The spout of flame came to fast.
Thalanar raised his glaive to block, but the wave of fire engulfed him before he could escape. Heat burned through his armor as the flames rolled across his chest and flared around his face.
He cried out, stepping back—
—when a blur of green and silver flung itself between him and the fire.
"No!" one of the warriors screamed.
A young elf, barely older than a squire, absorbed the wave head-on and shielded Thalanar with his body. The burning flesh scent filled air before the warrior fell, his armor glowing red-hot.
Thalanar's rage erupted.
He lifted his glaive, directed the roots underneath into his mana, and the trees stilled as the matter of the infinite ancient forests rushed up towards him. Billions of years of raw natural energies gracefully wrapped around his arms and bow.
With a guttural roar, Thalanar nocked an arrow, and the shaft flared to life with raw green light. He aimed his glaive—
"Hold him!" he shouted.
Another warrior—a battle-sister named Vaeryn—charged the serpent-dragon's flank, slicing through its scales with dual curved blades. The serpent hissed in fury, whipping its head toward her.
Thalanar loosed the enchanted arrow, the shot slamming through the beast's eye, piercing deep into its skull.
Vaeryn seized the moment. With a scream of defiance, she leapt, driving her blade through the beast's throat, severing its head in one final, brutal strike.
The serpent collapsed, its body thrashing in death throes.
But before Vaeryn could step back, the serpent's final act came.
Its jaws snapped open, and a cloud of black venom sprayed from its ruptured glands, coating Vaeryn in a thick, toxic mist.
She fell to her knees, gripping her throat while her skin started to blacken.
"Vaeryn!" Thalanar yelled, rushing to her.
He dropped to the ground beside her, chanting in the Old Tongue, his hands glowing with ancient forest magic. Green vines blasted up from the ground, wrapping around her body in a frantic attempt to purge the poisonous essence.
"Just hang on," he whispered. "You will just hang on."
Meanwhile, the other Saekari warriors had encircled their burned shield-bearer, pouring mana into his charred body and whispering prayers as they worked furiously to bring him back to life.
And then…
There was a pressure wave that swept through the clearing.
The ground shook as something new stepped through the still-open Gate.
A beast larger than the last—a three-star predator, with its body covered in shifting stone, with crystal-like teeth filling its mouth.
The Saekari warriors all froze, their already thinned-out ranks willing themselves to their feet again.
The second wave had begun.
__
The air carried the scent of ash, poison, and burned mana.
Once again, Thalanar found himself alone. There he was, between his retreating warriors, and the beast stalking toward him. Every inch of its body was plated with stone, which rippled with the mana emitted from deep within its armor. The beast rippled with muscles beneath a carapace of armor that has been carved directly out of the mountainside.
The ground shook as the beast lowered its massive head, probably able to feel him, like a wolf perceiving a single, injured deer.
"Go!" The roar of Thalanar's voice flew out toward the last remnants of his warriors, who were struggling to carry Vaeryn, gasping on poison, and the barely breathing, burnt shield-bearer.
The warriors stalled. They would, and they did, but the savage detachment of their chieftain held them now and they were forced to move. They went slowly, recovering what they could toward the deeper tunnels, avoiding the villagers still running to safety.
Thalanar turned to face the beast just as it lunged, its massive tail, wrapped in stone, swinging toward him like a gigantic falling boulder.
He ducked, barely, as the tail smashed into the ground behind him. The tail demolished trees like blades slashing through parchment. Shards of stone and bark fell down around him as he rolled to one knee.
Drawing his last enchanted arrow, Thalanar whispered an ancient elven chant, his fingertips glowing as he nocked it. He released the shot with deadly precision—
But the arrow shattered harmlessly against the beast's impenetrable hide.
Thalanar cursed under his breath.
The beast roared, the sound vibrating through his bones.
And then… a second rumble.
A second beast, identical in size but its mana signature even darker, emerged from the Gate. Two monsters, twin titans of stone and fury, began advancing in unison toward him, their combined presence shaking the earth.
"So be it," he grumbled.
But as soon as the second beast came tearing forward the forest shifted.
A white blur darted from the trees and slammed into the second beast in an explosive crash.
Valdrak the Frost Warden, now completely evolved to Six-Star, stood as a living storm with its body bursting with unchecked, crackling mana. Its jaws sunk into the beast's stony armor and pushed it back with a roar filling the sobering silence of the entire clearing.
Thalanar's eyes widened in wonder… for only a short breath.
The first beast grabbed its focus back on him, its tail coiling for a second attack.