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With Dunstan neutralizing Cisco’s fluorine, the fight descended into a contest of grapples, slickened and more dangerous from all the blood they were both losing.

Cisco swung Dunstan’s severed arm like a sword. Dunstan slipped under it, and then wrapped himself around Cisco’s arm, trying to position Cisco for a piercing blow to the temple. Instead, Cisco took the opportunity to force them both into a spin with himself at the center. He swirled Dunstan around, and when the man’s grip loosened, Cisco flung him straight at the wall.

Incredibly, Dunstan flipped in mid-air and caught himself on the wall. And for a moment, he actually stayed there, both feet planted vertically against the cracked plaster while his hands gripped the burning holes they’d made for themselves.

Still half-dizzy from spinning, Cisco could do little more than gawk at what he’d just witnessed.

Dunstan launched himself from the wall like a missile, destroying it and barreling into Cisco. They tumbled together, Dunstan shoving Cisco’s face into the blood-streaked floor, and Cisco could feel the freezing temperature encroaching upon the back of his head.

“Well fought, Mr. Elroy,” were the last words he heard before losing consciousness.

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Dunstan tried to wipe the blood from his face as his flesh finished regrowing. Transfiguration was certainly not the cleanest of abilities. He’d already taken Dennex hostage, merely holding the reaper with his soul-empowered right hand. In his left, he held Cisco’s frozen head.

Randall Pierce and Louis Ferrage had still not yet regenerated, and their accompanying reapers, as well as Dunstan’s, had already flown off after Emiliana Elroy. Cisco had delayed them, but with any luck, they would have the girl in custody within a few hours.

‘What is your element?’ asked Dennex, not sounding particularly upset with his newfound captivity.

Dunstan eyed him. Normally, reapers were pitch dark wraiths with tattered, flowing bodies and glowing red eyes, but at the moment, all he saw was a kind of amorphous shroud staring up at him from around his hand. “I’m a little surprised you didn’t try to flee,” said Dunstan.