"It worked, didn't it?"
Cendric followed just behind, grinning. Silas didn't reply.
They crested the wall together wind howling, rain cutting sideways like blades.
The turret lay half-melted, its metal casing still smoking. The student with the toolkit dropped to his knees beside it, slamming down a relic disk. A golden dome shimmered to life around him.
"Thirty seconds!" he called out.
The first Rainbitter crumpled beneath Silas's blade but that single kill had consequences. A shriek tore through the storm, and five more heads snapped toward him at once. Their eyes glowed. The air thickened. Then they charged.
"They've noticed us," Cendric said.
"Clearly," Silas muttered.
His eyes flashed bronze.
A circular spell ring bloomed beneath his boots. Stone ruptured from the wall's surface, rising in jagged fragments. They spun once, twice—then launched forward like bullets.
The Rainbitters collapsed under the barrage, but more moved behind them. The beasts weren't retreating.
