The air thickened with tension as the War Church priests surged forward like a crimson tide, weapons raised, eyes blazing with holy fury.
"Don't let them escape!" roared the towering priest at the front—High Priest Gregor, known across the borderlands as the Iron Judgment. His hammer glowed with an ember-red aura as he slammed it into the ground.
BOOM!
The earth shook beneath their feet, chunks of stone flying as dust erupted in clouds. A lesser person would have stumbled—but Kael and Ariana had already launched into motion.
Kael leapt onto a broken pillar and used it to spring up and over the first wave of charging priests. In midair, he twisted, landed behind them, and swept one's leg with a sharp kick. The burly man crashed into another like a falling tree, taking two out in a single breath.
