A Layer 3 swing carried enough raw kinetic force to splinter Zerith's shields and drive the warriors behind them backward through the mud like battering rams.
A Layer 2 Peak Veynar veteran could absorb a glancing spear thrust that would have dropped a weaker fighter and still return a bone-crushing, lethal blow with their counter-stroke.
The Zerith's venom stung and burned across torn skin, but Zephyra's earlier diffuse wave of essence had already dulled its worst, flesh-melting potency.
What little remained was steadily burned away by the roaring vitality of the Veynar warriors' sun cores.
The shallows before the palisade turned into a grinding, brutal clash dressed in the chaos of close-quarters combat.
Those Zerith who continued to lunge with claws and weapons were cut down quickly, cleanly, and without ceremony.
