Finn slammed his fist against the cavern wall, the hollow echo confirming his suspicion. "There's a passage below!"
Samuel's weathered face lit with grim hope. "Break through!"
As White Bear archers loosed another volley, Kael's Stellar Shuffle blurred his movements. Arrows hissed past his celestial ward's shimmering barrier, embedding themselves in stone with lethal precision.
"Focus fire on the mage!" Damien barked, his composure cracking.
Kael's staff flared. "Springwater Surge!" Torrents erupted from fissures, dousing the advancing flames. Steam billowed, obscuring vision as blue妖姬 mercenaries hacked at the rear wall with pickaxes.
"Almost through!" Hannah shouted, her dagger chipping away frost-glazed rock.
Damien's mages retaliated, their Inferno Orbs melting stone into molten slag. Amelia intercepted one projectile with a spinning kick, her armored boot redirecting it into a White Bear swordsman. The man's scream echoed as his flesh sizzled.
"Now!" Samuel roared as the wall crumbled, revealing a yawning chasm.
Kael grabbed Hannah's wrist, pulling her toward the gap. "Jump!"
The Azure Sirens leaped into darkness as Damien's enraged roar followed: "After them!"
Kael's staff carved arcane sigils into the smoke-choked air. "Stormwrath!" A fifth-tier gale erupted, hurling flames back toward the White Bear ranks. Mercenaries screamed as their own inferno engulfed them, flesh charring under reversed fire.
"Five thousand gold for that mage's head!" Damien bellowed, parrying Kael's retaliatory Frostlance with a burst of crimson斗气. The ice shards shattered against his defenses, but the cold seeped into his bones, slowing his reflexes.
The White Bear mages chanted in unison. "Deceleration Hex!" Kael's Stellar Shuffle faltered as invisible chains weighted his limbs. Crossbow bolts hissed toward his exposed flank.
"Stormwrath!" Another gale scattered the projectiles. Kael rolled behind a stalagmite, his celestial ward flickering under sustained assault.
Finn's shout echoed from the crumbling rear wall. "Through here! The passage leads downward!"
Samuel rallied his dwindling forces. "Cover the retreat!"
As the Azure Sirens vanished into the newly revealed abyss, Damien's enraged roar followed: "Seal the exits! They'll suffocate in their tomb!"
Kael's staff snapped upward, arcane syllables sharp as winter's bite. "Frostlance!" The ice projectile pierced through chaotic crossfire, embedding itself in a White Bear mage's chest. The man crumpled mid-incantation, his dying gasp drowned by Damien's enraged roar.
"You vermin!" The White Bear heir's face twisted as his remaining mage scrambled backward. "Flank them! Crush that spell-slinger!"
Finn's shout cut through the din. "The wall's breached! There's a way down!"
Samuel didn't hesitate. "Rearguard—twenty volunteers!" Hands shot up before he finished speaking. Veterans and greenhorns alike stepped forward, blades raised in grim salute.
The descent was chaos. Mercenaries slid down the jagged fissure as their comrades above clashed with White Bear forces. Hannah's dagger flashed, severing ropes meant to anchor pursuers.
"Seal it!" Samuel barked. Boulder after boulder tumbled into the crevice, Damien's threats muffling beneath tons of stone.
The tunnel ahead reeked of ancient dampness. Kael's flame spell revealed walls carved with spiraling glyphs that pulsed faintly blue. The Frostvein core in his pack vibrated in resonance.
"Cataclysm-era ruins," Amelia murmured, brushing fingers over a serpentine engraving. "These markings predate the Purge Wars."
A distant rumble shook the passage. Dust sifted from cracks above as Damien's forces hammered at the blocked entrance.
"Move!" Samuel urged. "This won't hold them long."
The company pressed deeper, the air growing colder with each step. Strange luminescent fungi clung to the walls, their glow revealing a fork ahead—leftward slope descending into impenetrable blackness, rightward path angling upward.
Hannah paused, breath fogging. "Which way?"
Before Samuel could answer, the Frostvein core flared. Its light bent toward the descending tunnel, casting long shadows that seemed to beckon.