The goblin kings moved suddenly.
Together.
They regrouped with the efficiency of creatures who had hunted in packs long before the war taught them politics.
Lucien felt it immediately. Their footwork changed. Their spacing tightened. Their lines of sight overlapped.
His allies felt it too. Because for the first time, all five of them glanced toward him at once.
They had felt the invisible hand that had been keeping them safe. The subtle stillness that saved a weapon from breaking. The angle that turned a near-miss into a strike. The split-second ruin of an enemy's footing.
Even the Serpentile woman who had bristled at him earlier, shifted her stance without being told. She slid into the spacing he had been shaping all along.
Lucien's voice cut through the noise.
"Do not let them regroup. Break their rhythm. Keep one per target."
The human woman nodded once and drove a flaming knuckle into her opponent's jaw.
The goblin's head snapped sideways.
