But it wasn’t coming from Vaxan, nor Ambrose.
Remnant clocked it a few moments before me, his head swinging toward the lava cavern tens of feet away.
He signaled his army to ready themselves.
“Ketheron,” he warned as well.
Ketheron shook his head. “I cannot erect a shield without compromising Ambrose.”
Blue light suddenly shot up from the crater, lava splashing the walls in the process.
Another gateway was torn open in a violent rush, that midnight-blue light sparking, moments before those soldiers of Ruxnoth’s burst through—those humanoid forms of solidified magic with the oval blurs for faces.
A dozen leapt through.
Another three dozen after that.
In seconds, another five.
Seven.
Until there were three hundred swarming the area.
“Hold!” Remnant commanded his units.
“Wait for my word!” Rhyza ordered her wolves, as Lazriel took position beside her, vamping out, and his wolf claws dropping as well.
They looked to us, but Zayn and I were already calling our power.
And what we’d prepared earlier.
I grabbed his hand and leapt us over Vaxan, Ambrose, and Ketheron, landing just a foot before the crater.
Together, we swept our magic in a connecting arc, and scores of shimmering fuchsia and pale-blue orbs materialized, floating before us, self-contained concoctions of a version of our Ecliptic Convergence. A way for us to render the hostiles vulnerable to brute force without draining Zayn and me the way we’d been on the verge of doing when we’d unleashed it before. This wouldn’t account for the constructs being impacted by magic, but definitely brute force, which was perfect for the units of vampires and wolves.
Zayn and I slammed our hands together, then the orbs shot forward at the hostiles who were rapidly incoming, just a few feet from hitting us, and then Vaxan, Ambrose, and Ketheron, who we couldn’t allow to be impacted or interfered with at all.
With bright flashes of light, the orbs exploded all over the hostiles, halting their creepy marching. Inhuman screams rang out, making me wince from the pitch of them, and sparks inundated their magical forms.
That was it.
It was done.
“Now!” I called out behind us to Remnant and company.
Not split seconds later, blurs of movement shot past us, and then they were slamming into them, some of the constructs ricocheting off the chamber walls, others being thrown clear across the space and out into the open, where I heard the Guardians moving in to finish them off.
Growls, snarls, thuds, the breaking of bones filled the battlefield.
I saw Remnant slam his boot into the ground and create an insane shockwave that downed fifty of them in one shot, where Rhyza then moved in, working in concert with him, and tore their magical heads from their bodies.
It was… appropriately brutal.
In the meantime, Zayn and I beat back any hostiles sneaking past the onslaught and trying to go for Vaxan, Ambrose, and Ketheron.
I thrust both fists out, shattering some, blowing others back.
Zayn used his magic as might, and executed some impressive agile kicks, sending hostiles spinning out into the chamber walls, some even falling into the lava and being lost to it. Well, so we thought, until they burst out moments later.
