Numerous pairs of glowing red eyes blinked open in the suffocating darkness above, and before anyone could take a proper breath, the ceiling seemed to collapse. The swarm poured down like a living flood.
"Get down!" Tyler barked.
But Zuzia was faster. She snapped her wings open with a thunderous clap, wrapping them around Lanny like a shield. Her tail coiled protectively, her horns glowing faintly with molten lines of light.
Mana, true to her nature, didn't bother with dramatics. She simply vanished, her form dissolving into the air as though she had never been there.
Tyler didn't move at all. He stood like a mountain against the tide of shrieking bats. The creatures slammed into him one after another, like raindrops hammering stone. Their claws scraped against his scaled skin, their wings beat furiously against his body, but he did not so much as flinch.
