The courtyard smelled of crushed clay shingles, hot ozone, and the sour musk of hunting beast spit.
Outside the shattered wooden gates of the medical compound, six shadows crouched along the high outer edge wall. They were Blood-Furred Iron Baboons. Each seven feet tall, broad-shouldered as prize bulls. Then he covered in coarse crimson fur that crackled with static discharge. Their elongated snouts were pulled back in wet snarls. They showed four-inch yellow fangs dripping with skin-burning stomach acids that hissed as they hit the wet brickwork.
Driven mad by the underground magnetic pulse from the Iron Rift, their beast cores were in full sympathetic deep ring overdrive.
“Blood Baboons!” Shen Yue gasped, her back pressing against the doorway behind Lin Ke.
Her hands whipped out two yellow magic charm slips. But the uneven spark discharge in the air caused the red stone ink to sputter and smoke before she could channel intent. “Their leaping speed breaks the sound barrier! If they flank at the same time, a traditional Golden Core shield can’t turn fast enough to intercept all six angles! The angular speed exceeds human eye tracking!”
Meng Shan hauled his massive tower shield up into the doorway, his boots digging into the crushed paving stones. “I’ll take three. Bottleneck the entrance. You hit them from behind.”
