The Blood-Fiend stood in the ruins of the Tribunal Hall.
Benches were overturned, tiles were cracked, and the display screens behind the plaintiff’s platform had been broken by the shockwave of Aldric’s transformation. Their surfaces trailed sparks that fizzled out across the floor, leaving the hall filled with the smell of scorched metal and something far more sinister.
The thing that had been Aldric Sterling drew another breath. Its chest expanded, the red-black armor plates spreading apart to reveal the glistening tissue underneath. When it exhaled, the sound was a deep rumble from somewhere within the core of the mutation, vibrating through the floor and up into the soles of Holden’s boots.
Grrrrrgl.
The Blood-Fiend’s head swiveled. Its vertical mouth opened, rows of black, serrated teeth glistening with dark fluid, and its burning red eyes locked onto Lyra.
Holden stood between them, the Solar-Forged Sword hanging at his side.
He looked at the beast closely. His 10,000x processor cataloged every armor plate, joint, and gap in its defenses. The energy signature was unmistakable. Rank 3, 3-Star.
He tilted his head.
The Blood-Fiend’s eyes flared. Its vertical mouth stretched wide, and a sound came out that was somewhere between a roar and a scream, wet and guttural, like a drowning man trying to shout.
SKREEEEEEE!
The monster lunged.
Not at Holden. At Lyra.
Enough of Aldric’s hatred had survived the transformation to remember who had hurt him most: the niece who had stood in front of four hundred people and dismantled his empire with bank statements.
It moved fast. Rank 3, 3-Star fast. Its legs drove forward with explosive power, cracking the floor beneath its weight as both claws swept inward, a pincer meant to grab, crush, and tear.
Holden didn’t move.
Emric’s voice cracked across the hall first.
"Lyra, left! Move!"
She was already moving. Clean and precise, the Blood-Fiend’s right claw passed through the space she’d occupied a second earlier, the displaced air whipping her hair across her face. Its left claw came around low, sweeping for her legs.
Holden’s arm came down.
CLANG!
His forearm met the claw mid-swing, and the impact rang through the hall like a struck bell. Mortar shook loose from the ceiling as a crack raced across the nearest pillar. The monster’s arm bounced off Aether-Steel like it had struck a fortress wall, and the Blood-Fiend stumbled backward, its entire left limb buzzing numb all the way to the shoulder.
Its red eyes widened.
It had hit this human once already. His arm hadn’t bent. It had hit him again. The arm still hadn’t bent. Claws that could tear through Rank 2 armor like paper had done nothing to his bare forearm.
The Blood-Fiend pulled back. Its claws were intact, but the limb they were attached to was trembling, the recoil having traveled through the bone and into the shoulder joint.
Holden flexed his fingers. Not because they hurt. They had simply gone stiff from being held in one position too long.
Beyond the sealed doors, a low hum pulsed steadily and without interruption. Vespera was feeding the containment wards from the other side. She wasn’t coming in. She was making sure nothing else could.
The roar that answered Holden filled the hall, bouncing off the walls and building into a wall of noise that rattled the remaining glass in the high windows.
SKREEEEEEE!
It charged again.
This time, at Holden.
Both claws came forward as the Blood-Fiend launched itself into a full-body tackle.
Holden sidestepped.
The Blood-Fiend blazed past him, its momentum carrying it another ten feet before its claws dug into the floor and finally arrested its slide.
Screeeech.
"Lyra." Holden didn’t raise his voice. "Left shoulder. The plate’s loose from the impact. It’s yours."
She was already moving.
Her spear in both hands, blade extended and body low, she closed the distance. The 10x learning buff had been building a weakness map alongside her teammates, and the opening Holden had identified was exactly the one she’d been waiting for.
She struck.
A straight thrust drove into the exposed gap between the shoulder and collarbone plates. The blade bit into soft tissue, and ice erupted from the point of contact, branching outward and crawling across the monster’s back and down its left side.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Frost locked the armor plates in place, freezing joint after joint. The Blood-Fiend tried to turn toward her, but its entire left side was rapidly becoming an ice sculpture. Its right arm swung wildly toward where she’d been.
She wasn’t there.
Lyra had already moved around the frozen flank, her spear trailing frost mist as she shifted into position
"Renna. Same gap. The nerve."
Renna had been circling the monster’s right side since the fight began, bow drawn, her 10x cognitive buff tracking every shift in its posture. She didn’t hesitate.
She fired.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Two arrows, wrapped in crackling storm energy, punched into the ice-rimmed gap. The first tore through the soft tissue, spraying dark fluid across the frozen armor. The second followed deeper, striking the nerve cluster her buff had mapped from across the room.
The Blood-Fiend screamed.
SKREEEEE!
Its left arm dropped.
The arrows had severed the nerve connection, leaving the limb hanging limp while its claws dragged and twitched against the floor.
"Nerve’s severed!" Renna shouted. "That arm is offline!"
"Confirmed." Emric had repositioned during the charge and now stood in the monster’s blind spot, shield raised and angled. "The gap’s still open. Watch the legs, though. With the left arm dead, it’s throwing everything onto the right side. That knee is carrying the weight. That’s our joint."
He didn’t wait for a response.
Emric slammed into the monster’s right flank shield-first, not trying to damage it so much as shove it off balance. The impact drove the Blood-Fiend sideways against its own frozen half, twisting its body and forcing torsion through the spine.
CRACK!
A back plate split.
Frost had already eaten away at its structural integrity, and the pressure from Emric’s shield finished the job. A six-inch gap opened along the spine, exposing dark red tissue underneath.
"Spinal gap! Six inches, open!"
The Blood-Fiend thrashed.
Its good arm came around in a wild sweep and caught Emric’s shield.
BOOM!
He went sliding backward across the floor, his shield arm going numb from the wrist to the elbow.
"Shield held!" he grunted through clenched teeth. "But the output is insane. Two more, maybe three, and my arm’s done!"
Renna was already nocking fresh arrows.
Three storm-charged arrows flew into the loaded right knee, punching through the soft tissue beneath the armor. The discharge seized the joint, muscles locking into a violent spasm as the leg buckled beneath the monster.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The Blood-Fiend dropped to one knee, its body listing to the left as the dead arm dragged it further off balance. Its claws scraped desperately against the floor, searching for purchase, but its frozen joints and ruined knee refused to obey.
It was pinned.
Ice-locked on the left, crippled on the right, and kneeling in the ruins of a courtroom where it had tried and failed to destroy everything Team Soup had built.
Holden looked at it.
At the thing that used to be Aldric Sterling.
The man who had hired assassins, funded terrorists, tried to blow up a train full of soldiers, and finally swallowed a forbidden artifact rather than face the consequences of any of it.
"You know, I had something clever ready," Holden said. "Something about how you should’ve taken the deal when you had the chance. But honestly? I’m tired of talking to you."
He raised his sword and looked at Lyra.
She stood beside him, frost mist curling from her spear as her glowing eyes remained fixed on the monster’s face. On the thing that had once been her uncle.
The Blood-Fiend’s red eyes met hers.
Whatever hatred had carried over from the man, enough to choose its target, there was nothing human looking back now. No regret. No mercy. Only rage, hunger, and the mindless drive to destroy.
Lyra didn’t look away.
"You’re done," she said quietly.
Holden stepped forward.
"You had the first hit," he said. "I’ll take the last."
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