The sudden flare of light was like the sun tearing open the sky.
SHOOOM!~
Austaire's enemies staggered back, shielding their eyes from the brilliance and overwhelming pressure.
Behind her, a set of flaming wings burst into existence, each spanning nearly three meters from tip to tip.
These were no ordinary feathers, each was a rippling tongue of fire, alive and restless, curling and snapping in the air as though they had wills of their own.
The heat radiating from her form distorted the world around her. Every beat of those wings left behind a trail of molten embers, gusts of wind scattering dust, pebbles, and the charred skeletons of leaves across the ground.
Austaire lifted herself from the earth in one fluid motion, her wings casting a golden-red glow over the scorched terrain. She rose just high enough to evade the encroaching blades aimed for her, then descended with precision, alighting on a clear patch of ground free from hostile steel.
