The Black Hollow burned through the rest of the night.
Flames climbed across the ruined mountain structures while thick black smoke rose into the dark sky. Entire sections of the underground complex had collapsed inward after repeated attack runs from the A-10. Stone corridors were buried beneath rubble. Storage vaults burned from secondary explosions. Bodies littered the pathways leading out of the ruins.
And above it all—
The flying metal beast still circled.
Daren stumbled down a rocky slope beside Marrick while several surviving Hollow members fled deeper into the mountains. Nobody stayed together anymore. The organization that once controlled multiple trade routes and brigand networks had collapsed in less than an hour.
Not defeated.
Collapsed.
The difference mattered.
Because this was not a battle.
Battles implied resistance.
This had been extermination.
Another roar echoed overhead.
RRRRRMMMMMMMMM.
Everyone flinched instinctively now whenever they heard it.
