The moment Noah realized what Vex's armor truly was—scales torn from murdered dragons—something inside him snapped. All the careful control, all the tactical restraint he'd maintained throughout their conversation, evaporated like mist in a furnace.
He moved without warning, his body exploding forward in a burst of pure speed that left afterimages in the air. Excaliburn swept in a diagonal arc toward Vex's neck, the void-enhanced blade leaving a trail of distorted space in its wake.
But Vex had been watching, analyzing, preparing. The older man twisted his torso and leaned back, the sword passing close enough to his throat that Noah could see individual scales on the armor ripple with absorbed kinetic energy. Before Noah could reset his stance, Vex's fist came driving upward in a brutal uppercut aimed at Noah's exposed ribs.
