Page 229 of Red Ruin

Softly.

Deeply.

Lingering.

Their souls lean into mine. Their adrenaline buzzes, but underneath simmers a heart-clenching desire.

To conquer. To slay.

To protect.

Same here.

I give them a nudge and lift my glaive. “Kill the lich.”

CHAPTER53

IRIS

Vhex bowls into the horde.He mows through their outer ranks, blazing hellfire hot enough to melt a track through the cavern floor.

Remy disappears into the blooming smoke. Shadow spears flash. Monsters screech and yowl.

Tan moves with me while Simms handles the fight behind. Hellfire, shadows, and earth walls shield and lash around us, thinning the attack, but with so many monsters crashing toward us, the Sentinels have to focus on the biggest threats.

A dried-out kobold mage barrels at me. Shadows slice into it, but losing an arm and half its shoulder doesn’t stop it from casting a fireball with its leftover hand.

I dodge the blast and swing my glaive.

The corpse is old. One slash cuts through the brittle neck bones, but a strip of skin dried to beef jerky keeps the head attached. It hangs by a sinew.

With its skull knocked upside down, the snarling kobold lunges at me again.

I tangle my glaive between its legs, and it finally topples. When the kobold hits the ground, I stomp its skull.

One down.

One million to go.

I take down kobolds and skeletons.

Clangs, screams, and explosions echo in the open-shaft pit. The lich king’s deathly power squeezes my brain. My head throbs as I move through the chaos while calming Vhex and Remy’s souls.

I sidestep a mummified lizard-man’s sword-thrust.

Before I can counter, he spits acid at my face.

Time slows.

I start to duck, but I can’t avoid the spray.

As I wince, something strokes my cheek. There’s a rush of air and then a choked-off hiss.

Acid drips off my shadow shield. The lizard lies in two twitching halves, both clawing to attack me again.

I move away, leaving the corpse for Vhex to burn.

Fresh monsters replace each one that falls.

---