Kairo didn't hesitate.
What was left of his corpse lifted off the ground, black gas binding flesh, shadow, and bone into a single hovering mass. The gas-head and monstrous arm moved as one with the body now—no seams, no weakness.
Then the gas multiplied.
Nine tentacles erupted outward—each different in size and shape—coiling, flexing, keeping him suspended in the air like some twisted kraken forged from smoke. They dragged him forward, slow and deliberate.
Straight toward Rin.
He hated her.
She fed his rage.
The tentacles struck.
Veyron barely dodged two, Axel shot another apart mid-air, the black gas ripping and reforming instantly. Rin vanished upward, reappearing near the ceiling, then dropped—teleporting diagonally across Kairo's body, her blade carving into his chest.
For a split second, it worked.
Then three new tentacles burst out from the cut itself.
They slammed her down, throwing her across the floor. Before she could recover, Kairo's long arm snapped out, dragging her into the wall and smashing her against it. The impact knocked the breath out of her, her gas mask barely staying in place.
Veyron screamed as he fired—pure battlefield fury. He unloaded round after round into Kairo's legs, shredding them until one foot tore loose and hit the floor.
No reaction.
Kairo lunged.
The mantis-like arm struck Veyron and hurled him into the side wall. A tentacle wrapped around him mid-air, spinning him violently before slamming him into the reinforced double doors. Another dent formed—deep.
Axel didn't hesitate.
He aimed at his own power-blocker collar and fired.
The collar shattered.
Power rushed back.
Axel rolled—
Too slow.
Kairo dropped down, pinning him to the floor. Tentacles locked Axel's arms as the mantis arm lifted his chin, tilting his head up like prey being examined.
Then Kairo lost control.
He slammed all three of them—Axel, Veyron, Rin—into the doors in one brutal sweep. The doors groaned, metal bending inward, seconds from failure.
Kairo ripped massive screens off the walls and smashed them across the room, destroying everything in reach. Monitors shattered. Decor collapsed. The room was being torn apart.
Rin forced herself up, blood streaking her armor.
"Axel—Veyron—leg that fucking door," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm taking Kairo. Whatever happens—run."
They didn't argue.
They fired, kicked, punched—every hit weakening the door further.
Rin vanished.
Again.
And again.
Dozens—hundreds—of teleports in seconds. Kairo swung wildly, tentacles demolishing the room, striking nothing but air.
Ninety-nine misses.
On the hundredth—
He predicted her.
A tentacle slammed into Rin mid-teleport, sending her crashing across the floor. She skidded to a stop, armor scraped, blood marking the tiles.
"HA! YES!" Kairo roared.
He moved toward her.
Veyron lunged.
Axel hammered the double doors a few more times, metal screaming under the impacts—but it wouldn't give any further. It was close. Too close. He turned and ran with Veyron instead.
Gunfire cracked through the room.
Veyron fired nonstop as Kairo snapped toward him, fury boiling over. Thirty—no, more—tentacles erupted at once, different shapes, different angles, all converging.
Veyron dodged every single one.
Time slowed.
He caught a glimpse of Axel behind Kairo—smiling.
Then it clicked.
Axel had rolled.
Axel wall-ran, leaping off the vertical surface above Kairo. The monster reacted instantly, forming a massive hammer-like limb and smashing the wall where Axel had been.
Axel slipped past it by a breath, landing sideways.
Veyron slid in from the left.
Kairo barely turned his head over his shoulder—
—and Veyron drove a devastating punch straight through Kairo's torso.
The impact tore through shadow and flesh alike. The monster-head screamed—not from pain, but from losing control.
Rin forced herself up onto her knees.
With the last of her strength, she hurled her green-flaming sword across the floor.
Veyron caught it mid-motion, dropped to one knee, and parried the mantis strike aimed at his head.
Three deformed hands burst out near Axel, catching him off guard and hurling him across the room.
He rolled.
3–2.
Axel landed clean, skidding to a stop with only scraped shoes. He dropped from the wall a few feet from Rin, rolled again—
1–2.
Speed surged.
Axel vanished in a blur, sprinting back toward the fight.
Veyron leapt behind Kairo and slashed—clean—severing the monster's legs from its body. He was airborne behind Kairo when the thing spun again, both gigantic arms closing in from either side like a hydraulic press.
Veyron flattened the sword, blocking both arms at once.
The blade screamed under the pressure.
Then—
WHAM.
Something slammed into Kairo's torso and pinned him to the wall.
Axel.
A broken pipe, thrown with everything he had.
Kairo tore it free with a tentacle, dark fluid spilling, a hole burned through his midsection. He lunged toward Axel and Rin—
—and stopped.
Veyron climbed the attacking tentacles from behind, wrapped both arms around Kairo's body, and lifted.
With a roar, he slammed the monster into the floor.
Kairo retaliated instantly, smashing Veyron into the ceiling—but Veyron barely felt it.
He realized why.
Axel had rolled again.
Speed flooded them both.
They blurred—appearing and vanishing—circling Kairo, striking from every angle. Kairo landed hits—legs, shoulders, head—but they kept moving, tearing him apart piece by piece.
Then it ended.
Luck ran out.
Black-gas tentacles seized them both and hurled them across the room. They landed on their feet, sliding back through dust and debris, staring straight at Kairo.
He was bigger now.
Nearly filling the room.
A crushing force exploded outward, pinning everything—walls, debris, them—against the sides. Veyron and Axel braced, muscles screaming. Axel rolled again and again, only small numbers coming up, barely enough to keep them standing.
Rin was gone.
Veyron searched desperately—
—and realized something.
He didn't have Rin's sword anymore.
Oh no.
Green particles flared above Kairo.
Rin dropped from the ceiling and drove the green-flamed blade straight through Kairo's body. She flipped off him mid-fall and drop-kicked him with everything she had.
Kairo crashed to the floor.
Barely holding together.
"CAN'T YOU JUST DIE—" he screamed upward—
—and was cut off mid-sentence.
A massive slash split his body apart.
One half collapsed. The other remained, smoke writhing, eyes still burning.
Rin stood behind him, exhausted, shaking.
Kairo turned his monstrous head toward her.
Rin felt it—rage, sorrow, exhaustion—everything colliding. Her eyes burned brighter green. She pulled the blade free, rested it against the floor, gripping it with both hands.
Why won't you die?
She raised one hand to her eye, grounding herself—
—and Kairo appeared in front of her.
His arm slammed her into the wall.
Rin coughed, blood streaking beneath her mask. She locked eyes with him—green against red.
She understood.
Then—
SNAP.
Kairo's gas arm was severed.
He froze.
Another Rin stood above him.
He struck—she vanished.
Five Rins appeared around him like reflections.
Kairo tore through two.
The others cut him again and again, too fast to follow.
He turned back toward the Rin he'd been holding—
She was gone.
Kairo staggered.
At the far side of the room, near the half-destroyed doors, Rin stood alone—head lowered, breathing hard.
Waiting.