Kallen sat up slowly, his head pounding, vision blurred as if the world had been smeared in haze. His ears rang with a sharp, high-pitched whine, the aftermath of the explosion still echoing through his bones.
For a moment, his body rebelled, nausea clawing at his throat, lungs tight with dust and shock. He felt the instinctive urge to retch, but he suppressed it mercilessly, forcing his breathing into a steady, measured rhythm.
With a slight shake of the head, he bit his tongue mercilessly, snapping his senses back to focus.
The room was a complete waste.
Jagged slabs of broken stone and shattered wood lay strewn across the floor... cracked pillars and debris still tumbling in the wake of the explosion.
The entire structure trembled; each impact from outside, sending violent tremors through the walls... gusts of compressed air surging into the wreckage like the breath of a rampaging beast.
