“It’s a fire unicorn! An impossibly rare fire unicorn!” another man blurted, excitement cracking his voice. “Do you realize what we’re staring at?” One-Eyed rasped, licking his cracked lips. “A celestial beast, and still a cub. Capture it, lads, and we’re set for life.”
Greed flared in their eyes. One man rubbed his palms, stepped forward, and flashed a wolfish grin at the blazing creature. “Easy, little one… Follow us and you’ll eat well, drink better. Beats starving out here, doesn’t it?”
Sensing danger, the fire unicorn’s fur bristled. Flames roared along its mane until it glowed like a miniature sun. With a shriek, it spat a beam of fire, the white-hot jet racing straight for the advancing raider.
Caught off guard, the man stumbled back, heat washing over his face like an open furnace. He regained balance, fingers weaving frantic seals. A translucent sheet of water materialized before him, hissing where sparks bit into it.
“Pathetic whelp!” One-Eyed snarled. “That trick won’t save you!”
One-Eyed barked and swept his arm. “All of you, now! Do not let it escape!”
Lightning arcs, thorny vines, and jagged ice shards erupted from every hand, converging on the solitary, blazing cub that now stood alone between the marauders and the mysterious tower.
Swords wrought from spiritual steel burst from every direction. Each blade glittered like winter ice and carved a silver arc across the sky before diving at the little fire unicorn. Elsewhere, the other cultivators lifted their hands. A gale thundered into the grove, its spiral of air intent on blowing the creature’s scarlet flames into ash.
The young fire unicorn darted left, then right. Though its living fire threw off part of the barrage, sheer numbers pressed it hard. The flames dulled, and every leap came slower than the last.
Just as one cultivator lunged, fingers closing around the fire unicorn’s tail, a shadow streaked from the underbrush like black lightning.
It was Celestial Devourer. Its jaws yawned wide, and a tidal pull roared from the void inside its mouth.
Air, topsoil, and even the cultivator’s outstretched arm tore free of gravity, all sucked toward that cavernous maw.
Eyes wide with panic, the man flailed, yet his body, now no more than drifting debris, floated helplessly toward the beast’s waiting throat.
“What in the world is that thing?!” one of the cultivators screamed, voice cracking as terror hit like a hammer.
The surrounding fighters reeled at the sight. Attacks on the fire unicorn halted; every blade and spell swung toward the newcomer.
A burly cultivator charged first, fists blazing with inner light, determined to smash the little beast aside with one decisive blow. Yet Celestial Devourer showed not a flicker of fear. It kept the vortex alive while slipping between strikes with unnerving ease.
The man’s punch grazed muscular hide, and nothing more, leaving the creature utterly unharmed.
The fire unicorn, heartened by its ally’s arrival, flared bright once more. Hope ignited in its ember-colored eyes.
Seizing a gap, it barreled into the nearest attacker, horns first. Armor crunched, the man shot backward like a rag doll and coughed blood into the evening air.
Now the two beasts moved as one. Celestial Devourer deepened its pull, dragging enemies off balance, boots skidding over churned earth.
Each time a foe rocked on unsteady heels, the fire unicorn darted in, wreathing them in fire or slamming them aside with its iron skull.
One-Eyed bellowed, “All of you, stop playing around! Pour everything you have into this. Those two pups do not leave this clearing alive!”
Snarling, he flashed through a rapid series of hand seals. Above him, a colossal black hand, woven from eldritch shadow, coalesced, then hurtled downward toward both beasts.
A crushing pressure flooded the grove, but Celestial Devourer countered by widening its vortex even further, wind shrieking like a living thing.
Beside it, the fire unicorn’s mantle of fire surged into a serpent-shaped dragon and streaked headlong toward the descending palm.
