The stones and the whole structure of the plaza vibrated under the shockwave.
Hide reacted on pure, hard-coded reflex. The moment his passive perception warned him of the incoming danger, his heels dug into the marble, launching his body several meters backward in a clean, defensive arc.
He landed lightly, his knees absorbing the momentum as a violent, artificial gale tore across the steps, lashing his face with cold air and kicking up a dense curtain of white limestone dust.
Through the shifting white haze, Hide's eyes narrowed as he mapped the perimeter.
To his left, Sora stood perfectly upright. She had already drawn a pair of gleaming, serrated combat daggers, her knuckles white around the hilt wraps. Her dark eyes were glowing with a deep, menacing hue as an almost invisible sphere of compressed, high-velocity air rapidly expanded around her form, deflecting the incoming debris like an invisible glass shield.
