Page 3 of Red Ruin

Someday, every human city may end up just as desolate as Lomfort.

As I navigate the empty streets alone, I’m hoping itstaysquiet.

But an ominous crackling noise breaks the peace.

A wave of energy follows, lifting every hair on my body.

Hot.

Jagged.

The out-of-control magic sinks me in my sneakers.

It’s the pulse of a Sentinel on a rampage—a scream for help that I biologically can’t ignore.

My soul stirs, clawing to escape my skin.

Guides need to be needed.

Maybe I need it more than most.

Stars, I hate how much I need this.

I sprint for the source of the psychic pain choking me with flames. My ponytail bounces as I run, cursing. I should’ve smuggled a weapon when I fled Kyorgos.

There wasn’t time then, and there isn’t time to fix it now.

The Sentinel’s suffering knocks me breathless.

Whoever they are, they’re powerful, and they’re hurting in a way I was born to fix.

But, after countless missions with the Deathguard, I know better than to rush a monster I can’t beat solo.

Backup was a luxury then.

No one in the Farguard will save me now.

They don’t even know I’m here.

Reining in the gut instinct to help at any cost, I slink down an alley, staying low as I near the raging battle.

I recognize the hissing yowls and dry-scale musk before I peek around the corner of a crumbling brick building.

Kobolds.

The monsters are knobby, lizard-dog humanoids. Long tails and tufts of scraggly hair poke out from under their barbarian armor. Swinging spears, they swarm the Sentinel whose soul screams with agony as he lights the town in hellfire.

I can’t see his face.

The raging pink and red flames cover the Sentinel’s skin in living armor. When he shifts, a broad, muscular physique shows between flashes of flame. He’s already tall, but a single horn curves from the right side of his skull, deep red and subtly ridged, adding extra inches.

Fireballs streak from his blazing hands along with the lash of his vicious double daggers.

The Sentinel’s magic is so strong, every surge rattles the cobblestones. A chilling laugh rings when he slices through a stumbling kobold.

He could ash the monsters in a blink.

Instead, he’s toying with them.

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