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Rhone jumps from his own to stand overat et behind them as they shoot Then I see why

Darrow bulldozes toward me

His are of three armored Obsidians Rhone’s men shoot the Obsidians But they stumble into the line and Darrow explodes out froh a man’s teeth and jaw He looks left, then disappears in a blur

He threw his body back just as Kalindora galloped past on her horse Still, he’s clipped hard enough to spin like a top But as he falls, his Red acrobatics shine No one falls like the Reaper

His whip snakes out and snaps hold of the back fetlock of Kalindora’s horse He’s ripped down the boulevard before the Grays can shoot hih a wall of oes down Kalindora disappears Through the es her Their blades spark in an incredible display of fatigued swordsmanship And then she falls He hacks down at her four ti back to me

A roar comes from behind me

Back where Triumphia meets the plaza The infantry pour in and the spirit that anchored the Rising soldiers to this plot of land finally shatters In a weird, instantaneous snap, their dogged last stand h the back alleys and down the Triu me Many drop their weapons or discard their armor to run faster As happens in all retreats, h the back, cleaved down fro far round

It is a rout

A trio of horses speeds through the broken ared her to safety holds the reins of the third horse as the other sits backward and fires with his rifle Two shots whiz past h to flay open the skin of my scalp Darrow mounts one of the horses as they pass He looks back at h the plaza down the boulevard, and kicks his horse away

I rush to Kalindora as adocious totoward a lamppost so as not to be traash down her left side Her re ar to me I call

for medici Several Praetorians rush

I look down the dark boulevard after Darrow “Let him…run,” Kalindora says “You’re no…equal”

I grip a Praetorian They all have field“Keep her alive”

I grab Kalindora’s loyalist razor froround and sprint back to Blood of Empire and jump into his saddle to pursue Rhone shouts after ers, he will disappear into the city like smoke

The Praetorians try to keep up, but Blood outpaces their tired steeds Buildings whip past Retreating ht of the trio galloping south on a quiet stretch of the Via Triumphia just past the Bank of Heliopolis