The smell of my own burned flesh rose toward my face, mixing with the prison's stale, humid air.
The sword was still smoking in my left hand.
Every time I breathed, the freshly cauterized strip across my chest pulled tight, hard and uneven, drawing my skin into a suffocating grip around the wound.
I tried to straighten my back, but pain locked my body halfway through the movement.
Tsukumo noticed.
"Hold on, Suki. We're almost there."
"Stay on this side," he muttered.
He positioned himself on my right, covering the arm I could barely lift.
His hands hung beside his thighs, masses of raw flesh and split knuckles dripping dark blood onto the platform's steel.
Across the courtyard, a metal panel groaned and rose from the wreckage.
Yashin shoved it aside as if it weighed nothing, emerging from the structure Tsukumo had thrown him against.
Tsukumo's punch had done some damage.
The monster's lip was split all the way to the base of his nose, and one side of his face was grotesquely swollen.
His jaw cracked when he closed his mouth, spitting out a thick strand of blood.
His eyes passed over me and locked onto Tsukumo's ruined hands.
"It was you. I should have killed you first." Yashin's voice came out cold, a rasping whisper that carried across the courtyard.
Tsukumo didn't answer.
He simply adjusted his footing on the wet floor, lowering his center of gravity slightly.
Behind us, the platform ended abruptly at the edge of the enormous shaft descending into Sector Two.
High above, through the hole torn open in the prison's ceiling, rain poured from the surface like a gray waterfall, crashing into the shaft directly above the path leading to the lower level.
Yashin looked toward the shaft.
Tsukumo took a heavy step forward, blocking the passage with his body.
"You're going to have to get through both of us."
Yashin's answer was to raise the dagger in his right hand.
Liquid shadow spilled from his heel, stretching across the floor toward us like a fast, silent tentacle.
"I already did."
Yashin's black blade burst through the floor exactly where we'd been half a second earlier.
It tore upward through the air, the edge slicing a sliver of skin from my stomach and splitting the empty space between our faces.
The black groove left in the floor erupted into a pool of darkness, and Yashin materialized from within it, his second dagger already aimed straight at Tsukumo's throat.
He leaned his torso backward.
The dagger tore through the upper part of his shoulder, sliding down to his collarbone in a deep gash that sprayed hot blood across both their faces.
Tsukumo didn't scream.
I took advantage of Yashin's arm still being extended from the strike and attacked with my blazing sword.
The burning steel slammed against the side of his dagger, and the impact made my elbow protest, buckling beneath the weight of his block.
I twisted my hips, compensating for the disadvantage with the momentum of my own body, and drove the blade straight toward the prisoner's face.
He was fast, throwing his head backward.
The tip of my sword hissed as it seared his cheek just below the eye.
In immediate retaliation, Yashin's knee came up beneath my guard, aiming for my stomach.
Before it connected, a sudden gust of dense air shoved me sideways.
Tsukumo had slapped his open palm against the air.
I was thrown across the metal plating, my boots scraping against the surface as I slid away from the blow.
Yashin followed my movement, sweeping his dagger horizontally through the space between us, but the attention he gave me was fatal.
Tsukumo closed the distance, stepped inside the blade's reach, and drove his elbow into Yashin's mouth.
The sharp crack echoed through the Sector.
The already-split lip tore open all the way to his cheek.
The force snapped Yashin's head to the side.
Furious, he drove his left dagger into the floor between our feet and grabbed Tsukumo's good arm.
His pale fingers sank directly into the wound.
I heard the sickening sound of wet flesh tearing, and Tsukumo clenched his jaw.
The pressure exerted on the floor by the three fighters forced the metal plating downward.
With a deafening boom, the steel gave way, violently pulled by the gravity surrounding us.
The section of the Sector we stood on threatened to collapse, and Yashin had to spread his legs to keep his balance.
The instant he focused on the floor was all the time I needed.
I twisted my wrist and swung horizontally, aiming for the wrist of the arm Yashin was using to destroy Tsukumo's collarbone.
