BOOM!!
A huge mushroom of dust kicked into the sky as two figures descended fast from above, colliding once more before either had fully cleared the clouds, momentum carrying them down together in a spiraling wreck that tore through open air, and the impact when they finally hit the ground sent a shockwave rippling outward across the scorched trench beneath them, flattening what little standing wreckage remained within a hundred meters.
One caught Lucy by the back of her neck before she could recover her footing, his fingers closing around her nape with a grip that felt less like flesh and more like something forged, and he drove her face-first into the earth with everything his arm had behind it, and she hit something worse than dirt.
