Karn's body slumped to the floor, his lifeless eyes still fixated on the twisted neck of the Yuzu. His broken jawbone now dangled grotesquely from the Yuzu's face, covered in blood and raw flesh. Venn and Genji stood in shock, their hearts pounding in their chests. Venn's mind raced, the overwhelming tension unraveling his sanity. His shaking hands gripped his gut knife tighter.
"Not yet!" Genji's voice boomed through the air, but it was too late. Karn's moment of hesitation had cost him his life.
Yuzu smiled, a sickening grin that revealed bloodstained teeth as he placed Karn's jawbone over his own. With a sickening crack, it fused with his face. The sight drove Venn into a wild frenzy. "Bastard!" he screamed, charging at the sorcerer with reckless abandon. His body moved with all the speed and fury of a man consumed by rage.
"Venn, stop! Don't be an idiot!" Genji yelled, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
Venn was already too far gone, lost in the bloodlust that clouded his mind. His knife slashed through the air, aimed directly at the sorcerer's chest. Yuzu simply stood there, motionless, as if mocking the futility of the attack. But as Venn's blade made contact, something unexpected happened—nothing. The sorcerer's chest didn't give way, no blood spilled. Instead, Venn's knife bounced off as though it had hit solid stone.
"What… the hell?" Venn whispered, his face pale with disbelief. He looked down, only to find Yuzu grinning up at him from below. His chest had been reinforced with the bones of the fallen, a grotesque armor that made him nearly invincible.
"Did you think it would be that easy?" Yuzu asked, his voice a mockery of amusement. Without warning, the sorcerer ripped Karn's jawbone from his face, now fully saturated with blood and flesh, and shoved it deep into his own chest. The bone fused with his ribcage as he began to stand. Genji, watching from the sidelines, cursed under his breath.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Venn didn't have time to react. The sorcerer moved with blinding speed, slamming his fist into Venn's chest, sending him flying back. The moment he hit the ground, Yuzu was upon him, ripping at his limbs with the frenzy of a wild animal. Blood sprayed from Venn's body as he screamed in agony, but Genji could see that it was already too late. His friend was dead before he even hit the ground.
"Shit! This bastard is stronger than we thought!" Genji muttered, watching as Yuzu continued his gruesome work.
Genji clenched his fists, his mind racing through possibilities. His own powers wouldn't be enough, not against a monster like this. "What the hell are we dealing with?" he thought, watching as Yuzu grabbed Venn's spine and ripped it out with one swift motion, the sound of cracking bones filling the room, all without breaking the skin. "Umekomi majutsu - Shyness Boy!" (Embedding Sorcery - Shyness Boy), he shouted, grinning as Venn's spine, now charged with Yuzu's twisted sorcery, crackled with energy as Yuzu spun it like a whip. "Time to test your limits," he muttered, his eyes gleaming with a sick excitement.
The whip of bones lashed through the air, and before Genji could move, it struck him square in the back. A searing pain shot through his body as the sorcery-charged spine dug into his flesh. Genji gasped, feeling his muscles seize up from the sheer intensity of the hit.
"Shit… I can't… breathe…" Genji's vision blurred as he collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from his mouth. Every nerve in his body screamed in agony, but he wasn't done yet. He couldn't be done. Not while that monster still stood.
"I might actually die here," he thought, his hands trembling as they grasped for something, anything, to help him stand. His gaze flickered to the corpses of his fallen comrades—Karn, Venn—all gone. His heart clenched with a mixture of sorrow and fury. He wasn't going to let their deaths be in vain. If he was going to die, he'd take the sorcerer down with him.
With a primal roar, Genji pushed himself up onto his feet, his legs wobbling from the strain. Blood dripped from his forehead, obscuring his vision, but he didn't care. He had one last move left, and he was going to use it.
"I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME!" Genji screamed, his voice echoing through the room as he grabbed hold of the spine whip, his hands bleeding profusely from the effort. Yuzu's eyes widened in surprise as Genji swung the whip, catapulting Yuzu through the air and into the elevator doors.
There was a sickening crunch as the sorcerer's body collided with the steel, but he wasn't done yet. The sorcerer began to rise again, his twisted form illuminated by the flickering lights of the elevator.
Just as the sorcerer prepared to lunge forward, the elevator behind him dinged. The doors slid open, revealing Souji, Mika, and the unconscious Fushi. The room fell silent as the sorcerer slowly turned around, his eyes locking onto the new arrivals.