The crawling hands ignored Kael and rushed the survivors.
Pale fingers tapped across the walls and ceiling, searching for sleeves, wrists, and the pieces of cloth people used to hold one another. Several dropped toward Orrek because two injured survivors still leaned against him.
TAP! TAP! TAP!
Vaela cut the first hand before it reached Renn’s count cloth.
SLASH!
Both halves struck the floor. The fingers kept crawling until she pinned each palm with her blade.
"Break the circle in the center," she called. "The fingers stop when the mark breaks."
Jaro kicked another hand away from his ankle. "I would have preferred to learn that before it touched my boot."
Orrek could not retreat without dropping the people beneath his arms. One survivor had a bleeding foot, while the other could barely see through eyes burned by ash. His injured shoulder shook as he held them upright.
A hand leaped from the wall.
HISS!
Orrek struck it with his forearm.
THUD!
The finger blades cut him before the hand hit the stone. Blood ran across his palm, but he kept hold of both sleeves.
Thin white lines appeared in the air. One stretched from Orrek’s bleeding hand to the mark on Kael’s palm. More lines formed from Renn’s count cloth, Vaela’s weapon hand, Jaro’s grip on a survivor’s belt, and the cracked bowl held by the boy.
Renn stared at them. "The lines appear whenever we hold somebody or something. It is using Kael’s mark to reach every grip around him."
Vaela shifted her blade to the other hand. "Warn the person beside you before changing your hold. We move our hands together, or the injured will fall before the blades reach us."
A crawling hand struck the cracked bowl.
CLANG!
The boy flinched, and his fingers loosened. A second hand jumped toward his wrist as the bowl began to fall.
Kael caught the hand in midair. Its fingers bent around his marked palm, driving two blades through the old cuts.
SNAP!
He folded the wrist backward. Pain shot through the white lines, and seven survivors cried out as if the blades had entered their hands instead of his.
The boy almost dropped the bowl again. Kael caught it with his free hand and pushed it against the child’s chest.
"Hold it close with both arms," he said. "The pain is coming through me, not from the bowl. Keep your fingers away from the rim while I break the line."
The boy swallowed and wrapped both arms around it. "I can do that. Please make it stop before my hands forget what they are supposed to feel."
Kael crushed the crawling hand.
SPLAT!
Black fluid covered his knuckles. The line leading to the boy flickered but remained, while other hands gathered above Orrek and Vaela.
The Sovereign Root opened behind Kael’s sight. He chose the speed needed to reach each attack before the white lines carried pain into the formation.
Velocity Movement Authority.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ HOSTILE PRESSURE DETECTED: Grip-Hook Contact Bite
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +1
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +1 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Velocity Movement Authority -> 37
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Contact Intercept Surge Confirmed
≫ UNALLOCATED EXISTENTIAL SHARDS: 0
====================================================================
The new point shortened the time between seeing a hand move and reaching the person it threatened.
Kael crossed the corridor in three steps and drove his shoulder through the hands gathering over Orrek.
BOOM!
White fingers broke against his body and scattered across the floor. He stamped on the line entering Orrek’s palm.
CRUNCH!
The tile cracked, and a thin channel beneath it burst apart. Kael drove his heel through the opening before the line could reform.
BOOM!
The white line snapped. Orrek gasped, tightened his hold on both survivors, and moved them behind a fallen servant.
"Both of them are still standing," he said. "The shoulder is nearly finished, so I need cover before the next pull reaches it."
Kael pointed toward the broken body. "Use it as cover and keep the injured below its chest. Renn will warn you if anything reaches the wall."
Vaela moved beside Kael. She cut three hands from the tiles and crushed their palm marks under her heel.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
"The lines need an unbroken path," she said. "Damage the channel beneath them, and the pain cannot travel back to the group."
Renn changed the way he counted. Numbers had helped him keep panic under control, but names now gave the survivors something the white lines could not confuse with hands and objects.
"Mara, Tolin, Sej, Nera," he called, touching each person or pointing when he could not reach. "Answer me and tell the next person where you are."
Voices passed down the formation. Some were weak, some came through coughs, and the bowl boy answered by striking the unbroken side of his bowl with one finger.
