Chương 40: Fractured Rings

Three houses down from the Miller residence, Agent Cox sat in the same spot he'd occupied for the better part of nine months, watching a sedan speed up the street. Outside the target house, the vehicle skidded to a halt just long enough for Charlotte to dive into the backseat, the engine revving before the door was even shut, tires squealing against the pavement as the car peeled away from the curb to fishtail out of sight. Grabbing the dash mic, Cox keyed the radio.

"Command, Unit Four. Target house is clear. Charlotte just jumped into the Tetsuya vehicle. Given the timing with those Plaza feeds, odds are they're making a run for the hot zone." Static popped over the console speakers, followed by the voice of his shift lead.

"Copy, Four. Unit Two lost their targets five minutes ago, so that puts all the guardians in one basket. With the subjects blowing containment downtown, we need the parents secured. Stick to that tail. The National Guard has established a perimeter at the Plaza. We will box them in at the cordon and take everyone into custody."

"Copy that," Cox replied as he shifted into gear. With the northbound lanes of I-25 choked by scattered fender-benders and erratic drivers braking at the sight of the smoke plume ahead, Roland steered across the solid white line and onto the emergency shoulder, pushing the speedometer past ninety as he ran over the gravel and debris littering the breakdown lane.

"Exit 207A!" Gloria shouted, pointing at the green sign ahead.

"Take the Broadway-Lincoln exit, it shoots straight North!"

"I got it, I got it!" Roland barked. Motorists piling up near the exit ramp to reverse course forced him to shoot a narrow gap between a concrete barrier and a stalled delivery truck, blowing by a Colorado State Patrol Charger parked on the gore point. Red and blue strobes flashing, the cruiser sprang to life as the siren wailed, accelerating off the shoulder and swinging in tight to their bumper. Gloria pointed forward, fixing Roland with a hard stare.

"Don't you dare stop, Roland."

"Yeah, I know!" he yelled. With a shake of his head, he checked the distance.

"I'm not stopping!" After flicking his four-ways on, he waved a hand out the window in apology.

"Just please don't PIT me." He floored the accelerator at the bottom of the ramp. Past the intersection's red light, he swerved around an idling Prius, but before racing north up Lincoln, a three-lane stretch of asphalt devoid of traffic with the city fleeing in the opposite direction, the Charger pulled alongside them, shifting left, crowding Roland's side mirror.

"He's going to hit us!" Charlotte called out. A black Ford Taurus pulled alongside the State Trooper, the grill of the unmarked vehicle flashing with strobes as a voice broadcast over an external loudspeaker.

"Federal Agent! Disengage! I repeat, disengage!" Nose dipping, the Trooper fell back, following behind the federal vehicle.

"We're clear," Roland breathed. In the backseat, Charlotte sank against the upholstery, her chest heaving.

"I never thought I'd say this," she whispered.

"But thank God for the Feds." The crack of chelicerae snapping shut on empty air rang out as Kurisu dodged the fangs, but not the mass behind them. While the spider tackled him at highway speed, slamming its thorax into his chest, he caught the descending fangs that attempted to crush him while pinned against the face of the creature, its glistening eyes all seeming to peer into his soul. Concrete and asphalt crumbled around him when the arachnid shoved him backward through the pavement.

The edges of his vision darkening into a tunnel while a tingle crept over his scalp, his grip beginning to slip. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The spider bucked, heaving Kurisu down the block. He tumbled fifty yards past broken kiosks before smashing into the brick wall of a corner shop and sliding down to the pavement.

As Kurisu dragged himself up, his vision still swimming, the arachnid launched itself with such strength it shattered the asphalt, closing the distance in a fraction of a breath. Yelling, Kurisu thrust both palms forward against the empty air. Stopped dead, the spider hit a pressurized wall, the atmosphere warping into a disc between Kurisu's hands and the monster's face as the ground beneath him caved, carving a crater several feet deep.

