Barton's fist passed through the face of the shadow harmlessly, throwing him off balance. The rest of his body passed through the clone. Just as Barton's leg was almost cleared of the shadow clone, it warped so that the clone's hand was now grabbing Barton's leg. The clone became solid and pulled Barton back toward the clone's fist.
Right as Gerris' fist was about to connect with Barton's face, Kain's fist intervened at the last second from the side.
*BOOM*
The impact from the two fists cratered the ground in a wide circular area and launched Barton and Kain in two separate directions, while Gerris merely took a few shuffling steps backwards before stabilizing.
Barton once again flew into another building, while Kain managed to throw his fist towards the ground while in mid-flight. His arm left a long, ruptured scar on the ground, before he was finally able to slow his momentum to a stop.
Kain was breathing hard as he stood back up from the ground. There was no way he can go half-assed in this fight. He had to bring out every trump card he had on deck because he was fighting a Genji-tier. Even with the full weight of his increased mass ability, his fist merely threw Gerris slightly off balance.
What was the point of keeping secrets, if he ended up dead because he was afraid?
While Kain was drawing on multiple connections to continue the battle, Gerris had a shocked expression on his face and didn't attack. How did this ant successfully block my fist? I just consumed the irradiated core and my power is practically overflowing? Did he become a Genji in just a few days? What was his power?
As Gerris was lost in his thoughts, Kain sent a mental thought through his pack mentality trait to Barton and Desmond and prayed that it worked.
-Can the two of you hear me? (Kain)
-What the fuck? Did I lose my marbles from that last hit? (Barton)
-.. (Desmond)
-This is one of my abilities. Don't ask right now, we have to survive first. I think I can recognize which clone is the real one. I'll send both of you a mental image of the real one as soon as I identify it. On my signal, attack at the same time. (Kain)
Kain hurriedly used his radiation detection and all the clones disappeared except for a familiar big green light near the back. Kain snapped his eyes open and sent the mental image of the one in the back.
-Now! Attack that one! (Kain)
Desmond threw out a swirling black orb that launched itself at the real Gerris. When it got near, it expanded and encompassed his figure, locking him down and causing him to fall on one knee. Barton, who was the closest, charged like a bull at Gerris' back. Kain charged from the front with his elbow out in front of him.
The real Gerris smirked at the audacity of the three. At the speed of thought, the other clones around him transformed into puddles of shadow, which proceeded to fly into the kneeling Gerris, merging into one. His figure grew until it was as big as Barton in his transformed state.
Gerris then smashed his fist forward, shattering the gravity field encasing him. This caused Desmond to spurt out a mouthful of blood. At this point, Barton and Kain were practically on top of him.
Gerris whipped his arm back behind him, impacting on the arm of the charging Barton, causing a sickening crunch. Barton pinwheeled into the air like a spinning top before crashing unceremoniously on the ground face first, with his broken arm flopping in an unnatural position.
Gerris quickly slapped out with his other hand towards Kain's incoming figure. Before the slap could reach, Kain's elbow spurted out a blade and his arm stretched out and attacked in an impossible way, slicing open a wound on Gerris' forearm. Kain barely made a scratch and saw that the elbow blade was shattered.
Gerris' palm finally arrived and smashed into Kain's face, destroying his cheekbone and dislodging several teeth. Kain slammed head first into the ground from the slap. Gerris then kicked the prone Kain, breaking his left arm and catapulting him into the air. Kain flew back and crashed into the ground sliding dozens of feet before stopping face down.
Gerris was far from happy about repelling all three of their attacks and injuring them. His eyes became bloodshot as he raised his shaking forearm and saw the blood dripping down to the ground.
"You…YOU FUCKER ACTUALLY DARED TO DRAW MY PRECIOUS BLOOD?!"
Gerris was about to storm over to Kain, who was spitting out blood and teeth while trying to remain conscious. However, Barton stood in his way as he said,
"Buddy, you gotta get through me first."
Before Barton could throw an attack, a hand came down from behind Barton onto his shoulder as Desmond said, "Me first…I'm the least injured."
"Forget it, old man, let's attack together." replied Barton. He looked over to Desmond who stood aside him, shoulder to shoulder. They nodded towards each other and threw their fists at the same time.
Gerris didn't care for their pitiful attacks, and a blade made of shadows appeared in the air and severed both incoming arms at the elbow. He then launched a strike into both of their chests, causing a sickening thud to sound out. Their bodies arced into the air before thudding back down to the ground. Groans of pain echoed out from both of them.
Gerris ignored them and walked right up to the fallen Kain. He then proceeded to grab him by the hair and lift him off the ground.
"Now, look at this face. Do you think Saya or Sylvia would ever want to look at you again? Or would they turn away in disgust?" taunted Gerris.
Kain attempted to throw a fist with his uninjured arm, but Gerris easily severed the offending arm at the shoulder. Kain clenched his teeth in pain, refusing to yell out.
"This is the fate of the weak going against the strong. Don't worry, I don't plan on killing you. I want you to struggle like the ant that you are. Hmmm…you might be able to replace a severed limb, but can you replace these?"
As soon as Gerris finished speaking, two shadow blades gouged out Kain's eyeballs from the sides. Kain immediately screamed in pain as he kicked his legs in the air.
"That's what I wanted to hear. Why did you have to wait so long? Look at what happened because of your stubbornness. Honestly, I would have made you a eunuch if you didn't scream with that." said Gerris, as he threw Kain onto the ground.
Gerris smiled at his handiwork and said, "One last thing before I leave. You will probably never make it back to Bastion as a blind cripple, so enjoy turning over in your grave as I take Sylvia and Saya as my women. HAHAHA!"
Gerris' maniacal laughter rang out into the night as he melted into the shadows and disappeared.
Barton struggled to sit up, but failed. He coughed out blood as he spoke, "I can't believe that…fucker…is going to get away with this…"
Kain burned with fury at his weakness, that he let down his brothers. He said, "Let's make a pact as brothers. If we live, we will do everything in our power to take that bastard down. If we die, in our next life, let's be brothers again and live as kings…"
All three of them swore the oath with the moon and the stars as their witnesses.
"King…Barton…I like the…sound of that…." said Barton as he passed out.
"I guess…I'll see you…on the other…side…" said Desmond as he passed out as well.
Kain could not take one last look at his brothers as his bitter heart burned in his chest. With pure force of will, he propped himself up and thought of Saya and Sylvia. He felt tears of blood run down his cheeks.
Kain was slowly losing consciousness from the blood loss, when a *THUD* rang out in the distance.
Soon enough, a closer *THUD* sounded out.
Finally, a mighty figure crashed down a few feet away from Kain. Kain felt the vibrations from heavy footsteps striding towards him, before they ceased.
A piercing voice reverberated internally in Kain's fading mind:
"DO YOU DESIRE POWER?"