Hajin hit the tree line at a dead sprint while the apex tore through the broken threshold behind him.
Shale sprayed beneath its claws as wings spilled into the sky, and three hounds broke for the returning wagons below. Hajin's chain snapped around the leader's knee, tearing the tendon and dragging its thrashing body across the other two's path.
"Not the wagons, you mangy shits!"
Vella stood beside the triage cart while patients streamed toward the second barricade.
"Stretchers through," she shouted, stabbing her wrapped hand toward the covered opening beyond the ditch, "keep them together, the flyers are diving on the wounded!"
Osric rammed his spear into a descending chest before its claws reached the tailboard.
"Guard the litters," he bellowed, hoisting the impaled body clear of the carrying frames, "nobody leaves a patient between the cart and the line!"
Sable hooked her bow onto the wagon rail and yanked a spare shield from beneath it.
