The moment stretched just long enough for a breath to be taken.
BOOM!
Valeria moved first, not because she was faster, but because she had shed all hesitation. Her foot slammed into the fractured earth, and the world detonated beneath her, the ground collapsing inward as she launched herself forward in a streak of blood-red light.
At that very instant, the Lion responded. Its massive form compressed impossibly before it exploded into motion, black abyssal flames tearing through the air as it surged to meet her.
Their collision initially produced no sound, only a violent distortion of space where force transcended meaning, until reality caught up and released everything at once.
BOOOOOOM.
