"Huh...?"
The word left my mouth as a hollow whisper.
My hand was still reaching out, my fingers still curled in the empty air where her small, cold palm had been just a moment ago. The faint warmth of her touch, the weak, shaking hand of a girl who had finally let herself reach back, was still burning against my skin.
Then she was gone.
There was no warning. No surge of mana, no change in the air, no sign of anything coming. My senses, sharp as they were with Expert High rank, hadn't picked up a single threat. One moment Malva was looking at me with wide, empty eyes.
The next, something invisible and violent hit her, throwing her backward into the wall at the edge of the valley.
What... what just hit her?
My mind raced. A Fallen assassin? A stealth beast from the valley? But I hadn't felt any killer intent. I hadn't felt anything. Whoever or whatever had just moved was moving at a speed that completely bypassed my perception.
"Malva!"
