`[VALERIA — HP: 28,000 / 56,000 → 10,700 / 56,000]`
Valeria staggered back against the split remains of her own table, one wing hanging lower than the other now, blood running freely down her arm and dripping off her fingers onto the wreckage of a plate.
Brendan's hands shook around his staff, the holy light thinning at the edges from the strain of holding it this long, but he kept it lit.
Tadhg forced himself forward again despite the ribs, back into the same lane that had put him on the floor first.
They closed in from three sides, weapons glowing, and for one long breath, it looked like the room was about to end in their favor.
---
Valeria stopped smiling.
Blood ran down the maul's haft where her own hand gripped it, and the weapon drank it — the black-red core flaring, brighter than it had been all fight, the light spreading down through the wood like something feeding.
`[VALERIA — SECOND PHASE TRIGGERED]`
`[WANTBREAKER MAUL: DESIRE LOAD EXPANDED]`
