Heart of Mer'Valka

The first ghoul burst through the undergrowth like a nightmare given flesh skeletal limbs wrapped in sinew and shadow, its hollow eyes locked on her flame. Behind it, more slithered from the fog, hunched and twitching, jaws slack with hunger.

Liliana didn't flinch, she took a single step back, grounding herself. Her fingers flexed once, and the flame in her hand coiled around her arm like a living serpent. Her breath came slow and controlled but her blood was pulsing, fast and furious.

"Alright, you ugly bastards," she muttered. "Let's see what death feels like when it burns."

The first one lunged.

Liliana ducked low and spun, her heel slicing through ash and grit as she swept her flame into its path. The creature screamed a shrill, inhuman sound as the fire wrapped around its face. It recoiled, clawing at its melting skin.

Two more charged from the flanks.

She didn't wait for it to get close. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a wall of fire surging outward them, forcing them to scatter. One got through, swiping a jagged claw across her shoulder. She stumbled back with a grunt, her lip curling in pain but she caught herself, fire dancing dangerously in her pupils.

"You want blood.... Huh?" she spat. "Come and bleed with me." They circled now, mindless and hungry, Liliana leap mid-air, and sent a spiral of fire crashing downward like a comet. Another hissed from the smoke, leaping highnonly for Liliana to meet it with a flame-forged spear.

She jammed it straight into its chest.

The ghoul convulsed and dropped, twitching, then stilled. Ash curled from its mouth.

That made them pause.

Liliana stood tall despite the sting in her muscles, and despite the blood soaking into her torn sleeve. "Come on then," she dared, teeth bared. "Let's make this worth it."

But they didn't move.Instead… they parted like dogs obeying a silent command.

And from the thickest part of the fog… something else began to emerge. It was tall and slow with glowing eyes that didn't blink.

Liliana's flame flickered.

Her mouth set in a thin, grim line. "Oh, So there's a boss."

The ghouls began to move again.slow, deliberate and knowing.

Liliana's lungs burned. Her arm ached with each flick of fire, and the gash on her shoulder throbbed like a drumbeat of defeat. The flames she summoned crackled weaker now, thinner, less defiant. Her body was warm but her core was growing cold.

And they knew it.

The towering figure that emerged from the fog was different. Its bones gleamed like obsidian, layered in armor forged from the earth itself. Runes pulsed along its skull. With each step, the other ghouls fell back, giving it room.

Liliana backed away, chest rising fast. She raised her arm again and the flame sputtered.

"Don't you fucking die on me," she whispered to it, coaxing, furious. "Not now."

The monstrous ghoul lunged.

Liliana braced, lifting her palm, about to send her last burst of flame her eyes wild and frantic probably from fear of not making it....

But it never landed.

CRACK.

Time fractured.

A rippled pulse swept through the air like glass breaking without sound. The monster jerked mid-stride, freezing in place. Not by choice but by force. A shimmer surrounded it, like it was caught underwater.

From the trees stepped a man, he was broad-shouldered, tall, an and dressed in deep grey with threads of silver woven like veins across his cloak. His eyes… they glowed faint blue, a cold, calculated light, His hair fell like woven silk from the threads of moonberries a rare, ghost-pale fruit that bloomed only in forgotten groves. He didn't look winded.

He raised a single gloved hand.

"Back in line, beast," the man said, voice low and silky, every syllable laced with disinterest. "You've had your turn."

The ghoul twitched, snarling through gritted bone but then collapsed, and the time aura faded.

Liliana blinked. "The hell—"

Before she could finish, the ground beneath the remaining ghouls exploded.

Rocks surged up like fists, slamming several of them into the air. Roots tore from the earth, coiling around limbs and snapping bones. Another figure emerged, a lean man with dirt on his boots and a cocky smirk on his face, one hand dragging a stone mace that didn't look forged so much as grown from the mountain.

She staggered, knees buckling slightly. Another ghoul closed in fast, its claws raking the air in front of her face.

