Between Blades

The forest barely resembled one anymore.

Flares of Unco ripped through canopies that once whispered secrets, now screaming with each blast. Roots churned beneath detonations. Bark melted. Soil cracked under directed tremorfields and aerial blasts that ricocheted off shattered stone. The reinforcements had arrived like a siege—half a dozen men, some still armored from the village's inner hold, others stripped to light gear but running high on reserves. Fire. Sound. Kinetic bursts. Bladed wind. The ground throbbed like it remembered war.

And yet—Amari stood in the center. No Unco. No flair.

Just a man with twin daggers and a trail to catch.