The monster released Tsukumo in the same instant to keep from losing his hand.
Instead, his right dagger intercepted my sword with a deafening clang, the metal sliding along my burning blade with a sharp hiss, nearly scraping the skin from my knuckles.
I pulled my head back, and the cold tip grazed my ear.
I took advantage of the opening.
I kicked the side of his knee, feeling the joint give by a few centimeters.
But he didn't retreat. He answered with his head.
The frontal collision smashed my nose against his face with a crack that echoed inside my own skull. The world went white.
Something cracked inside my mouth. A metallic taste choked me, and I spat blood along with a piece of tooth as I tried to plant my feet.
When my vision focused again, Yashin was pulling his left dagger from the floor and already running toward the edge of the shaft.
He was going to escape.
Tsukumo opened and closed his hand.
An entire section of the metal railing tore free from its supports, humming just above the floor as it shot toward Yashin's legs, striking him directly behind the knees with the weight of an anvil.
He staggered.
He was forced to jump over the metal wreckage to keep from falling, losing his momentum in the process.
My head was still tingling, and everything appeared doubled. I aimed at the silhouette farthest to the left and attacked with my flaming sword.
The blade sank into his clothes, cut through the pale flesh of his forearm, and struck hard against bone.
Yashin turned toward me.
That was the first time, since the confrontation between the two of us had begun, that the prisoner pointed both daggers directly at me.
The first weapon came down heavily toward my skull.
I managed to cross my sword above my head, letting the blade slide off and shower sparks.
But it was a trap.
The second dagger came like a shadow beneath my guard, aimed at the vulnerable space below my left arm.
I was too late to pull my elbow away.
The steel pierced my side, just beneath my ribs. I twisted my body in a futile attempt to break free, and the tip tore even deeper into my flesh on its way back out.
A thick, sickening heat gushed across my hip, pain paralyzing my nervous system for a second.
My leg gave out.
The air vanished.
But I never hit the ground.
I felt a violent compression wrap around my stomach from below, launching me toward the ceiling.
Yashin's first dagger shredded the space where my neck had been, cutting through the trail of blood I'd left in the air.
Tsukumo pulled me out of the way with gravity.
As I spun through the air, I focused on my attacker's pale face, rotated my shoulders, and drove the tip of my sword downward, tearing through the air between us.
Flames raced along the hilt in a brilliant spiral.
The impact created an explosion of fire.
Yashin defended himself, but the flames spread, engulfing part of his soaked clothing.
But he was fast. Too fast.
With his head lowered, he tore through the flames and threw his own weight against mine.
I was launched through the air.
My back slammed brutally into a steel beam.
I felt the burn across my chest tear completely open, and my lungs shut down.
I dropped to my knees, driving my sword into the metal floor just to keep from toppling over, coughing with every uneven heartbeat as blackened pieces of cauterized skin fell from my shirt.
Blood poured through every opening again.
"Get up! SUKI!" Tsukumo shouted at me.
I tried to answer, but only a strangled grunt came out.
I was about to black out. He was facing Yashin alone.
From the floor, I watched a dagger pass over his shoulder. Tsukumo ducked, driving his elbow into his opponent's stomach and creating enough distance for two short steps.
Yashin recovered from the dodge, and his second strike reached the side of Tsukumo's leg.
Tsukumo's flesh was carved open in an ugly slash that nearly reached the knee joint.
He didn't take a step back.
Planting his foot behind Yashin's leg, he grabbed the monster's suit lapel with his flayed fingers and drove his forehead into the broken bone of his nose.
The wet crack of bone snapping made my stomach churn, and the prisoner's blood sprayed freely.
Yashin's head drooped, ignoring his own pain, and he drove his dagger down through the bicep holding him.
The weapon went in cleanly, the blade passing all the way through.
Tsukumo let out a muffled groan.
A bestial growl that died in his chest.
Then Yashin's deranged eyes gleamed with sadism as he began twisting and turning the black blade buried in Tsukumo's flesh.
