The casters scrambled higher up the ramp. Hilda kept Kharzul between herself and their spells while Hulda smashed the infantry trying to reach Bim from the other side. Helda's shield covered the gnome whenever the cliff weapons turned toward his chair.
Kharzul couldn't get past Hilda. Every attempt to seize her axe earned him a burst of thrust that tore it from his grip, and without the casters catching her return swings, he would have been cut open already.
"The shield!" he shouted toward the guns. "Fire the breaker!"
A barbed bolt buried itself in the dock beside Helda. An enchanted metal cable trailed from its tail all the way back to the crossbow on the cliff, where a box beneath the weapon flared with light.
The same light raced down the cable into the embedded bolt. Helda's ward flickered as a pulse spread across the paving beneath her.
"Helda, your ward!"
