Asphalt buckled outward in a perfect circle. The shockwave rolled down the street hard enough to shatter every remaining window on both sides of the block simultaneously.
Dust and debris swallowed everything.
Hai-Yen hit the ground hard, arm thrown over her face, vision whited out by the impact cloud.
Her ears were ringing. The bond she had with her own spatial awareness—the one that kept her alive in every fight she'd ever walked out of—had gone momentarily silent from the sheer pressure of the strike.
She pushed herself up on one knee.
"Ace—"
The word stopped in her throat.
One finger extended. The black orc's axe blade resting against it. The crater it had carved into the earth surrounding my feet on all sides, the ground around me destroyed, and me untouched at the center of all of it.
I lowered my hand.
"No more holding back."
My fist closed.
