Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 22 of 51

The gauntlet's third burst came out weaker than the first two. Zeph felt the drop in his knuckles before he saw it in the runes. The pink line along his index finger stuttered and went dark for half a second, then caught again. The winged creature landed on the step below him and dragged its clawed foot up to the next slab. Kaine stood in the open doorway of the ancient hall behind him. His yellow eyes tracked the runes on Zeph's wrist. "Your tool is failing." "I know." "Chain tighter. Do not lean on the metal." Zeph opened both doors inside his chest, Refusal and Stillness, and released them in a short punch. The gauntlet flared orange. The creature's head snapped sideways and it slid back one step. He opened the doors again. The gauntlet flared, but slower this time. A hairline crack ran along the seam above his thumb. He felt the metal warm against his skin in a way it never had before. The creature swung a wing. Zeph ducked under it and drove his fist into the joint at its shoulder. The gauntlet cracked further. A rune on the back of his hand went black and stayed black. He stepped back onto the top slab. His plan set itself in one breath. He would spend the gauntlet on purpose. One last push, aimed to end the fight, before the metal broke on its own and left him with nothing but a dead weight on his arm. "Kaine. Get behind the door." Kaine did not move. "You have one hit in that thing. Maybe." "I know." Zeph held Keji's face in his mind the way he had in the chamber. The old man's white beard. The tight mouth. The hand that had pulled the gauntlet off his wrist weeks ago and told him he no longer needed it. Zeph refused the memory. Not as a payment. As fuel. He poured the refusal down his arm and into the failing metal. The gauntlet screamed. Every rune lit at once, white, and Zeph drove his fist forward with both doors open in one long burst instead of a chain. The air between him and the creature folded. The blow struck it under the jaw and lifted it off the steps. It hit the flat ground below and did not get up. The gauntlet split along the palm. The runes went out. Zeph pulled it off and let it fall. It hit the stone in two pieces. His hand was shaking. His fallback was gone. He looked at the creature at the base of the stairs and then at the treeline beyond it. The signature Kaine had warned him about was still bleeding out of the walls behind him. Whatever else had felt it was still coming. Kaine stepped out of the doorway. "Inside. Now. You finish the third payment with your body or you do not finish it at all."