with an armed charge. She disliked burying fourteen workers because distrust had taken too long.

Outside, her grown rifle crawled into the intersection. The six-legged Vale followed with its belly jaw grinding against the road. Davi's last defenders moved roof to roof above it. One stopped to fire at a smaller shape climbing from the broken wall.

Nessa counted by the attacker's legs. Its first pair crossed the tram rail, followed by the second crushing an overturned vendor cart. The chest filled the opening behind her rifle when the rear pair cleared the wall rubble.

"Davi, put everyone behind the fermenting tanks and keep their mouths open."

"The tanks will not save anyone from your usual charges."

"This one is traveling away from you, so protect their ears and obey me."

Nessa tore the third ceramic bolt from its sleeve and drove it between the desk brace and the steel pin. Palla shoved down on the burned key while Jade hauled the chain against the crawler's pull from the street.

The desk turned around the pin.

Its rear leg scraped a half circle across the floor. The ten-plate carriage rolled with the chain until Palla kicked its wheel sideways and jammed the axle against another desk. Ty landed on the Reaper's elbow and kept its hook under his body.

The hole in the third cup lined up with the attacker's chest.

The red cord burned through the last ceramic bead.

Nessa drove Jade behind the desk and folded her injured arm under her ribs. Palla covered the carriage key with her body. Ty buried one sickle in the floor and wrapped both legs around the Reaper's wrist.

The first cup cut through the three floor mounts.

The desk jumped. Its steel spine split beneath Nessa's forearm, and the crawler hauled the freed frame toward the plate. The second cup tore a hole through the blank wall above the Reaper. Fragments crossed the room and struck the cracked helm from behind.

The finger inside the third cup stopped clawing.

Fire punched through its body, crossed the shoulder-wide road, and entered the six-legged Vale under the chest. The blast lifted the front half from the intersection. Its rear legs kept running, drove the broken body into the wall, and brought the remaining west brace down on top of it.

Nessa heard no impact through the damaged molar speaker. She saw the brewery roof vanish behind dust and waited for Davi's voice.

The crawler replaced the steel pin with one clamp. Its other clamp dragged the broken desk through the plate. Nessa held on because her legs had become trapped beneath Jade and the desk brace. Palla caught Nessa's belt, missed the floor with her burned hand, and crossed after them.

Ty came with the chain.

He struck the plate rim shoulder first. Jade grabbed his wrist, and Nessa's crawler pulled the desk another yard into the intersection. The chain tightened around the desk leg. Behind Ty, the Reaper's arm stretched through the shrinking road while its body stayed caught beyond the city's view.

The route closed around the chain and stopped.

Ty dropped onto the street beside Jade. Palla landed across the desk frame. Nessa rolled free and reached for the rifle that no longer belonged to her.

The blast had torn it into wet cords beneath the dead attacker's chest.

Davi coughed into her molar. "The brewery roof remains attached, and every worker reached the tunnel. Your breach just killed the wall brace with the Vale."

"Use the truck to shore the opening and count our remaining ammunition."

"Local command has already counted four armed strangers beside you."

Nessa looked up.

Defenders occupied the roofs around the intersection. Their black suits carried different pieces of the enemy: plated shoulders, jointed climbing hooks, a throat shield that opened when its wearer breathed. Every weapon aimed below.

Jade stayed beside Ty. Palla kept one hand on the broken desk. Ty rose with the chain running from his open ribs to a narrow plate of air behind him. The Reaper's fingers curled through that plate and dug furrows into the street.

Commander Vey stood on the brewery roof with his helmet open. Nessa had last seen him ordering the west district abandoned while people were still crossing it.

"Captain Cord, step away from the breach organisms and surrender your dead hand for quarantine."

Nessa raised her injured arm. Her smallest finger hung against her palm, numb and human.

"My hand remains attached, Commander, and the brewery workers remain alive because your retreat order failed."

Vey's rifle moved from her hand to Ty's skull.

"Then explain which organism gave you permission to bring that thing into my city."

The plate behind Ty widened as the Reaper pulled on its chain.

Nessa took the third ceramic bolt from the wrecked desk and pressed its point against the chain.

"The one on the other end has not asked permission yet."

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