TINK!
Jaro heard the names and understood what Renn needed. He held the older woman’s belt with both hands and raised his voice. "Nera is beside me, and I have no intention of giving the wall permission to borrow her. Sova has the plate. The boy still has his bowl."
The white lines trembled as people changed their grips without breaking the formation. A sleeve passed from one hand to another. Two survivors supported Orrek from below the injured shoulder. Sova kept the broken plate between the children and the crawling hands.
A mass of pale fingers poured from the far end of the corridor. Dozens of hands moved over one another, their marked palms flashing whenever they found a wrist or strip of cloth.
TAP! TAP! TAP!
Orrek unwound the chain with his uninjured hand and passed the loose end around his waist. He could not raise the damaged shoulder, but he could still turn his hips and drag the links across the floor.
"I can sweep the first row away from the cover," he said. "The pull will leave my right side open, so keep anything on the wall from reaching the people behind me."
Renn watched the approaching hands instead of answering immediately. Their fingers struck the tiles in groups of three before each leap.
"They jump after the third tap," he said. "Orrek, pull when I raise my hand. Sova, lower the plate when the chain passes."
The first row reached the broken bodies.
TAP! TAP! TAP!
Renn raised his hand. Orrek twisted at the waist and tore the chain across the corridor.
CLANG!
Links caught wrists, snapped fingers, and swept six crawling hands into the cracked channel. Sova lowered the plate before the chain returned, while Jaro pulled Nera’s feet out of its path.
A hand survived the sweep and climbed the links toward Orrek. Vaela trapped it against the floor with her heel and cut through the marked palm.
SLASH!
The fingers released. Orrek recovered the chain without lifting his shoulder, and the survivors behind him remained covered.
Kael stepped between the wave and the survivors. Every white line entered the floor through the same cracked section of tile.
He drove his heel into it.
BOOM!
The floor burst open. Red channels and thin cords snapped upward, spraying hot fluid across the corridor. The first crawling hands fell into the hole, and the rest stumbled over them.
Kael seized a fistful by their wrists and smashed them against the wall.
BANG!
Marked palms split. Fingers broke and hung loose.
He struck the wall again.
BANG!
The white lines began to snap one after another.
TWANG! TWANG! TWANG!
Pain released the formation. Several survivors sagged into the people beside them, while two caught Orrek’s waist before his shoulder gave way.
Vaela pulled the boy and his bowl away from the broken channel. Renn counted every person again while Jaro and Sova dragged the cover plate across the opening.
"All twenty-one are here," Renn said. His damaged voice failed on the last word, so he raised both hands to show the count remained complete.
The last crawling hand clung to the ceiling. Its palm opened and cast an image across the wall.
Kael’s right arm appeared first. Pale rings marked the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. More light spread until the image showed his entire body, with rings around the knees, hips, jaw, spine, and throat.
Jaro stared at it. "The hand was not enough for them. They are marking every joint they think can be separated."
Kael let the crushed hands fall.
SPLAT!
The image changed whenever he moved. Each ring brightened around the joint carrying his next action, showing the enemy had begun studying how his whole body worked together.
A wet pulling sound came from beyond the bend.
SQUELCH!
Metal scraped over bone. Something large dragged itself upright inside the next chamber.
The survivors changed their holds before moving. Cloth covered wounded palms, and shoulders supported people whose fingers shook too badly to trust. Every grip changed again before another white line could settle.
Kael waited until the formation was ready and walked around the bend.
A round chamber opened ahead. White ribs surrounded a pulsing organ at its center, and thick cords ran from it to hooks hanging along the walls. The organ turned inside its cage when Kael entered.
Orrek rested his injured arm against his chest. "I cannot lift the shoulder again without losing it. I can still use the chain from my waist if the hooks come near the others."
Vaela wiped black fluid from her blade. "Keep the arm bound and stay with Renn. Kael and I will find where those cords enter the cage before anything reaches the formation."
The pale rings moved across Kael’s projected body, following his hands, feet, spine, and jaw.
His marked palm burned as the rings spread beyond it. The enemy had marked his entire body for severance.