Lucien turned from the distant battlefield and faced the human woman.
"Wake the others," he said. His voice was steady but urgent. "We will be fighting Monster Kings."
The woman did not hesitate.
Whatever doubt she had carried vanished the moment she felt the tremors rippling through the fields. She nodded once and moved.
She did not wake them gently. She crossed the short distance, seized the nearest Serpentile by the collar and drove a sharp burst of heat into his shoulder.
The man hissed and jolted awake.
"What—"
"Up," she snapped. "Unless you want to die asleep."
She moved to the next one and struck the ground beside his head with a condensed flare. The explosion was small but loud.
The second Serpentile woke with a snarl.
The third received a slap reinforced with heat just painful enough to shock.
The human man groaned as he was shaken awake, blinking in confusion.
"Are we… alive?"
Lucien ignored the commotion.
His awareness had already returned to the battlefield.
