"Oh, come on," Alex said as he watched Mister Deadman's scorpion form clatter across the ground toward him, massive pincers open and shooting forward. "Steel Wall!"
He put out one of his metal hands, and the wall snapped into existence in front of him in a blue flash of electric light. Hot blood ran down his nose as he pushed his curse harder. Alex grabbed hold of it, clenching hard into the metal with his hands and throwing himself up in the air. He pushed against the wall with his magnetic field, rising as high up in the air as he could as he assessed the scorpion form.
The scorpion was made of bone, much the same as everything else Mister Deadman had thrown at him so far. The difference was in terms of size. On Glory Plateau, Alex had fought a man named Maki 'the Beast,' and Maki was about the size of a two-story building. On Tombstone, he had fought a giant named Goldfist, who was the size of a one-story building.
Mister Deadman's scorpion form dwarfed both of them. It was easily as tall as half the tower that had been excavated in the camp. Alex clenched his right metal fist as he reached the height of his arc and began to fall.
"People have said it often enough. The bigger they are, the harder they fall," he whispered. "Steel Punch."
He came down with speed, and Mister Deadman's form hadn't caught up with him yet. Using the wall he left on the ground, he aligned himself with Mister Deadman's body and threw out the punch. Bone met metal as Mister Deadman skittered out of the way, and Alex's punch glanced off one of the scorpion's legs.
Boom. Crack.
The bone appendage crumbled under the hit, bones cracking and flying off in an explosion. Alex hit the ground in a roll, making it back on his feet as he gathered aether into his legs. He was about to 'step' away, but Mister Deadman had other plans.
Skitter.
The massive scorpion's body skittered in a circle, and a claw came for Alex in a wide arc. Alex didn't even have time to move as the claw crashed into his left arm and knocked it into his side. He flew through the air, experiencing a brief moment of weightlessness before he hit the hard, cold stone of a wall.
Boom. Crack.
Stars exploded across his vision as he crashed into the wall. Alex was sure that he had broken at least a bone in his side as he slid to the ground. He caught himself on his metal arms, holding himself up as he puked out the remains of his last meal. It felt like a hundred hammers had hit him all across his back and side, and he closed his eyes as he tried to focus through the pain.
"Get up," Alex said, spitting as he pushed himself onto his feet. "Get up and fight."
Mister Deadman came for him, the skeletal scorpion body skittering forward with claws outstretched as the massive maw opened wide. The teeth were spiky ridges lining the scorpion's mouth. Alex was reminded of when he fought Maki. Sometimes, curses were just plain unfair.
He clenched his left metal fist as he focused on the first claw. He released his hold on his right metal arm, and it disappeared in a spark of blue light. Alex took in a deep breath. He needed every bit of control he had if he was going to try and pull off the next attack.
His arm contorted into itself for a moment, gathering up power as he flooded it with the same aether from the Path of Might. Curse and technique together. He had seen it often enough but still wasn't used to it. The metal on his arm grew, the fist now becoming twice its size as Mister Deadman came in range.
"Steel Punch."
Whoop.
He shot forward with his fist, taking a step and throwing the increased mass forward with his left mechanical arm. The arm extended forward like it was on a spring, breaking off his body and flying out with the mass of a small sedan.
Slam. Crack.
The fist connected with a pincer that had been brought up to block the attack, and the pincer shattered into a shower of bones. Alex smiled, but then he saw the problem. The mass of the scorpion's body was still coming. He had a moment to take a breath as the second, intact pincer crashed into his body, knocking him into the wall with the force of a speeding truck.
Slap. Crack.
Rock crumbled around him as he crashed into the wall and threw it. The claw hit his chest like a hammer, and Mister Deadman wasn't going to stop. Time and time again, he was slammed back against the next wall. Again and again, he cracked through the stone. Each time, his back screamed at him to make the pain stop. Air shot out of Alex's lungs until, finally, the force on his chest stopped, and he dropped to the ground.
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He didn't have the strength to catch himself. He fell face-first against the cold ground. He was alive, but every part of his back was shooting pain out at him like a live electric wire.
Somewhere in his mind, Alex had to admit he was making a poor showing with his new abilities. Sure, he wasn't used to them yet, and he still needed a lot of experimentation, but it was like he had forgotten the fundamentals. Normally, he would dart in and out of a fight, making sure that he only struck when he saw a vulnerability, but now, he was just standing there and taking hits he could avoid. He closed his eyes and rested his face against the cold metal beneath him.
Then he looked up. He was on metal. A smile crossed his face as he pushed his body up from the ground with a thought. He caught himself on unsteady feet and looked up at Mister Deadman, who rested on the top of his skeletal form.
Snip. Click.
The scorpion's body was too big for the space it was in, and Alex had fallen just far enough away that the pincers couldn't reach him yet. In front of him was an opening in the wall. The stone had been broken through to an apparent hole in a metal structure.
