The third wall of glacial ice detonated into a blizzard of diamond shards.
Crimson blood-Qi flooded the space before the ox-wagon as the final barrier blew apart.
General Dravus dropped through the swirling frost like an iron meteor. His heavy boots slammed into the wet flagstones with a bone-jarring crunch, spiderwebbing the rock beneath his heels.
Behind the general, fifty elite halberdiers of the Iron-Blood Blood-Guard poured down the breach-shaft.
Their heavy plate clattered against the rubble as they fanned out in a semicircular formation. Their ten-foot polearms locked forward, sealing off every retreat route toward the underground lake.
The cavern air was thick with the stench of slaughtered beasts and boiled sulfur.
High above their heads, the descending ceiling groaned with the deafening weight of four million tons of solid limestone.
Dravus straightened his massive eight-foot frame, his cruel laughter booming off the damp stone walls.
