The platform was caving in.
Not dramatically. Just gradually, the stone sinking under the pressure of Auros's field like something being compressed from above. Every step Auros took the field expanded further and Vexis felt the gravity shift, the air becoming thick and heavy and wrong, the weight of his own body multiplying until each step cost twice what it should and his calves burned from the sustained effort of staying upright.
Five times. Maybe more.
He grinned anyway.
Vexis scattered his aetheric blood further, flooding it down from his core through his thighs, his calves, all the way to his feet, letting the perfusion take everything. He could feel his muscle fibers tearing. Not dramatically, not all at once. Just one by one, the way a rope frays before it snaps. He hadn't pushed the Stima this far in a sustained exchange before. He knew what it cost and he was paying it deliberately.
He'd think about the bill later.
"ILL PUSH THROUGH!"