An electric current shot through my nerves.
This had to stop.
I punched my chest, letting the pain drive my adrenaline higher.
"GET UP, DAMMIT!!!!!!"
I threw myself forward.
The fire transformation licked from my shoulder to my right hand in a furious glow, leaving my striped arm incandescent.
I charged with my sword held low, aiming for his neck. The prisoner was forced to pull the blade from Tsukumo to defend himself.
The sound of the dagger tearing out of Tsukumo's muscle was obscene.
Hot, fresh blood splashed across my face, mixing with the vivid red running from my broken nose, but rage kept me awake.
I threw my entire body into the strike against the daggers.
Tsukumo raised his injured hand beside me, gravity pushing my body forward and increasing the pressure of my sword against Yashin's blades.
The prisoner was forced to retreat.
His boots scraped across the floor, carving grooves into the steel and scattering sparks.
Then he twisted one of his daggers, caught my blade near the guard, and pulled it sideways. The jerk twisted my wrist, and the hilt began slipping from my fingers.
"Hold on!" Tsukumo shouted.
I closed my hand in time to recover the sword, but Yashin took advantage of the opening.
He ducked, slipped beneath my weapon, and drove himself between us.
The hilt of one dagger struck my jaw from below.
My head snapped backward, and I felt my mouth fill with blood. Almost at the same time, he drove his other elbow into Tsukumo's abdomen.
My companion doubled over from the blow, and the force pushing me forward disappeared.
Yashin spun and unleashed a horizontal slash at chest height.
I brought my sword up and blocked it.
The collision shook my entire arm and sent me stumbling backward, my boots scraping across the metal.
Tsukumo raised his arm too late.
The blade slipped past his defense and opened a cut across his shoulder, the force of the blow lifting him off the ground and hurling him into the pile of rails.
The steel bars scattered across the courtyard with a thunderous crash.
Yashin left us behind and continued toward Sector Two, completely unfazed.
To my left, the industrial area's door was blasted open, sending a metal panel flying.
Four guards emerged from the corridor with their shotguns raised, but stopped as soon as they recognized Yashin.
The man in front lowered his weapon.
"Sir..."
The prisoner's shadow stretched across the floor and rose behind him, forming two enormous arms.
Each one wielded a dark copy of his daggers.
Yashin cut through the air with both weapons.
The shadow arms mirrored the movement, sending two black slashes toward the doorway.
I was between him and the guards.
I threw myself sideways and slammed my shoulder into a metal column.
The blades passed through the space I'd just vacated and struck the men at the entrance.
The first had his skull split open, blood and bone splattering across the wall.
The second was severed at the abdomen.
The two guards behind them fell beneath the other slash, their armor torn open and their bodies mangled.
None of them managed to fire.
Their weapons struck the floor among the remains of their bodies.
Still leaning against the column, I felt hot blood splatter across my leg.
Yashin kept walking toward the shaft without looking back.
Using only my free hand to support my weight, I swung in a long upward arc, creating a crescent of fire that swept toward his back.
Without even turning his head, Yashin moved one of his blades in a mirrored motion, slicing apart the flames I had sent in the same direction.
The fire exploded against a column two meters away from him, and I gained nothing but a little time.
But that was enough.
Tsukumo crawled through the debris, blood covering his neck, his good arm pointing behind the monster.
The thick rail beams lifted from the stained floor.
Three black spears shot through the open air.
The massive weapons formed a triangle crossing Yashin's neck.
The monster spun. One strike deflected and bent the first beam, and with the flat side of his blade, he knocked the second toward the opposite corner of the gallery.
But Tsukumo's third strike was fast.
Yashin blocked the steel, but the brutal impact of a massive beam against his arm hurled him five paces across the floor, where he stopped at the edge of the access point leading to the stairs below.
"Now."
Tsukumo closed his hand, and the pieces of the beams flew back toward Yashin, pulled by gravity.
The first struck his calf with the crack of breaking bone.
The second crushed his hand against the railing, smashing the fingers around his dagger.
