Chapter 576: Free Loader

Grey couldn’t feel any real killing intent coming from The Boundless as the enormous bastard rushed toward him, but that didn’t make him any less annoying.

Mauve immediately tried to step forward, only for Grey’s arm to tighten around her shoulder and hold her firmly in place, because whatever intentions The Boundless had, throwing Mauve into a Dominion Class fight without the tools to deal with one wasn’t happening.

Before she could argue, a low groan came from behind them, and Grey looked over his shoulder as a grin slowly spread across his face.

Brad was finally waking up.

Grey slipped his arm away from Elowen just long enough to hook one foot beneath Brad’s stomach, then kicked his heel upward with absolutely no consideration for how recently the bastard had nearly died.

Brad let out a startled yell as he was launched through the air directly toward the charging Guardian, his arms pinwheeling for balance while he tried to understand why waking up had apparently involved immediately becoming a projectile.

"HEY!" he screamed out.

Grey clicked his tongue. "You’ve been freeloading this whole time, go do something."

Brad didn’t get the chance to tell him to fuck off, because The Boundless had already raised one enormous palm toward him.

The hand seemed to expand until it covered practically everything in Brad’s sight, the pressure behind it making the space ahead feel impossibly wide and leaving him with the bizarre impression that no direction existed where he could actually escape.

Apparently the fat bastard’s title wasn’t just compensating for something after all, because the palm genuinely felt boundless.

Brad’s instincts moved before his thoughts caught up, his body twisting through the air as the heavy hammer appeared in his hands and swung outward.

BOOM.

Hammer met palm, and instead of Brad being flattened into paste, The Boundless was launched backward even faster than he had arrived, his enormous body crashing through the air while Brad dropped onto his feet and stared after him in complete confusion.

"Hm?" Brad looked down at the hammer in his hands, then turned it slightly as though he was trying to remember where the hell it had come from.

"Look at him," Grey said, shaking his head. "Exactly like a bumbling muscle head."

Brad pursed his lips and finally noticed Grey standing with Mauve and Elowen. "Watch it."

Grey nodded sagely. "You’re right, you’re not much of a muscle head anymore."

Brad blinked, clearly offended before he even understood what Grey meant, then looked down at himself and finally noticed just how gaunt his body had become.

His eyes widened as he grabbed at his arms, checked his chest, and stared down at legs that had once taken years of miserable gym sessions to build.

"My muscles!"

Grey choked on his own breath and immediately started laughing hard enough that another cough followed, blood splattering from his lips while Mauve hurriedly steadied him.

Brad stared at him with growing horror before his expression flattened. "Well shit, you look like death."

"Speak for yourself, toothpick," Grey wheezed. "I’m bigger than you now."

Brad grimaced like someone had just told him his family died.

He had spent far too many hours in the gym building that frame for some stupid hammer trial to eat it all away, but before he could properly mourn his gains, an enraged roar dragged his attention back toward The Boundless. The Guardian’s already enormous body began expanding again, his belly, shoulders, and limbs swelling until he loomed nearly twice as tall as before, then he charged back toward Brad with enough force to shake the catacombs beneath every step.

Brad tightened his grip around the hammer. "Fuck off."

The weapon smashed directly into The Boundless’s belly, and the fat rippled outward in enormous waves like an ocean caught in the middle of a tsunami.

Somehow, though, the Guardian held his ground this time, his feet sinking into the stone before both hands came around from opposite sides and slapped toward Brad’s head with enough force to crush a normal Dominion Class’ skull between them.

BANG.

Mauve nearly screamed.

The splatter of brain matter everyone expected never came, because Brad was still standing between The Boundless’s palms, his ears ringing and his expression slightly dazed.

But, The Boundless looked even more confused than Brad did, staring at his own hands as though they had betrayed him personally, while trying to understand why the skinny low Class bastard between them still possessed a head.

Mauve stared with wide eyes, the shock quickly giving way to something far less pleasant. Brad had barely awakened and somehow he was already standing toe-to-toe with a Dominion Class Guardian, which left one ugly thought crawling through her mind despite how much she hated herself for having it.

Was she falling behind even Brad now?

Grey’s hand settled onto her shoulder, and his voice lowered enough that only she and Elowen could hear him.

"He can fight a Dominion Class because that’s a Dominion Class weapon in his hands, you don’t have one, that’s the only reason I’m not letting you fight. In terms of foundation and potential, there’s barely any difference between the two of you anymore, so when we get you a Dominion Class weapon, you’ll be just as strong, I promise."

Mauve looked up at him, but the reassurance didn’t settle the knot twisting inside her chest.

She had decided long ago that she would follow Grey, yet that had never meant she wanted to spend the rest of her life depending on him, because she hated being at anyone else’s mercy regardless of how kind that person might be.

Grey had given her the Blood Witch’s Tome, saved her life more times than she cared to count, and now even the solution to her falling behind was apparently going to be him finding her another treasure.

Amunet wasn’t here either, but Mauve could still feel her through Ma Famille, which meant the Egyptian Princess was alive and almost certainly doing something important somewhere else. Brad was already standing in front of them taking blows from a Dominion Class Guardian, Grey had carried them through the Culling while destroying himself in the process, and Mauve couldn’t shake the suffocating feeling that she was the only one who hadn’t done anything that mattered.

Brad stumbled backward from another exchange, shaking his head to clear the ringing in his ears, when a thunderous impact suddenly came from the other battlefield.

The Eternal was launched through the catacombs with blood pouring from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, his gaze already vacant by the time his body struck the ground.

Xerchen had killed him, leaving only The Radiant and The Forsaken fighting him while The Boundless remained occupied with Brad.

Mauve’s gaze sharpened.

She raised one hand toward The Eternal.

Pain ripped through her heart the instant she reached for his blood, the Dominion power still lingering inside it bucking violently against her control and sending backlash through her body.

Blood immediately began leaking from Mauve’s own nose and eyes, but she didn’t make a sound, her fingers only curling tighter as her expression hardened.

This time, she wasn’t waiting for Grey to give her anything.