The Captain reached into the shaft until his fingers closed around something smooth and hot.
He pulled a single crimson crystal from the darkness and felt its dense pulse strike through the steel plates of his gauntlet.
Every rune across the ruins answered with a weaker pulse. The barrier around Helen's opponent flashed, vanished for half a breath, then returned in an uneven shell.
"I have the anchor," the Captain called as he raised the crystal.
"Then break it," Helen shouted while six Shards carried her around another bite.
The Captain reached for his claymore, but a stone spike punched through his left shoulder from behind.
Cold air touched the open wound before pain arrived, followed by fire that tore down his arm and sent the weapon clattering across the road.
'There was nothing behind me back there, and nothing alive.'
He turned with the crystal clenched against his breastplate and his wounded arm hanging useless at his side.
