The first wave of ash wolves hit the locked pavises with the concussive force of falling boulders, sending a spray of gray grit and hot sulfur across the stone floor of the defile.
Gideon and Mara did not yield an inch of ground. Their boots dug into the basalt gravel as the harmonic circulation loop Caleb had drafted ignited between their cores, turning their two rectangular shields into an interdependent iron rampart. When the three hundred pound lead beast slammed its armored skull against Mara’s timber frame, the kinetic shock did not jar her spine; the energy flowed horizontally through the shared barrier array, venting into Gideon’s planted stance and dispersing harmlessly into the bedrock.
Over the top rim of the joined shields, the ash shaft of Edric’s spear hissed through the su
