"We tag out!" I shouted, making the tactical call because Kaelen was too busy being a furnace and Thane was currentlythe only thing keeping Aria from floating off the table. "One at a time! Two minutes of violence, then switch! I go first!"
I didn't wait for approval. I ripped my hands back, severing my connection to the Anvil.
The effect was instantaneous.
Aria gasped, a terrible, sucking sound. Her chest stopped moving. The motion I had been feeding her vanished. Her heart stuttered, missing a beat, then two.
Don't die,I mentally screamed at her.Hold your breath, Pup. I’ll be right back.
I spun on my heel, drawing my daggers. The bond in my chest felt hollow, an ache that screamed at me to go back, to reconnect, but the enemy was here.
The first Sentinel hit the floor ten feet from me, spear raised.
I didn't duel him. I didn't have time for artistry.
I became a blur.
I tackled him, driving the point of my left dagger through the gap in his neck armor before he even registered I had moved. Black blood sprayed, sizzling on the hot floor. I rolled over his collapsing body, coming up in a sprint.
The corrupted centaur on the catwalk loosed an arrow.
I snatched a discarded cog from the floor, a heavy disk of bronze, and flung it like a discus. It sheared through the air with a hum, impacting the centaur’s front legs. Bone snapped. The beast toppled over the railing, screaming as it fell into the magma channel below.
One minute thirty.
"Behind you, Wolf!" Thane rumbled from the circle, his voice strained.
I dropped flat. A massive, void-fused manticore leaped over me, its scorpion tail whipping the air where my head had been. It smelled of poison and ancient dust.
I lunged upward from the crouch, burying both blades into its soft underbelly. It thrashed, shrieking, but I rode the fall, ripping the daggers free in a spray of gore.
I scanned the perimeter. More were coming. Dozens of them, spilling from the vents like cockroaches fleeing a fire. They were swarming toward the light of the Anvil, drawn to the immense power radiating from Aria.
I sprinted back to the circle, sliding on the slick floor, blood and oil mixing on my boots.
"Thane! Switch!" I roared, sheathing my weapons and slamming my hands back toward the Anvil.
"I cannot—" Thane started, sweat pouring down his face as he held the gravity well.
"GO!" I commanded, shoving my essence back into the bond.
I felt Aria’s heart kick-start against my ribs like a stalled engine roaring to life.Thump-THUMP.I poured the circulation back in, forcing the blood through her crystallizing veins.
Thane dropped the connection.
Aria’s back arched violently again. Without the Bear's grounding weight, her soul tried to eject. She flickered, her physical form turning translucent for a second, ghosting out of reality.
"Hold her in, Elias!" I shouted, gritting my teeth against the strain. I focused on the motion, but tried to make it heavy, to do everything I could on my side to keep her soul intact.
Thane didn't run; he exploded from his position.
He summoned the war hammer to his hand from where it lay. He didn't look tired anymore; he looked like an avalanche that had learned to walk.
A group of satyrs, their eyes black pools of void, charged the southern flank.
Thane swung.
It wasn't a fight. It was physics. The hammer hit the floor, and a shockwave of earth magic rippled out, turning the iron plating into a liquid wave. The satyrs were launched into the air. Thane caught the lead one on the backswing, swatting him into a pillar with a wetcrunch.
