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Stoker could see the chunks missing from Nize’s elongated body. She simply floated in place, her snake eyes looking at him briefly before easing shut.

He couldn’t dawdle. There was no telling how long the ruse would last. He had to be the one to engage. He ran back outside.

Liquid hydrogen required more concentration than any other aspect of his ability. He held his hands up in front of him and flexed both arms hard enough to make them tremble. After a moment, his skin disappeared, and even though the hydrogen was invisible to the naked eye, he knew he had succeeded. That combination of freezing heat was unique: warmth against his face while his bones felt like ice.

The flash freezing element was the trump card here. If he could bathe Karkash’s head in this liquid hydrogen, the man’s brain function would cease, and Stoker would be instantly victorious. He would keep Karkash’s brain frozen indefinitely--something no amount of regeneration would fix. If he wasn’t able to kill Hoyohté at that point, it would make no difference.

The problem, of course, was getting close enough. His best hope was to catch Karkash from behind. As he drew close to the location Nize had specified, Stoker crouched as low as he could.

He had to stop abruptly as the cement truck from before passed right in front of his face. Then a bank vault. Then a refrigerator. And more, he saw. Cars, lamp posts, pipes, mailboxes, they all swirled together with increasing speed, and Stoker understood what Karkash was doing. It was a metal tornado. The vortex was pulling Stoker’s fog in and dispersing it elsewhere. Soon, there would be no hiding.

He took his chance and leapt through the moving wall of objects, landing safely. He looked up and saw Karkash directly above the tornado.

And Karkash saw him, as well.

Not the confrontation he had wanted. But it was too late to complain. Every object in the tornado was already sailing toward him. The moment was now.