The twin emerald beams tore through Natalia's outer harmonic layers, shredding the luminous staff-lines she had layered across the battlefield.
The air screamed as the condensed pressure distorted space itself, golden-black edges slicing through the resonance like serrated glass.
Natalia did not retreat.
Instead, her figure blurred—not by speed alone, but by rhythm. Her body seemed to slip half a beat out of sync with reality, overlapping silhouettes flickering in subtle offsets. The beams punched through two afterimages before grazing her shoulder on the third. Her coat tore at the seam, a thin streak of blood tracing down her collarbone before luminous resonance sealed the wound in a wash of golden light.
She slid backward through the air, boots carving glowing musical lines in her wake.
