Pins began clicking beneath the black floor before anyone stepped forward.
TICK! TICK! TICK!
Orrek raised one hand and stopped the line. Jaro froze with his boot above the first seam.
"I was only testing whether the floor had developed better manners," Jaro said. "The answer appears to be no."
"Put your foot back where it was," Orrek told him. "I can feel something turning under the plate."
Jaro lowered his boot. The clicking slowed and stopped.
Vaela crouched with the flat of her wrapped blade against the stone. A narrow black point formed beneath the shadow of her hand before her blade touched the floor. "The pins read the movement above the stone. Keep the injured people behind the broken plates. We need the organ that feeds them."
Three vertical seams opened in the wall.
SQUELCH!
Tall pale bodies unfolded from the gaps. White skin hung from their shoulders like long coats, and clear veins ran from their thighs into both calves. Each lower leg contained rows of black pins around a turning red spindle.
The nearest servant bowed, its human face calm while the knee cylinder spun.
TICK! TICK! TICK!
A clear line appeared across the floor where Kael was about to place his foot. The calf spindle had read his balance and marked the landing before he moved.
Kael stepped anyway.
The servant fired a black pin into the marked stone.
CLACK!
The pin opened into a metal ring beneath Kael’s boot. Barbs drove through the sole and entered his heel while the ring pulled his ankle toward the floor.
Pain climbed from the wound into his knee and hip. The ring had fixed his heel so the step would tear the joints above it.
The Sovereign Root opened under the hostile force. Kael chose the three exact attributes needed to complete the movement and carry it into the attack.
Gravity Vector Impact. Velocity Movement Authority. Mind Soul Anchor.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ HOSTILE PRESSURE DETECTED: Step-Step-bite Organ Servant Array
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +3
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------
▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +3 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Gravity Vector Impact -> 44
- Velocity Movement Authority -> 39
- Mind Soul Anchor -> 35
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Paid-Step Reversal Surge Confirmed
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 0
====================================================================
The ring dragged at Kael’s heel, but Velocity Movement Authority carried his knee and hip forward while Mind Soul Anchor kept the servant’s prediction from taking his choice.
Kael turned the trapped step into a shoulder strike.
BOOM!
The first servant folded backward. Both calf spindles burst against the wall and sprayed black pins through their clear veins. Its gentle face remained unchanged until the jaw struck stone and slid sideways.
CRACK!
The damaged body tried to stand while its working calf continued marking Kael’s feet. Three lines appeared around him.
Kael stepped outside the first mark, let the second pin strike empty stone, and caught the servant by its white coat before the third line formed.
He drove its working calf against the wall.
CRASH!
The red spindle broke through the pale skin. Pins fired into the servant’s own thigh and locked the leg against its body. Kael tore the clear veins from its hip, and the first set of floor marks faded.
The second servant touched two fingers to the floor. A pulse travelled through Kael’s impact and reached the survivors behind him.
The ash-lipped woman cried out as a ring closed around her boot. Another pin opened beneath the boy when he tried to catch her, locking his ankle before his weight settled.
Vaela crossed the nearest plate and cut the clear vein feeding both rings.
SNAP!
Black fluid ran from the severed line. The ring around the boy loosened, and Jaro pulled him backward by the waist while keeping the bowl pressed between them.
"Both feet are still attached," Jaro said. "Please keep them behind me until Vaela says otherwise."
The boy nodded and clung to his coat.
Renn began directing the injured away from each pale mark. "Watch the floor ahead of the person beside you. Call the mark before they move, and change feet if the line follows."
The servants’ calf cylinders spun faster as the survivors shifted.
Orrek wrapped his chain around two black pins before they opened. He pulled from his waist, dragging the metal away from a limping man and a woman carrying a bound wrist.
Three more pins struck around him.
TICK! TICK! TICK!
One ring closed over his boot and forced his injured shoulder forward when the chain tightened. His knees bent, but he kept both pins away from the survivors.
"Break the right calf where the red spindle is turning," Orrek said through clenched teeth. "The floor has my first boot, and it is reaching for the other."
Kael crossed the marked space. The second servant fired pins beneath his ankle, knee, and turning hip, trying to lock each part at a different point in the strike.
His upgraded movement brought them together before the rings could close.
Kael’s knee entered the servant’s chest.
