Whoosh—five figures shot into the air, only to tumble headfirst like stones dropped from the sky.
Ethan instinctively raised his hands to shield his face.
"Ah—what the hell! You scared the life out of me!" Blackie's voice cracked into a roar as his body surged outward, swelling and reshaping in midair. In the blink of an eye, the man was gone and in his place hovered a massive black-scaled beast. His Qilin form rippled with raw strength as he wavered twice, then steadied, floating effortlessly above the ground.
The others weren't so lucky. Uncle Jed and the two beastkin plunged straight into the shallow river below. The stream wasn't deep at all, its bed lined with jagged cobblestones and boulders the size of cartwheels. The three men struck them headfirst with uncanny precision.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Four dull crashes rang out as the rocks shattered beneath them.
