The second burst arrived before Azula had fully recovered from the first.
She took it mid-recovery—the force arriving while her balance was still adjusting from the previous impact, the double burst hitting her in close succession and the second one carrying more effective force than it would have carried against a fully braced fighter.
She went to one knee.
The chain rhythm stopped—the knee on the stone, both hands needed for balance, the firing interrupted for the first time since she had planted.
Drex was eight feet away.
He advanced.
Azula pushed back to her feet—the recovery fast, the knee-down lasting less than two seconds, the chain rhythm resuming the moment she was upright. She fired three streaks in the fraction of a second between standing and Drex arriving at seven feet.
All three redirected.
