Book One – Chapter 5

They had no time to spare. The serpents and galebiters were just the beginning, frantic creatures lured by the first traces of foreign energies. They were the ominous heralds — harbingers of greater, more formidable beasts that waited to be stirred by unleashed magic.

The galebiters kept coming in ever greater masses, breaching his projectiles, assaulting the bridge, crashing into the structure and breaking the shard fragments with their beaks mid-flight. The structure quivered above the roaring sea. Yves, relentless, turned the bridge into a weapon. Shards shot out of the beams, walls and roof, piercing the massive fish in layers, a macabre defense against the onslaught.

Elongated shards sliced through the air, striking the opposite cliff where towering crustacean beasts emerged, each several meters tall. Their grotesque forms were amalgamations of the morbid, all claws, rows of feet, and layers of impenetrable carapace. Defying Yves’ attempts to pierce them, they blocked the path to the mainland.

Four of these colossal crustaceans confronted Yves, their enormous bodies scuttling around the bridge entry and their massive claws either hammering onto or thrusting into the narrow opening of the bridge, clipping its winding structure. Yves unleashed a barrage of condensed glass projectiles, now targeting vulnerable joints. The attacks plunged the creatures into a frenzied state. Amidst the chaos, Yves worked tirelessly to mend the damaged bridge and shields. His next array of shards threw the front crustacean off balance, providing Midnight an opening.

In a daunting display of speed, power and agility, Midnight soared past Yves, evaded the rampaging claws and leapt onto the mainland, where she attacked the creature from below. Darting back and forth, she ripped its elongated underside and legs with her claws and teeth, her movements borne from calculated ferocity, a symbiosis of raw power and deadly precision. Yves felt her anticipation for the enemies’ reactions before his own senses could catch up. He supported her aggressive maneuvers with temporary shields that intercepted the crustaceans’ lunging claws and impeded the movement of their trampling legs. Together, he and Midnight orchestrated an array of precise attacks — Midnight targeting the weak points of the beasts, Yves unleashing shard projectiles with strategic precision.