I didn't hear it.
I felt it.
The air twisted, wrong, violent, and then the light was already there.
"...!"
My body moved on instinct. Blade down. Mana out.
Barrier.
The beam crashed into it.
White swallowed everything. Pressure slammed into me, driving through my arms, my chest, forcing my feet deeper into the ground as the barrier strained and screamed under the weight of it.
Hold.
It cut off as abruptly as it came.
Silence snapped back in.
I dragged in a breath, sharp, steadying...
"…Okay. That's new."
The ground ahead wasn't shattered.
It was gone.
Right.
So we're done pretending.
"Go."
I didn't look back. Didn't need to. The shift behind me told me everything, movement, distance, absence.
Good.
Now...
I lifted my head.
Leonhart was already moving.
Steel met steel.
The impact slammed into me, clean, heavy, precise. My arms absorbed it, adjusted, redirected...
He came again.
And again.
