Outside the labyrinth, the sky churned. Clouds pulsed with sickly green lightning, and thunder rolled with a voice like cracking mountains. The storm moved unnaturally fast, spiraling directly over the ruins.
Shadow wolves poured from the fog, eyes blazing crimson. Caelum and Selka fought back to back: Selka's twin daggers flashed with silver light while Caelum's katana swept in arcs of freezing air, ice exploding from each strike.
A massive wolf — twice the size of the others — lunged from the storm. Its body was a writhing mass of shadow, its claws crackling with dark energy. Caelum met it head-on, ice swirling around their blade as they ducked beneath a swipe, driving the katana upward into the creature's chest.
Frost erupted outward in a shockwave, freezing the wolf solid before it shattered in a spray of obsidian shards. Lightning split the sky. In its flash, the masked figure stood atop a distant cliff, cloak billowing, gaze locked on Caelum.
The shadows retreated as quickly as they had come.
Breath ragged, Caelum sank to one knee. Selka laid a hand on their shoulder. "He knows you now," she warned. "He sees you as a threat."
Caelum's eyes narrowed, the katana's frost still steaming in the storm's chill. "Then let him see."