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“If that is the case, then there is no sense in attempting stealth,” said Evangelina. Her long, raven-black skirt flowed wildly with every step she took. When they’d first set out from the inn, Hector had thought it rather impractical attire for combat, but after seeing the way the woman could move in it, he was glad he hadn’t said anything.

‘We should assume that they are more heavily armed than anyone we have met thus far,’ said Qorvass. ‘It would be best to avoid running headlong into a hail of ardor-infused bullets, no?’

The Lady Stroud’s face remained stolid, but she didn’t say anything.

Her reaper, however, chimed in. ‘That may not be an option, either,’ Ezura said, and she motioned upward.

A fleet of blinking white specks were pouring out from the platform above. Hector wasn’t quite sure what they were, but apparently Asad was, because quartz raised up from below the group and started carrying them diagonally away.

Blindingly bright spotlights fell upon them, and then a storm of flaming bullets arrived, chasing after Asad’s zigzagging work as it pushed the group ever higher and closer to their objective.

The shields came up, and everyone bunched together to form a protective wall around Asad and the reapers. A flurry of bullets occasionally washed over them, pinging off the shields like hail, but Hector was not pleased to see the many dents they left behind.

Ardor-infused, indeed. If they could do that kind of damage to the metal of Haqq’s shield, then he didn’t want to imagine what they would do to a person. Or a reaper.

As they neared the platform, Hector caught clearer sight of the blinking specks and realized that they were a small army of hovering drones.

And they were in range.

Hector’s free hand flexed, and iron clapped around every drone in his line of sight. They dropped instantly, and Hector pulled an iron bowl up from below to catch them like so much popcorn, not wanting them to fall out of sight and kill some poor bystander.