The howling was not carried by sound.
It was a sound shaking that traveled directly through the spatial fabric, rattling the glassy glass channels inside Lin Ke’s arms like dry twigs.
Awoooo.
The sound had a wet, metal timbre—the baying of hunting beasts bred to hunt across space-folding folds.
“Sniffer Beasts,” Elder Wu squeaked from the depths of his blankets, his fingernails digging into his sector ledgers. “Three of them! Gate Warden Chi breeds them on dead moon-rocks! Their snouts can smell a single unsealed spiritual follicle from three leagues away!”
Lin Ke peered through a narrow slit between Meng Shan’s shield and the dark rock wall.
Through the swirling void mist, three hulking shapes were bounding across the jagged debris of the crushed outcrop.
They were monstrous chimera. Ten feet long, their hides covered in scales of burnished copper that clattered like armor plates with every leap.
