Behind him, students of the Whispering Pavilion danced with curved soul-blades, each step part of a ritual that disrupted Qi flow in their enemies.
Wearing radiant orange battle robes laced with solar gems, Shakti, a young woman known as the Sunchild, glowed with divine warmth.
She wasn't a general—she was a miracle.
When wounded soldiers fell, her beast soul, the Blazing Lotus Naga, manifested and wrapped them in searing petals of healing flame.
"I carry no weapon," she said, hands blazing with golden light. "But my flame will not allow you to die in vain."
In the thick of war, she revived five fallen warriors and supercharged their cores with soul fire, sending them back to battle as burning meteors of vengeance.
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From deep within the wildest jungles of Chitalocan came Ixchel, a woman with painted crimson skin and skull ornaments in her dreadlocked hair.
