Sera's Pov
I stumbled into the chaos, heart thundering, clothes scorched at the edges, lungs burning from the smoke I'd run through. The sky was darker than before—not just with the smoke—but with death. One of Velka's creatures already lay in a pile of disintegrated ash, the remnants still glowing faintly on the ground.
Six remained.
And they were not going down easy.
The battlefield was a blur of movement, roars, screams, spells being hurled, the thundering of feet and claws. Blood painted the ground. I didn't even get a full breath before one of the beasts lunged at me with a snarl that seemed to come from hell itself.
I dropped into a roll, coming up with my lunar scythe already glowing in my grip. The creature was tall and skeletal, formed from twisted dark magic and malformed bone. Its joints bent the wrong way, and its mouth had far too many teeth, as though it had swallowed the screams of every creature it killed.
I didn't hesitate.
I met it head-on.
