The device was already at Moon's mouth as he ran at full speed.
"Theo, I'm out. Fall back to the rally point, now. The spire's gone and I've got the commander buried, but I don't know how long that holds."
"Copy," Theo's voice came back, filled with relief. "Moving."
Behind them, the white spire lay in ruins, a mountain of broken ice where a monument had stood, and somewhere beneath it, the commander clawed toward the surface.
No notification appeared in Moon's vision notifying him of the Lesser Elf's kill. But he had expected that a collapsing spire, however much rubble it dumped on the lesser elf, was never going to kill something at that level.
The commander was a pseudo-Surpasser, and being buried under ice would slow it, and cost it precious seconds to dig free, but it wouldn't die.
