Six long claws swept out as the heads came down. They cut off the open ground behind Pei Jing. He moved just far enough for one claw to pass his shoulder. It scored a pale line across his bare shoulder.
His right foot stayed on the slab of shale he had pressed flat. He set the Astral Bone Blade against his side. The jaws of the right head came down on the flat of the blade. Sparks flew where the teeth struck. The dragon bone flexed inside the star iron. Pei Jing took the pull through his ribs and let the domain carry it into the ground.
The left head had struck the shale beside him. Its long snout sank into the rubble. Blue light flickered in the runes on its crest. It was trying to move away through space even while the Iron Ledger held it in place.
Pei Jing put his boot on the snout. The weight of the mountain held it there. He raised his open left hand. The fifth and eighth pillars of his core rang together.
He had learned the Mountain-Breaking Palm on river boulders. The work was to carry the force through the outside of the stone without spending it on the surface. He waited until he felt the note of the hard plate over the fiend’s head. Then he answered it with one short blow.
