Meaenwhile on the other sidee Darel's party was beginning to falter.
Unlike Jan's group, they had no healer to mend wounds or shields to deflect sudden strikes. What injuries they took they just carried it forward. What blood they lost it stayed lost. And the grey tide was merciless.
Kael was the first to fall. He had just incinerated a cluster of humanoids when a serpent-lion lunged from the smoke behind him. No one saw it until it was too late.
Its jaws closed around his torso and dragged him screaming into the fog, his flames sputtering out with him.
Lira tried to turn her bow while screaming Kael's name but in that hesitation a clawed humanoid lunged and slammed her to the ground.
She loosed one last desperate arrow right into its throat but too late to save herself. The creature's talons tore through her leather armor and ended her.