THUD!
The body flew into the third servant. Both struck the wall, and several clear veins tore out of their calves.
Jaro snatched one fallen pin before Vaela could stop him. Its barbs opened through his glove.
"Ah! It went through the glove, and I cannot make it close again."
Jaro threw the pin at the servant pinning Orrek.
PING!
The pin entered one clear eye. The servant paused and turned toward Jaro, giving Kael enough time to tear the ring from his heel.
Kael slammed the bloody ring into the open calf cylinder.
BANG!
The red spindle burst.
SPLAT!
Black pins, clear veins, and red pieces scattered. Every ring fed by the ruined leg released, freeing Orrek’s boot.
The last servant looked past Kael toward the survivors. Six pale lines appeared beneath Renn, Vaela, the boy, and three injured workers.
Kael moved before the pins fired.
BOOM!
His fist crushed the servant’s throat. The calf spindles released their pins anyway, but Orrek swept two aside with his chain while Vaela cut the vein feeding the others.
SNAP!
The pins fell without opening. Kael stamped one calf spindle, and Orrek crushed the second beneath his heel.
CRACK! CRACK!
The corridor fell silent.
Renn touched every knot and waited for its answer. "All twenty-one are standing. Two ankles are cut, and Kael still has black splinters in his heel."
Vaela found no wound beneath the boy’s scratched boot. The ash-lipped woman’s ankle carried two shallow punctures, while Jaro’s glove had taken the loose pin he grabbed.
"Open your hand," Vaela told him. "I need to know whether the barb crossed the leather."
Jaro spread his fingers around a narrow cut. "The glove failed to respect my courage."
Vaela cleaned the cut and tied the glove closed around it. "You caught a barbed pin with your hand, so keep this one away from anything sharp until I can check it again."
The boy kept the bowl while Jaro raised his wrapped hand. "I understand. The next foolish idea can belong to somebody else."
Vaela made Kael sit against the wall long enough to inspect the wound. Regenerative Dominion had not received the new shards, so the punctures remained raw around the metal.
"Keep the foot still while I remove them," she said. "Walking on the splinters will drive them into the tendon."
Kael braced his heel against the stone. Vaela pulled each black piece with the tip of her blade and wrapped the punctures before he stood.
One damaged calf dragged itself across the floor as its red cylinder tried to find another moving foot.
Orrek stopped it with his chain. "This one is mine. The shoulder already paid for getting close to it."
He placed his heel over the turning cylinder and pressed until the casing broke.
CRACK!
The movement hurt him. His injured shoulder tightened, and Vaela caught the chain before it pulled the fresh puncture open. Orrek stayed over the ruined calf until every pin stopped clicking.
The limping man shifted closer to the chain. "If another pin opens, tell me where to put my weight."
Orrek tested his shoulder before gathering the chain. "Stay clear of my right arm, and we will both reach the other side with our feet attached."
Vaela opened one broken calf with her blade. Thin clear membranes circled the red cylinder. Each membrane held the pressed shape of a footprint, followed by the pin angle chosen to catch it.
"The servants learn repeated steps," she said. "Change your pace and landing foot while we cross. A mark on the floor means the next pin already has an angle."
Renn guided the formation between the broken bodies. He changed the count when a cylinder clicked, while Sova helped the ash-lipped woman keep weight off her cut ankle. Jaro kept his injured glove raised beside the bowl boy.
One surviving cylinder clicked when the limping man repeated the same short step twice. A pale line formed beneath his leading foot.
"Change sides and lean on me," Renn said. "Use the longer step you took near the wall."
The man shifted his weight onto Renn and crossed with the other foot. A black pin struck behind them, missing the place where the repeated step should have landed.
CLACK!
Sova kicked the loose pin away before it opened. The remaining survivors varied their pace, support side, and landing foot until the last pair crossed without giving the damaged cylinders another clean pattern.
Orrek took the rear. Every loose pin he found went beneath his heel or the flat of his chain.
The corridor widened ahead. Its far wall appeared close enough to touch, but the distance grew whenever Kael tried to focus on it.
Renn slowed. "The wall moved away without changing the floor beneath us."
Vaela followed the clear channels carrying Kael’s blood toward the wider chamber. "The channels run beneath that wall. The next organ is changing the distance we see."
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