Chapter 45: Static Versus Spark

Mio

The geometry on the big one ignited.

He didn’t wait for it to build. The blast came from his palms, propelling him forward like a crazed animal, concrete cratering under the thrust. Mori stood her ground. Fingers spread. All teeth. She was actually enjoying this.

They collided.

The storefront behind her exploded. Glass, mannequins, clothing racks—all of it disintegrating as their bodies tore through the wall and kept going. Mio heard the second building give. The third. Felt the floor shake beneath her feet as something structural groaned and collapsed in the distance.

Four buildings. Maybe five.

They were at it now. Somewhere in the rubble, orange light flickered. Heat shimmer. An explosion that rattled Mio’s teeth.

“Eyes on your enemy.”

The voice came from her left.

Mio turned. Too slow.

Knuckles filled her vision—

Can intercepted. Skinny’s fist met obsidian edge with a sound like cracking ice. The impact drove Mio back a step, but the blade held.

Yellow eyes dropped to the sword. To the knight whose instincts had moved faster than Mio’s thoughts.

“Hm.” She tilted her head. Studying. “It thinks for you.”

[Reservoir: 82,408/287,500]

Mio should be scared. The woman had nearly taken her head off without trying.

But this was different.

She had reservoir again. More than she’d ever held. The hunger sat quiet for once, fed and patient, coiled somewhere beneath her ribs.

Spark left her fingertip. Green-white bolt, center mass.

Skinny tilted left. The bolt hissed past her shoulder and punched a hole in a support column.

Didn’t matter.

Mio was already moving. Can up, edge forward, closing the distance—

She swung for the throat.

Skinny stepped onto the blade.

Stood there. Balanced on Can’s edge like it was a sidewalk curb. Weight centered, posture slack, yellow eyes looking down.

“Slow.”

Mio yanked the blade back. The woman was already gone—behind her now, breath warm against her ear.

Mio spun and fired Spark point-blank at her chest.

She caught Mio’s wrist. Redirected. The bolt punched through a jewelry case twenty feet away.

An explosion tore through the atrium behind them. Orange light. Screaming metal. Mio felt the heat on her back, heard something collapse.

Focus.

She drove Can upward. Overhead arc, all her weight behind it—

Skinny stepped inside the swing. Too close to cut. Her palm pressed flat against Mio’s sternum, almost gentle.

“You’re telegraphing.”

She shoved. Mio stumbled back three steps.

Mio tried a thrust, a feint, a low slash at the knees.

Nothing landed. The woman moved through the gaps like they were designed for her.

Mio threw a combination—blade high, Spark low, reverse grip backhand that should have opened her shoulder.

Skinny hopped onto her head. Stood there, balanced on Mio’s skull, weight so light it barely registered.

“Thirty-seven.” She was counting. “Thirty-eight.”

Mio grabbed for her ankle. Fingers closed on air.

Three meters away now. Arms folded. Yellow eyes unblinking.

Another explosion. Closer. Glass rained from overhead, the atrium ceiling finally giving. Chunks of concrete crashed into a fountain. Water sprayed across scorched tile.

“He’s loud,” Skinny said. Nodding at Can. “Every swing, I hear it before you move.”

Mio’s chest heaved. Sweat and blood and ash.

Thirty-eight attacks. She’d counted.

The woman hadn’t uncrossed her arms.

A pressure wave rolled through the atrium like a giant’s footstep. The fountain cracked down the middle. Display cases toppled in a chain reaction across the floor. Mio staggered, one knee hitting wet tile.

Skinny didn’t move. Just watched her stumble, head tilted, and laughed. A short thing, barely a breath.

“They’re having fun out there.”

Mio pushed herself back up. Her ears were ringing.

“What are you?” She needed the moment to breathe.

“Bored.”

Mio didn’t wait for thirty-nine.

She stepped back, wound her arm, and hurled Can. The obsidian blade shot through the air, a black blur of green-white veins aimed directly at Skinny’s throat.

Skinny leaned back, the blade whistling a fraction of an inch past her nose. Can clattered onto the charred floor twenty feet behind her, sliding across the slick slurry of water and ash. The sword came to a rest against a pile of broken mannequins.

“Now you lost your only advantage,” Skinny said.

She uncrossed her arms.

Mio didn’t hesitate. She used the opening to lunge, her boots driving into the marble with 39 STR. She threw a straight right. Skinny caught it in her palm. The force of the impact should have shattered the woman’s arm; instead, Skinny just absorbed the shock, her feet not moving an inch.

Mio threw a left hook. Skinny ducked.

Mio tried a knee to the ribs. Skinny pivoted.

The first hit came before Mio could pull her knee back.

Skinny’s boot caught Mio across the shin. It was a snap, precise and heavy. Mio felt the bone groan under the pressure.

Mio stumbled, her leg buckling. Skinny stepped into her guard.

A fist drove into Mio’s gut. The air left her lungs in a ragged wheeze. She felt her internal organs shift. Her vision went white at the edges.

[HP: 900/1,680]

Mio hit the ground hard. She slid across the wet tile. Can lay ten meters away.

Skinny walked toward her, slow and steady.

“Without the ghost,” Skinny said, her head tilting at that unnatural angle. “You’re just a girl who’s been eating too much.”

Mio wiped blood from her lip. Her shin was screaming. Her stomach felt like it had been put through a meat grinder.

Skinny’s eyes weren’t on her.

They were on Can. Ten meters away, lying in rubble, and those yellow eyes hadn’t moved since Mio threw him.

He’s loud.

She’d been reading Can the whole time. Not Mio. The knight’s intent was so constant that it drowned out everything else.

But Can wasn’t swinging anymore.

And Skinny was still watching him like he might.

She can only hear one thing at a time.

Mio charged.

Skinny’s weight shifted, hands coming up, already positioning to deflect the swing she knew was coming—

Mio dropped.

She slid under Skinny’s guard on the wet tile and summoned Can into her right palm mid-slide. The blade came up wild, no target, and she let it fly straight up into the air above them.

Skinny’s eyes snapped upward. Locked on. Tracking the blade’s arc against her will, her head tilting back to follow—

She fought the pull. Wrenched her gaze back down.

Too slow.

Mio’s left hook caught her across the jaw.

Skinny’s head snapped sideways. Her feet actually shifted.

One hit. The first all fight.

“’Bout time.”

Skinny’s boot caught Mio in the ribs before she could follow up. The kick launched her backward, skidding across wet tile until she crashed into a toppled display case.

“Ow.”

Get up, Mio.

She found her palms, then her feet. She called Can back to her palm.

Skinny rubbed her fingers against her jaw. If anything, she was glad that the first connected.

“Redo?”

[Vitalize]

Green light flooded through her. Warmth spreading from her chest to her limbs, knitting the bruised ribs, soothing the screaming shin. It’s been so long. She’d forgotten how invigorating it felt.

[HP: 1,680/1,680]

[Reservoir: 82,058/287,500]

Before Mio could respond, Skinny vanished in place.

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