The others finally freed their beasts from their backpacks and fused completely with them.
Relief flooded through the group, as fusion took hold and transformed vulnerable students into proper combatants. They'd been fighting at a disadvantage.
Now the playing field was level… 4 vs 4.
Or it would have been, if the enemies still had any fight left in them.
The wind user stepped back, his confidence evaporating like morning dew under harsh sunlight. He looked around at his fallen teammate, at the mantis that had appeared from nowhere to disable their healer and at Klein who'd just demolished their wood user.
The close-range fighter looked backward too, searching for the healer who was no longer available, immobilized by Ren's invisible mantis with blades at his throat.
And the earth user from distance stopped launching projectiles for a moment, processing that this was no longer gonna be an easy victory.
