---
Emerald hell-light swirled inside the Leopard King's throat, reflected in a thousand shards of broken quartz.Dune tops glowed sickly green; every ant warrior froze beneath that rising pulse of doom.
Kai tensed in the sand-trench, rear foot corkscrewed for maximum recoil, one arm flung out to warn the nearest haulers. Beneath the plates of his chest he felt the Ruler-Roar stigma throb like a caged sun. Three charges. Each one an extinction flare. "If that beam cuts through the corpse train," he thought, "half the Legion dies and the Queen's prize is ash."
"I must use the Ruler's Roar. There's no choice left."
He sucked a breath, mandibles stretching wide to shape the activation cry…
…and never finished.
