The moment the mercenaries moved, chaos erupted.
It wasn't loud at first, not in the usual sense of clashing steel or shouts. Instead, the forest seemed to shift beneath them, almost imperceptibly, as if the ground itself were conspiring with their movement.
Several of the attackers didn't strike immediately. Instead, strange sigils flared beneath their boots, faint lines of glowing runes burning against the damp earth. Jae felt the tug before the shift, the subtle pull of displacement magic, and then the ground folded in on itself, warping space just enough to make the first few steps unpredictable.
"Elise! Byun! Tirel!"
He shouted, but his words barely carried. In a blink, the familiar forms of his squadmates were gone. Swallowed by distance. Pulled away by the folds in space, the warp that the mercenaries had created.
Jae's eyes scanned the new layout. Only the attackers remained, moving in, surrounding him like a circle of wolves, closing in slowly but deliberately.
