Orion had spent enough years practicing his agility and sensitivity in combat, preparing for this day when he would take down the opposing leaders, for his body to react before his mind had even finished understanding what was happening.
He had spent years drilling the instincts for exactly this kind of moment.
Not for this specific situation, but for the general shape of it, the possibility that any engagement might open a second front in a direction he wasn't watching.
His body half transformed into his Black Tiger and moved before his mind had finished processing what was happening, throwing him sideways on pure reflex.
Several of the feathers passed through the space where his back had been a half-second earlier.
They weren't decorative. They were the size of long daggers, each one edged with a density of concentrated mana that drove them into the stone floor up to their shafts when they missed their mark.
