Bone cracked around the buried hooks. He hauled harder, heat racing along the bars as their teeth ripped through the flesh joining the crown to the face below it.
"GGGRRRRAAAAAAA-!"
Wrath detonated inside the skull. Kaiden wrenched the hooked bars through both sides, splitting the head in a blast of bone and burning brain matter.
Kaiden jumped backward out of the collapsing crown, dragging a hooked bar through each half as he went. His last explosion ripped the skull from the spine, and the Sovereign's body crashed into the terrace.
The impact drove muddy water over the retaining wall in a black wave. The Ninth staggered under the shock while Alexandra's screen disappeared beneath flying gore.
"Kai?" she called.
"I'm good."
Kaiden stood on the terrace in front of the mangled head. He dissolved the hooked bars and drew their blood back into his gauntlet, along with the mess coating his face.
"...Holy shit," Luna repeated.
