The rain did not slow.
Neither did they.
The distance between them had narrowed to little more than a stride when Kaedor moved first. He could feel it clearly now—the thinning of his reserves, the instability in the reinforcement that had sustained him through the last exchanges. There was no space left for caution.
[Blood Surge Reinforcement] flared again, but this time it was no clean amplification. The vitality did not flow through him in a steady current. It burned through muscle and bone like something forced where it no longer fit. Veins darkened further beneath his skin, shoulders tightening as he dragged more strength forward than his body was meant to hold.
Each motion cost him.
He paid it anyway.
