The first clash near Glasswake did not last long, but it told Aurelian a great deal.
The glass-pale beasts were fast, quiet, and far more difficult to track than their size suggested.
They did not attack like Voidshade Fenrir, which tended to move in hungry packs with brutal directness.
These creatures curled through the crystal debris as if the field belonged to them, bending light around their bodies and slipping between broken rocks in ways that made targeting systems hesitate.
If not for Lysara's sensors and Eirenne's constant correction, the first wave might have reached the unfinished outpost before anyone understood how many there were.
Rhoswen held the line well.
That mattered more than the number of creatures she killed.
The Crimson Bulwark stayed close to the marker boundary, striking only when the beasts crossed into the protected zone and forcing them away from the construction drones without chasing them into the deeper belt.
