The mist thinned. And the beasts stepped into view.
Three meters tall. Broad-shouldered. Massively built. Humanoid, but not human, their proportions were wrong, too dense, too heavy, as if they'd been carved from the bedrock of the Labyrinth itself.
Shells fused seamlessly to their backs, massive rune-etched domes of layered froststone, each carved with geometric patterns that pulsed faint blue. Their skin resembled compressed ocean rock, dark and dense, with frost lines glowing along their arms and necks like veins of ancient power.
Each one carried a weapon forged from ice-crystal alloy, lances taller than siege towers, tower shields etched with layered sigils, war-hammers that hummed faintly with restrained force, heavy blades that refracted light in fractured lines.
And when they walked, the ice beneath them didn't crack. It compressed, bowing downward as if their density alone warped the surface.
Bruce blinked once.
