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Because this battle … Hybern had been ready And the appearance they’d given, of a tired arht … It had been a ruse, as our own had been

Keir’s soldiers started going down first, shadows sputtering out Their front lines buckling

Mor watched it, stone-faced I had no doubt she was half hoping her father joined the dead now piling up Even as Keir ers, reassembled that front line--only after Cassian had roared at him to fix it And on the other side of the field …

Rhys and Tarquin were drained enough that they were actually battling sword to sword against soldiers And again, no sign of the king or Jurian or Ta atto so up here with me … It was not where she wished to be

But this … this running after ar to stay ahead …

It would not provide a solution Not for long

The skies opened up, and the battle turned into outright hter Siphons flared, soldiers died Hybern wielded its ownan appearance, along with clouds of it, thatin the rain And did not impact us--not one bit--with Nuan’s antidote in our systems Only those arrohich were skillfully avoided with shields or outright destruction to their shafts, leaving the stone to fall harmlessly fro, kept killing Tarquin and Varian held their own--spreading out their soldiers to aid Keir’s once-again foundering line

Too late

Froh the rain, we could see perfectly as the dark line of Keir’s soldiers caved to an onslaught of Hybern cavalry

"Shit," Mor breathed, grippingour clothes, our hair "Shit"

Like a burst da Keir’s force in half Cassian’s belloas audible even fro arrows and spears, his Siphons so diainst it I could have sworn Rhys roared soarded as he landed in theour lines, and unleashed hiasp

More and more--Hybern spread us farther and farther apart Rhys’s power sla to shove theht Dozens fell to those snapping shadows, rather than hundreds

"Re-fordown her face "Re-fored into the fray, nothinghis way tohere Cassian fought, utterly surrounded

"Mother above," Nesta said softly Not in awe No--no, that was dread in her voice

And within my own as I said, "They can fix this" Or I prayed they could

Even if this battle … this was not all that Hybern had to offer against us

This was not all they had to offer, and yet ere being pushed back, back, back--