Chapter 177: Can You Dance?

『"The follow-through is everything."』

As if confirming those feelings, the sound of flesh dragging itself back together reached them. Meat and bone flowed like liquid, knitting themselves back into place.

The tattoo on his chest spread further, new script-like patterns crawling across his skin as his body adapted to the attack. ℯℯ𝑙.

When the Martyr stood again, his grin hadn’t diminished at all. "Good one!" he said, genuine appreciation in his voice. "What else you got?"

"Shit," Dante breathed, his usual cockiness faltering slightly.

Maya’s light constructs lashed out, dozens of golden chains wrapping around the Martyr’s limbs and binding him in place with enough force to restrain a Tyrant.

He flexed his muscles, and the chains shattered like glass, scattering into harmless sparks of light.

Then his gaze shifted to Ethan. "What about you? Can you dance?"

Malachi lowered his stance and charged again.

Just like the three times before, Dante immediately struck another chord.

The sonic blast erupted toward him, but this time Malachi didn’t try to dodge. He thrust one hand forward, palm out, and pushed directly into the wave.

His feet dug trenches into the earth as the force drove him backward, but he kept moving. "Come on, bitch!" he shouted through gritted teeth. "We’ve already done this dance!"

He kept pushing, forcing his way through the sonic pressure one step at a time. "So what’s the verdict, bitch? Can you dance or not?"

Ethan responded by stretching out his arm. From that simple gesture, a forcefield materialized inside the Martyr, encircling his heart before compressing around it.

Malachi suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Bitch—" He grabbed his chest and coughed up blood, but somehow kept advancing.

"You’ve gotta be kidding me," Ethan said, throwing up three layers of force barriers that should have stopped anything short of a World Forger’s direct assault.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what Malachi was.

He went through them like they were made of paper, each punch shattering another barrier in sequence.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Malachi wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned. "That all you got?"

Hiro suddenly turned and sprinted away.

Malachi glanced after him. "Look at him go," he said dismissively. "Fast one’s a bitch."

He didn’t realize what Hiro was doing. Hiro wasn’t running away. He was building distance.

Malachi took another step toward the others, shifting his focus away from the retreating Hiro.

Then—

BOOM!

Hiro came rushing back. He struck Malachi square in the jaw with enough force to lift him completely off the ground.

Malachi spun through the air, completing a full 360-degree rotation before crashing onto his back and carving a shallow trench through the dirt.

Hiro shook and wiggled his fingers. "Goddamn..." He raised his head and stared at Malachi.

For a moment, Malachi didn’t move. Then his fingers twitched, and he slowly pushed himself upright.

He rubbed his jaw, testing it from side to side. "Okay..." He looked at Hiro, and his grin returned. "That one had some fucking weight behind it."

Hiro didn’t respond. He was already gone. Malachi barely had time to raise his head before Hiro appeared behind him, phasing almost his entire body into the ground.

Only Malachi’s head and neck remained above ground. He looked down at himself and grinned.

"I don’t think that’s gonna hold him for long," Hiro said. "If we’re leaving, it’s now or never."

"Fast bitch is correct," Malachi said. The tattoo visible around his neck began to shift, its pattern changing as cracks spread through the ground beneath him.

Maya looked at Hiro and nodded. "There’s an Alpha wristband in transport. We just have to get Jerry there."

Hiro nodded and rushed over to Jerry, scooping him up. At that moment, the entire landscape began to rupture as though an earthquake had struck.

"I’ll try to slow him down!" Sophia stretched out her hands. Her helmet materialized, and a golden-yellow glow enveloped Malachi as she tried to restrain him.

Understandably, it wasn’t enough. Not even close.

Malachi burst out of the ground in a single explosive motion, tearing through Sophia’s telekinetic restraint as though it were nothing more than a thin sheet of glass.

The earth shook violently as cracks raced outward from beneath his feet, splitting the ground in every direction.

One of the cracks tore toward the transport aircraft, the earth collapsing beneath its landing gear and sending the massive vessel lurching dangerously toward a widening chasm.

At the same time, Hiro stumbled as a slab of uneven earth erupted beneath his feet.

