The attack had not come from afar, nor from the hunter cabin that had made Fontana sense danger. It had come from directly beneath their feet!
Crimson tongues of flame mingled with torn earth and shattered stone, erupting upward with the fury of a volcano!
In an instant, the blinding light and thunderous roar seemed to steal Lila's senses. Her eardrums rang violently, and her vision was filled with flashing white light!
Exposed skin burned with searing pain, and she could faintly smell something scorched.
She felt as though a crazed wild bull had slammed into her. Her body was hurled away by the violent blast, then yanked back with force by a beam of magic.
Her insides twisted into a knot, a strong taste of blood surged up her throat, and blood sprayed uncontrollably from her mouth.
At that moment, Lila's mind was nearly blank. She barely felt any pain at all, and her brain seemed to have short-circuited, refusing to think.
She crashed heavily into a clump of bushes some distance away, rolling several times before coming to a stop.
After lying on the ground, thick with the smell of gunpowder, for a while, consciousness slowly returned to her. Sharp agony followed, the world spinning around her as her ears filled with ringing and the roar of rushing blood.
In her daze, Lila heard angry shouts coming from somewhere, but she could not make out a single word.
She struggled to raise her head and vaguely saw several figures moving about. The little wooden sticks in their hands shot out brightly colored beams of light.
Lila stared blankly, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
Their faces were unfamiliar too, as though the impact of that explosion had torn apart everything she knew, turning it into countless scraps