Chapter 116: Failed
Kenchi’s laid-back posture was gone, replaced by a low, combat-ready crouch. The air around Fena was not just heavy; it was a physical weight, a suffocating pressure that promised death. The black lines on her skin pulsed with a sickly green light, a visible manifestation of her life force burning away.
’Plan A, wait her out, that’s a bust,’ he thought, his hand now gripping the handle of the massive axe on his back. ’She’s running on a timer, but the power output is insane. This isn’t a fight anymore; it’s a disaster zone. One hit from whatever she’s cooking up, and I’m a red smear on the floorboards.’
Fena raised a hand, and the wood of the house itself screamed. The floorboards warped and twisted, a dozen massive, sharpened splinters the size of spears shooting up toward him. They were not just wood; they were coated in that same black-green energy, a physical form of her rage.
Kenchi stomped his foot down hard, shattering the floorboard beneath him and using the momentum to push himself backward, right through the weakened wall of the house. He landed outside on the balcony in a shower of splintered wood.
The spears of corrupted wood shot past where he had been and slammed into the ceiling, turning the wood black and rotten on contact.
"You can’t run, filth!"
"Not running," he called back, pulling the huge, double-bladed axe from his back with a loud shing. The weapon was absurdly large, a slab of polished, dark metal that looked like it could split a mountain. "Just getting some breathing room. Your house is a mess, by the way. You should really get that looked at."
’Keep her talking. Keep her angry.’
Her rage was so intense it was a visible, shimmering heat haze around her. She didn’t bother with the door. She walked straight through the wall of her house as if it were made of paper, stepping out onto the balcony. The black-green energy swirled around her, lifting her a few inches off the ground.
"I will shatter your bones and use them as chimes to sing of my people’s sorrow!"
She thrust both hands forward. Two thick, writhing vines, not of wood, but of pure, solidified life-force energy, shot from her palms. They moved like angry serpents, twisting through the air as they came for him.