The explosion had come from the adjacent building.
Dust and smoke curled into the air, rolling across the ruined courtyard like fog.
Kyle and Eleanora sprinted without slowing, boots slamming against the stone floor.
And then they saw it.
A swarm of monsters, wolves with stretched skin, crooked bodies like half-rotted puppets, twisted shapes too thin for their own frames, were running straight at them.
Kyle instinctively raised his tachi, Eleanora's hand brushing her estoc.
But in the next heartbeat, they both froze.
The monsters weren't charging them.
They were fleeing.
Their grotesque limbs stumbled and clawed at the ground, eyes wide with panic as they scrambled away from the collapsed building.
They weren't predators anymore.
They were prey.
Kyle and Eleanora exchanged a quick glance, tension sharpening in both their eyes.
Then, wordlessly, they pushed forward into the wake of retreating creatures.