Yashin stepped away from the edge to escape the third bar. As he tried to regain his balance, he raised the weapon he had kept near my legs, leaving the side of his body exposed.
I advanced in a crouch, slipping beneath his guard, and drove my flaming sword into the left side of his abdomen.
The blade entered at an upward angle and stopped when it met a rib. The flesh hissed around the steel, releasing smoke.
Yashin choked and doubled over the weapon.
I planted my boot against the floor and pushed, trying to drive the strike deeper. Before he could twist the sword, he slammed an elbow into the inside of my left arm.
My hand went numb.
My fingers began losing their strength around the hilt.
I immediately pulled back, wrenching the sword free with the movement of my body before the grip could slip from my hand.
The blade came free trailing blood, and I took another step back from the daggers.
The wound in Yashin's stomach smoked, but it continued bleeding.
A dark stream ran down his torn clothes and dripped onto the floor between us.
He raised his face and stared at me.
"SUKI!" Tsukumo shouted.
Before I could attack again, Yashin backed toward the edge and let himself fall into the shaft.
I ran the last few steps and jumped after him.
The platform rose above my head as we fell through the central shaft of Sector One, between pipes and walkways bolted to the walls.
Far below was the access to the forest of Sector Two.
If I lost him there, he would have a clear path to the sectors where Candice and Havelyn were.
I caught up to Yashin near a maintenance gallery.
He raised a dagger to defend himself, and I kicked against his guard.
The collision sent our fall sideways.
We crashed through the gallery railing, ripping the pipes from their supports.
My hip slammed against the edge of the platform, and I fell sideways onto the grating.
Pain shot through my body, pulling at the wound in my chest and leaving my legs numb for a moment.
Yashin hit the floor a few steps ahead.
Shadows spread beneath his boots, cushioning his fall and allowing him to remain standing.
Still on the ground, I swung my sword in a low cut, aiming for his ankle.
He jumped over the blade and extended his leg toward me.
I tried to retreat, but his boot struck the right side of my face. My head snapped backward, and the back of my skull slammed against the metal floor.
The world around me disappeared.
When my vision stopped spinning, I heard metal scraping near my face.
Yashin drove one of his daggers into the grating beside my head.
Then he knelt on top of my arms, pinning them against the floor.
With his free hand, he grabbed my collar and pulled, lifting my shoulders a few inches.
Pain tore through my chest.
I tried to free my left arm, but his knee pressed it harder against the metal.
"You're wasting your time..."
He let out a low laugh and brought his other dagger toward the burn running across my chest.
The tip slipped beneath the edge of the cauterized flesh.
Yashin moved the blade slowly, lifting the dark crust and reopening the wound.
I felt my skin tear, followed by hot blood beginning to run down my stomach.
I tried to scream, but the collar tightened around my throat. Air escaped in a strangled noise as I writhed beneath him.
The dagger was still inside my wound when a thunderous impact shook the structure above us.
Yashin stopped cutting and raised his head.
The grating tilted beneath his weight, forcing him to shift position. The pressure on my left arm lessened for an instant.
I pulled my arm out from beneath his knee and slashed at his side with my sword.
Yashin twisted his torso to escape.
My blade passed alongside his ribs and caught on one of the beams supporting the gallery.
I ripped the weapon free with a tug while his hand continued gripping my collar.
Then the platform above us gave way.
Tsukumo crashed through the gap between steel plates and pieces of railing.
Before he even landed, he struck Yashin across the side of the face with a punch, using the momentum of his fall.
I heard the crack of breaking bone.
The blow tore the prisoner away from me.
His hand released my collar, and my body collapsed onto the grating.
Yashin was hurled into a column on the shaft wall, his back sinking into the metal plating.
I rolled away from him until I hit a pipe.
I tried to breathe, but my first attempt ended in a cough that sprayed blood across the metal.
My neck burned, my chest remained open, and a high-pitched ringing drowned out everything around me.
Tsukumo landed on the gallery and came toward me, staggering. He spat blood and crouched beside me.
