Hyun-ah PoV
Spinning on the ball of my foot, I drove the gleaming tip of my orichalcum spear straight through the throat of another lunging hound. Primordial light surged along the shaft like a miniature sunburst, detonating inside the beast's chest. It let out a choked shriek before dissolving into harmless grey ash.
"Maintain the crescent!" I barked, vaulting over a pile of smoldering obsidian plates to decapitate two more thrashing shadows with a twin slash of sword and spear. "Keep the bottleneck choked!"
"Hold the line for the Matriarch!" the soldiers roared in response, stepping forward in perfect synchronicity. Their glowing chains whipped through the air, dragging back any beast that tried to leap past me while their bronze spears impaled the thrashing ranks.
Yet even as we cut down the vanguard, the deep subterranean pulse beneath our boots grew heavier. The sulfurous stench turned so suffocating it burned the back of my throat.
