River's clothes snapped and whipped against his skin, his hair thrashing wildly in the turbulent air. The wind roared past his ears as he soared above the desolate stretch of cracked, dry land—a barren expanse that looked like the earth had been scorched and abandoned. His sharp eyes swept the ground below with unwavering focus, searching for the telltale glint of metal or the faint shimmer of magical detection fields.
There.
A faint ripple on the soil. A detection node, cleverly camouflaged against the dusty terrain, its mana pulse waiting to flag intruders. River's brows knit together. If he continued on his current trajectory, he'd be right inside its detection arc.
He exhaled sharply, extended his hand, and conjured a translucent bubble in mid-air. It gleamed faintly like a perfect droplet suspended against the night sky. With the precision of someone who had drilled this maneuver countless times, River angled his body and landed on the bubble.
