Reyna moved before Hanae's hand finished dropping.
Not the telegraphed charge Julian liked, not the showy opener designed to intimidate the crowd. She went low and sideways simultaneously, her body doing something that didn't quite obey the usual rules of momentum, and three marionettes erupted from her hands like thrown knives. They hit the platform at different coordinates and exploded upright, crackling with electricity that made my back teeth hum.
My Tori-Sense screamed in four directions at once.
I went right, then immediately switched to left because my body knew something my brain was still catching up to, and the first marionette's fist passed through the space my ribcage had just vacated. I used the bat to redirect the second one's arm mid-swing, felt the shock rattle all the way up to my shoulder socket, and ducked under the third by dropping into a low slide across volcanic rock that absolutely wrecked my knees.
