The instant she stabilized her footing, the air detonated around her.
Veronica vanished.
No one saw her dashed nor did a stepped. She vanished entirely.
The ground where she had been standing cratered inward from the sheer force of her acceleration, cracks spiderwebbing across the stone platform as shockwaves blasted outward in concentric rings. The pressure alone felt like a physical weight slamming into my chest.
She reappeared above me.
Three Veronicas.
No—six.
Afterimages layered over each other, each one slashing downward with blades that shimmered in overlapping arcs of silver light. The sky above fractured with the trails of her strikes, each swing compressing the air so violently that it screamed.
I didn't move.
My sword lifted once.
