Rohan activated Molten Assimilation as hard as he dared.
Ash crawled over his palms and fused into a darker layer. The heat sank into it, still painful but bearable, and he twisted the spear with everything he had.
The skarn thrashed.
One of the smaller creatures lunged at his side.
An arrow struck it.
Rohan barely registered the blur before the creature was knocked sideways, a dark shaft buried in its shoulder. A second arrow followed almost immediately, hitting the same creature in the head. It collapsed into ash and fragments.
More arrows cut through the air.
The figures from the settlement had reached the outer trail.
Not many. Four, perhaps five, moving fast across the marked route. They wore layered coats and dull metal masks that covered their mouths and noses. Two carried bows. One held a long polearm with a hooked blade. Another carried a round shield of blackened metal nearly as tall as their torso.
Liora shouted something in a language Rohan did not recognise.
