“Oh, that’s rich coming from you,” she shot back. “You spent half your life wrecking things and sacred sites because no one told you what you were. Don’t pretend you suddenly have the moral high ground.”
“At least I’m trying to fix things now,” he snapped.
“And I’m trying to protect a child from having her life blown apart,” Liora said sharply. “But I guess subtlety isn’t really your thing.”
“Maybe if you?—”
BOOM.
The sound didn’t just echo; itsplitthe air.
Maldenis felt it slam into him, a concussive force that rattled through his chest and up his spine. The ground trembled under him, a low, vibrating shudder that made his instincts flare sharp and immediate.
He and Liora both jerked toward the noise, their argument cut off mid-breath.
The air at the far end of the cul-de-sac warped. Not like heat, like something wasforcingits way through. A second crack followed, louder, closer. The space itself seemed to tear open with a jagged ripple, dark energy spilling into the street.
Figures stepped through, not walking but arriving.
Maldenis’s stomach dropped. “Hunters,” he said under his breath.
The creatures straightened as they fully emerged, their forms solidifying as the distortion snapped shut behind them.
Liora’s voice came tight beside him. “What the fuck?”
He didn’t answer. His focus had already shifted because whatever argument they’d been having, it didn’t matter anymore.
A voice cut through the silence. “We’re here for the child.”
A group of figures stepped into view at the far end of the street. They looked almost human at first glance, but only almost. Their bodies were tall and lean, wrapped in dark leather armor, their faces sharp and predatory. Their eyes glowed faintly red, and when they moved, Maldenis caught the flick of barbed tails behind them, curling and uncurling like scorpions ready to strike. Manticores, or something close enough.
He felt the shift ripple through their group as everyone registered the threat.
Hektor moved first, flame burst from him in a sharp arc of dragon fire, forcing the front attackers to scatter. The fire hit the stone ground with a roar, leaving black scorch marks across the path.
The hunters lunged anyway, but they didn’t charge like beasts; they moved with unsettling precision. One second, they were standing still, the next, they blurred forward, bodies low and controlled, striking at coordinated angles rather than in chaos. Their tails arced behind them, barbed tips poised with deadly intent, while their eyes tracked targets with sharp, calculating focus.
Maldenis clocked it immediately. They were not wild, but highly trained.
His gaze flicked across them, counting, assessing, too many to handle one-on-one if they spread out. Their formation was already shifting: two angling toward Brontaios, one circling wide, another testing the edges of their group, as if looking for the weakest point.
He rushed forward without thinking, placing himself slightly ahead of the others, forcing their attention onto him. If they were looking for an opening, he wasn’t going to give them one. His power surged through him as his basilisk nature answered the threat. His gaze locked onto one of the attackers, and the creature staggered mid-stride, its body seizing as if struck by a petrifying force.
Behind him, Brontaios charged forward with a roar, slamming into another attacker with such sheer brute strength that the impact sent the creature crashing into a stone wall.
The cul-de-sac erupted into chaos: claws flashed, fire roared, and stone cracked beneath heavy blows.
One of the hunters lunged for Maldenis, claws flashing. He pivoted, his body shifting, and his tail snapping out behind him in a sharp, controlled strike. It wrapped around the creature’s torso mid-attack, coiling tight enough to stop it cold. The hunter snarled, twisting violently.
“Got one!” he barked.
“Hold it!” Hektor shouted back.
Maldenis tightened his grip, muscles straining as the creature fought against him, its barbed tail lashing dangerously close.
Then fire hit. Hektor’s dragon fire roared over Maldenis’s shoulder in a concentrated blast, engulfing the trapped hunter. The creature let out a guttural, inhuman scream as the flames consumed it, its form breaking apart into dark fragments before dissolving completely into smoke.
Maldenis released what was left of it, then he scanned the area quickly, forcing himself to take in everything at once.
