Claire had good reflexes. They had allowed her to stop an ancient assassin with next to no training. But wizards, according to Merlin, also had a sixth sense. A way of peering, just a few moments into the future.

Then he'd mentioned that of course most apprentices were too bone-headed to listen to it.

Claire was listening, and it gave her a tiny bit of warning.

Barely enough. Ann's family dropped through the portal, but Claire remained. She hoped that Kenji wouldn't be injured by the fall, but she had—purple energy exploded out around the clone of Oni Lee. A barrier shielding her and her friends. The problem was that by trying to shield all of them, she couldn't shield herself as much as she wanted to…

And then just over 50 pounds of industrial explosives went off. Claire wondered if Lung's men had survived—even being further away… The blast, even attenuated, just crumpled the two vans, picked Grue and Tattletale up and threw them back, like it did Claire. She was closer to it.

And the blow caused her brain to just rattle in her head. Colors exploded in her eyes, and suddenly she tasted…

Purple? Claire came back to herself lying on the ground.

"Melp, Mlem…" her words were coming out strange, and then she rolled over and vomited, the rancid bile mixed with blood. Like the blood coming out of her ears and nose.

Jim had been blown back, but through her fuzzy vision, she saw him charge Lung, who had leaped out, along with his men who were still conscious, save for one man who hadn't gotten undercover and was now messily impaled on some rebar. Claire suddenly realized, fuzzy as she was, that they had dug trenches beforehand.

Lung had shot up to nine feet tall, silver scales all over his body, and he roared out his challenge.

"Kill-oooh!"

Jim roared back and lept up, his sword posed to—

And then Oni Lee was back, this time wearing his normal wear, He stabbed down at Jim who somehow evaded him, Eclipse tearing through his body, which turned to ash, then another Oni Lee attacked him, this one shooting…

"Oh Fuck," Tattletale breathed. "He's giving Lung time to ramp up—" Then she cried out and dove for the ground as Lung's gang started shooting at them…

And then Claire couldn't see a thing as Grue filled the region around them with darkness.

But she could hear what he said.

"Plan's fucked."

As fuzzy as she was, Claire had to agree with Grue. Lung had been waiting for her to appear. Lung knew about her powers—and had gone after the squishy member of the team who had a counter to him.

Battlelust came easy to a troll. One of the things Jim had worked on during the long march to New Jersey was controlling it.

But fucking Oni Lee wasn't making it easy. He took the head off of one, but another had time to pull the pins on his grenades, and blew up right behind Jim, slamming him to the ground. The only thing that had saved him from the first bomb had been his armor, but his entire body hurt from the blast. And now people were shooting at him, the bullets springing off his armor.

Lung's using this. He's delaying me until it doesn't matter.

First Stricklander, then Bular, then Gunmar… Now Lung.

Why can't I have stupid bad guys to beat up?

And then Jim rolled frantically as three clones appeared and fell from the sky, forecast: raining hand grenades.

He managed to grab one and threw it at the guys shooting at him, which seemed to distract them if the screams and explosions were any clue.

But none of that kept the haze of rage from rising. If Claire hadn't done whatever she had done, she would be dead.

Lung had tried to kill Claire.

And then he punched another Oni Lee so hard his head flew off.

I sent my insects down to attack the men shooting at Jim. I couldn't get to Lung, and I couldn't get to Oni Lee—at least not immediately. Every time he teleported I managed to get a few more wasps clinging to him. I sent as many as I could spare from attacking ABB soldiers.

From another corner, I heard a shout. "Brutus, Angelica, Judas, Kill!" The dogs charged Lung, who roared and met them, but suddenly there was an Oni Lee on one of the dogs, stabbing down with his blade. The dog roared and rolled, crushing the clone but it let Lung meet only two, not three dogs. He gripped one, slamming his head into it before he grabbed the other's leg and shattered it with a brutal cracking sound. The dog's howl joined with the Hellhound's scream.

But Oni Lee had stayed in one place just a bit too long, and I could help now. I had enough insects on Lung's assassin. Suddenly Oni Lee and his clones started slapping themselves. Mouths opened to scream and I sent every bug I could into them, stinging his tongue, working their way down his throat and into his lungs. Suddenly, Oni Lee was everywhere, clone after clone vanishing into ash…

And every Clone carried my bugs, even if they seemed to be… oddly degraded. Then he vanished from my range, teleporting away.

Before I had told them to stop.

I couldn't say I was that unhappy. On the other hand, if anyone asked, I hadn't killed him. Not deliberately. Above the last sight of Oni Lee, I saw something flitting around…

A drone of some kind. Golden.

But whatever it was, it couldn't hurt us, and I got back to work doing the only thing I could do right now, dealing with the ABB straggles. A few hadn't gotten the hint, not yet.

Jim rolled to his feet, and where was that fucking bomber?

Gone. That was all that mattered. Now, Lung was nearly twelve feet tall, his face turned strangely catlike. He threw one of Bitch's dogs across the clearing, the animal slamming into a building—and then Jim pulled his glaives and threw them, aiming for Lung's eyes. Lung dodged, faster than Jim had ever seen him move, but Jim was rolling under him, taking advantage of his distraction, and stabbing up at his torso.

Eclipse struck his chest and pressed in, but his scales were tougher than any armor Jim had ever dealt with. Lung swept down with one hand, every finger tipped with foot-long talons, and Jim had to pull the sword free and evade, rolling back to his feet.

Lung turned around and Jim saw the gaping wound in his chest seal, scales growing over the gap. Then Lung sent a wave of fire at Jim and his helmet slammed shut, just in time to save him, while he caught the main body of the fire on his shield. His armor started heating up, Jim moved. He ducked down, spun, and Eclipse flashed…

And Lung's left hand was severed at the wrist. Lung roared in fury and pain, and suddenly kicked out, faster than someone who had just lost a hand should be able to do. Jim felt his armor dent and something broke inside him as he flew across the space and hit the wall.

"Got ooh," Lung roared and leaped and just smashed down on Jim, both of his feet. He was heavier and faster than Gunmar. Jim roared in agony as Lung's heat turned his armor red hot. He could feel his skin burning—and then the pain went away.

Good.

No. Wait. Mom had said that if a burn stopped hurting like that, it was really, really bad.

But that was for later. Now, it was time to deal with Lung. Jim grabbed him by his front, letting Eclipse fall. His fingers gripped the white-hot scales and then Jim spun Lung around and threw him as hard as he could. Lung went sailing nearly two blocks into a warehouse, which promptly crumbled around him. Jim was leaping on him with a feral roar, Eclipse back in his hands.

Let's see if you can fight without your head!

Jim's sword bit into Lung's neck, and he started forcing it through, but Lung rolled and the sword pulled Jim after it. Jim let go, tried to pull back, but now Lung was over 12 feet tall, and somehow moving even faster, even if his hand hadn't grown back. He smashed Jim down, kicking him, and then as Jim scrambled up. Put one great, white-hot foot on his back and started bearing down. Jim could feel the fire around him and held his breath.

If you breathe, you die. He slowly struggled up, rising a little bit against all of Lung's strength. But then Lung bore down.

"Burn…" that word was clear. Jim tried to fight free, but…

And suddenly the pressure was gone and Jim rolled away, ignoring the pain, ignoring everything.

Well, except the surprise he felt as Glory Girl smashed Lung in the face with an SUV.