Valeria reacted before the blade reached her neck. She crossed both short spears above her shoulder, allowing Max's enormous weapon to crash against them with enough force to split the ground beneath her feet.
Golden and purple flames erupted against the fire surrounding her spears. Valeria's boots sank into the stone, and her arms trembled beneath the weight, yet she twisted one spear against the flat of Max's blade and redirected it past her shoulder.
Several strands of auburn hair burned away while purple ice spread across one side of her armor.
Max opened his black wings and twisted with the momentum, but Cassian was already moving.
"Left!"
Cassian's leaf-shaped spear pierced through the darkness, its golden point aimed at Max's ribs. Max pulled away, but the weapon still cut through several scales and left a line of blood along his side.