She ducked her palm shot out, sending a weak pulse of flame that only singed the edge of its rotted face. It wasn't enough.

They were circling her now. The bigger ones hung back, letting the smaller, faster creatures wear her down. She could see it in their motions, like they knew she was losing strength. Her breath came in harsh pulls. The flame in her hand flickered, responding to her will, but dimmer and slower.

As if noticing her annoyed despair, the world cracked. A sharp pulse, like space itself twitched. The nearest ghoul jerked mid-leap, suspended and frozen.

Liliana blinked, arm half-raised. "What—?" okay she wasn't please by them trying to save a damsel

The moonberries head guy stepped out from the darkness of the trees.He didn't even glance at her.

"Stay still," he muttered not to her, but to time itself.

With a twist of his fingers, the suspended ghoul was sucked backwards, slammed into a tree and crumpled with a crack.

Liliana turned sharply another tremor.

The earth bellowed.

Stone erupted in front of her, taking two ghouls clean off their feet. The second guy came closer to them.

"You know," he said, lifting a hand and slamming a slab of stone sideways into another ghoul, "you're lucky we were passing through."

"I didn't ask for help," Liliana snapped, already summoning flame to her fingers again.

"Yeah," he replied, flicking a pebble that exploded into a spike mid-air, "didn't look like you needed it."

"Watch your mouth....." she growled.

"Focus," said the other, the time-weaver, he was eerily calm but a little too sharp. "They're still coming."

Together, the three of them fell into motion that was not coordinated, but aligned by the necessity of surviving. Fire carved arcs through the air. Stone rose in jagged fists. Time bent in brief pulses, freezing a claw, shifting a strike just enough.

Liliana moved like fire incarnate, she was graceful, angry and unyielding. But she couldn't help glancing sideways now and then.

The strangers fought like they belonged here. And that unsettled her more than the ghouls did.

They fought as if the world might end with one misstep.

Liliana's fire roared out again, sweeping in a controlled arc that torched two ghouls mid-lunge. She pivoted, dropping low as another tried to claw her from behind but a wall of stone shot up just in time, crushing the beast with a sickening crunch.

"You're welcome!" the earth-bender shouted through the dust.

She didn't answer, just flung a searing flame straight at a ghoul charging the time-weaver. He caught her glance but said nothing, flicking his wrist and freezing a second creature in mid-air, buying her the second she needed to burn it down.

The fight dragged.

Their powers weren't endless, and the ghouls, relentless as ever, just kept coming. Every strike was harder. Every movement, heavier. Liliana's flames sputtered now with effort. Her legs felt like lead, her breathing labored.

Still, she didn't fall.

"Left!" someone yelled....she didn't know who but she reacted, elbowing a shrieking ghoul in the face and igniting it point-blank.

A final tremor shook the ground. The earth split in a deep line, forcing the remaining ghouls to recoil. A powerful pulse from the time-weaver flared across the clearing, distorting the air and leaving a sharp ringing in their ears.

And just like that they were left with silence.

No more snarling. No more clawing. Only the sound of crackling flame, fading into the wind.

The last ghoul stood half-collapsed, spine twisted, twitching. Liliana stepped forward and incinerated it without a word.

The clearing was still. Burned. Shattered.

Liliana's shoulders were rising and falling. Her knuckles bled. The fire in her palm had gone out.

She turned sharply toward the two strangers. "Who the hell are you?"

The curly-haired one, the earth-bender grinned through his exhaustion. "Leo."

The time-weaver dusted his coat off. "Malachi."

"Well, Malachi. Leo." She looked between them, chin lifted. "If you think that means I owe you something just because you both helped me then you are mistaken."

Leo huffed a tired laugh. "Didn't say you did. But you're welcome."

Malachi just narrowed his eyes slightly, like he was still calculating the way she'd moved.

Liliana didn't like that.

"Don't follow me," she warned, then turned and stalked off into the dark.

 But like a magnet drawn to iron Leo followed with a mischievous grin and Malachi had no choice but to tag along not after giving a shake of his head.