To him, she was not just a companion but insurance against disaster. Even if stray spells ripped through the neutral ground, even if mountains fell and rivers boiled, she would shield him without fail, guiding him to safety. The idle store he meant to reach lay only a few meters away, yet in moments like this, those steps might as well have stretched across continents.
And then, just as the first spell gathered on a grandmaster's lips, Noah moved.
His voice split the tension between the dark and light elves alike.
"STOP."
The word thundered with an authority that did not belong to his apprentice rank. It was not loud, yet it carried, threading through the roar of magic, sinking deep into the fury-clouded minds of warriors who should have been far beyond his reach.
A weight pressed into their thoughts. For an instant, light and shadow hesitated, caught off balance, as if the battlefield itself waited for his permission to move.
