She used her power, and the power licked up her arm to eat the flesh there, disintegrating more of her hand. A one-handed propulsion, that sent her more horizontal than vertical. His children leaped for her and three were eaten by the blast, a fourth landing on her arm. Two snips in rapid succession, to carve out a chunk there.

She aimed to fling herself at him.

He flung himself back.

He could heal rapidly, and his creations could use material to piece him back together, but he had been maintaining a Bradley mindset to avoid being provoked, and Bradley was one to run first when he was unsure.

She moved the hand around to her front, bringing her knees close to her chest as she reversed course with her power, hurling herself back toward capes. She was losing blood from damage to her forearm, damage to her upper arm where the chunk had been cut free, and the sliced ankle.

But she looked at him, and her lips moved.

He could smell it in the air.

A cape caught her, leaping to intercept her in the air. They landed, and she was deposited on the ground. She said something to the cape who had saved her.

Captain Claw, Usher, and Leister had descended. Swansong had Valkyrie’s capes, but Spawner had Ingenue and her bodyguards.

And he had the desire to prove himself.

Time to not be Bradley anymore. He would be strategic about this, lunge for the more vulnerable targets.

When he moved, he moved with a body engineered by a thousand refinements, a thousand chunks of meat and body parts marinated in the fear and adrenaline of his meals. He couldn’t eat with the mouth he had now, but he could be fed.

He was swift, and his leaps were as long as Swansong’s were with her blasts. Skin stretched between elbow and waist, giving him a foot or two of glide.

The cape he chose to go after first was a heavyset man with a torch in each hand. Spawner hit him like a truck, and grabbed the man by the arms. Others approached at a run, while Spawner simply held his victim.

Held him, and let his children crawl free and crawl into the man.

He hurled the body at the people charging his way. Most dodged, but a woman who dodged was ambushed by a bug that leaped from the torchbearer to the side of her neck.

Another overlap between Ned and Bradley is that we are survivors.

He lunged for another, and she threw a piece of paper. Paper expanded out into a wall, spearing floor and ceiling. His claws fought to impale the material, but he was able to cling to it.

A fresh batch of his children crawled out, climbing on the paper, racing toward the edges. Each was programmed with an image of the person they were hunting.