Crimson Snake's face twisted as Hound's massive body slammed into the pavement, ribs caving inward like a crushed tin can. Blood sprayed from the enhancer's mouth in a fine mist—the kind that only came when lungs had been turned to pulp.
One punch.
From a goddamn conjurer.
The snake-like man's tongue darted out, tasting copper in the air. His remaining fingers twitched toward the poisoned dagger at his belt.
"Lizard!" he hissed, spitting on the cracked concrete. "Flank him—now!"
The shadows near the dumpster rippled in response.
The Dance of Death
Crimson Snake's arms elongated with a sickening pop, his aura twisting fingers into six-foot serpents with venom-dripping fangs.
Ten blackened nails shrieked across the ghostly armor—
SCREEEECH—
—and he nearly gagged at the vibration. It felt like dragging knives across a steel vault. Three of his precious fangs shattered, the recoil shooting up to his elbows.
No weak points? Impossible!
A glob of acid-green energy spat from the darkness. Lizard's Corrosive Shot should have melted steel—
—until the armored figure swatted it aside like a bothersome fly.
CRACK!
The projectile exploded against a brick wall, dissolving mortar into smoking sludge.
The helmet tilted. "Finished?"
The Reckoning
Crimson Snake barely saw the movement. Just a flash of spectral steel—
SCHLICK!
His right arm hit the ground with a wet thump.
There's always that perfect, terrible moment when pain hasn't caught up. He stared at his twitching fingers, at the blood arcing through the air, and had time to think that's mine before—
WHUMP!
The armored fist buried itself in his gut so deep his spine kissed the knuckles.
His world became fragments:
Flying backward through a wooden fence
Tasting his own teeth
Seeing Lizard—cowardly bastard—already scrambling up the fire escape
A steel-toed boot crushed his remaining hand. "Tell me," the specter mused, "did you really think you could hunt me with just you guys?"
Above them, Lizard's camouflage flickered as he leapt between rooftops. Almost free. Almost—
A spectral gauntlet snatched his ankle mid-air.
The last thing Lizard heard before darkness took him was a chuckle:
"Didn't they teach you? Never run from death."