The shockwave hammered the building behind him into a cloud of jagged chunks before expanding in a ring that blew out every window in a spray of glass. With a shift of his stance, Kurisu sent the abomination rebounding back with force equal to its initial charge. The Tsuchigumo crashed into the pharmacy across the intersection, snapping structural columns under its weight until the building crumbled atop the beast, burying it in a heap of twisted steel and brick. To his right, Ace shouted.

"It's down! Kurisu, hit it while it's stuck!" Eyes squeezed shut as he attempted to steady his breathing, Kurisu frantically ripped at his Teirin, repeatedly rebuffed as he tried to force the ring to open, to move, to do anything! His vision pulled to the wreckage by the clatter of rock a moment before the giant spider burst from its burial in a spray of gray chalk, sending tremors through the ground as it thrashed about to right itself, a choked sob escaping Kurisu's throat.

"Akero!" For a moment, the echo of his scream was the only sound to be heard as his Ki ruptured through his Keiraku.

"Move!" Kenji roared. A stray lightning bolt scorched the air, drowning out the shout. As if heralded by his cry, a storm of erratic lightning struck the ruined street, vitrifying the sidewalk in patches while a swirling vortex of dust sucked up chunks of rebar and concrete before spewing them back out as serrated lances of stone accompanied by numerous orbs of blue flame the size of a man that cratered and blew apart every surface they struck.

Over the buckled pavement, Kenji dove behind an overturned sedan as a lance of stone shattered the asphalt where he just stood. Diving to the dirt, Kellevra rolled under a volley of blue fireballs that detonated against adjacent storefronts. His back to a broken column, Ace sprinted to reposition, skidding to a halt to narrowly avoid a blade of wind when a concrete boulder was blown into a shower of gravel in front of him.

Pinwheeling his arms as he stood beneath the vortex, Kurisu threw blade after blade of wind at the prone creature. Pointed spires of granite cored up through the spider's back and out its upturned abdomen as one crescent sheared through a leg near its belly and separated a second limb through the middle in a spray of hemolymph. Carving a furrow in the street, another blade severed a third leg at the joint, and when the spider attempted to heave itself upright, a fourth leg snapped under the strain.

Lightning strikes thinning as the vortex slowed, Kurisu sent a faint current of air forward, managing one last swing of his arms before his muscles refused to answer. A cramp seized his Tanden while a vicious burn coursed through his Keiraku. Stomach clutched, he collapsed face-first onto the pavement, his vision blurring as the street fell into silence. Across the plaza, the Tsuchigumo dragged itself out of the ruins, missing three legs on its left side and one on its right, lurching forward in a shuddering limp.

Hemolymph spilled from the holes in its abdomen, leaving a trail across the asphalt.

"How the hell is this thing still alive?" Kenji yelled, thrusting his palms forward to hammer its face with detonating bursts of flame.

"It's weakened, light it up!" Stomping a boot into the cratered street, Kellevra hoisted a slab of pavement, fracturing it into shrapnel. With a thrust of his hands, he fired the debris like a Gatling gun, most of the rock crumbling to dust against the carapace.

"Stop aiming for the shell, Kell!" Ace hollered, hurling a bolt of concentrated flame at one of the beast's severed joints. Kellevra just scowled at his brother, shifting his fire until several pieces of stone found the open wounds in the spider's underbelly, piercing the soft tissue. Driven to a stumble by its unbalanced bulk, the spider retaliated with a spray of webbing that caught Ace and Kenji, the sticky silk knocking them back and pinning both boys against a nearby wall.

Kellevra, rushing forward to help, was caught in the chest by a leg, throwing him backward into the lobby of an office building. His vision fading, the Tsuchigumo dragged its broken body toward Kurisu with a hiss as it trailed acidic fluids across the pavement. His arms shaking and unresponsive as he attempted to lift his katana, the dripping fangs descended, blocking out the light as the darkness of the spider's mouth closed around him, the stench of rotting meat filling his nose.

The chelicerae began contracting to crush him in half.