Before I could get hit again, I changed direction, letting myself fall down, away. I’d had to deal with guns before. If I couldn’t see the fingers and teeth stabbing for me, I would treat them as I might treat bullets. She was mobile, strong, and as far as I was concerned, she had powerful shotguns for fingers and teeth.

I landed hard on the ground, rolled, and let her dismiss me, changing her focus to Spright, who was flying up toward her, his arms extended, with fingers drawn out, long and thin.

I waited until they clashed, fingers striking one another like ten rapiers striking ten more, and then I flew, pushing off the ground for that miniscule extra boost.

Spright extended his arms, flying down while keeping his hands in place, his arms long and high above him. I could see the points of Nailbiter’s teeth pass above him, saw her turn her head toward me—

With her being extended across so much of the wall, I had room to maneuver while still pressing the attack. I went low instead, seized her ankle with the wretch manifesting around me, and hauled her back and away from the wall.

It wasn’t an easy or immediate process to dislodge her. In another circumstance, I might not have been able to budge her. In this circumstance, gravity helped a bit. She couldn’t do a lot to keep herself from having those long needle-fingers pulled out of the wall, except to extend them further.

Sidepiece hurled something at me, and it exploded against the wall, a foot from my head. I glanced at her, saw her tear one of her exaggerated ribs out from beneath a cutoff t-shirt with so much cut off from the bottom it was indecent, above a stomach that looked like a zombie’s, with flesh bloody, raw and open where literal pounds of flesh had been torn away. The spine and area around it were intact, as was the navel and stomach on the opposite side, but the sides were completely gone.

She flung it at me. I let go of Nailbiter, flew down, and hit the ground with an impact, my aura flared out. I didn’t stop for half a second before immediately taking off again.

“Don’t fucking hit me, ’Piece!” Nailbiter screeched the words behind me, but the manner of speaking was even worse, as her teeth were retracting.

Again, I used my aura as I touched wall, not as heavy an impact, but I hit the edge of a window frame, and it made glass rattle. Aura out, harder than before.

I zig-zagged, ground to wall, wall to a point high overhead, point above to ground again. I made each point of contact with a surface something they had to pay attention to, putting them off guard, making Sidepiece have to turn around.

I took off again, flying toward her, aura at full blast.