The oxygen returned shortly and I felt my head start to clear. My eyes narrowed against the wind and I felt a seething rage. I could still see the Atlas, clawing at the stump of his leg. He was probably out of action for the moment. Probably. Which still left me with the Rudra and Amaterasu.
I could still feel the cold chills that the Rudra had given me with those disease arrows, whatever they were. I flew hard left and took myself out of the center of their sky, hoping they hadn’t seen me. I came low, around the corner of the warehouse, and saw them both near the wreckage of the town car. Amaterasu had Janus slung over her shoulder, and I didn’t have to wonder very hard where the agents were that I’d sent with him. I could see at least one corpse near the wreckage of the car, blood seeping across the pavement.
Rudra and Amaterasu looked deep in conversation. They were heading back to the warehouse. Amaterasu’s clothing was torn and burned where she’d used her powers. She wasn’t even bothering to look around; I guess she figured I’d run off after the fight. Which made sense, because she probably thought my recovery time from the injuries she’d dealt was best measured somewhere in hours or days, not seconds.
It was going to be the last mistake she ever made.
I sped sideways, looping around them at top speed. Within seconds I was directly behind them. They were spaced just far enough apart that I couldn’t get them both in one, but that was okay. I didn’t want it to be all that quick, honestly.
I sent myself to high velocity and flying side kicked Rudra from behind at top speed. I landed the blow at the small of his back and heard the compression from impact break vertebra all the way up the line before he flew forward as if I’d hit him with a semi truck. I didn’t know if I’d killed him, but I’d definitely put him out of the fight, and that was enough for the moment.
I spun on Amaterasu and she dropped Janus like he was nothing. Which he wasn’t. He was actually either a hostage or an impediment to her fighting, depending on how you looked at it; it seemed her instincts ran to defending herself before thinking to barter with the life of the man I’d come here to rescue. I could respect that.
I mean, I was still going to kill her, but I’d at least try to make it quick.
She started to flare and I interrupted her with a punch to the face that would have put a hole in concrete. I actually felt my knuckles break upon impact, but Wolfe knitted them back together for me as I followed up with an inside elbow to the back of her head. It would have killed a human, but it just knocked her to her knees.
I saw the glow start on her skin again, and I kicked her in the chest hard enough to send her flying a few paces away. It was a sloppy kick on my part, rushed, but it killed the glow for a moment. Mom would definitely not have approved of the technique, but I was all about getting the job done at this point.
“Aldkngh ahhawa—” She said, her jaw moving unnaturally, as she got back to her knees.
“Can’t understand you,” I said, launching into a kick that hit her in the sternum and sent her flying. That one wasn’t sloppy. I could hear her ribs break upon impact. All of them, maybe.
Amaterasu lay flat on her back on the pavement, head hanging half off the curb onto the street. We’d been battling in the dirt of a vacant lot outside the warehouse, but now we were on the street beside it. She was bleeding from a half dozen different places—eyes, nose, mouth, assorted cuts—and her eyes were glazed. I sauntered over to her, trying to be a little cautious and not just cocky. Probably failed at the latter.
“Hey there, bright lady,” I said, and grabbed her by the slightly charred remains of her blouse. I lifted her up and was surprised at how light she was. I hadn’t noticed how thin she was while she was trying to kill me. Probably because she’d blinded me. “I’d say, ‘Let’s talk,’ but I think your jaw is broken and will be for a while, so why don’t you just—”
She went from dazed to focused in less than the space of a second. Her hands leapt up and landed on both sides of my head, clapping me hard. Not hard enough to break anything but hard enough to jostle me. I kept my grip on her, even though I stumbled, and met her gaze. Her eyes were glowing bright, and her skin was already pulsating with a soft light.
“Frckng diiii—” she started to say, blood running down her chin and boiling as it ran. I got the meaning before she finished.
I spun and threw her, as hard as I could, toward the entry door to the warehouse. I was only thirty yards away, and she impacted just inside the threshold. I could see her, still glowing, as her body struck the ground and rolled inside.