Fire and Shadows
But it was too late already.
"Advance!" bellowed Loret, his voice shattering the strained silence that had paralyzed the courtyard.
Steel met stone as the Imperial Guard charged ahead in an unyielding rush. The noise was thunderous—a clashing, metallic roar that resounded off the marble walls.
Leon's lips relaxed into a brief, nearly imperceptible smile. He breathed out slowly through his nose, calm and measured. "Then come," he whispered, his tone low but cutting, holding a promise that passed over the air like a shiver.
He stomped his foot on the cracked marble floor. The courtyard shook convulsively beneath his blow. Veins of hot red light radiated out like roots in the ground, writhing through the cracks of the ancient stone. A heavy, hollow thrum welled up from the courtyard, mounting in strength, thrumming in the bones of all the soldiers in the yard.
