"Fall back!"
Kael's voice cracked through the chaos, but even he could hear how thin it sounded against the roar of splintering timber and screaming steel.
Though he screamed, his voice died against the noise surrounding him.
Hence, it took a little while for those around him to react.
Their disobedience, however, wasn't some sort of defiance. But rather, it was due to the fact that there wasn't a single space left to retreat.
The shed's collapsed wall, once their advantage, now yawned wide where the Leo-kin had torn it apart plank by plank, their patience finally giving way to raw, efficient force.
"They're flanking east!" Valen's voice cut through, sharp with something that wasn't quite panic — closer to grim recognition. "The ravine—there's a ravine past the old grain stores, half-collapsed, unstable ground. My village had one just like it."
For reasons untold, Kael could understand him.
