The members of Boundless shouted their approval.
Alex yanked up hard on her anchor and sent Chine flying through the air. She reached to Chine’s left arm, accessing the gravity well and prepping it. Once she and her dragon got close enough, she fired the well.
The result was instantaneous. A large bubble about the size of a football, glowing brightly, shot toward the kin, landing in the middle of their circle. Then the well detonated, drawing all three of them forward with the sudden shift in gravity.
The creatures seemed to be caught off-guard by the attack, and they screeched as their bodies momentarily lost control. Alex took the opportunity to attack. Chine flew toward the monsters as Boundless prepared to launch their attacks.
Alex zoomed between the three kin, finding one to focus on. Chine tackled it, sending it careening away from the other two. He clamped down hard on its head.
The kin’s tendrils wrapped around Chine’s jaw, forcing it open. As Chine fought it, the kin grabbed the dragon by the throat and threw him to the ground.
Chine and Alex hit the ground with enough force to indent it. Before either of them could get back to their feet, the creature crashed into them, broadening the hole. If it weren’t for the reinforced gravity from the anchor, Alex would have been thrown from Chine, who was roaring in pain.
The gravity well wasn’t ready to be used again. Alex accessed the weapon on Chine’s right arm. A beam of energy created a sword, and she slashed it across the monster’s face.
The kin screeched and pulled back, shifting out of reality and appearing behind Alex. Before she could pull Chine around, it grabbed the dragon by the tail, hoisted him into the air, and slammed him into the ground again.
To Alex’s left, Jollies and Jim were struggling with their kin as well. Jollies had implemented an energy field she was trying to encase the creature in while Jim was sending bursts of flame at it. It hardly seemed to notice either attack.
After Jollies had the energy field established, she flew back a little way to catch her breath. The kin should be encased for a moment, enough time to give Jim and her time to regroup.
Yet the kin phased out, then appeared outside the energy field. It went straight for Jollies, who turned and ran, pushing Amber as fast as she could. Jim flew after it, firing an energy beam cannon that came out of his mech’s chest.
The kin merely shifted reality again, easily dodging the attack, then appearing behind Jim. Its tendrils wrapped around Jim’s mech. It dove toward the surface of the moon, dragging Jim with it as Furi and Timber flew overhead, firing gravity attacks at the kin they were fighting.
Furi latched onto the kin’s back with his claws, which began to heat up. Within seconds, Furi’s claws were on fire.
Like the rest of them, this one didn’t seem fazed by Furi’s attack. It rolled to the side, heading for the ground, scraping Furi off. Then it sped up, whipping around and launching a beam attack at Timber, who was barely able to evade it.
Vardis yelled over his comm, “They have a weak spot! If you fire at their joints, the place where stone meets stone, it should split them apart!”
Alex relayed the information to the rest of Boundless, irritated that Vardis had only just found the guts to speak. He still hadn’t joined the fight.
The gravity well was ready to be deployed again. So far, it had been Alex’s most useful weapon. She leaned forward, sending Chine sprinting across the ground. The kin followed the dragon. Suddenly, Alex pulled up on her anchor, stopping Chine on a dime, allowing the monster to pass over the two of them.
Alex hit the gravity well and sent it at the kin, aiming for the joint between the sections of rock that covered its body. As the gravity well pulled at the creature, tearing away chunks of rock, Alex drew her scythe and sent it flying into the kin’s joint.
At the same time, the rest of Boundless was trying to take advantage of the information they had just been given. Jim and Jollies had circled their kin, Jollies flying close and dropping electrical charges that attached to its joints while Jim distracted it by firing beams.
Brath and Gill were taking a different route. They were going for a contest of brute strength. Both Furi and Timber were on top of the kin, forcing it to the ground while the dragons tore at its joints, occasionally firing the ice beams attached to Timber’s shoulders. Once the ice formed, both dragons slashed at the creature’s weak spot.
Alex’s kin screeched as it rolled out of the sky and crashed to the ground, where it skidded until it was still. Not wanting to give it any chance to get back up, Alex selected the plasma beams attached to Chine’s shoulders. She fired at the kin’s joints right below its head.
The plasma beam cut through, severing the head. “Yes!” she shouted.
Chine’s voice rang through Alex’s head a second later. Wait! It is not time to celebrate yet.
The tendrils stretched out and reattached the head to the body. Then it phased out of existence and reappeared behind Alex and Chine, and its tendrils hit the girl in the chest.
The air went out of Alex’s lungs as she tried to hold onto Chine. The kin was too strong. She went flying off Chine’s back as the monster wrapped more tendrils around Chine’s body,
