“You should have taken my offer,” he said. “We could have both had the power of Incarnates.”
As he spoke, I gripped the wrist of the hand around my throat, trying to pull it off. Because I’d already clamped down on the nerve endings, I wasn’t feeling any pain, but that didn’t mean Static wasn’t doing any damage. For instance, I could feel my air getting cut off. Pain or not, that was a problem, because without air I’d pass out, and then it would be lights out.
Somewhat frantic, I teleported, hoping to get away from him. Shockingly, when I popped up about twenty feet away, he was with me, hand still around my throat and holding me aloft. Somehow, he had teleported with me.
Static laughed gleefully. “There’s no escape — for you or your friends.”
He tilted his head toward Mariner and the others, who were all fighting back-to-back now and looking exhausted. It was pretty clear that they wouldn’t last much longer. Truth be told, neither would I, as evidenced by the fact that I was already starting to see spots in front of my eyes. Even worse, I was beginning to hallucinate, because I saw something like a will-o’-the-wisp seep fervently out of the amulet around Static’s neck.
In desperation, I tried to duplicate myself — make a second Jim who could perhaps take my adversary unawares from behind. Nothing happened; presumably, that ability was being blocked along with others.
With nothing to lose, I raised my dangling legs and kicked out as hard as I could toward Static’s face. I connected and his head snapped to the side, but his hold on my throat only loosened slightly. However, it was enough for me to draw in a shallow breath before he reasserted his grip.
With the small gasp of air I was able to take in, the spots receded from my vision for a moment but the will-o’-the-wisp was still there. It snaked down and around, coming up behind Static where it swiftly began taking on a form I was familiar with: Cerek. However, he wasn’t alone; with him was someone else I recognized — Reverb.
That said, Reverb was in terrible shape, to put it mildly. He had no arms or legs, and his torso was bruised and bloody. One eye was black and swollen shut, and one ear gave the impression of having been shorn off. The only thing on him that didn’t look battered was the metal mask, which was still in place. Bearing in mind the extent of his injuries, I wasn’t shocked by the fact that Reverb didn’t appear to be conscious — he barely appeared to be alive — and was being held aloft by Cerek, who didn’t look that great himself. Whereas before the laamuffal had seemed scraggly and scruffy, he now appeared completely frazzled.
I took all of this in within seconds. Not wanting to telegraph the presence of the new arrivals, I planted my eyes firmly on Static, but I could have saved myself the trouble. He was so intent on choking me out that he didn’t even notice what was going on around him.
As before, Cerek seemed to be trying to tell me something. Sparing him a quick glance, I noticed him gesturing and then caught on. Assuming I understood him correctly, there was a slim chance of overcoming Static. It would be unbelievably risky and exceedingly dangerous — I couldn’t bank on surviving — but it might buy time for Rune and the others.
I concentrated, and then teleported the metal mask off Reverb, sending it to a far corner of the room. Without the mask to support it, Reverb’s mouth fell open, and an impossibly excruciating, agonizing sound issued forth.
Chapter 57
Bellowing in pain, Static released me and collapsed to his knees, at the same time putting his hands up to cover his ears. I hit the floor and flopped onto my rear — not so much because Static had dropped me but because the entire room was shaking as a result of Reverb’s voice. I floated up into the air, thereby managing to escape the tremors that were rattling everything in sight.
For a brief moment, I wondered how badly I was injured. (Again, just because my pain receptors were shut off didn’t mean I wasn’t getting hurt.) Simply eyeballing myself externally, it didn’t seem like anything was out of joint. What’s more, I was surprised to discover that I was still holding Static’s relic — the one that had summoned the doubles of the Incarnates.
All of a sudden, the room stopped shaking. At the same time, I began to hear a queer sound, like someone sucking in air through a straw. I looked in the direction of the noise and realized it was Reverb drawing in breath. He was going to speak again.
Apparently Static realized the same thing, because he staggered to his feet unexpectedly and began mumbling, “No, no, no!”
Reverb’s voice sounded again and Static went down to his knees for a second time, letting out an agonized howl as the room seemed to convulse. Taking advantage of the short reprieve, I looked toward Endow and the others but couldn’t get a sense of how things were going due to the way the room was shaking (although they all still appeared to be on their feet). Regardless, we needed to bring the current conflict to a halt. I turned my attention back to Static’s relic, hoping for a clue, but nothing revealed itself.
Moments later, the shaking stopped, only to be replaced by the air-through-a-straw sound again. Static, however, seeing his own window of opportunity, waved a hand in the general direction of Reverb and Cerek (who was still holding up the wounded Chomarsus), at which point two things happened. First, Reverb’s mask suddenly appeared back in place, obstructing his inhalation of air. The second thing that happened was that both Reverb and
