Rax compressed aura into his legs.
Both legs — not the standard Flash Step preparation, the maximum aura the technique could gather in the leg-area simultaneously, the Overload Compression version of Flash Step. The aura density in his legs was visibly different from the standard preparation — the air around his lower body shimmering slightly, the energy visible in a way that the standard compression wasn't.
Tessa saw it.
She read it for what it was — not a standard Flash Step, something larger, the overload version the announcer had described when introducing the ability. She formed the Arcane Shield immediately — the dome back up, the magical barrier between them, the arcane reserves spent on the construct despite the earlier drain.
Rax released the Overload Flash Step.
He crossed nine feet in the time the standard Flash Step crossed three.
