Sonder lowered her barrier and the beastfolk moved like a single swift blade now, each body set to a single purpose; to fight. They were a pack out to hunt.
The cave shuddered with each impact from the magic and rocks, but the beastfolk danced around any obstacle.
They flowed toward the bloodhound's brother in a hunting line, claws ready to hit flesh.
The cavern opened into a vast dark below, too wide to see where the next attack might come from.
Here and there, one of them thought they could grab a hold and tear out a chunk of their enemy, but when they lunged, they only hit darkness; the brother having moved elsewhere already, or not ever having been where their eyes had locked.
A volley of dark energy erupted from the black, and Sonder threw herself arms out, creating a barrier.
Both magics met it with a sick, grinding howl. Fragments of light and dark spat across, like sparks of opposing worlds and then shivered away.
The dark sparks still had power to them, and it hit the wolf-man and glanced his shoulder. He skidded to the side and even with his sure-footedness, was lifted off his feet and came crashing to the ground.
Sonder let some of her own sparks spill into the ground to cushion his impact with some light.
The wolf-man grunted, but no wound would lessen his eagerness to fight.
Small wounds and cuts flared across the beastfolk as the attack was unending. The beastfolk's responses to Sonder's help were wordless nods of thanks; there was no room or time for more.
Roots, blackened and knotted, burst from the walls as if the stone exhaled living things. They writhed, coiling toward ankles and bellies, trying to pin them in place. The fox cut, slashing at the strangling growths, while the hyena drove his shoulder into a cluster and ripped it loose, blades of root splintering like rotten ribs.
A sound like a chorus of bones clicked from the deeper dark. Pale, skeletal shapes, rotten hides half-clinging, shuffled forward from beyond the dark, like those they'd seen above, but these were not hesitant. These were mad and enraged.
One staggered, and then lunged for the bloodhound. She sidestepped and tore into it, teeth and claws meeting carrion flesh. The creature collapsed in a skid of stone dust. The fox hacked its throat. The hyena drove his club through its head and barked a rough, triumphant sound.
The brother never came forward himself. He was silhouettes in the black. But his influence extended like a field. More bolts of dizzying shadow fired in slow, wide arcs, then accelerated, coming for them.
Sonder caught two with a broad sweep of her arm, the magic grazing her palms and leaving a strange numbness. Her arms shook, but she didn't think she could manage more shields against the dark magic.
She redirected the second bolt, and instead it slammed above, into the ceiling. Rocks cascaded down like rain and struck the brother's nearer thralls, burying them into useless heaps.