The underground throne room trembled with the force of our first clash.
My claws sparked against his concrete arm, tail snapping across his ribs. His counterpunch landed like a landslide, flinging me across broken tiles. The impact rattled my bones. Dust poured from the ceiling like the city itself was choking on the fight.
I groaned, rolling to my feet, body already throbbing with bruises.
Su-Bin straightened, every inch of him wrong—his body rippling like clay, skin sprouting stone one moment, crackling with fire the next. He wasn't a man anymore. He was a stitched-together mess of stolen lives.
"You think you can take me on, freak?" His jaw jutted as concrete formed along it, teeth grinding like rock on rock. One fist blazed to life, molten and merciless. "I built this city's defenses with my blood. Without me, Seoul would've burned on day one!"
I wiped the blood off my mouth with the back of my hand. Pain lanced through my ribs every time I breathed, but I still smirked.
