Then the coun­ter­at­tack begins.

A peal of thun­der erupts from an impe­r­ial sorcerer’s staff on the Wall, and a blue-white flash of light­ning sears through the sky.

From their tall watch­tow­ers, the sor­cer­ers’ onslaught is mas­sive and indis­crim­i­nate. Streaks of light­ning blast down into the natives’ mud hov­els, shat­ter­ing their adobe walls into pow­der. A few bolts shoot up into the sky, burn­ing jagged lines into Gil’s vision. Thun­der­claps shake the build­ings and rat­tle his chest.

More lights flash in the dark sky—a pair of vio­let arcs. The warp­ing mys­tics sail back over the Wall, land­ing on periph­eral build­ings.

Bolts of light­ning blast in their wake. The mys­tics con­tinue shoot­ing from rooftop to rooftop, like frogs leap­ing from lily­pad to lily­pad. The sor­cer­ers show only slightly more hes­i­ta­tion to shoot build­ings on the Akka­dian side of the wall. The storm of light­ning is now far brighter and infi­nitely louder than the still-burning wreck­age from the mys­tics’ attacks.

Below and behind him, Gil hears a growl.

Kiddu
Somebody’s awake.

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