Arthur's head bounced off the basalt again.
Lucy didn't wait for it to settle. She dragged her fist back up, lightning spitting off her split knuckles, and put it straight back into the same cheek. The rock under his skull cracked. A flat chunk of it broke loose and skidded across the crater floor.
"Get up," she said. Her voice had gone raw from screaming and she hadn't noticed. "Come on. I know you can take more than this."
Arthur's lips moved. Blood came out instead of words, black and thick, running sideways into his ear.
"Lucy... please..."
"No. No, you don't get to say please." She hit him again. "You've been alive longer than my family's been keeping records. You think I don't know what this is? You go limp, you beg, I slow down, and then something comes crawling up out of the floor at me. I'm not stupid!"