"Look at me!"
His voice cut through the ringing, harsh and close.
"Stay with me!"
I could only answer with dry coughs, trying to find my own lost oxygen beneath this colorless carnage.
Tsukumo grabbed the side of my clothes and helped me to my feet.
Gravity eased the weight of my body, but not the pain. I braced my sword against the floor and forced my leg to straighten.
"You look like shit," Tsukumo said.
"So do you," I shot back.
Across the gallery, Yashin tore himself away from the crushed column, blood running from his mouth down his chest.
"You damn rats. This fight is lasting much longer than I expected."
Tsukumo raised his hand.
One of the beams torn from the platform above came flying through the air and struck Yashin in the back.
The prisoner bent forward from the impact.
I stepped forward and cut across his shoulder before he could recover.
He growled.
"I already told you you're not getting any farther."
The left dagger slashed across my chest.
I recoiled on instinct, and the edge tore away another piece of burned flesh. The pain doubled me over, but I kept my sword between us.
Yashin didn't press the attack.
He moved past me and ran toward the edge of the gallery.
Tsukumo closed his hand, pulling the prisoner's body backward, away from the shaft, and his boots scraped sparks from the floor.
I ran to intercept him.
Yashin spun with both daggers extended. I blocked the first, ducked beneath the second, and slammed into him with my left shoulder.
Tsukumo came in beside me. When Yashin tried to strike me from below, he knocked the dagger's arm aside with his forearm and kicked the prisoner in the face.
Yashin's head snapped sideways.
Blood fell between our feet.
Yashin retreated with a short leap.
For a moment, none of us moved. I could barely breathe, Tsukumo kept his arm close to his body, and the blood running from his hand had already formed a pool beneath his boot.
The prisoner looked at the structure below us.
I only understood what he intended when the daggers came down.
The blades cut through the supports holding that section of the gallery to the column.
The floor gave way all at once.
My boots lost their footing.
The platform tilted over the shaft, carrying all three of us toward the lower levels.
Yashin bent his knees to follow the fall.
Tsukumo spread his arms.
The structure stopped in midair.
I was thrown onto my knees against the railing.
The impact tore a scream from my throat, and the tip of my sword struck the metal beside me.
Tsukumo remained standing, trembling.
Blood began running from his nose. He breathed through his mouth, keeping his fingers spread despite the torn flesh.
Yashin turned toward him.
I got to my feet before the prisoner could take his first step.
"Take us back."
Tsukumo raised his eyes toward the courtyard above us.
"How far?"
I looked at the hole in the ceiling, where water and debris were still falling.
"To the rain."
Yashin advanced.
I caught the first dagger on my sword.
The impact forced me backward, but I planted my boot between the bars of the railing and held the defense.
The second blade went for my stomach. I twisted my body and felt the tip open a cut along my side without penetrating deeply.
The platform began to rise, and Yashin changed direction. He stepped to my left, trying to get around me and reach Tsukumo, who remained behind me with his hands open, holding the structure in the air.
I dragged my injured leg and stepped into his path.
I twisted my hips, bringing the sword around in a cut aimed at his neck.
Yashin stopped his advance and raised one of his daggers.
The weapons collided in front of his face, shaking my left arm all the way to the shoulder.
He pressed his dagger against my sword, trying to force his way through. I planted my boot between the bars of the railing and held against the pressure, teeth clenched.
Behind me, Tsukumo continued lifting the platform.
My left arm trembled, and blood made the hilt slippery.
I tightened my grip, trying to hide how close I was to giving out.
I attacked again, this time from below.
Yashin deflected my sword with one dagger and struck me in the mouth with the hilt of the other.
I staggered, spitting blood.
He ran to the side of the platform and drove one of his weapons into the column beside him.
He left his body hanging, trying to abandon the floor Tsukumo was lifting.
I leaped at him.
My sword came down on the arm supporting his weight.
Yashin had to yank the dagger from the column to block, and Tsukumo moved the platform beneath his legs.
