Page 68 of Mantle

The ground reverberated again, and I spun to see the stone creatures coming for us.

The one Ariana had shot down was getting up from his sprawled position, while two more were moving in.

I jumped down from the platform onto another several feet below, the rough surface shuddering as I landed upon it.

The stone creatures charged.

I met them head on, flame surging from my fists as I slammed into one, then the other, redirecting their kinetic blasts with a molten arc of force that cracked across their stone bodies.

I twisted and ducked under their swings, moving swifter and more fluidly, but just as mightily.

I ripped one off its feet and roared as I tossed it into the other two, downing them all in one shot.

And then I unleashed a concentrated stream of my dragon fire—tight, hot, but precise.

It scorched through their cores, blowing them apart bit by bit, until they were no more than a pile of molten rocks.

A pained cry from Ariana had me swinging around and looking up at the sky.

Holy. Hell.

Those shimmering funnels of silver and white power that we’d all seen her working on lately through Cassius’ training at her family home, were trapping the two Threniths, the storm of Celestial power swirling around them.

But it wasn’t just holding them at bay.

It was tearing them apart, piece by piece. Destroying flesh and bone, and their very lifeforce in the process. They were screeching without sound because of Kai’s spell, and twisting wildly.

The look of panic and devastation all over Ariana made it clear she hadn’t realized it could do that when used as a full-on attacking force.

She’d briefly clipped Nyx with one of the vortexes before and that had done damage just because of the Celestial power aspect touching a non-Celestial being. But this… it was far more concentrated and also being intended as an attack, not just a creation she’d been working on forming and perfecting.

She tried to pull it back, but she was panicking, hating that she was accidentally torturing the creatures.

“They’re not real!” Kai called out, seeing what was going on. “It’s okay, they’re not real, Ari!”

In the next moment, that was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt as the creatures blinked out of existence like they’d never been, just leaving Ariana’s swirling power in the air.

“It’s coming,” Nyx said, gritting his teeth as he held his portion of the spell steady.

“Now,” Kai uttered a moment later.

And then the containment field dropped, and he reached through and snatched out the medallion, grinning at us in triumph.

“Got it, Ari!” he yelled up to her.

The portal opened up back over where we’d first come in.

“Let’s go,” Kai said, starting to lead the way back down the platforms, as Ariana flew up to it and waited there for us.

Then the groundboomed.

A molten rift opened between two jagged cliffs beyond the pedestal, and something vast and burning clawed its way up.

Some sort of… magma beast.

Its body was a living furnace, skin cracked like volcanic rock and glowing with lava beneath.

Its claws dragged fire through the stone with every step.

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