"One minute twenty seconds!" Master Vex's voice carried across the corpse-field. "Everyone through now!"
The Lieutenant's advance team reached the portal first, diving through without hesitation. The rescued students followed, stumbling through the dimensional breach with the desperate relief of people who'd thought they'd never see home again.
The two soldiers bringing up the rear were fifteen seconds behind, dragging one student who'd finally collapsed from exhaustion. Ten seconds from the portal. Five.
A Void Stalker phased from shadow directly in their path.
The creature's claws swept toward the collapsed student, shadow-corruption already manifesting for the killing strike. One of the soldiers threw herself between them, taking the hit meant for the girl. Shadow-tainted claws punched through her armor, and she screamed as corruption began spreading from the wound.
