The pack pounced.
Not all at once—but in a terrifying, calculated rhythm. Like they'd rehearsed this ambush a hundred times. One came at me from the left, another from above—springing off the wall. Claws gleamed like obsidian in the dim cave light.
But I was already moving..
My body twisted, slipping through the narrow space between two lunging lions. The first swipe missed my chest by inches. The second grazed my cloak, tearing it like paper—but not my skin.
Their movements were fast—but I was faster.
A third lion lunged from my blind spot.
Pivot. Parry. Shift weight.
I ducked low, sliding across the icy stone floor, then used the momentum to rise and flick a dagger toward the lion's eye. It twisted away, growling, but the warning was clear.
I wasn't prey.
Alice, behind me, had already begun her attack. She swung her blade in wide, clean arcs, coating it in frost. Every step she took left behind icy cracks in the cave floor, and her strikes hummed with raw magical energy.