The metal struck his boots.
Yashin fell backward onto the grating.
I came down with him and tried to run my sword through him, but his two daggers crossed in front of the tip, stopping the blade a few inches from his chest.
He kicked me in the stomach.
I was thrown backward and nearly fell from the platform. Tsukumo caught me by my clothes, pulling me back before my legs passed over the edge.
The entire structure swayed.
Yashin got to his feet.
We were once again level with the main courtyard of Sector One.
Above us, the opening to the surface appeared between the shattered beams.
I saw lightning tear across the exposed piece of sky.
Tsukumo saw it too.
He extended one hand toward Yashin.
The prisoner suddenly buckled at the knees, the grating sinking beneath his boots, crushed under the weight my companion concentrated on him.
Yashin tried to rise, but had to brace one dagger against the floor.
"Now it's your turn."
I tightened my grip on the sword.
The fire covering the blade intensified.
The red stripes burned beneath my skin, spreading heat through my neck and left arm. The water around my boots began to evaporate.
Yashin raised his head.
I advanced before he could move.
My first strike came at face level. He raised his free dagger to defend.
The impact forced his arm down, and the tip of my sword opened a cut beneath his eye.
The second dagger came free from the floor.
Yashin tried to strike my leg. I pulled my foot back and attacked again, keeping both his weapons occupied.
Tsukumo moved the platform away from the column.
Now, between us and the sky, there was only the crater torn through the armor plating.
He forced his body against gravity and took a step forward. The grating broke beneath his boot, but he kept coming.
One dagger struck my sword; the other cut across my thigh.
My leg gave out.
I dropped to one knee, the fire still clinging to the blade.
Yashin raised his weapon to finish the strike.
The gravitational pressure changed.
His arm was pulled sideways, and the dagger struck the grating beside my head.
Tsukumo shouted with effort behind me.
It was the opening I needed.
I planted my boot against the floor and let the sword fall, then raised both arms, pointing my open palms at Yashin.
My right arm almost gave out. I forced my injured shoulder upward, trapping a scream between my teeth until I managed to hold it level with the left.
All the fire concentrated in my hands.
The red stripes glowed along my arms, and flames gathered before my bare palms.
The heat made my skin burn. When I drew in a breath, I felt the wound in my chest tear wider.
At the same instant, Tsukumo reversed the gravity around Yashin.
The prisoner's feet left the grating.
He crossed his daggers in front of his chest.
I lowered my hands slightly, aiming at his abdomen, and released everything.
"ERUPTION!"
The flames from both palms merged into a narrow, compact jet, forming a tube of fire that struck Yashin head-on.
The attack passed beneath his crossed daggers and tore through his abdomen, the flames bursting out through his back in an explosion of blood and charred flesh.
Yashin doubled over in midair.
Tsukumo's gravity pulled him upward while the jet continued hammering into his body.
I followed his ascent with my hands, screaming with effort to keep my right arm raised.
The heat struck my face.
Pieces of the grating broke loose around me, torn free by the pressure of the attack.
I watched Yashin cross the space above the courtyard and slam into a beam that still stretched across the crater.
The metal broke over his shoulder.
He continued rising, engulfed in flames, dragging debris through the opening.
The explosion illuminated the entire Sector One.
Then the floor beneath my feet gave way.
The fire stopped pouring from my hands.
I tried to find something to brace against, but my injured leg refused to respond. For a moment, all I could see was the open shaft beneath me.
Tsukumo grabbed my clothes with both hands.
The pull tore more skin from his fingers. He grunted, tightened his grip, and launched us upward with gravity.
We ascended along the same path as Yashin.
Then we broke through the surface.
Rain struck my burned skin, drawing a groan from me that was lost in the wind.
Above the towers, Yashin was still rising, engulfed in fire. The trail of flames reached the clouds, illuminating the storm and turning the rain around him into steam.
Far below, the access to the lower sectors grew more distant, and my arms fell limp at my sides.
My palms were still smoking.
"Almost there," I murmured.