Veric explodes toward me.
Azure Trust doesn't look like a run. It looks like a decision torn out of the ground and shoved forward by compressed OXI. His body comes behind Undertow, and Undertow comes before everything else, covering chest, hip, shoulder, armed arm, intent.
There's no clean read. No blade in sight. None of that small delay between eye, shoulder, and hand that a person gives away when about to strike.
There's only shield. A blurred wall rushing in too fast, like a tsunami.
I give half a step back for an angle, but Veric adjusts with me. I hear the chain bound to his arm hum, and the shield stays between us like a door holding back a storm. Strike high, I meet Undertow. Cut low, he drops the wall and swallows me in the advance. Try to circle, and Azure Trust corrects his body before I reach his flank.
Then the wall opens.
