The Turtles didn't pause. They had expected resistance. They had measured him. They had decided.
The shield bearer stepped in next, its slab of reinforced shell less a shield and more a mobile fortress. The defense amplification Domain flared around it, turning mass into inevitability. It crashed into Bruce's torso with a sound like a mountain colliding with another mountain. He launched backward, struck the curved sealing barrier, and rebounded forward as though space itself had decided he belonged within their reach.
The staff descended. It struck across his spine.
The sound was thick. Dense. Final.
His legs buckled. For an instant, sensation vanished below his waist.
Heal.
Golden veins pulsed beneath his skin, radiating from his sternum like branching lightning. Numbness retreated. Vertebrae reformed. Ligaments stitched. He forced himself upright before the darkness creeping at the edge of his vision could claim ground.
And then Vitality Sovereign spread.
