The street was filled with rubble.
Whole buildings had collapsed around them, leaving only splintered beams jutting up into the sky like broken ribs.
Smoke and snow mingled in the air, and the ground was slick with blood, most of it Thorn's.
Tam stalked forward through the haze, golden eye blazing, water sloshing from his shoulders like liquid armor.
Every step left puddles in his wake, those puddles steaming faintly as if they carried the heat of his fury.
Thorn stood across from him, chest heaving, his bone armor cracked in half a dozen places.
His right arm hung limp, ribs punctured through the plating, every breath a knife twisting inside him. Still, he raised his guard, bone claws lengthening from his left hand.
"Still standing?" Tam's voice was quiet, more dangerous for its calm. "Then I'll break you again."
He blurred forward, propelled by an eruption of water at his heels.