Alex should have realized it before, but he had been too busy focusing on the fight. The temple was structured like the entrance to an island core: a stone structure on the outside and metal on the inside.
His mind locked his plan into place as the pincers struggled to snap at him. With a mock salute, Alex retreated into the temple structure and further away from the pincers. Now, he just needed Mister Deadman to follow him in.
"Can't even get inside? How uncool," Alex said with a smile as he retreated into the shadows.
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Bargen ran through crumbling rock and debris. He held Erin underneath one arm as dodged between falling rocks. Outside, Mister Deadman's scorpion form ripped and tore at the outside of the temple, wrenching rock and metal with its claws. Bargen didn't want any part of that fight. He wasn't crazy. He wasn't going to waste his second life, even if he had to live it as a drim.
However, he did have to wonder at the woman he carried. She had fallen asleep in the middle of the fight, and nothing he could do would wake her up. A rock came down as he watched her, and Bargen heard it quick enough to dodge out of the way.
"How did I get wrapped up in all of this?" he yelled as he ran deeper into the temple complex.
Metal clanged against his boots as he ran, which wasn't as odd as it should have been. His men had been digging through both complexes for a long time now, and they had learned that the stones outside the temples were just coverings for what lay beneath. That was the larger part of the problem of digging deep. Not a lot of things could cut through that metal, and his men only had access to so many tools. Mister Deadman might have helped, but Mister Deadman saw their work as beneath him. It was uncool to do labor, according to Mister Deadman.
The brothers were no different. The work was for drim and drim alone. They would beat, shove, and even kill, but none of them would dare lift a finger to actually help at the dig. Bargen was used to it, but that didn't make him feel any better.
Just now, across from him, Mister Deadman was making progress against what had stalled their operation for years. They could have been done and at home if not for how the three bosses treated his people.
"Just survive the night," Bargen said, forcing down the anger that rose from his heart. "You can get as angry at them as you need to once everyone is safe."
A figure ran at him in the darkness, and Bargen skidded to a stop. He nearly dropped Erin as he turned to run, but he recognized the person. Alex ran at him, a smile plastered wide on his face. The man was beaten and bruised and missing his left arm, but he was smiling. Bargen gulped down a lump that had formed in his throat.
'Tin Man' Ortega was a dangerous man, and Bargen would do good to remember that.
"Other way!" Alex yelled. "He's coming."
Crash.
A large mass in the distance slammed against a wall to punctuate that statement. The sound of bone legs skittering on metal rang out through the room, and Bargen had to gulp down a second lump once he realized it was getting closer.
He turned, and he ran, easily staying ahead of Alex behind him.
"Once I get him to a more open room in here, get her out of sight," Alex said behind him. "I'll be able to take him down now."
"What makes you so sure about that?" Bargen yelled back, taking a fleeting glance behind.
Two black eyes gleamed in the darkness as the bone-white body of Mister Deadman's scorpion form exploded into the shafts of light trickling in from above. Bargen picked up his speed, breathing in and out faster as he forced even more out of his undead body.
"I've got an edge," Alex said. "Just keep her safe. She'll be in a hell of a mood when she wakes up!"
Bargen had no idea what 'a hell' was, but now wasn't the time to question it. Together, they ran down the hallway until a sudden tap on the shoulder at an intersection called on Bargen to turn right. Bargen had to spin to take the turn, but he did it without a second thought.
"This way," Alex said, taking off down the turn. "We need to take him deeper in!"
Click.
As they ran, lights began to turn on in the hallway. They weren't torchlights like Bargen was used to, but instead, they glowed a bright white along the ceiling down the hall. Bargen didn't dare look back to see Mister Deadman's form in the bright lights. He could tell with just his ears that Mister Deadman's scorpion body was gaining on them.
Skitter. Clatter. Click.
In a sudden burst of light, they came to an open room. Lights clicked on through the space, and Bargen had a quick view of his surroundings. Metal pillars ran the length of the room, which was as large as his entire ship. Lights ran the length of the ceiling from one side of the room to the other, and the entire thing appeared to be made of segmented pieces of metal.
"Get to a hiding spot," Alex said as he ran for the center of the room. "Stay out of sight!"
Bargen didn't have to be told twice. He ran across the side of the room, ducking behind a metal pillar with Erin in tow once he was a safe distance away from the entrance. Once he was relatively sure he was safe, he set her down next to a pillar before peering out the side to watch.
Mister Deadman's scorpion form ripped and tore through the metal entrance, tearing two gashes into the top of it to bend the metal back and away so that the entire form could fit through. He exploded out into the room, skeletal legs skittering to a stop as he rotated left and right.
Bargen gulped down one final lump in his throat as Alex walked out from the pillars to beckon Mister Deadman closer. He knew that the real fight was about to begin.