Snow sifted down through the ruined silk, hissing where each flake touched the venom.
Forty meters of crimson scale lunged out of the gloom, jaws wide enough to swallow a cart whole. Hajin stepped inside the strike instead of away from it, his left hand open, the Chain already blazing.
"Hold still, this might hurt," he said, catching her upper fang in his right fist.
Collector's Grasp slid through the enamel like wet paper, closing around the crystal root behind it.
"Darling, that is the rudest way anyone has ever held my mouth," Seliza purred, the words rolling through every coil of her.
He grunted as the whole head swung up, hauling his feet off the floor, "Rudest so far."
She flung him sideways into the broken rafters, a beam shattering across his back with a crack. He kept his grip on the fang through all of it, grinning with snow in his teeth.
"Idiot, you are hugging a snake!" Juna yelled from inside the red knot, one arm pinned flat against her ribs.
