The members of the Bai Clan stood frozen for a heartbeat, their breath catching in their throats as the protective barrier shattered like falling glass.
The sound was a deafening crack that signaled the end of their safety.
Then, Bai Qing's voice ripped through the air, a thunderous roar that shook the very marrow of their bones.
The shock vanished, replaced by a desperate, burning ferocity.
They surged forward, a wave of white robes and cold steel meeting the tide of snarling, violet-eyed monsters.
One warrior of the Bai Clan leaped into the fray, his boots kicking up dust as a jagged arc of purple lightning whistled past his ear.
He didn't flinch.
Instead, he gripped his blade with white-knuckled intensity and dove toward a cluster of beasts that were snarling and snapping at the air.
Without the formation to hold them back, the demons were like water bursting from a broken dam, flowing in every direction with mindless hunger.
