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"Now!" Arlen cried, leaping at the closest mind demon even as Renna and Shanvah struck Renna cut the head clean off her target, her father’s great hunting knife passing through its scrawny neck like Hog’s cleaver through a chicken

Shanvah, too, went right for the kill, her speartip piercing a dean to shreds Thespeed, but even they were not proof against a killing blow

The rabbed its horns, adding the force of his leap to the twist that snapped its neck Unwilling to leave it there, lest the creature heal even that terrible wound, he put a foot on its chest and kept twisting, turning the head until scaled skin and sinewy an to tear With a roar, he ripped it free of the body

The psychic death cries of the three minds exploded outward in a wave Experience had shown the death of a mind would kill or drive mad every drone for a mile in every direction Even Arlen, his mind warded, could hear it, like the air itself screa claws to their heads and howling

Arlen gave theic of Anoch Sun The power responded instantly, as if eager to avenge the city’s destruction He drew heat and i the in the pillars that held the roof in place He dare not call such power again If their goal had been to siive all their lives, but they were playing a different ga into a warded kick that would take it right in the throat Shanvah and Renna were alreadyto support him

But the mind demon met Arlen’s eyes just before the blow landed, and the creature collapsed intoa path to the Core Arlen’s kick shattered one of the stones of the wall, and

The other ht Arlen expected no less The ht show submission to one more powerful, but loyalty was an alien concept to them They were more than happy to let others of their kind die and lose their chance to mate Only the uard remained

Jardir had the coreling prince on the ground, wrestling, but the deer than it appeared, and while the crown kept it fro, Jardir could not access its other pohile he maintained the trap

The de to co it solid, and Renna delivered a kick that snapped one of its legs right off The liround and shattered as she spun to deliver a killing blow

But before the blow could land, the mimic melted into a puddle, and she overbalanced as the kick struck only air Instantly, tentacles foroo The wards on Renna’s flesh and Shanvah’s shield prevented the blows fro still knocked both wohters Shanvah never lost control of her tuht back in Renna was less graceful, but with her night strength she caught herself quickly and was ready before the demon could reforuards of theforces, with intelligence beyond that of si for reinforcements All the drones close by were dead or insane, but soon the mimic’s call would carry to those beyond the reach of the minds’ psychic screams They could not rise inside the warded tomb, but the tunnel outside would soon be thick with scale and claw

Arlen looked back to Jardir, locked in his struggle with the mind, and knehere his priority must lie

"Kill the mimic!" he shouted to Renna and Shanvah "Ware reinforcements!"