The instant the basilisk's golden eye locked onto him, Kael stopped thinking about "raid" and started thinking about "survive the next second."
He felt the chain between his gauntlets tug as his stance tightened, and he forced internal energy through the runes with a controlled push, the kind he used when he didn't want the output to surprise him.
The gauntlet warmed in sequence, heat traveling along the forearm like a contained furnace, and for a heartbeat, the fluorescent moss glow got bullied aside by raw orange light.
Kael unleashed the gathered energy through his gauntlet, and the cave lit up for a moment.
The fireball shot like a cannonball and slammed directly into the snout of the beast.
It did not drift lazily the way his old shots used to. Heft gave it bite, and the impact carried that bite with ugly honesty.
