As Assault Core Seventeen moved across the battlefield, the wind spread ahead of them as they crossed the mountain basin, flowing through trenches, over broken stone, and between the humans and demons fighting across their path.
Through it, Simon felt everything.
The turn of a rifle. The tightening of a finger around a trigger. The vibration of boots behind smoke. Even the brief disturbance created when a Demon Slayer gathered Aether inside his body.
"Left," Simon said.
Virella struck the ground.
Thick roots burst from beneath the soil and intertwined into a wall just as a barrage of Aether bullets reached them. Blue-white light tore chunks from the roots, but none reached the Runemasters.
Rellis swept one hand forward.
Water poured from the air and coated the damaged roots. Their pale wood darkened, hardened, and grew twice as thick.
Then Virella opened her trembling fingers.
The wall separated into dozens of roots and shot forward.
