'Duck!' Vexis hissed beside him.
Arthur dropped.
The bolt cracked over his head and the air above him turned hot and sharp. He felt the heat on his scalp. A few strands of burnt hair drifted past his face.
The tree behind him split at the trunk. Bark exploded off it.
Arthur came back up. Shoulder first. Eyes already moving.
Twelve crawlers and now this. Great island. Love it here.
"You low lives." The green-haired man's voice had gone flat. "Blood for arrogance then."
Kreasial was already moving. She stepped right, both arms swinging forward, and the ice shards launched, bigger than before, edges razor-clean, spaced wide to cover all three of them.
The black-haired woman stepped up without blinking. Her palms opened and a wall of fire came up and the ice hit it and turned to steam and disappeared.
Kreasial landed from her step and immediately went low, dodging a green-glowing spike that buried itself in the dirt where her knee had been.
Those knives again.
