The leading Azure Phoenix enforcers cleared the tree line and began the ascent under overlapping combat arrays. Binding lattices snapped toward the lower shelves. Controlled fire followed in disciplined waves meant to suppress movement and force the circle into fixed positions where heavier techniques could be applied.
Lydia's hasty defensive lattice met the first wave and scattered it. The lattice was thinner than anything she had built inside the compound or the ravines, yet it still bought the opening breaths the rest of the formation needed. Vale triggered the delayed collapse tools along the primary approach, dropping sections of loose stone and residual formation feedback into the path of the second rank. The enforcers adjusted without panic. They had been ordered to take the marked vessel intact if possible and to accept losses if necessary.