"Whoa—!" He lost his footing, and he and Jerry tumbled down the slope together.

Hiro barely managed to push himself upright before a shadow fell over him. When he looked up... Malachi was already dropping toward him.

Hiro’s eyes widened, and his body immediately began to vibrate.

Even then, the Martyr’s foot still came down.

Hiro went intangible just as the stomp reached him. But Malachi’s descent didn’t stop. His foot slammed down directly onto Hiro’s leg.

CRACK!

"AHHH!" Hiro screamed as the impact shattered the ground beneath them, sending another violent shockwave through the battlefield.

Malachi looked down at him. "Where’d you think you were going, bitch?"

Hiro clutched his broken leg, gritting his teeth through the pain, his accelerated healing already repairing the damage of the bones protruding from his flesh.

Malachi crouched slightly. "And your little phasing trick ain’t gonna work this time."

Amara’s eyes widened. He’d hit Hiro. Even while he was intangible. She didn’t have time to think about how. She just swung.

Angel’s Bane carved toward Malachi’s head, forcing him to lean backward as the blade passed inches from his face.

Dante appeared beside Amara, guitar already in hand, and struck a chord.

The sonic blast erupted. Malachi twisted away from it, then immediately ducked beneath another slash from Amara.

"Hey, that’s a good one," he said, grinning as he weaved between their attacks. "Sword’s got a real nice swing to it."

Amara gritted her teeth and attacked again.

Meanwhile, Sophia rushed toward Hiro. "You okay?"

Hiro took quick, deep breaths. "Does it look like I’m okay?!"

Sophia crouched and grabbed him beneath the arms. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad does it hurt?"

Hiro clenched his teeth as she helped him up. "What do you think?"

Sophia nodded thoughtfully. "I’d say a six."

Hiro stared at her. "A six?!"

"You’re talking, aren’t you?"

"That doesn’t mean—"

"Keep moving!" She hauled him toward the transport.

Ethan had already reached Jerry and lifted the unconscious Anchor over his shoulder.

The aircraft was tilting dangerously now, one side hanging over the widening chasm. "Move!" Ethan shouted, creating a platform beneath it to keep the transport from falling.

Behind them, Amara and Dante continued their assault.

Malachi danced between their attacks with an almost insulting ease.

Amara swung. He ducked.

Dante struck a chord. Malachi twisted aside.

Another slash came for his neck, and he leaned backward.

"Oooh," he said, grinning. "That was a good one."

Amara’s eyes narrowed. "Shut up!" She swung again.

Dante suddenly plucked a string, and the noise around Amara vanished. Her next attack made no sound.

The sudden silence threw Malachi off for just a fraction of a second, but that was all she needed.

Amara traced the lines of her attack through the air. They appeared around Malachi’s body, and she followed them with her blade.

The sword cut through his forearm, splitting Malachi’s flesh open as the blade sank halfway through.

Amara’s eyes widened. She’d nearly taken his entire arm off.

Before she could pull the sword free, Malachi grinned. His heel slammed into her torso, and the impact launched her backward.

Dante vanished and reappeared behind her, catching her before she hit the ground. He steadied her. "Hey."

"I’m good," she said, breathless.

Dante grinned. "Always remember the follow-through."

Then both of them noticed it. Something was wrong. Malachi’s severed flesh wasn’t moving. The wound wasn’t closing. There was no regeneration.

More importantly, his tattoos weren’t shifting beneath his skin, and no new patterns were forming.

Malachi looked down at his arm, his grin slowly disappearing. He tilted his head. Then he looked at Amara, and his expression hardened.

"Bitch..." he whispered. This time there was no humor in his voice.

"Enough jerking around." The scripts covering his body suddenly ignited. The four bars on his neck also flared with energy.

Amara’s eyes widened as Malachi vanished.

He reappeared directly beside Dante, his fingers curled into a fist. The movement was so fast that the air itself compressed around his hand.

Then his fist tightened.

BOOM!

The sheer force of the contraction unleashed a shockwave, and Dante’s eyes widened.

"Shit—"