The fight in the extraction chamber was no longer a battle of magic; it was a desperate, bloody scramble for survival. I dodged Kael’s first strike, the air whistling past my ear with the force of a sledgehammer, and drove my elbow into the exposed hydraulic line at his waist. He didn't feel the pain, but the mechanical fluid sprayed across the floor, causing his leg to seize. I didn't wait for him to recover. I channelled every ounce of my remaining fire into a single, focused beam and struck the central power conduit that fed the Aegis pylons.
The room exploded in a shower of white sparks and blue ozone. The lights flickered and died, leaving us in the ghostly pulsing violet glow of the tanks.
"The backup generators will be online in ten seconds, Elara," Lilith’s voice called out fro
