She had no idea whether she’d be able to repeat her trick from earlier. Better to create some insurance in the form of the sword, just in case.
“Here we go,” Ryu said as the first of the sentinels reached them.
Rath took flight, spitting out flames tinged with azure blue. The sentinels it touched started to melt, globs of rock dribbling down to hit the floor with a hiss.
Tyne was a graceful reaper as he waded into the sentinels, his bone sword cutting through the stone as if it met no resistance.
A sentinel rocketed toward Tate, leaving her no time to admire Tyne’s blade work. She spun away, the sentinel’s spear stabbing past her shoulder. She trapped it against her body with one arm. With the other she slashed the sentinel across the chest, leaving droplets of silver behind. They infiltrated the stone of the sentinel far faster than the last one.
The sentinel’s eyes glowed, and his lips opened. Light gathered in the back of his mouth.
A bad feeling filled Tate.
Not letting herself think, she stabbed her sword into the bottom of the sentinel’s jaw, driving up and forcing his head back. There was a burst of electricity and the laser that would have disintegrated Tate’s head took out part of the ceiling instead.
Rock and dust flew as the sentinel turned into pebbles right before her eyes.
Tyne dusted himself off where he stood on his own sentinel. “Not how I would have done it, but that works too.”
“Move to the door,” Ryu barked.
He yanked off a sentinel’s arm, using it to bash another in the head. Dewdrop and Tate didn’t hesitate as two new sentinels started forming in the walls beside the door.
There was an explosion behind them, and heat bathed their backs. Tate chanced a glance to see Rath emerge from the smoke and fire, a victorious screech leaving him as he flew toward Ryu.
With the fire behind him and scattered bits of sentinel littering the ground at his feet, Ryu looked like a conqueror from the warring states era, immediately following the disappearance of the Saviors. A merciless warrior accustomed to the trial of battle.
Tate stopped as Tyne and Dewdrop struggled to open the door.
“Ryu.”
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t fine. Blood soaked his shirt and the waist of his pants. She held his gaze, soaking in the gentleness there. She could have lost him—or he her.
Dewdrop as well.
There was a tight feeling in Tate’s chest as if a large weight was sitting on it. Before, when she’d encountered situations like this, there was fear, yes, but not to this extent. She had so much more to lose now. Loneliness was an old companion that eroded you an inch at a time in the same way the elements did stone. She couldn’t go back to that life.
Neither could Ryu if the hell she saw in his eyes whenever she came close to death was anything to judge by. Dragons were possessive of those they claimed. Woe to anything that separated them. It seemed their human bonded were the same as well.
“I’m fine,” Ryu said again. He touched her face, his thumb caressing her jawline.
“How sure are we that it’s safe to leave?” Dewdrop asked as he put his ear to the door to listen.
Tyne stabbed his bone sword into the face of the sentinel that was beginning to form. “Would you prefer to stay here?”
The march of feet came from behind them, letting them know some sentinels had already respawned.
“Good point.” Dewdrop fiddled with the door.
“What do we do about him?” Tate nodded at Tyne.
He paused in the act of stabbing the second sentinel. “Yes, old friend, what do you do about me?”
“I vote we leave him and his bone weapon here,” Dewdrop said in a chipper voice. “I could live with that.”
“But the emperor can’t.” Tyne didn’t look away from Ryu. “After all, killing family would reflect poorly on his rule.”
