The next clash came without warning.
There was no pause, no buildup, no space left for hesitation. The moment the figure finished speaking, the distortion around them tightened, and the world itself seemed to reject what was about to happen.
Then—
They moved.
Not fast in the way others had been.
Not controlled in the way the system defined movement.
But absolute.
The space between them vanished.
Adrian didn't see the motion.
He felt it.
The attack landed.
Not as a clean strike, not as a directed force, but as something that tore through the structure of the field itself. The connection around him fractured for a brief instant, the alignment he had stabilized moments ago breaking under the pressure.
His footing shifted back.
For the first time since entering this zone—
He was forced to move.
Lyra's voice snapped out immediately. "Adrian!"
Kaelith stepped forward. "That broke through his field!"
Seraphine's tone dropped. "Not fully… but enough."
