Chapter 94: The End
The Chimera’s roar of pure, unadulterated fury was a physical force, a wave of sound and power that shook the very trees and sent a fresh shower of rocks and debris raining down from the cliff face. The four remaining Spectral Panthers, their own hunt abandoned, emerged from the trees, their red eyes glowing with a hungry, malevolent light as they formed a closing, deadly circle around us.
We were trapped.
"Ashen!" Cecilia cried, her own voice a mixture of fear and a dawning, horrified understanding. "The venom... it’s..."
She didn’t need to finish. I could feel it, a cold, creeping paralysis that was beginning to spread through my limbs, a fire that was slowly, inexorably extinguishing the last of my strength.
But I wasn’t a warrior anymore. I was a commander. And my mind, even as my body failed me, was still a weapon.
"Cecilia," I gasped, my voice a raw, ragged thing. "The wall... break it."
"What?!" she cried, her eyes wide with a disbelieving horror. "But it’s the only thing keeping the Chimera at bay!"
"Just do it!" I roared, my voice a desperate, commanding bark. "Liora! Aurelia! Run east! To the ravine! Unleash the storm!"
From the distant woods, I heard a faint, affirmative cry. They didn’t understand, but they trusted me.
"Layla!" I shouted, my gaze now fixed on the three figures who had just finished off the Ironhide Boar. "Hold the center! Prepare for the echo!"