03/24- 'One-up'ing Lucian

The battlefield was supposed to be still, the last of the monstrous creatures fallen beneath the warriors of Ironveil. But the silence was deceiving—Aeliana barely had time to register the shift in energy behind her before a dark, clawed limb lashed toward her back. It moved too fast, a last, desperate strike from a dying voidspawn, its body flickering with unstable energy.

Aeliana turned, instinctively raising her blade, but she knew—she knew—she wouldn't be fast enough.

Lucian's eyes widened. He had been focused on Riven, on the echoes of the past that still haunted him, and for the first time in battle, he had hesitated. Too slow. Too late.

But Riven wasn't.