Ahnasha was not a moment too late with her shot at the crossbowman. He had been so focussed on his target that he didn't notice he was being targeted himself until Ahnasha had already shot. He tried to dodge away, but the arrow struck through his light armour and punctured his chest. He fell backwards and loosed his bolt uselessly up at the stone ceiling.

Ahnasha's shot gave Darahil the moment he needed. He was determined enough that he almost didn't notice his entire body taking on a transparent, glass-like appearance from the chameleon spell until his own spell was unleashed. His hands slowly made a flowing gesture until he gathered all of the spell's power between them both, then pushed the power forward with his arms outstretched. The power flew straight out in a crackling, sustained beam of pure energy.

The lightning beam struck the enemy mage, who had seen the spell charging and desperately tried to produce a powerful ward. The spell was so powerful that the mage was pushed back a step by its force. Her ward lasted a mere moment before shattering audibly, sending her flying backward and onto the ground. Her body shuddered, but her core was burned so suddenly that she barely got the chance to scream. Darahil stopped the spell then. His shimmering outline fell to one knee as he caught his breath and took cover again. The enemy mage had a scorch mark in the middle of her cuirass that bordered a hole to a smoking hole where her heart should have been. Darahil would need time to recover, but he had eliminated the biggest threat yet.

The trade-off for using all of their magical resources for the moment was that now the archers bore the full weight of delaying the ram. Many mercenaries were wounded, but there were enough that they were able to assemble a team and start striking the gate again. In the futile minutes that followed, Vera saw that there would be no stopping them breaking the gate. She turned to face the defending side and pointed out to all the defenders in reserve. "Form up! Prepare to repel them!"

The defenders lined up in formation. Those that were strong enough to transform did so and waited with flat ears for the oncoming assault.