Athena's pov
A scream shattered the air.
One orb bypassed the front line and shot straight toward me. I dove sideways, hitting the dirt as it struck the space I'd just been in leaving a crater of warped ground and smoking roots.
I rolled, came up panting, and grabbed the short blade one of the guards had left behind.
I couldn't shift. My body still trembled from the last time. But I wouldn't be dead weight either.
The orb came again.
I stepped aside and slashed, my blade passed through it like water, and the orb shrieked but didn't die. It spun, faster now, building momentum.
"Hit the core!" Thalen barked. "Center of the mass, strike where it pulses!"
I waited.
Waited—
There. A flicker of light in its center. I stabbed forward, driving the blade into it with a snarl. The orb howled and convulsed—and burst in a wave of cold that numbed my skin.
Another down.
But they weren't stopping.
