The creature's body stiffened as ash packed into the heat inside it, smothering whatever internal flame gave it life. Rohan grabbed a jagged stone with his free hand and brought it down on the creature's head until the body stopped moving.
He tore his arm free with a grunt.
Blood ran down to his wrist, too bright against the ash-dark skin.
The final creature had reached the cart.
The trapped human slashed at it, but their hand was shaking too badly. The blade glanced off one of the creature's front limbs, and the thing lunged over the cart frame, mouth opening toward their face.
Rohan had no spear.
No time.
He grabbed the broken wheel from the cart wreckage with both hands and heaved.
The wheel was heavier than expected, reinforced with a rim of dark metal, but the ash assimilation had left his body with enough borrowed vigor to move it. He swung it like an oversized shield and smashed it into the creature mid-lunge.
The impact knocked the creature sideways into the ash.
