The echoing voice hung in the freezing, dust-choked air of the cavern.
Hide shoved Elara behind his back with his left arm, his boots digging into the loose gravel. His blades swept up in a tight, cross-guard stance, their edges bleaming with mana.
In the center of the subterranean hall, roughly twenty paces ahead, there was no flesh-and-blood warrior waiting for them.
Hovering a few inches above the jagged stone was a small, dense sphere of black sand no larger than an apple. The sphere rotated with unnatural, high-speed friction, emitting a low, abrasive hum.
Then, the cavern floor beneath it began to liquefy.
