The Marauders seemed to have pulled everything that mattered up onto the high main settlement after the loss report in the battlefield, leaving the lower ground completely empty.
What had once been a living outer ring of their territory was now just quiet stone, dry brush, and memory.
Sol's gaze lifted again to the switchback path and the massive shelf above it.
He adjusted the strap of the Dreadwing Blade and glanced toward Veylara, who had moved up beside him to study the same forbidding approach.
"This is where we are gonna split," Sol rasped, standing beside a grey boulder. His crimson eyes scanned the high ramparts above.
"Hmmm," Veylara nodded.
"Don't rush up the path until the gates swing open," Sol warned quietly. "They must have heavy stone deadfalls rigged to the upper overhangs. If they drop them while you're in the bottleneck, even Layer 3 warriors will get crushed."
