The Rune Howler dropped Mugen.
He struck the stone shoulder-first. Pain flashed through him so violently that the chamber vanished behind a sheet of white. When sight returned, it came in pieces: his blood spreading between cracks, one useless arm, and Tamura standing across the room with steam rising from his skin.
The younger boy's head hung low.
His fists shook.
Not with fear.
With rage too large for his body.
"T-Tamura…"
No answer.
The Howler turned all six eyes toward the boy. Its body lowered. Caution replaced hunger, but instinct would not allow it to retreat from something smaller.
It attacked.
Tamura moved at the same instant.
They collided in the center of the chamber.
The sound was not a boom. It was deeper—a blunt compression that Mugen felt through the floor and inside his broken shoulder. Tamura's fist struck the beast's muzzle while its jaws closed around his upper arm.
Teeth pierced flesh.
Tamura did not pull away.
He stepped closer.
That single choice stole the Howler's leverage. Instead of allowing it to shake him, he trapped his bitten arm between its jaws and seized the upper snout with his free hand. His fingers sank through coarse fur. The beast tried to wrench its head sideways.
Tamura's feet slid, carving two burning trails in the stone.
Then his blood touched its tongue.
The Howler recoiled.
Smoke burst from its mouth. Flesh hissed around the embedded teeth. Its inner gums blistered as Tamura's blood spilled over them, hot enough to cook whatever it touched.
The beast released him with a shriek.
Tamura's arm hung torn and wet. For a breath, Mugen saw pale bone beneath the muscle.
Then the wound tightened.
Severed fibers trembled and pulled toward one another. Bleeding slowed. Skin crept over the deepest tear, leaving angry seams behind.
Mugen forgot his own pain.
"What the hell…"
Tamura rolled his shoulder. Something popped into place.
He charged again.
The Howler had learned from the blood. It kept its jaws closed and used its greater reach, turning sideways as it swept its tail through the space between them. Tamura raised both arms.
The spikes struck like a row of hammers.
He flew through a pillar.
Dust drowned the chamber. Broken stone rolled past Mugen's knee. He tried to call out, but breathing pulled at the punctures in his side.
The rubble shifted.
Tamura climbed out.
His left forearm bent slightly wrong. One eye had begun swelling. Blood ran from his hairline and evaporated before reaching his jaw.
The Howler growled.
Tamura growled back.
The sound was too low for a child.
They circled.
For the first time, Tamura watched the beast instead of rushing it. Its front-left paw landed lighter than the others where Mugen's shadow spear had cut the joint. Its tail dragged for half a heartbeat after each sweep. The runes beneath its fur brightened just before it attacked.
The lower eyes blinked first.
Tamura moved.
He slipped inside the next claw instead of away from it. Talons carved four lines across his chest, but the blow lost most of its force at close range. Tamura buried his fist beneath the Howler's throat.
Air burst from the beast in a strangled cough.
He grabbed its fur and drove his forehead into its nose.
Cartilage cracked.
The Howler staggered, eyes watering. Tamura followed with a punch to the wounded joint, then another. His third blow came too high. The rune-armored shoulder turned it aside.
The beast punished the mistake.
A paw struck Tamura across the face and spun him to the floor. Before he could recover, the Howler landed on his chest. Its claws pinned his shoulders. Its jaws opened above his head.
Tamura thrust both forearms between them.
Teeth sank deep.
Pain finally tore a scream from him.
The Howler pressed down. Bones creaked inside his arms. Its breath washed over him, hot and foul, while blood filled its mouth again.
Tamura pushed back.
The muscles in his small shoulders trembled. Flame gathered beneath his skin and followed the path of his veins. When his blood brightened, the Howler's confidence vanished.
Its mouth began to burn from within.
Smoke curled between its teeth. Its tongue blackened. It tried to release him, but Tamura hooked his fingers behind its lower fangs.
Now he held it there.
The beast screamed around his arms.
Tamura screamed back.
His flames surged.
The Howler tore itself free, losing part of a gum around one hooked tooth. Both rolled apart. Both rose bleeding.
Neither understood surrender.
Mugen forced his good palm against the floor. A shadow crawled toward the beast's rear legs, thin as thread. He could barely hold its shape. Every pulse of Verdance made the bite in his shoulder throb.
"Left," he rasped.
Tamura's eyes did not move.
"Its left leg, idiot."
The Howler rushed.
Mugen tightened the shadow.
It caught the wounded paw for less than a second. That was enough. The beast's stride broke. Its chest dipped. Tamura pivoted outside its main jaws, caught the base of one smaller eye with his elbow, and drove the creature into the wall.
Stone fractured around its skull.
The move cost him. The Howler's hind claw opened his thigh. He stumbled, and its tail struck him in the ribs before he could guard.
Something broke.
Tamura crashed beside Mugen.
For one brief moment they lay shoulder to shoulder, both staring at the ceiling.
Mugen coughed. "Great first mission."
Tamura turned his head. Crimson burned where violet should have been.
"You talk too much."
Relief hit Mugen harder than it should have.
He was still in there.
"And you get bitten too much."
The Howler charged before Tamura could answer.
Mugen drove both heels into the floor and pushed himself sideways. Tamura rolled in the other direction. The beast struck empty stone between them.
Tamura seized its tail behind the final cluster of spikes.
The Howler dragged him several feet, but he refused to release it. Fire ran down his arms and into the coarse fur. The beast twisted to bite. Tamura used the turn, planted one foot against its flank, and pulled the tail farther than the joint wished to move.
The Howler howled.
Its injured leg buckled.
Tamura climbed onto its back.
The beast threw itself into the nearest pillar. Stone and pain exploded across Tamura's ribs. His grip loosened but did not break. It slammed him again. A third time.
Each impact should have ended him.
Each time his body rebuilt enough to continue.
Mugen watched torn skin tighten. Watched crooked bones crawl closer to their proper shape. Watched the damage remain even as Tamura's body denied it the right to finish him.
Regeneration had a cost. Mugen could see it now. Tamura's breaths came shorter. The fire consumed whatever his healing required, and the boy was burning through himself to stay standing.
"Tamura, stop wasting it!"
No response.
The Howler hurled him loose. He struck the floor and rolled to the far wall.
The beast did not pursue.
It stood with its chest heaving, mouth ruined, left leg trembling. Tamura rose opposite it with blood, burns, and claw marks covering nearly every part of him.
Two wounded creatures faced each other across a chamber that had become an oven.
The blood on Tamura's face boiled away.
Crimson sparks drifted from his fingers.
The stone beneath his feet began to glow.
Until now, each burst of fire had faded after an attack.
This one continued growing.
The Howler saw it.
So did Mugen.
Tamura clenched his fists, and the air bent around him.
The flames were no longer answering his anger.
They were feeding it.