For a heartbeat, the cavern forgot how to breathe.
Smoke hung midair, thick as oil, curling around the jagged fissures in the stone. The torches hissed, their flames bending low, strangled by heat and shadow alike. The hunters froze, blades half-raised, their eyes darting between Aria's trembling form and the writhing thing coalescing from ash and ember.
It was a pause, sharp and unbearable like the world was drawing in one final breath before it screamed.
Then everything broke.
The smoke lunged first, snapping into shape with claws of molten shadow. It struck the nearest hunter, ripping him from his feet with a shriek that cut through the cavern. His torch clattered uselessly across the floor as he vanished into the haze, body flailing, swallowed whole.
The hunters roared, panic tearing through discipline. Blades flashed in the dim light, torches swinging wild as they hacked at the air. The cavern became a storm of steel and smoke.
