Vess choked.
Her throat felt like scorched earth—dry, cracked, every breath like inhaling smoke from a wildfire that wouldn't die.
Her limbs trembled violently, bark-skin flaking from her elbows and shoulders as she summoned yet another desperate barrage.
Vines erupted from her back and forearms like green lances of fury—sharp, feral, laced with veins glowing gold from the last shreds of her lifeforce.
They screamed across the battlefield with the intensity of something born from instinct, not strategy. Some twisted into serrated claws mid-flight. Others coiled like whips, their barbed tips dancing through the air.
But none of it mattered.
The moment they touched Malik's radius of heat, they combusted.
FWOOSH!
All of them.
Instantly.
Like they had never existed at all.
Disintegrating into nothing but ash.
The attack crumbled mid-flight—black flakes scattered across the air, catching fire before they even reached his feet.
Vess staggered.
