Jason felt it the instant the barrier was violated.
The connection was direct, woven into his own mana the day he reinforced the barrier around the settlement. A cold, invasive presence punched through the outer layer like a blade through cloth. His eyes snapped open. The lake water still clung to his skin. Thar stood a short distance away, axe lowered, still processing the earlier conversation. None of that mattered now.
Jason's body moved before conscious thought finished forming.
The spell activated under the only condition that allowed it: clear and present danger inside the barrier linked to him. Space compressed. Distance collapsed. The world became a streak of color and pressure as his form accelerated far beyond normal limits. Calories burned in a violent rush, muscle and mana consumed at a rate that would leave most mages as husks. To any observer it would have looked like teleportation. It was not. It was pure, brutal velocity.
He arrived in a crack of displaced air.
