The Prime hit Finn's axes and Finn did not stop it.
He got both hafts up crossed and got his weight behind them and it made no difference whatsoever — the thing came through at the speed it had been running and Finn went back four metres with his boots off the flags for the last two of them, and hit the seventh pillar with his shoulder blades.
Ronan got the second one.
It came round the outside of the Prime going for the gap where Finn had been, and Ronan put the shield into its chest on a strapped arm and a right shoulder and stopped it dead, and the noise the two of them made was enormous.
Then it clawed him.
Four hooks down the front of the shield with a sound like a saw going into a nail, and Ronan gave a metre and kept the thing in front of him, and behind him the entrance end of the hall was open all the way to the four steps.
`[MANA: 1,830 / 3,100]`
No skeletons.
---
James had nothing to put in anybody's way and eleven seconds ago had been counting on thirty.
